LAS VEGAS – Rutgers men’s basketball continues its road trip with a three-game tournament in Las Vegas. This week, RU faces Notre Dame, Ala., and a third opponent at the Players Era Festival at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The Scarlet Knights open play Tuesday night against Notre Dame, a tipoff on TBS at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Game two is the next night, against Alabama on Wednesday at 10 p.m. Eastern time on TBS.

 

Rutgers enters the tournament with an overall record of 4-1. The Scarlet Knights were crushed at Kennesaw State on Sunday afternoon in a home game at Georgia early in the road trap Ace Bailey And Jamichael Davis. The Scarlet Knights outscored KSU 51-35 in the second half of a comeback, but fell behind by one possession. Dylan Harper led the way with 21 points, nine assists and two steals, becoming just the third Big Ten freshman since 2004 to reach those statistics in a game.

RU’s top three scorers are freshmen. Dylan Harper leads the team with 19.8 points per game and a shooting percentage of 54.3 percent. He is closely followed by Ace Bailey (19.0 pages per minute). Lathan Summerville joins the trio in double figures with 10.0 ppg. RU’s top five scorers, including Zach Martini and PJ Hayes are all shooting 48 percent or better from the field. Harper is currently the second-leading scorer among freshmen in the country, behind only Texas’ Tre Johnson (21.2 ppg). Ace Bailey does not meet the NCAA minimum qualifying requirements and must play in the team’s next three games to qualify. If he qualified, he would be third nationally, just behind Harper.

Rutgers last played in Las Vegas during the 2015-16 season under then-head coach Eddie Jordan to compete in a Thanksgiving week event, the Men Who Speak Up Main Event. The Scarlet Knights went 0-2 in the event and lost to Creighton (85-75) and Clemson (76-58) in games at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

This will be the first non-conference road tournament in November that Rutgers has participated in under its head coach Steve Pikiellused to host frequent MTE events around Thanksgiving instead.

 

Notre Dame will be RU’s first opponent on Tuesday night and enters its matchup with RU with an identical 4-1 record under second-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry. The Fighting Irish just dropped an 84-77 decision to Elon after wins over Stonehill, Buffalo, Georgetown and North Dakota.

Shrewsberry previously served as Penn State’s head coach in 2021-22 and 2022-23, during which time he was 1-3 against Rutgers. ND ranks 51st nationally in field goal percentage (51.9%) and 27th^Th in free throw percentage (78.8%). Sophomore Markus Burton leads the team with 21.4 points per game, 19^Th national.

Rutgers and Notre Dame were former members of the BIG EAST Conference and played annually from 1995 to 2013. The Irish lead the series 21-13. The only meeting since the conferences were split in 2013 came in 2022, when the two teams met in the NCAA Tournament and played in the First Four in Dayton, an 89-87 Notre Dame win in double overtime.

Alabama, ranked ninth in both polls, enters the tournament 4-1, with wins over UNC Asheville, Arkansas State, McNeese and Illinois and a loss to then-No. 13 Purdue. Alabama will open the tournament on Tuesday against Houston.

The Crimson Tide have the No. 14 offense in the country, allowing 89.6 points per game. Mark Sears, a Second Team All-American last season, leads Alabama with 17.3 points per game. Former Scarlet Knight Clifford Omoruyi He averages 9.8 points and a team-high 7.8 rebounds and 10 blocks. The Scarlet Knights and Crimson Tide have met only once before, on December 27, 1969, in an 80-69 win for Alabama at a neutral site.

The matchup of the Championship Day games will be determined based on the results of the first two games. RU plays a team from the other side of the bracket, either Oregon, No. 21/19 Creighton, San Diego State or No. 20/20 Texas A&M.

RU and Creighton have only met once before, in the 2015 matchup in Las Vegas.

Rutgers and Oregon, which will face each other as conference members for the first time this year, have met twice before, in 1982 as RU and in 1985 as Oregon won.

Rutgers has never played San Diego State or Texas A&M.

By defeating Notre Dame, Rutgers would:

• Improve to 5-1 for the third straight season
• Earn their first win over Notre Dame since 2012 and just their third in 12 meetings since 2005
• Earn first win over an ACC team since defeating Clemson on November 30, 2021 (0-3 in last three games against ACC teams: Miami, Wake Forest and Notre Dame).