Beyond The Arc Preview: Rutgers

By: Dallas Bowlin

Senior Staff Writer/Editor/Host

All Vol Call In Show

Graphic | Dallas Bowlin

Hand up — this one’s on me. Levi and I aren’t able to record another episode before Tennessee/Rutgers, so consider this your Beyond The Arc preview for the Greg Schiano Invitational.

There’s no sugarcoating it: Rutgers is bad right now. Their game with Central Connecticut just ended in a 67–54 loss. Not good, Bob. When you lose guys like Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, some regression is inevitable — but this is rough.

Dylan Grant and Tariq Francis are unquestionably the leaders of this team. Grant, a 6'8" sophomore forward, is averaging 19.3 points and 8.0 rebounds while shooting 59.5% from the field. His bread and butter is finishing at the rim. From 1–3 feet, Grant is hitting 85%, and within 1 foot — essentially right at the rim — he’s shooting 85.7%. Both marks are well above the NCAA Division I average.

Francis, a 6'1" guard, is averaging 13.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game while shooting 42.9% from the field. His strengths are the left elbow and left wing, but outside of those spots, he struggles unless he’s finishing point-blank at the rim.

As a team, the Scarlet Knights are fairly average at the rim. As you’ll see below, courtesy of CBBAnalytics, there’s a LOT of blue. I’ll also add Tennessee’s shot chart for comparison.