The 2020–21 Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's basketball team represented Rutgers University–New Brunswick during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Scarlet Knights were led by fifth-year head coach Steve Pikiell and played their home games at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey as seventh-year members of the Big Ten Conference. They finished the season 16–12, 10–10 in Big Ten play to finish in a tie for sixth place. As the No. 7 seed in the Big Ten tournament, they defeated Indiana in the second round before losing to Illinois in the quarterfinals. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1991. As the No.10 seed in the Midwest region, they defeated Clemson in the first round before losing to Houston in the second round.
Previous season The Knights finished the 2019–20 season 20–11 and 11–9 in Big Ten play to finish in a four-way tie for fifth place. Following the regular season, the Big Ten tournament and all subsequent postseason tournaments were canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, effectively ending the Knights' season. In January 2020, Rutgers was nationally ranked for the first time since 1979.
Offseason
Departures Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Reason for departure Akwasi Yeboah 1 G/F 6'6" 235 RS Senior Chigwell, England Graduated, signed with Saint-Quentin of the LNB Pro B. Joey Downes 10 G 5'11" 175 Senior East Sandwich, MA Walk-on, graduated Shaq Carter 13 F 6'9" 250 Senior Hollywood, FL Graduated Peter Kiss 32 G 6'5" 200 RS Junior New York, NY Graduate transferred to Bryant
2020 recruiting class
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=|Non-conference regular season
!colspan=12 style=|Big Ten regular season
!colspan=12 style=|Big Ten tournament
!colspan=9 style=|NCAA tournament
Rankings
^AP and Coaches did not release a Week 1 poll, and Coaches did not release a Week 2 poll.
References