Steve Pikiell provides comment on Indiana-Rutgers scuffle

At the end of Indiana-Rutgers on Wednesday night, a fight broke out and an apparent punch was thrown after a flagrant 2 foul sparked tension between the two teams with less than a minute to play. In the end, Steve Pikiell and Rutgers walked away with a 66-63 win over Indiana and continued to build their case for an NCAA Tournament spot.

Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell downplayed the incident against Indiana, defending his players, particularly Paul Mulcahy, for the decisions made in the heat of battle.

“I was talking to the referees,” said Pikiell. “It’s just that time of the game. Lot of emotion. Just happened. I’ll have to see it on film and stuff. It was directly down the bench from me, so I didn’t get a great vantage point of it. But you know, they said, can’t act that way. Paul’s been great. He’s been great all year. But we stepped up in light of that and made some plays down the stretch. And that’s what good teammates do. Paul’s been a great teammate his whole career.”

It remains unclear whether any further action will be taken by the conference regarding the incident. But as Pikiell mentions, Mulcahy is an important piece for Rutgers down the stretch.

More on the Indiana-Rutgers incident

The ending to Indiana and Rutgers’ Wednesday matchup looked like it was setting up to be crazy. Then, a Scarlet Knights player got called for a flagrant 2, meaning he was ejected with 19.2 seconds to play — and it wound up being a true March ending.

Rutgers guard Paul Mulcahy got ejected after an altercation with Indiana guard Xavier Johnson, including an apparent punch. But Johnson was also tagged with a common foul, meaning both teams got two free throws and Indiana got the ball back down three points.

What happened next was true March Madness. Indiana guard Parker Stewart hit a three-pointer with 10 seconds left to tie things up at 63. Then, Rutgers guard Ron Harper Jr. hit another big-time shot with 2.1 seconds left to give the Scarlet Knights another thrilling victory.

It’s yet another huge win for Rutgers, which is trying to build up its NCAA tournament resume ahead of the Big Ten tournament. The Scarlet Knights are now 17-12 overall and 11-8 in Big Ten play. For Harper, it marked another big-time shot after he helped Rutgers stun then-No. 1 Purdue at Jersey Mike’s Arena earlier this season.