J.P. Pelzman

@JPPelzman

PISCATAWAY - Give Rutgers credit. Everyone on the Scarlet Knights found their way to the RAC to be on time for practice Tuesday afternoon without a GPS, an impressive feat given the fact the team hasn’t spent all that much time there in recent weeks.

Road-weary Rutgers’ schedule finally will balance out somewhat, beginning when the Scarlet Knights host Michigan (17-10, 7-7 Big Ten) at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. That will begin a three-game homestand to conclude the regular season, followed by games against Maryland on Feb. 28 and Illinois on March 4. The NCAA tournament-hopeful Wolverines are 1-7 on the road this year.

Rutgers (13-15, 2-13) has played nine of its last 13 games away from the RAC, including a home game against Wisconsin that the conference moved to Madison Square Garden. Four of Rutgers’ last six defeats have come by single digits, as opposed to only two such losses in the Scarlet Knights’ entire 2015-16 Big Ten slate.

“We really compete, and now we have to work on that complete the deal part of it,” coach Steve Pikiell said Tuesday before practice. “We’ve certainly been very challenged with the schedule that we’ve played. No team has been on the road like we have. … I’m looking forward to this home-game stretch here. We really haven’t had one all season.

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“I’m excited and hopefully we can pack the place again,” Pikiell added. “We need all our fans to come out, the Riot Squad, the students and the community (to) make it a tough place to play and it has been this year.”

Rutgers hasn’t played back-to-back games at the RAC since the nonconference portion of its schedule, which featured a lot of lower-echelon programs. Conversely, basketball analytics site KenPom.com rates Rutgers’ Big Ten schedule the toughest in that conference thus far.

“It’s been a tough road, and I think we’re getting better,” Pikiell said. “We’ve been on the road a lot, so it will be nice to sleep here and shoot at the rims we shoot at every day.

“This has been a fun team to coach,” Pikiell added, “because no matter what the score is, they keep playing. In tough environments, they keep playing. And hopefully you’ll see that with these last three games at home, see the fight and resilience of this team (and) how we continue to improve. I understand what our record is, but there’s improvements in every area. … And you see that individually in players, too.”

Rutgers squandered a four-point lead in the final three minutes against Northwestern on Saturday en route to a 69-65 loss.

“We’re still trying to find a way to close out games,” star guard Corey Sanders said. “That’s something we’ve definitely got to work on.”

As for the homestand, he said, “to be in our gym with our fans to finish out the season, it feels pretty good.”

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“We really just want to get some momentum going into the Big Ten Tournament,” postgraduate center C.J. Gettys said, referring to the five-day event in Washington, D.C., that begins March 8. “We want to be firing on all cylinders.

“It seems like every time we try to fix one thing,” Gettys added, “we fix it and another thing pops up. One game it’s turnovers, the next game it’s free throws. We need to have a game where we eliminate (the mistakes) and we’ll get us a win.”

Gettys said, “We’ve come a long way this season, and I couldn’t be more proud of these guys.”

“We’re getting better as a team,” Pikiell said. “Our defense is not anywhere near where I want it to be, but it’s better than it was a month ago.”