Like everyone else in the basketball world, Jameel Warney saw the lighting strike that kept Rutgers basketball from upending 21st-ranked Iowa on Saturday night.

Unlike most people, though, Warney knows how Scarlet Knights coach Steve Pikiell handles devastating losses with his players.

“Pikes is really good at shifting the focus to the next game,” the former Stony Brook star said Monday. “That’s the beauty of basketball. There’s always a next game.”

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Warney, a Plainfield native and Roselle Catholic High School alum who plays for the Westchester Knicks of the G-League, has been there with Pikiell. In 2013, the top-seeded Seawolves lost an America East Tournament semifinal 61-59 at Albany.

“He came in and said, ‘No one is feeling sorry for you guys,’” Warney recalled. “Real basketball players don’t sulk. It’s all about how you bounce back.”

They did, winning their first-round NIT game at UMass by 13 points.

But not all heartbreak is created equal. The biggest dagger Stony Brook took came in 2015, when Albany’s Peter Hooley sank a 3-pointer with one second left to deny the Seawolves an NCAA Tournament berth. It was a twist of fate brutal enough to shake a program’s foundation, but Stony Brook returned to the final in 2016 and got over the hump.

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“That was a veteran team,” said Warney, who has been following Pikiell's current squad closely. “This is (Rutgers’) first gut punch. I want to see how they bounce back.”

The Scarlet Knights’ opportunity unfolds at 10th-ranked Michigan State on Wednesday (6:30 p.m., Big Ten Network). Rutgers (12-13 overall, 5-10 Big Ten) fell to the Spartans (21-5, 12-3) by 11 at the RAC in November. But Sparty has lost three starters from that game to injury: ace big man Nick Ward (who owned the paint with 20 points), Joshua Langford (14 points) and Kyle Ahrens.

“We’re different than the last time we played and they’re probably a little different, too,” Pikiell said. “They’ve got really good players . . . and they have a Hall of Fame coach who is the greatest coach in our league and maybe in the country. They’ll be ready.”

The Spartans still have point guard Cassius Winston — an All-America candidate who torched Rutgers in November. That was before Scarlet Knights freshman Montez Mathis emerged as a defensive stopper.

“He’s their maestro,” Pikiell said of Winston. “They’ve got the best quarterback in the league and you’ve got to stop him.”

This game starts, though, with Rutgers’ heads. When the team met Monday, Pikiell didn’t dwell on the Iowa film.

“We went over the mistakes we made,” he said. “We made a lot defensively and offensively. We didn’t spend a lot of time on it because we don’t have a lot of time.”

He told the players he loved their effort Saturday and pointed out the excitement they’re generating from the fan base.

“I love the enthusiasm around our program,” he said. “I love the fact that we played a top 20 team and people expected us to win.”

On turning the page, Pikiell’s message was simple.

“Sometimes you’re going to win games you’re supposed to lose, and sometimes you lose games you’re supposed to win,” he said. “Iowa was one of those, and now we move on.”

Staff Writer Jerry Carino: jcarino@gannettnj.com.