With all the talk about how difficult the grind would be over a stretch of 18 straight Big Ten Conference games, Nebraska did little to show it was ready for it at all on Friday night.

Offense was a struggle for the Huskers once again, but they were manhandled by Rutgers in all phases en route to an ugly 79-62 home defeat to open the New Year.

The Scarlet Knights essentially did as they pleased from start to finish, shooting 54 percent from the field, holding a 48-31 rebounding edge, and scoring 52 of their 79 points in the paint. Defensively, RU held Nebraska to 31.7 shooting and only 20 made field goals.

As a result, NU dropped to 6-8 overall and 1-2 in league play after yet another hard lesson on the season.

“(Rutgers) is the most physical team that we’ve played to this point,” NU head coach Fred Hoiberg said. “And we talked a lot about that leading into this one, and how important it was to try and keep them out of the paint as much as possible, and they got in there way too often, obviously…

“When we go out there with a defensive mindset and a defensive mentality, we have a chance to win. And when we don’t, we don’t give ourselves a chance.”

Both teams came out firing to open the game, but Rutgers took control with an 18-1 run to claim a 28-16 lead with just over six minutes left in the first half.

Nebraska missed 12 straight field goals during that stretch, but it eventually got its offense going with a quick 8-0 rally of its own to cut the deficit down to four.

But the story of the half came when the 6-foot-2, 175-pound Mack collided with Rutgers forward Akwasi Yeboah while going for a loose ball with 3:25 left in the half. Mack immediately went to the locker room and did not return the rest of the night.

In his absence, the Huskers were outscored 11-4 over the remainder of the half and went into halftime down 41-28.

“When I collided, I couldn’t see, I just wanted to breathe,” Mack said. “I was hoping I didn’t have a concussion, so I went back with the trainers, they told me I didn’t have a concussion. So I just tried to come help my team out.”

Nebraska missed 16 of its final 19 field goal attempts of the first half and went just 27.3 percent from the field overall and 3-of-15 from behind the arc. Rutgers, on the other hand, shot 53.1 percent and scored 26 of its points in the paint.

Things didn’t get any better after halftime, either. Mack was able to return and start the second half, but the Huskers missed six of their first seven shots and allowed Rutgers to take its biggest lead yet at 47-33 after just four minutes of play.

That margin would grow to as much as 22 after a 3-pointer from Ron Harper Jr., and the Scarlet Knights would lead by at least 15 points for the rest of the game. Nebraska trailed for the final 31:20 and was behind by double digits for the entire second half.

The 17-point victory marked Rutgers’ largest margin of victory ever in a Big Ten road game.

“I think just the shots we weren’t hitting kind of messed us up on the offensive and defensive end,” senior guard Haanif Cheatham said. “I think we had plenty of opportunities to extend the lead, get it up to probably eight, and we just couldn’t hit shots. It was one of those nights.”

Cheatham finished with a team-high 16 points while Mack added 11 points, six assists, and five rebounds. Four Rutgers players scored in double figures in the win, led by a game-high 20 points from Caleb McConnell and 18 points and 14 rebounds from Myles Powell.

Nebraska will look to get back on track on Tuesday night when it hosts Iowa for an 8 p.m. CT tip on Big Ten Network.

1. Welcome to the Big Ten

For a team that played arguably its two best games of the season in its early December conference games, Nebraska looked completely overwhelmed and overmatched its return to Big Ten action.

Rutgers came in with the identity of a squad that was as tough and physical as there was in the league, and it lived up to that billing and then some. The Scarlet Knights dominated the paint and the boards on both ends of the floor from start to finish, bullying NU to do whatever it wanted.

The Huskers better learn from this disaster in a hurry, because the book is officially out now that if you set the tone as the aggressor and make life hard on them, they could easily fold like they did on Friday night.

The Big Ten is as grueling of a conference as there is in college basketball, and Nebraska will go through many more similar beatings if it can’t find a way to toughen up and fight back.

2. There’s something off with Dachon Burke

It’s wrong to single out any player in an all-around embarrassment like this one, but it’s hard to ignore the slump junior guard Dachon Burke is going through right now.

Burke came into the Rutgers game having shot just 6-for-25 from the field over the previous two games, including going 1-for-13 last time out vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Those struggles continued on Friday, as he ended the night 2-of-9 shooting for five points, including missing all four of his 3-pointers and going 1-of-4 from the charity stripe.

It’s not just that he’s missing shots – he’s missing badly. There was one 3-pointer that bounced off the side of the backboard, the lowlight of his rough outing.

This is a guy who averaged 21.5 points in Nebraska's first two Big Ten games, and he’s far too important to be this cold for this long.

3. This all happened without Geo Baker

Nebraska presumably caught a big break before the game even tipped off when it was announced that Rutgers point guard Geo Baker would be out indefinitely with a thumb injury he suffered during practice.

Baker came into the game as the Scarlet Knights’ second-leading scoring at 11.2 points per game, ranked fourth in the Big Ten with 4.0 assists per game, and led the team with 1.2 steals per game.

Needless to say, his sudden absence – which Pikiell said didn’t become official until Thursday – was notable.

Yet it ended up being a mere footnote for Rutgers, as McConnell (who was only averaging 6.8 ppg on the year) took over in the starting lineup and dropped a game-high 20 points on a perfect 8-of-8 shooting along with five assists.

For Rutgers to put this type of beating on Nebraska without even having their best all-around player in the lineup, a few more shakes of salt sprinkle into the Huskers’ wounds.