Other than West Virginia and Pitt, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights are one of the teams Penn State has played the most in their basketball history. This rivalry dates back to their days in the Atlantic 10, and, even though they hadn’t faced each other with any sort of regularity since the early 90s, have still played each other more than the next Big Ten opponent, at 76 total games played, with Ohio State the next common opponent, with 66 games played.
All that is to say these teams have history, and they play like it.