Battle Tested or Demoralized?
November 17, 2006 12:08 pm by Dan'l BNext Tuesday night, very few people will watch Rutgers take on the Jackson State Tigers. Football should still be on the brain, and the Scarlet Knights started slowly on the hardwood considering their shooting performance earlier this week.
At a glance, Jackson State at Rutgers is hardly worth paying attention to. Well I take exception. I’ve never seen a college basketball team start its season quite like Jackson State has. Over the last seven days, the Tigers traveled to Tuscaloosa, Atlanta, Champagne, and Memphis–the last two on consecutive nights–with the sole purpose of getting throttled by power conference teams on their courts. Alabama 96, JSU 65. Georgia Tech 100, JSU 70. Illinois 76, JSU 55. Memphis 111, JSU 69. Rutgers isn’t of the caliber of these teams, but following all of that with a road trip to New Jersey is more aggressive than inviting a directional Louisiana across the border to give your players a reprieve. What are this athletic director and head coach thinking?
The game will provide a glimpse of how the Big East stacks up against the represented major conferences. I don’t expect a blowout by any means, but I’ll be disappointed if the Knights don’t win. Much depends on how beaten down JSU is after running that gauntlet.
* Follow up *
Rutgers was upset 71-70 at the RAC. Not good.
Categories: Commentary, Dan'l B, Rutgers
2 Responses to “Battle Tested or Demoralized?”
It’ll be interesting to see exactly how “we” stack up this year. We’re strong at the top with Pitt, who can play with anyone. However, their wins aren’t going to look as impressive as UF or UNC because of their style. But they’re right there with them.
After that, we have a mess of teams such as Syracuse, Georgetown, Marquette, UConn, Villanova, Louisville and I was hoping maybe DePaul (maybe not) that could all fall between 15-30 in the nation. At the bottom, we’re weak, no doubt.
The Big East doesn’t appear to be as strong, but who knows, it’s still real early. I still think we’re an 8-bid legaue with a National Championship contender. That sounds good, but the bottom may kill our RPI this year.
In case you missed it, Jackson State won their first game this season at the RAC on the 21st. Ouch.
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