Conference tournament preview: New Jersey gets a fresh start

If you missed Kim Mulkey’s tirade about conference tournaments, it’s actually worth your time even if you dislike the LSU women’s coach. Actually, especially if you dislike her.

LSU star Aneesah Morrow hurt her foot in the Tigers’ SEC semifinal loss to Texas, which prompted Mulkey to rail against the idea of having one in the first place, her point being that Cinderella runs rarely happen on the women’s side, the way they more often do for the men, a la NC State last year. You can read her extended comments here if you want.

Rest assured if LSU won that game, or even if Morrow simply hadn’t gotten hurt, Mulkey would not be up in arms on the topic. Oh, and lest you think I’m taking jabs at Mulkey at the expense of an injured player, the coach was asked if Morrow will be alright for the NCAA Tournament.

“Oh, yeah, she can go. She can go for the tournament. She was ready to come back out there,” Mulkey said.

OK then! So we shouldn’t have conference tournaments because… a player might get hurt, a little.

I really, truly hope college basketball resists existential changes to its very identity and structure longer than college football did. I was in favor of a college football playoff long ago, but a four-team bracket soon became a 12-team bracket that’s about to become a 14- or 16-team bracket and supposedly eliminate the need for conference championship games. You hear some crazy ideas if you follow Ross Dellenger’s reporting or listen to a Josh Pate video on YouTube. A sport so steeped in tradition is barely recognizable from what it was 20 or even 10 years ago.

No, don’t take away conference tournaments. Let there be a prize for the team that gets white hot at the right time, like NC State last year, or sub-.500 Delaware racing into the CAA title game this week. This is the appetizer for the NCAA Tournament. The actual start of March Madness.

You look around New Jersey college hoops this year, and apart from the Princeton and FDU women’s teams, everyone is having a worse season than they expected. So it’s no surprise that when I covered both Rider and Rutgers games this weekend, players and coaches alike spoke of a fresh start ahead, the records reverting to 0-0. Go use what you’ve learned throughout the year and play your best basketball in one manic week.

Let’s get going on some rapid-fire conference tourney previews for the eight New Jersey teams (four men, four women) playing this week.

Men

Big Ten

Rutgers grabbed the No. 11 seed with its win Sunday over Minnesota, and it will open against No. 14 USC, a team the Scarlet Knights already beat 95-85 at home. USC has lost six of its last seven games, the only W in that span coming over last-place Washington. But metrically, KenPom likes USC over Rutgers – KenPom likes most Big Ten teams over Rutgers, and has all year.

There are worse bracket paths than what Rutgers got dealt. Awaiting them in the next few rounds are No. 6 seed Purdue and No. 3 seed Michigan. The Wolverines have been the beneficiaries of a lot of luck this season, they’ve lost three in a row and Rutgers nearly beat them twice. Purdue, though, is another story. Regression says the Boilermakers wouldn’t make 18 of 36 3-pointers against RU a second time, but in Indianapolis it will be another veritable home game for Purdue.