Five storylines, 10 games to watch in New Jersey college hoops in 2024-25
Five storylines, 10 games to watch in New Jersey college hoops in 2024-25
Season 4 of Guarden State is a go. Let's preview what's ahead for Rutgers, Princeton, Seton Hall and more.
So how did everyone spend their summers?
Me? Oh, I did my best to make the most of my time. I took a few short trips and was in my friend’s wedding. I watched a lot of the WNBA and formed a couple dozen opinions about Caitlin Clark and the sport at large, which I’ve conspicuously withheld rather than throw them on the pile and feed the social media outrage monster. (I’ll share one opinion – Napheesa Collier is my new favorite player in that league.)
I also had the great fortune of writing for the Lindy’s Sports college basketball preview magazine for the first time, an opportunity I’m extremely thankful for. I wrote the sections covering the MAAC and the Horizon League, and to do that and do it accurately, I spoke to nearly every head coach in both leagues back in July. The mag is available now, online and at booksellers like Barnes and Noble.
(I’d also point you toward a few pieces I did for the Trentonian, on Princeton alum and Olympian Kareem Maddox and on Rutgers left tackle Hollin Pierce.)
But now it’s the first of October, and even if the weather is having trouble cooling down around here, there’s no mistaking it’s fall, it’s back-to-school season – and for us, that means it’s back to college sports.
The 2024-25 basketball season should be a memorable and possibly very fruitful one for New Jersey. Let’s break down why. Here are the five season-long storylines I’ll be following:
1. The most anticipated Rutgers season of all time
Rutgers signed its best recruiting class ever, with five-star forward Ace Bailey and five-star guard Dylan Harper grabbing the headlines. The other three – center Lathan Sommerville and forwards Bryce Dortch and Dylan Grant – shouldn’t be overlooked; all five of these guys were ranked in the top 200 nationally in their class. The Scarlet Knights went all in on this season, bringing in Eastern Michigan’s Tyson Acuff, a 21.7-ppg scorer; Princeton’s Zach Martini, a born leader who can spread the floor with his shot; and Merrimack’s Jordan Derkack, last year’s NEC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. There are questions about this roster, questions I’ll get into in Thursday’s season preview. But this team will have Jersey Mike’s Arena jumping all winter – the question is whether it makes the NCAA Tournament, and if it does, how far it can go.
2. The intrasquad battle for the No. 1 draft pick
Some people like to consume college basketball only as a means of scouting future NBA talent. That’s their prerogative – I think the sport offers plenty more than that – but this year, Jersey will be a hub for draft discussion. Pro scouts will flood Piscataway to watch Bailey and Harper throughout the season, as both are likely lottery picks and potential options at No. 1 overall in 2025. Their main competition is Duke’s Cooper Flagg and Baylor’s V.J. Edgecombe. Most mock drafts you see right now have those four guys in the top four in some order.
3. The Xaivian and Caden show at Princeton
I think it’s fair to say Princeton is the second-best team in the state heading into the season. While Yale lost Danny Wolf and Harvard lost Malik Mack to the transfer portal, the story wasn’t the same on Old Nassau, where rising juniors Xaivian Lee and Caden Pierce returned and should be viewed as the top two players in the Ivy League to start the year. NBA scouts will be sniffing around here, too, but in the meantime there’s Princeton’s usual chase for the Ivy League title, with Brown and Yale likely offering the stiffest challenges. Lee and Pierce will want to erase the memory of falling short in the league semifinals last March.
4. The NIT champs start from scratch
The NIT has lost its luster as a second-tier postseason opportunity that many programs, annoyingly, have begun turning down (rather than giving their players more chances to play basketball, which is what they’re ostensibly there to do). That wasn’t the attitude at Seton Hall last March. The Pirates went all the way, but then they lost basically every piece of that run either to the portal (Kadary Richmond, Dre Davis) or to graduation (Jaden Bediako, Al-Amir Dawes). It will be up to Dylan Addae-Wusu and Isaiah Coleman to rally a mostly new group we’re just getting to know. Scotty Middleton, a top-60 high school prospect in 2023, is the main attraction in the transfer class but not the only potential star. Will this roster mesh or fall apart?
5. The state’s most dominant program enters the post-Kaitlyn Chen era
No D1 program in New Jersey has been a more consistent winner in the current era than the Princeton women’s team. The Tigers rose to prominence before Kaitlyn Chen, they were winners during Chen’s tenure there and they will be stellar after her departure. (Out of Ivy League eligibility, Chen transferred to UConn.) The backcourt belongs to Madison St. Rose now, with Skye Belker and Ashley Chea showing promise as freshmen last year. Carla Berube knows how to win in the Ivy, and she’s shown she can win in the NCAA Round of 64. A Sweet 16 trip feels like the (massive) next step for this program, but there’s a ways to go before we can tell if this particular team has that potential.
Last year, I also broke down 10 particularly juicy Jersey games, featuring either one or two teams from the state, and I feel that’s still a great way to take a broad scan of the season ahead. Monmouth and Saint Peter’s are playing both Rutgers and Seton Hall, the Monmouth-Princeton series remains alive, Seton Hall added NJIT… there are more interesting local games than I can attend, that’s for sure.
Alright. Ten(-ish) games for New Jersey to look forward to, in chronological order:
1. Iona at Princeton, Nov. 4
I like how Princeton’s nonconference slate turned out this year. It’s difficult for that program to schedule noteworthy opponents in this era when most teams are fearful of their NETs taking a tumble. Not only did the Tigers get Rutgers to agree to another game after beating them last year, they’re in the Myrtle Beach Classic, which has some decent mid-major competition, and they landed home games against Iona, Loyola Chicago and Akron, none of which should be snoozers. Iona-Princeton is my favorite opening night game because of the coaching matchup of Mitch Henderson against Tobin Anderson. Princeton will be favored, as Iona’s roster is brand new (watch out for Dejour Reaves), but what a fun clash of styles.
2. Package deal: Princeton at Seton Hall women, Nov. 21; Princeton at Rutgers women, Nov. 24
Rutgers did not renew its contract to play Seton Hall, though Pirates coach Tony Bozzella has said for years it’s important the schools continue that game, so we no longer have a full Rutgers-Seton Hall-Princeton triangle in women’s basketball. Princeton will hit the road to face both of the others, though, trying to go 2-0 against them for the third straight season. The Tigers haven’t lost to one of these teams since a 70-60 home loss to the Pirates in December 2021. Seton Hall figures to be the stronger foe again this year, but Rutgers does bring in a five-star freshman of its own, guard Kiyomi McMiller. I’m planning to publish an all-in-one women’s hoops preview like last year’s by the end of the month.
3. Rutgers vs. Alabama in Las Vegas, Nov. 27
This is the middle game of Rutgers’ stay at the new Players Era Festival MTE during Thanksgiving week. Each game holds a special significance to the Scarlet Knights. For the opener against Notre Dame and the finale against Houston, they’re facing the last two teams to knock them out of the NCAA Tournament. But selecting the Alabama game for this list was a cinch, and not just because the Crimson Tide could be crowned the preseason No. 1 team in America. It’s the Clifford Omoruyi revenge game, a chance to see one of Rutgers’ best players of the current decade suiting up in a different shade of red. Any criticism of Omoruyi’s offense the past few seasons is wholly justified, but I’m not sure there’s a true center on Rutgers’ 2024-25 roster better than Omoruyi. (And with Ace Bailey part of that RU frontcourt now, it may not even matter.) You can bet Rutgers fans want to win this game bad.
4. NJIT at Seton Hall, Dec. 4
When Grant Billmeier was hired at NJIT in April 2023, he said at his introduction that Shaheen Holloway “presented the opportunity” of starting a series with Seton Hall. They wound up playing a charity exhibition at NJIT’s place in late October before planning a series to begin in 2024-25. It’s clear Holloway cares about his former colleague on the Seton Hall staff and wants to help, but when gameday arrives, that means jack. This game is no lock for the Pirates; the Highlanders, led by last year’s America East Rookie of the Year Tariq Francis, should be better this season.
5. Seton Hall at Rutgers, Dec. 14
It’s hard to ignore the odd pattern forming in this rivalry game the past few years. The last time this game was played in Piscataway, Rutgers was the team with the better odds of making the NCAA Tournament, but Seton Hall stuffed and stifled the Scarlet Knights in a 45-43 road win. Last year, the script was flipped – Hall was at home, and in hindsight, Hall had the better tournament resume by year’s end… if only the Pirates hadn’t lost to Rutgers. Each team has pierced the other’s postseason chances with a road upset. No question they’ll both be gunning for revenge. Even Bailey, new to the rivalry, named Seton Hall first when asked which games he’s most looking forward to.
6. Rutgers vs. Princeton in Newark, Dec. 21
If one-off neutral court games are the only way to get these programs to play every year, then that’s how it has to be. After the Tigers won last year at the “Jersey Jam” in Trenton, this year’s meeting will be billed as the “Never Forget Tribute Classic” and played on Seton Hall’s floor at the Prudential Center. One week after Rutgers deals with the grit and grime of a Seton Hall game, it will have to be alert and smart on defense to handle Princeton. More importantly, Martini can go down in Jersey college hoops history if he helps Princeton beat Rutgers one year, then turns around and helps Rutgers beat Princeton the next. Not many dudes can say that.
7. St. John’s at Seton Hall, Jan. 18
Rutgers-Alabama has nothing on this. Using your grad transfer year to join a title contender in another part of the country, as Omoruyi did, is one thing. Transferring to your bitter conference rival is quite another. The biggest revenge game of the year will take place in mid-January at the Prudential Center, when Kadary Richmond faces Seton Hall clad in a Johnnies uniform. This will be the hottest ticket of the season for Pirates fans and students, more than even the UConn or Villanova games. Will Richmond and his new crew be a tournament contender at this point of the season? And what will the new-look Pirates be able to do to stop him?
8. Rutgers vs. Michigan State in New York, Jan. 25
Maybe this is for the best. Maybe Rutgers has to go back to Madison Square Garden and recreate the circumstances where things went off the rails two years prior, in order to lift some sort of curse of mediocrity off the program. The Scarlet Knights beat Michigan State at MSG in February 2023 but lost Mawot Mag to an ACL tear. The program has gone 18-25 since that day, squandering on-paper tournament potential in back-to-back seasons. Some fans weren’t thrilled that Rutgers was yet again giving up a conference game at Jersey Mike’s, but Steve Pikiell was the one who asked for it this time, in order to show off the program’s two future NBA stars in the Mecca.
9. Package deal: Saint Peter’s at Rider, Jan. 31; Rider at Saint Peter’s, Feb. 16
When Monmouth left the MAAC, these were the only in-state conference rivals left in Division I. For last year’s list I picked one of their games, one that happened to be scheduled for early March, and it didn’t disappoint. Then they wound up playing the very next week in Atlantic City, and Rider couldn’t complete a three-game sweep of its rival, losing by two to the eventual conference champions. The Broncs must be sick of seeing that team in blue and white, and getting beaten when the stakes are highest. We’ll have to see how the teams match up this year with new-look rosters, though some reserves return for each program and should take over starting roles.
10. Columbia at Princeton women, Feb. 22
You’ll notice this list tilts heavily toward the early part of the season, with all but two games slated before February. It’s no easy task to predict which games in the final 4-6 weeks of a season will truly matter. But we can call one shot right now: Columbia at Princeton will. This has become one of the premier mid-major rivalries in the women’s game, and the Lions just made their first NCAA Tournament last year as an at-large. They’ll be gunning for the Tigers atop the league until they can finally unseat the champs. As a bonus, Jadwin has a doubleheader that night with the Princeton men facing Dartmouth. No matter which order the games are played, this one is the marquee event.