On Sunday, I counted 18 men’s college basketball games being televised. Seven women’s hoops games made it to TV. College hockey, four college wrestling championships, five NBA contests, two NHL matches and a slew of auto racing, golf, tennis and rodeo permeated the airwaves. Not to mention the XFL and the NFL combine. Plus exhibition baseball. Sounds like over saturation?
Rutgers laid two more eggs this week. The once-formidable Scarlet Knights lost a game at last-place Minnesota on a last ditch three point shot that won it for the Golden Gophers.
Then on Sunday night, Northwestern came to Piscataway. Unlike the game earlier this season in Evanston, this was a tale of two teams. One which nobody picked to end up in second place in the Big Ten (Northwestern), while the other (Rutgers) picked by some during the season to win the conference title and obtain a high seed for the post-season.
What I saw was a mismatch. Northwestern had better players and it was apparent how well those players had been coached. The Wildcats deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament. Rutgers does not.
Rutgers decline was palpable on both the offense and defense. Unable to score, shoot free throws and stop the other teams which had a plethora of open shots, this was not a good recipe for success.
The Big Ten Tournament begins this week in Chicago. In the 8-9 game, Rutgers plays Michigan. The Wolverines gave a very good Indiana team all it could handle, taking the Hoosiers to OT in Bloomington before losing. And Michigan trounced the Scarlet Knights in February at Jersey Mike’s Arena.
Who do you blame here? It’s not the players alone—although they are making some bad decisions. That’s too bad.
Instead, Head Coach Steve Pikiell’s optimism does not work anymore. Sometimes a coach needs to see how he can change things—shake up a bad stretch with some noticeable changes. Trouble is that RU does not have the talent to let Pikiell make those tweaks that his team so desperately needs.
Moreover, what will this disastrous end to a promising season mean for recruiting? Things are not right with Rutgers basketball. This season may have detrimental consequences for years to come.
While I loved going to the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden when RU was part of that conference, I really don’t like those kinds of events. Play the regular season out and do not make good teams go thorough another test—injuries occur and sometimes teams come from virtually nowhere to win the automatic bid to the Big Dance. In the smaller conferences, the best team does not always reach the NCAA’s. Exhibit #1 is St. Peter’s University last year, which defeated a good Iona team directed by Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino.
Invariably, there will be some Cinderella team which wins its conference tournament. Could it be 11-22 Lafayette downing the Patriot League regular season champs, Colgate? Or FDU, which was so-so in the Northeast Conference regular season, but is going to the NCAA’s because the top team, Merrimack, is ineligible as the school transitions to Division I? And maybe Shaheen Holloway can once more astonish us by leading Seton Hall to a Big East tile and trip to the NCAA’s. He does have the pedigree.
I am happy that UCLA ended up winning the Pac 12 regular season crown. Yet I wonder if the Bruins have to play Arizona for a third time, will UCLA lose a possible top seed as a result of a loss?
There were many upsets this last weekend of the regular season. Kansas actually lost and still managed to stay in the top four of the AP Top 25. Number one Houston won at Memphis on a buzzer beater. Alabama faltered with a loss at Texas A&M—the Aggies rose from #24 to #18 with that win. Baylor went down three spots to #10 with a loss to Iowa State. Yet St. Mary’s advanced from #17 to #16 with a loss at #9 Gonzaga.
Expect plenty of carnage this week. I will hold off on my Final Four picks until I see the brackets. Of course, I will let you know my wife’s picks, because she apparently is the current expert in this household.
Troubling news came from the NBA, college basketball and college football. Memphis star Ja Morant was seen flashing a gun at a night club in the Denver area. As a result of his indiscretion, Morant has separated himself from the team for an undetermined time. Police are investigating and charges are possible—even in an open carry state like Colorado. This was not the first time that Morant had flashed a gun nor been in trouble with the law, reports stated.
Georgia defensive lineman Jalen Carter was involved in an auto accident which took the lives of two others. The allegations of drag racing, which resulted in criminal complaints and a brief trip to the jail before Carter was released, did not deter him from returning to the NFL combine in Indianapolis.
Texas Tech’s men’s basketball coach was suspended by the school for using racially insensitive language to his team. His apologies immediately afterwards weren’t good enough. He claimed he was citing the Bible to make a point. Nor were the statements from Davis and the need for Morant to distance himself from the NBA to seek “help”.
All this comes on the heels of Brandon Miler, the star Alabama basketball player, who allegedly supplied a gun which was used by teammate Darius Miller in a homicide. Miller was not too contrite when he faked a pat down search after the news broke about his supposed involvement. At least Alabama got it right by dropping Miles from this team—one which many believe can win it all. They fumbled the pat down situation.
Everyone is presumed to be innocent. This is sacrosanct in the legal system. But in the court of public opinion, each of these incidents received scathing condemnation.
Certainly time and circumstance dictate how an individual responds to negative stimuli. What was absence was the NBA, NFL, the colleges or even the SEC keeping these individuals from participating in their sports.
I will not guess how these transgressions will turn out. I will say that these individuals definitely placed themselves in jeopardy by their own actions.
If Ray Rice and Colin Kaepernick are examples of punishment by the NFL, Davis might be sitting out some time in the future and his high draft stock may have taken a serious hit.
What will happen with Morant? The NBA should have zero tolerance for guns. Period. Not to worry. Nike and Gatorade still support him—they have lots of money invested in his brand. Which we might be seeing isn’t too good.
Texas Tech suspended Mark Adams for his insensitivity and the school is investigating if Adams allegedly spit on a player earlier in the season. Hopefully they will educate him in the use of the Bible as a teaching guide for college players.
For all the good inherent in sports, these types of incidents give the teams, conferences and leagues image problems. Maybe they need to be more proactive with discipline. Wouldn’t that be a good teachable moment?
I leave you with this: the most exciting players in sports right now are Connor McDavid on the Edmonton Oilers and Caitlin Clark, the star of the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team.
McDavid has crossed the 100 points mark already and has scored 50 goals. He is the runaway M.V.P. in my mind. He reminds me a bit of a cross between Sidney Crosby, the star of the Pittsburgh Penguins, in his prime, and the Great One—Wayne Gretzky. High praise indeed.
Clark has almost single-handedly led Iowa to the Big Ten championship with a triple double in the finals. Iowa is now #2, behind the dynamo known as South Carolina. Keep your eyes and ears on how this might become a great championship game in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. She might be the next Diana Taurasi or Sue Bird.
Baseball is less than four weeks away from the start of the regular season. Cold weather is predicted for the next couple of weeks. I am really looking forward to those frigid nights in April and seeing how the pitchers will react to the pitch clock.
With so many sporting events televised to distract us, isn’t it just easier to find a good book or watch Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick than to see the reality of life unfolding? You be the judge (not Aaron).
Then again, let the (March) madness continue.
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