Yeah, I said I would do a preview of NCAA Tournament games, but you probably did a bracket or, if you were smart, stayed away from the whole nonsense of picking to predict who will actually win these games and just savor the madness. Maybe you want to look at the 2015 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament instead. Hold on, before you start rattling off things like how women’s basketball is clearly unbalanced or how the Connecticut Huskies are an unstoppable juggernaut, hear me out. What I want to discuss is a game that will impact the game of women’s college basketball in the state of New Jersey. No, not the Princeton Tigers, who had a perfect 30-0 season and were seeded #8 for some unholy reason. This is all about the greatest rivalry in New Jersey college sports: the Seton Hall Pirates and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
Rutgers women’s basketball and Hall of Fame head coach C. Vivian Stringer (Source: AP Photo/Mel Evans)
You will most likely know the Rutgers Scarlet Knights for their pathetic men’s basketball team and their average football team, but the jewel of their athletic squads would have to be the women’s basketball team. Coached by C. Vivian Stringer, the women’s team has had some success since 1998, making the NCAA Tournament 15 times in the 20 years with Stringer as the head coach. The most notable season for Rutgers women’s basketball was easily the 2006-07 season, where the Scarlet Knights went all the way to the Championship Game, where they fell to legendary coach Pat Summitt and her Tennessee Lady Volunteers team. However, ever since Rutgers left the Big East Conference, the Scarlet Knights have not seen the same success. The days of Cappie Pondexter and Epiphanny Prince are gone.
Seton Hall women’s basketball head coach Anthony Bozzella (Source: Nam Y. Huh)
The Seton Hall Pirates have not had the success that their in-state rivals have had. They have only made the NCAA Tournament twice, in 1994 and 1995, before this season. After many years of being pushed around in the Big East by the likes of Connecticut, Notre Dame, and Rutgers, this new Big East Conference has been kinder to the Pirates, as their 23-13 conference record shows. The Pirates also finished first in the Big East for the first in the history of the program, although they lost in the Big East Tournament to the DePaul Blue Demons. Despite that, second year head coach Anthony Bozzella has revitalized the program, helping guide Seton Hall to a 28-5 record, the most wins in a single season in Seton Hall women’s basketball history. Bozzella was awarded Big East Coach of the Year for his efforts. Needless to say, the Pirates are on the rise and determined to escape the shadow of Rutgers.
Tabatha Richardson-Smith and Daisha Simmons, two of the reasons the Seton Hall Pirates are back on the women’s basketball map. (Source: Seton Hall Athletics)
Naturally, there have to be players to watch out for. Rutgers has a fearsome duo in the forms of Kahleah Cooper and Betnijah Laney, who both finished in the top 10 in scoring amongst Big Ten players. Laney is the leader of the Scarlet Knights, averaging a double-double during the season with 15.9 points per game and 10.9 rebounds per game. I am not well-versed on Rutgers, so my knowledge of them is pretty tame compared to the Pirates. The triumvirate of Ka-Deidre Simmons, Daisha Simmons, and Tabatha Richardson-Smith are the focal points of Bozzella’s system, Richardson-Smith with 17.4 points per game, Ka-Deidre averaging 17.2 points per game, and Daisha averaging 16.9 points per game. Daisha Simmons might be the key factor here in that she began her college career playing for Rutgers before transferring to Alabama and then becoming a national story after Alabama initially refused to let her transfer to Seton Hall. They finally gave in to the national outcry and let Daisha become a Pirate, and the impact she has made can be seen through her play.
This may seem like just another college basketball game to the average viewer. Being a fan of Seton Hall, it is anything but another game. The women’s basketball program has emerged from mediocrity like a phoenix and is hoping to make an impact on the college basketball world. Rutgers has an overall record of 33-8 in the Seton Hall-Rutgers rivalry, but last season’s 91-84 double overtime WNIT game proved that the Pirates could hang with their older sister of the New Jersey. When New Jersey state senator Richard Codey calls for Seton Hall and Rutgers to have their basketball programs have a doubleheader every year, you know that there is a resurgence in a once lopsided rivalry. Saturday’s NCAA Tournament matchup is major for both schools; a chance for Seton Hall to prove this season was not a fluke and a chance for Rutgers to squash any hopes for their former Big East foe. All we know is whoever wins this game will have a hell of a challenge in Connecticut in the next round.
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