What can you really take away from college basketball exhibition games?
Sure, the results don’t matter, but don’t tell that to the fan bases of teams like Utah State (Friday losers to Division II Cal State-Monterey Bay) or St. John’s (32-point losers to DII St. Thomas Aquinas).
On the other hand, should we read much into last week’s 80-39 New Mexico State win over a Western New Mexico University team that, aside from being picked to finish 16th in the 16-team Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, went on to lose to Arizona State on Saturday, 102-34?
“In exhibitions, it’s about us, never about them,” UNM head coach Craig Neal said last week, referring to his team’s approach of focusing on player evaluation and not even scouting the opposing teams.