St. John’s Game Recap

Any chance (slim) Seton Hall had of making the NCAA Tournament vanished yesterday with an embarrassing 65-62 loss to a St. John’s team that entered the game with a 10-17 record. The Pirates, up by 13 points at one point in the second half, could not play effectively with the lead and let St. John’s creep back into the game. Still, the Hall had a 55-45 lead with 4:51 to play. St. John’s started making shots, mostly due to poor defense by Seton Hall. For some reason Bobby Gonzalez decided to press over the last five minutes even though St. John’s had no trouble with it all day long. Even on the final play, Gonzalez decided to press which led to a wide open, game winning three pointer by Anthony Mason Jr. Mason led all scorers with 24 points, 15 of those coming on 5-7 shooting from downtown.

On the message boards, I’ve read a variety of reasons why the fans think the Pirates lost this game. They range from bench coaching to clock management to the venue in which the game was played. There is, however, one reason that I haven’t seen mentioned and that is defense. The Pirates, certainly not known for their defensive ability, allowed St. John’s to shoot 48.1% from the floor and 52.6% from the three point line. Against a team that struggles to shoot and score, that is completely unacceptable.

On offense, Seton Hall had some bright spots but generally wasn’t very effective. Brian Laing had an off night, the bench only provided 8 points, and Jeremy Hazell only had 9. However, Eugene Harvey was atrocious. In 37 minutes of play, Harvey turned the ball over nine times! That is almost unheard of. It’s unfortunate because Seton Hall doesn’t have a point guard to come off the bench without Paul Gause. If Gause was healthy, Harvey would have seen a lot of time on the bench yesterday. The one bright spot on offense was John Garcia. Big John has had three good games in a row ever since Seton Hall had a week off after the West Virginia game.

All in all it was a terrible loss and doesn’t merit any more discussion. They have two winnable games coming up which provides them with a great opportunity to get to 9-9 in the conference. Move on and get a couple wins in front of two sold out home crowds.

DePaul Game Recap

Everyone exhale, it’s ok. Seton Hall found a way to hold on against a game DePaul squad last night at Prudential Center. With the win, the Pirates improved to 16-11 (6- and look to be in prime position to clinch a berth in the Big East Tournament next month at Madison Square Garden. A balanced effort, paced by Brian Laing’s 22 points on 8-14 (5-7 3pt FG) shooting, led the Hall to victory. Jamar Nutter played well, continuing an astounding trend: In the Pirates’ six Big East wins, Nutter is averaging 14.0 ppg on 27-52 (51.9%) shooting from the floor, and 19-33 (57.6%) from downtown. Conversely, Nutter is averaging 7.9 ppg on 22-74 (29.7%) shooting, and 12-42 (28.6%) from downtown in Seton Hall’s eight Big East losses. Last night, Jamar had 15 points on 5-10 shooting (5-9 from 3). Look for Seton Hall to play well down the stretch if Jamar Nutter plays well. John Garcia chipped in 10 points in one of his best performances of the season. Eugene Harvey added nine assists to only one turnover, one of Eugene’s best games of the year as well.

Seton Hall got off to a good start, taking control for just about all of the first half. The Pirates gave up some fast break baskets early, but settled into a 3-2 zone that really confused DePaul on offense. They ran the shot clock down to below five at least three times (by my count), and forced DePaul into some bad shots. DePaul did shoot 52.4% in the first half, but they only scored 29 points. After intermission, things changed. Jerry Wainwright had his team adjust to the zone as the Blue Demons looked more comfortable on offense. Will Walker and Karron Clarke hit some three pointers (DePaul made seven in the second half), and that enabled their team to cut the lead down under five for part, and the end, of the second half. Nutter and Laing hit some big threes along the way in order to preserve the Pirate lead, as Seton Hall never trailed at any point in the game. Both teams shot the same percentages in the first and second half from three point range as they combined to make 20 3’s on the night. Will Walker led all players, going 5-5 from downtown.

I thought Seton Hall played an efficient game. Despite the close score at the end, I never felt the game was in danger of being lost as the Pirates seemed in control throughout. It was a much needed win over a similarly desperate team in DePaul. With a two game lead over 13th place St. John’s, a fairly easy schedule down the stretch, and a tiebreaker over DePaul and Cincinnati, Seton Hall is all but assured of making the Big East Tournament. The Pirates are tied with Syracuse in the loss column, so a win over the struggling Orange next Wednesday night at home could propel the Hall into as high as an 8th or maybe even 7th seed in the Big East Tournament. If everything breaks right, Seton Hall could finish as high as 6th place heading into MSG. That would be the highest they could possibly finish, as Marquette and UConn own tiebreakers over the Pirates. I highly doubt those teams would not win another game, anyway. For the Pirates to finish 6th, they would need to win out and have West Virginia go 1-3. The Mountaineers have road games at DePaul, Connecticut, and St. John’s, in addition to a home game against rival Pittsburgh. I’m not predicting anything, but anything can happen in college basketball. How much does the failure to get a rebound at Villanova and the fastbreak failures at Marquette hurt now?

The Pirates will now hit the road for two games, Tuesday at South Florida and Saturday at St. John’s. These are games against two bottom feeders that the Hall should win. However, South Florida has played well of late, especially at home. I expect a tough game on Tuesday night, but I will be disappointed if Seton Hall loses. Let’s make it a 2-0 week and be 8-8 heading into a big sold out, nationally televised home game against Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse Orange. Go Hall!

West Virginia Game Recap

This has to be rock bottom right? I don’t think it can get much worse than this. In a span of about three weeks, Seton Hall has gone from sky high, thinking about the NCAA Tournament, to rock bottom, thinking about just making the Big East Tournament. The latest setback, a 89-68 defeat at West Virginia on Sunday afternoon, makes it two uninspired efforts in a row. Coincidentally (or perhaps not, more on that later), both opponents scored 89 points.

With the loss, the Pirates have lost five straight games to fall into 12th place alone in the Big East standings. As you know, only the top 12 make it to Madison Square Garden in March. The Pirates hold a one game lead over 13th place St. John’s, and a one and a half game lead over 14th place Providence, plus a tiebreaker. With that in mind, it looks to be a five team race between Seton Hall, DePaul, Syracuse, St. John’s, and Villanova to avoid the dreaded 13th place. Some of you may wonder why I included Syracuse in there, but the Orange have a very difficult schedule down the stretch. There is a possibility that they may not win another game and finish at 7-11. Jim Boeheim’s team plays at Notre Dame, vs. Pittsburgh, at Seton Hall, and vs. Marquette to close the regular season. While they could win any one of those games, I’d say they have more than a 50% chance to lose all of them, save Seton Hall. Even in the Seton Hall game, I’d give Syracuse only a 55-60% chance to win. Villanova looks good for seven wins, if not eight or nine. They play West Virginia, UConn, Marquette, and South Florida at home, plus road contests at Louisville and Providence. I have been calling Villanova out all year as overrated, but they are slowly improving over the past few games. My money is on the Wildcats to finish at 9-9. This leaves Seton Hall, DePaul, and St. John’s.

SJU: vs. Marquette, at Georgetown, vs. Seton Hall, at Notre Dame, vs. West Virginia. I think the best case for the Johnnies is a 5-13 finish.

DePaul: at UConn, at Seton Hall, vs. West Virginia, vs. Notre Dame, at Cincinnati, at Pittsburgh. Best case in my opinion? 6-12.

Seton Hall: vs. DePaul, at South Florida, at St. John’s, vs. Syracuse, vs. Rutgers. Best case? 9-9.

Based on all of that, the Pirates should have no trouble making the Big East Tournament, provided they don’t totally collapse and there aren’t any upsets involving the other teams in the race.

Back to the game. As noted in the preview on this website, the matchups in the frontcourt heavily favored West Virginia. In the end, WVU’s forwards and centers outscored the Pirates’ frontcourt 46-23, with 21 of those points coming from Brian Laing. That is total domination, and clearly the missing link on this Seton Hall squad. Unless Bobby Gonzalez brings in a few quality frontcourt players, this story will be repeated next year. Seton Hall desperately needs Michael Glover to be declared eligible for next season, and to land Gary Flowers to establish some presence up front.

The one bright spot yesterday was freshman Jeremy Hazell going off for 30 points. Hazell had been a non-factor in every road game up until this point, it was great to finally see him get it going away from the Rock. We know what he can do, especially at home, now he needs to follow up this performance and become more consistent on the road. If you take Hazell’s 11-18 FG shooting out of the equation, Seton Hall’s guards shot just 6-23 (26.1%). That won’t get it done, much less on the road. Over the past five games (all losses obviously), Jamar Nutter is shooting only 13-42 (31%) from the field and averaging 8.0 points per game. Not terrible, but certainly not good. Below average in fact. Contrast that with the five game winning streak (22-42 (52.4%), 13.8 ppg), and you have one of the causes of this losing streak. Jamar Nutter stepped up very nicely in Paul Gause’s first absence, he has not so far the second time around. I’m not blaming it all on Jamar because there are many other problems with this team right now, but I expect a senior leader to step up and put the team on his back during tough times. It seems as if Jamar has just faded into the background for now. Maybe he will break out against DePaul on Saturday night.

However, the main problem for the Pirates over the past five games has been defense. Seton Hall is allowing opponents to score a disgusting 83.6 points per game on 144-307 (46.9%) shooting, compared to 70.6 ppg on 122-298 (40.9%) shooting during the winning streak. That is the root cause of Seton Hall’s five game losing streak. This can be due to a number of things, including fatigue, lack of effort, lack of defensive skill, and coaching. I happen to think it’s a combination of the first three, mostly fatigue. Despite Bobby Gonzalez’s claim that his team is among the best conditioned in the nation, they look very tired out on the court over the past few games. Fatigue leads to lack of effort and laziness, something we’ve seen a lot of particularly on the defensive end of the floor. This week of rest couldn’t have come at a better time for Seton Hall. If they rest up well and re-dedicate themselves on the defensive end of the floor (they have shown they can play average defense, and that’s all I’m asking for at this point), they should put together a solid last five games before the Big East Tournament. Before the year started, many fans said it was 9-9 or bust considering the schedule Seton Hall drew. It’s time to make that happen by winning four out of the last five games. Let’s get it done.

Marquette Game Recap

You deserved better. That’s right, all of you hardy souls who ventured out to the Prudential Center on Tuesday night to see the Pirates lay an egg against the Marquette Golden Eagles. You braved snowy/icy roads (not to mention they were untreated, thanks NJ DOT!!!), traffic jams, spin outs, and a drenching freezing rain storm just to see the Pirates play an important game against a quality opponent. It’s a shame the players didn’t get the message. Marquette dominated the game from start to finish, all but ending Seton Hall’s hopes for an at large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Barring a complete turnaround, the Pirates will be playing in the NIT or the new CBI tournament. With the win, Marquette snapped a two game losing streak and improved to 17-6 (7-5) on the year. Seton Hall dropped to 15-10 (5-7) with the loss as they have now lost four games in a row.

I did not get to the game until there were five minutes remaining in the first half, but Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin painted an ugly picture on the radio. Seton Hall managed to make only seven shots in the first half while Marquette made 14 shots on 14 more attempts. This was due to the staggering rebounding advantage for Tom Crean’s team. Marquette absolutely killed Seton Hall on the offensive glass in the first half as they raced out to an 18 point halftime lead. For the game, Marquette shot only 42%, but took 21 more shots than the Pirates. This was due to the rebounding margin (43-29 MU), as well as the turnover margin (17 for SHU, 11 for MU). Marquette outscored Seton Hall 33-14 in points off turnovers. Everything that could go wrong went wrong for Seton Hall in this game. The game got ugly with 12:49 remaining in the second half, as Jamar Nutter was ejected for inflicting a flagrant foul on Marquette point guard Dominic James. The officials looked at the tape for about three minutes before meeting with both coaches and deciding to eject Nutter. The tape of the incident was sent to the Big East Conference office for review, so we should hear about any disciplinary action within a few days if the conference deems it necessary. I didn’t see the foul as it was away from the ball, but from all accounts it was a cheap shot and totally unwarranted. I’m calling on Bobby Gonzalez to take a stand and suspend Jamar Nutter for the next game, sending Jamar and the team a message that this type of play will not be tolerated.

For some reason, the team just didn’t look like they wanted to be there on Tuesday night. What makes it all the more puzzling is that a win against Marquette, a team Seton Hall played well against last month in Milwaukee, would have ended the losing streak and put the Pirates at 16-9 (6-6) and still in position for a bid to the NCAA Tournament. I guess we will never know why the team was never in this game emotionally. This is the second embarrassing performance in a row at home, and that has to be a major concern. Has the team hit a wall and run out of gas? Is the thin bench finally catching up to them? I don’t think anyone knows the answer, but the next game should tell us a lot about what the rest of the season will look like. The Pirates do have a favorable schedule, but they will not win any of those games if they play like they did last night. If the energy and effort are restored, Seton Hall can win its final five games after they play West Virginia on Sunday. The only way they can make the NCAA Tournament is to run the table and finish 21-10 (11-7). That will put them on the bubble, as the resume is devoid of quality wins save for Louisville. Of the remaining teams on the schedule, only West Virginia presents the opportunity for a quality win. Some will argue Syracuse would be a quality win, but their record will take a downturn very soon as their remaining schedule is absolutely brutal. The Orange didn’t help matters as they lost on the road to South Florida last night.

What are the chances of the Pirates running the table? Probably 5-10% in my estimation. West Virginia is such a difficult place to play at, and it’s hard to have enough confidence in this team to pull off a win like this considering the way they’ve been playing lately. A close loss at West Virginia could turn it around, as they will have five days to rest before hosting DePaul on February 23rd. That said, I will be happy just getting to 9-9 in the Big East, which means going 4-2 over the last six. The final record would be 19-12 (9-9) going into the Big East Tournament. That would most likely put Seton Hall in the 8/9 or 7/10 game at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday March 12th. They would be almost assured of getting into the NIT, barring a string of upsets in other conference tournaments. In the grand scheme, 19-12 (9-9) is a major improvement over last year’s 13-16 (4-12) campaign.

Hall Line callers and message board posters complaining about Bobby Gonzalez have to consider two things. One, where would this team be if Louis Orr was still the coach? You’d have no Harvey, no Hazell, no Davis boys, no major improvement in Brian Laing’s game, and no buzz about the program. I don’t even want to think about how bad it would be. Two, Gonzo is in his second year here. It takes three to four years to successfully rebuild and sustain a program, especially in a conference as rugged as the Big East. You have top coaches recruiting top talent all the time, so it’s hard to make inroads when your program has been down. Bobby Gonzalez is a shark, and he has done a tremendous job recruiting and getting Seton Hall somewhat relevant again. Don’t be surprised if he reels in a few big fish in the next year or two. The bottom line is it takes time to build a program in this conference. If we finish out the season strong, you can’t deny that significant progress is being made. Be patient, Gonzo will get us to where we want to be sooner than you think. Let’s move on to West Virginia. Go Pirates!