The Creighton men’s basketball team is off to a rough start in Big East play, dropping their first three league games including at home against DePaul on Wednesday night. It definitely doesn’t get any easier for the Bluejays.
Seton Hall came into the season as a bit of an unknown. With a stellar recruiting class coming in along with being able to fly a bit under the radar, the Pirates have quietly jumped into the Big East race amongst the other names being floated around before the season. They have done well enough to earn themselves a top 25 ranking.
However, Seton Hall ran into a roadblock against Xavier on Wednesday night and they could come into the CenturyLink Center on Saturday hungry to get back on the winning track. To catch us up on the Pirates we reached out to Chris McManus, the editor of the Seton Hall blog South Orange Juice. Here is what he had to say.
White & Blue Review: Coming into the season, what were expectations for Seton Hall? Are they exceeding those expectations?
Chris McManus: Expectations varied because the major variable coming into the season was the talent level of the freshman class. It’s been exceeded slightly, and therefore so has Seton Hall’s overall performance thus far. Angel Delgado has shown a lot more offensively than anticipated and Khadeen Carrington and Desi Rodriguez have made the difference in a few games already.
WBR: Is Isaiah Whitehead the second coming? How has his loss to injury affected the team and could he play in Omaha on Saturday?
CM: He started slow and was finally able to put together both his pass-first skills and his scoring guard skills before getting hurt somewhere around the Georgia game. If Jaren Sina and Khadeen Carrington are contributing, Whitehead isn’t really a big loss as seen by the two recent upsets, but if they’re not, Seton Hall loses his natural scoring ability. Case in point with the Xavier game on Wednesday.
He may play as early as Butler on 1/13, but it sounds like Kevin Willard wants him to wait until DePaul nine days after that.
WBR: It appears the Pirates have the same road problems as Creighton does this season. What were the biggest factors in the road losses to Wichita State and Georgia?
CM: Indeed they do. I don’t count the win at USF as a road win, so Seton Hall is 0-3 in true road games. It was the Isaiah Whitehead show early against Wichita State, then they turned the ball over. A lot. They played a decent defensive game, but just didn’t get it done. The team was outplayed in every aspect at Georgia, they didn’t look prepared.
They played average last night at Xavier, but the Musketeers looked more prepared defensively. Seton Hall was killed by transition baskets off turnovers and bad shots, which I don’t think will really be the case against Creighton. Xavier did a good job of not letting Sterling Gibbs get into the paint.
WBR: Since Whitehead will likely be watching on the sidelines, who else do the Bluejays need to watch out for and Jays fans need to pay attention to in Saturday’s game?
CM: Sterling Gibbs was Seton Hall’s go-to guy against St. John’s and Villanova, but Xavier was able to shut him down with a team effort. Can Creighton’s guards shut him down? I’m not so sure.
WBR: With such a young team, how are they handling the extra exposure due to the early success?
CM: Kevin Willard was a bit vague with his post-game comments, but it sounded like the team has a little bit to improve on in this department. He said it’s going to be a work in progress for a young team to win on the road. Their schedule says they need to do that sooner rather than later.
WBR: Who is your favorite Seton Hall player of all time?
CM: I’d probably have to go with Andre Barrett for the memories he produced early in my following days. Jeremy Hazell is a close second for being really fun to watch.
WBR: What do you think of Creighton in the Big East? Were they a good choice for the long term of the league?
CM: Going into this season, my major question was if Greg McDermott could win without his son Doug playing for him and I predicted that Creighton would finish 8th in the league. They look about at that level very early on although they opened with two games on the road.
If Creighton can have a season like they did last every three seasons or four seasons, I think they are a good addition to the Big East. They have great fan support and really pack their arena night-in night-out.
WBR: What is your final prediction? Who comes out of the CenturyLink Center with a win?
CM: It’s tough to predict a Seton Hall win with them playing poorly on the road, but I think they match up well with Creighton. I’ve picked against them a lot this season, so I’ll say 68-65 Seton Hall.