Seton Hall began the season 9-1 with wins over a pair of Q1 wins at Michigan and at home against Texas. They rose as high as #16 in the AP Top 25, and then COVID stopped them in their tracks. After a 17-day pause, they returned short-handed and lost to Providence and Villanova to begin Big East play 0-2. They’ve been trying to dig out of that hole ever since. They did beat UConn 90-87 in OT, but it’s been rough sledding otherwise.
Following last week’s 73-63 home loss to Marquette, their fourth loss in five games to drop them to 3-6 in league play, Kevin Willard tried a unique motivational tactic. He gave them two days off, and according to an article by the Pirates’ excellent beat writer from the Asbury Park Press, Jerry Carino, when they returned Willard told them they were really 3-4.
Writing off the losses to Providence and Villanova as the product of a severely shorthanded roster, Willard was trying desperately to keep his team from getting down on themselves.
“We talked all week about how sometimes you get dealt a bad card, a bad hand, and it’s about how you deal with that,” Willard said. “I told them to stay positive. We were the 15th ranked team in the country before COVID. All we have to do is refocus our energy and we’ll be right back in it.”
They responded with a win over Georgetown on Tuesday. But the next two weeks will tell the real story — after a four-game gauntlet of Creighton and Xavier at home, and Villanova and UConn on the road, Seton Hall will either still be in the NCAA Tournament discussion or they will be on the outside looking in.
Senior guard Jared Rhoden leads the team in scoring at 15.5 points per game, and has scored in double-figures in 40 of his last 45 games. He’s a savvy veteran who knows how to score; though his offensive numbers are down a bit this year — he’s shooting just 25.8% from three-point range, a marked departure from the past two years — he’s made up for it by drawing fouls and sinking free throws. He’s 77-of-95 (81.1%) from the line. And he’s also second on the team in rebounding, averaging 7.0 boards per game.
Point guard Bryce Aiken is second on the team in scoring at 14.5 points per game, but in conference-only games led the team — and the entire league — in scoring at 19.5 points per game. Then he suffered a concussion against Marquette on January 15, and has missed the last four games. No one is sure when he’ll feel ready to return to the lineup; Willard said on Tuesday that “you can’t really sit there and set a timetable on (his return).”
Creighton is preparing as if he’ll play. Speaking to the media this week, Greg McDermott said “We’re preparing to play with the idea that Bryce is going to play and if he doesn’t, then we’ll adjust to that.”
If Aiken does return, it changes the defensive plan quite a bit because he’s an accomplished three-point shooter (24-of-68, 35.3%) — and because in his absence, Seton Hall has opted to play a bigger lineup. Aiken stands 6’0” and would be defended by one of CU’s guards; the 6’10” Tray Jackson has started in his place and would be defended by someone bigger like Ryan Hawkins or Ryan Kalkbrenner. Jackson is a good three-point shooter, too (22-of-50, 44.0%) and has been even better in conference play (13-of-25, 52.0%). He had his best game of the season against Georgetown on Tuesday, scoring 21 points with seven rebounds.
“I thought he was huge against Georgetown with his ability to spread the floor,” McDermott said. “And they have so many guys who are good off the dribble and can get to their spots in the mid-range and get to the rim, and when you have to stretch out and guard Tray the way you have to because of his ability to shoot it, it really puts you in a quandary defensively. So we’ve got to get to him, we’ve got to make sure he doesn’t get easy looks much like we gave UConn’s Tyler Polley and try to make his looks at the basket as difficult as possible.”
Though Jackson took his starting spot, sophomore guard Kadary Richmond has shouldered the point guard role in Aiken’s absence. A 6’6” transfer from Syracuse, Richmond is a gifted offensive player who complimented Aiken perfectly when they played together.
“Richmond brings some things to the table that are different,” McDermott noted this week. “He’s going to try to post you some, he’s going to back you down some, he’s going to try to get to his spots in the mid-range, where Aiken you’ve got to respect six, seven feet behind the line.”
He had 12 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in 36 minutes in their win over Georgetown earlier this week. For the season, he’s averaging 8.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists — if there’s a knock on him, it’s that he also averages 2.4 turnovers per game. Since taking on a bigger role in Aiken’s absence, he’s shown a propensity for being extremely careless with the ball. Richmond had 17 turnovers in a three game stretch before the Georgetown game this week — seven turnovers against St. John’s on January 22, four more against St. John’s two days later, and six against Marquette. Yikes.
Center Ike Obiagu only averages 2.6 points per game, but more than makes up what he lacks offensively with what he provides defensively and on the glass. Standing 7’2”, Obiagu has 61 blocks through 17 games. Much like the Bluejays do with Ryan Kalkbrenner, when opponents drive into the paint the Pirates’ defense funnels them to Obiagu — where he blocks or alters shots more often than not. He’s registered a block in 28 consecutive games going back to last season, the longest active streak in the country, and leads the Big East and ranks fourth nationally with 3.6 blocks per game. And thanks in part to Obiagu, the Pirates are the third-best offensive rebounding team in the Big East.
Creighton began this two-game road trip — probably their toughest of the season — hoping for a split. They’re assured at least that much after beating #17 UConn 59-55 on Tuesday. A sweep would be massive, and a lot of what they did in the win over the Huskies can translate to the matchup with Seton Hall. They’re similarly-built teams, long and athletic and ready to battle defensively. Like UConn, their best offense is often after a missed shot where they can corral the offensive rebound and get an easy putback.
Can the Jays win that type of game twice in four days? Getting Ryan Kalkbrenner back in the lineup will probably have a lot to say about that, one way or the other. He rolled his ankle badly Tuesday night, and is reportedly a game-time decision tonight.
- Tip: 6:00pm
- Venue: Prudential Center, Newark, NJ
- TV: FS1
- Announcers: Dave Sims, Donny Marshall
- In Omaha: Cox channel 78 (SD), 1078 (HD); CenturyLink Prism channel 620 (SD), 1620 (HD)
- Outside Omaha: FS1 Channel Finder
- Satellite: DirecTV channel 219, Dish Network channel 150
- Cable Cutters: Available on all major streaming platforms
- Streaming on the Fox Sports app and website
- Radio: 1620AM
- Announcers: John Bishop and Taylor Stormberg
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Satellite Radio: XM 380; SiriusXM app 970
- Myles Cale (9.8 points, 4.2 rebounds per game) and Alexis Yetna (9.3 points, 7.6 boards) round out the starting five for the Pirates. Bluejay fans are well aware of Cale’s talents — he scored 29 points in two games against CU a year ago, including 20 in Newark on 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range. Yetna, not as much. A grad transfer from USF, Yetna is nearly averaging a double-double in Big East play with 9.0 points and 9.5 rebounds per game — the only other player this year averaging those numbers is UConn’s Adama Sanogo.
- Over the last three games, senior Jamir Harris is averaging 11.3 points and is making 47.4 percent of his three-pointers (9- of-19) off the bench. Nine players have seen the floor consistently for Seton Hall, and their bench have either tied or outscored their opponents’ bench in 16 of their 20 games. Seton Hall’s bench is outscoring its opponent’s reserves 546-313 and is averaging 27.3 points per game.
- The last time the Pirates had started 3-6 in the Big East was in 2016-17, when the Pirates went on to win seven of their next nine to finish 10-8. The team earned a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Creighton’s Ryan Hawkins and Seton Hall’s Alexis Yetna are two of four players that share the Big East lead with six double-doubles this season. Hawkins owns 35 career double-doubles, which ranks fifth nationally among active Division I players.
Through nine conference games, Creighton’s offensive efficiency ranks 9th out of 11 Big East teams, which is a bit of a surprise. But even more surprising? Their defensive efficiency ranks SECOND.
The Jays have played the toughest Big East schedule to this point, and now own wins over Villanova at home and Marquette and UConn on the road. Their four Quad 1 wins are tied for 11th most, with a chance for #5 on Friday at Seton Hall.
Seton Hall leads the all-time series with Creighton 14-10, including a 9-5 advantage in New Jersey. The teams have split eight meetings in Newark since CU joined the Big East. And Creighton has won the last four games in the series at all sites, overcoming a 16-point deficit in the last 11 minutes in Newark last January the most recent time they played.
The last three meetings have featured huge Creighton runs. In March of 2020 in Omaha, Creighton made 12 of its final 13 shots to end a 77-60 win on a 30-10 run. Last season in Omaha, Creighton converted its first seven shots and raced to a 17-4 lead that Seton Hall never recovered from. In the second half of the same game, a 28-5 run helped Creighton turn a 54-37 lead into an 82-42 advantage. Last year in Newark, Creighton trailed 68-52 with 10:39 left and 79-71 with 3:00 left before a game-ending 14-2 run to claim an 85-81 victory.
On February 4, 1988, Creighton defeated Tulsa 94-92 in a double-OT thriller at the Civic. Senior Rod Mason scored a career-high 33 points, including a three-pointer with 26 seconds left in regulation to tie the game and four free throws in the final eight seconds of the second overtime to clinch the win.
Tulsa led by five with 1:03 to play in regulation, but missed the front end of three straight one-and-ones, giving CU the opportunity to mount a comeback. First freshman Chad Gallagher hit a bucket to make it 68-65, then fellow freshman Bob Harstad tipped in a missed jumper to cut the deficit to 68-67. Tulsa finally hit a pair of free throws on the next possession, but Mason’s three send the game to OT.
The tables turned in the first overtime. Leading 81-79, CU’s James Farr missed the front end of a one-and-one with seven seconds left to give Tulsa a chance. Then Farr compounded the mistake by fouling the Golden Hurricane’s Tracy Moore with one second to play, and he made both free throws — the second a high-bouncing shot that added a flair of drama to the moment — to send the game to a second overtime.
Duan Cole started the second OT with a strip-steal and fast break layup to put CU ahead, where they’d stay. In the final minute, Mason hit a pair of free throws and following a quick basket from Tulsa’s Brian Loyd, they called a timeout they didn’t have. The technical foul gave CU two more free throws, which Mason hit to give them a 92-89 lead. Cole followed with a pair of free throws to make it 94-89, and they’d need both as Moore nailed a three at the buzzer to make the final score 94-92.
The Bottom Line:
Creighton was joined by former point guard Marcus Zegarowski at their team dinner Thursday night. I’m assuming he shared some tips on beating the Pirates — the Bluejay teams he captained won four straight against Seton Hall. And I think this group of Jays will make it five.
Creighton 68, Seton Hall 64