No. 6 Syracuse comes to "The Rock" Saturday night to face the Seton Hall men's basketball team in one final regular season matchup between two founding members of the Big East Conference.
Despite the tradition, the Orange leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference might not be all that bad for the Hall as they have struggled against Syracuse historically. As members of the Big East, Seton Hall is 12-41 against the Orange and 2-4 in the Big East Tournament.
One of those two wins in the Big East Tournament came in the 1993 championship game. In that game the Pirates set a conference record for most points scored and largest margin of victory in the championship game with their 103-70 win.
The matchup though is far from that one, as both teams are currently on opposite ends of the Big East standings.
Syracuse is tied at the top of the conference with an 8-3 Big East record while the Pirates are in 13th with a 2-10 record and riding a six game losing streak.
"It an impossible question for me to answer right now," head coach Kevin Willard said of what he is going to do next. "I might only have seven guys on Saturday. We haven't played a big east game 100 percent healthy yet, so I don't know where we go from here."
Injuries have hindered the Pirates starting with junior Patrik Auda being out for the season. Junior Brain Oliver may need surgery at the end of the season while sophomore Brandon Mobley will get surgery.
"We're not the New York Yankees," Willard said. "I can't lose three guys and call up three guys that are going to be that. I'm the Tampa Bay Rays, I need all my guys healthy and need all my guys playing well to be good."
At this point of the season with nothing going well, junior Fuquan Edwin called a players only meeting on Wednesday to stress to the rest of the players that they need to know what their roles are on a given night. Edwin also stressed how much the Hall needs a win.
"We need that win bad," Edwin said. "Someway somehow, it's a confidence builder because guys right now are hanging their heads, and even I am a little bit."
That task will be difficult as Syracuse comes into the game with a full, healthy roster.
The Orange also lead the conference in scoring offense averaging 75.5 points per game and also have the best scoring margin at +16.7. This offense runs through the NCAA leader in assists per game, sophomore Michael Carter-Williams with his 8.5 helpers a game. Carter-Williams is more than an offensive threat as he is also third in the nation averaging 3.09 steals per game.
The Orange are coming off a 66-58 loss to Connecticut Wednesday night. In the loss the Orange shot 35.4 percent from the field and a lowly 17.4 from beyond the arc.
A record amount of tickets has already been sold to this game as over 12,000 people are expected to watch the Pirates host the Orange.
Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. on Saturday.
Stephen Valenti can be reached at stephen.valenti@student.shu.edu.
