Despite tough circumstances, the Pirates never gave up

The Pirates long season fi­nally came to an end Wednes­day night at the hands of Syracuse. The team may have finished with their lowest win total in the Big East since 1985-86 season but it's noth­ing that Pirate fans should be ashamed of.

The team lost their two big­gest players from the team that won 21 games and did not have a single senior on the roaster, something almost un­heard of in college basketball.

Besides the already young team, injuries hit the team hard, ear­ly and often. Only one game all year did the Hall have a full roster available and that was the second game of the season.

Combined the team lost 65 man games to injuries with numerous players playing through injuries that were not known because the team had no other option.

After the season ending loss, head coach Kevin Willard said his team took a vote to see who wasn't hurt this year and fresh­man point guard Tom Maayan was the only one who didn't get hurt, only to have Willard add "and he was coming off ACL sur­gery." All season Wil­lard praised his team's fight and heart. It is unheard of to play a full Big East schedule with only 7-8 available play­ers a night and a two guard playing the four is basi­cally a death sentence. Despite all of this in just about every game the team came out and fought and stayed right with their opponent for the major­ity of the game only to run out of gas down the stretch. Yes, everyone would have loved to see the team make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in seven years but the team never gave up and given the circumstances one could not ask for much more.

Stephen Valenti is a senior journalism major from

Lansdale, PA. He can be reached at stephan.valenti@student.shu.edu.