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Duffy previews the Pirates:
Fresh off of a 63-47 win over Mercer on Sunday, the Seton Hall men’s basketball team will head to the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas to compete in the Paradise Jam Tournament this weekend.
First up for the Pirates is a University of Nevada team that will enter Friday’s showdown with a 2-0 record. The Wolfpack, led by sophomore guard D.J Freener and junior center A.J. West, defeated Cal Poly, 65-49, and Adams State, 60-64, early in the young season.
Seton Hall will look to hand Nevada their first loss of the year, after the team finished fourth in the Mountain West Conference a season ago. The game will start at 4 p.m. EST on Friday. Each of the eight competing teams will get three contests in the Paradise Jam, with the championship being played on Nov. 24 at 9 p.m.
Entering the Pirates’ contest with Mercer, there was a lot of buzz surrounding a highly-touted freshmen class led by Big East Preseason Newcomer of the Year, and ESPN’s No. 2 shooting guard in the nation out of high school, Isaiah Whitehead.
Whitehead shot 1-10 for just two points on Sunday. Head coach Kevin Willard said that he “played terrible.”
In Seton Hall’s opening game, it was senior Brandon Mobley who shouldered the offensive load. Mobley finished with 19 points (7-9 FG, 4-4 3PT) and 9 boards.
“I just told them to stay with it,” Mobley said of his younger teammates. “First game, you’re going to be nervous, that’s natural…I just told them to stay focused and have fun.”
Mobley, one of just three seniors on the roster, did not score more than 18 points in a 2013-14 season where he averaged 7.6 points per game.
“He’s matured and he’s gone through ups and downs,” head coach Kevin Willard said of his veteran big man. “He realizes this is his time.”
“This team will get as far as I can take it,” Mobley said. “I take that as a big responsibility. In the past, some nights I have great nights and some nights I would be nonexistent. So now, I have to really take on that role…that how I play, can really dictate the outcome of the game and dictate the outcome of the team.”
Junior Sterling Gibbs helped Mobley get the Pirates over the hump. The point guard finished with 17 points, five assists, five rebounds and three steals against Mercer.
“It shows that the young guys really look up to us,” Mobley said of the team’s leadership. “We want to help lead them as much as we can, as well as doing what we have to do on the court. It’s about leading by example.”
Gibbs averaged 13.2 points and 4.2 assists last season, and will play bigger role in his second year in South Orange after transferring from Texas. With Fuquan Edwin now playing professionally, Gibbs will see more opportunities to handle the ball and make plays for his teammates. Angel Delgado was a beast on Sunday, so much so that Kevin Willard likened the 6-foot-9-inches freshmen forward to Dennis Rodman. Delgado snatched a game-high 12 rebounds and added eight points in his first regular season start. Delgado’s fellow first-year teammates who like Whitehead struggled in their collegiate debut, will hope to bounce back this weekend as the team looks to win a tournament that includes Clemson, LSU, Weber State and Illinois State.
“We had a few mental breakdowns,” Mobley said of his team’s performance against Mercer. “But we know we’ll be able to fix that by watching the film. We’re gonna go out and execute the game plan defensively (against Nevada). The offense will take care of itself.”
In 2010, Seton Hall placed fifth in the Paradise Jam. This year, the Pirates have their eyes on the trophy.
“Of course we want to win it,” Mobley said. “That’s what we’re going down there for.”
Thomas Duffy can be reached at thomas.duffy@student.shu.edu.
Fanta previews the field:
With a highly-touted recruiting class has come a more challenging slate for the Seton Hall men’s basketball.
In their first Paradise Jam since 2010, the Pirates are looking to go beyond a fifth-place finish in 2010.
The key?
How will the freshmen handle the big stage? For one, freshman Isaiah Whitehead will look to climb from a two-point performance.
Sterling Gibbs and Brandon Mobley will both look to lead the way, but playing in three games in a span of four days will be challenging for those two to carry the load the entire time.
Here is a preview of this weekend’s field, with a look at Nevada at the bottom of the page:
The Redbirds (0-1) did not have one senior on their roster last season, yet took the fifth seed in the Missouri Valley Tournament and ended up advancing to the College Basketball Invitational semifinals before getting knocked out by Siena. Guard Daishon Knight is back for his senior season and has already gotten off to a strong start. He had 17 points while 6-foot-5 freshman guard DeVaugh Akoon-Purcell compiled a double-double with 15 points and 10 boards in a 60-55 loss to Utah State. Picked to finish fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference and ranked 125th according to Pomeroy, Illinois State looks to get rolling this weekend in their first round match-up against Weber State at 9 p.m. eastern time.
The preseason favorite in the Big Sky, Weber State is coming off a remarkable 2013-14 that featured the program’s 21st conference title. The Wildcats not only won the regular season championship, but ran the table in the conference tournament and reached the NCAA Tournament before falling to an Elite Eight team in Arizona head coach Randy Rahe enters his ninth season at WSU and has been named the Big Sky Coach of the Year in four seasons, a conference record. The Wildcats return five players from last year’s championship roster.
Just as the Redbirds had issues with Utah State, the same was the case for Weber State in their season opener, a 72-61 loss to the Aggies last Friday. On Monday, WSU led by as many as 26 and went on to win over Presentation, a member of the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics). Weber State not only had seven steals, but 13 assists, and shot 45 percent from the field. The reigning Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year, Joel Bolomboy, had 20 points and 15 rebounds along with five blocked shots in the 74-49 defeat for the Pirates. Five scored in double-figures for the Wildcats in the win. They went 20-of-23 from the free throw line as well. Bolomboy worked with 6-foot-7 Kyndahl Hill in the point. He ended up with 11 points and a career-best 10 boards himself in the win over Presentation. Weber State is 151st according to Pomeroy, but with the big men that they have in this tournament, there’s no reason why WSU can’t make a run in the tournament.
A past champion and runner-up has the momentum on their side heading into this weekend’s tournament. Old Dominion, the 2010 title winner and the 2005 runner-up, took down Richmond on Tuesday night, 63-57. Guard Trey Freeman scored 13 as four were in double-figures for ODU in the victory. He will be assisted in the backcourt this weekend by Jordan Baker, who went 4-for-5 from three-point range, tallied six boards, and scored 12 points against Richmond. The Monarchs are led by second-year head coach Jeff Jones and their leading scorer from a year ago, Aaron Bacote (15.5 ppg), is looking for big things this weekend. The Monarchs’ balance is what can help them make some noise in the Virgin Islands.
Just as Old Dominion is fourth in the Conference USA Preseason Poll, LSU stood at fourth in the preseason in the Southeastern Conference. The Tigers escaped from Texas Tech on Tuesday night with a 69-64 overtime win. LSU has one of the best players in the SEC in 6-foot-8 forward Jordan Mickey, who scored 18 points along with a career-high 14 rebounds in Tuesday’s win. What makes LSU one of the strongest teams in the field is that Mickey is assisted by 6-foot-10 Jarell Martin, who had 17 points and 12 boards against Texas Tech. One thing to take away from LSU has a thin bench, though. Tim Quarterman had six points, six rebounds, four assists, two blocks, and a steal, but that was all of the scoring that the Tigers found from the reserves. This team’s size should be a concern for the other seven, but their experience level isn’t overflowing. LSU is ranked 78th in the Pomeroy rankings, just two slots behind Seton Hall (76th).
The Pirates will take on either Gardner Webb or Clemson in their second round match-up. Clemson took down Seton Hall in an overtime affair in 2010 at Paradise Jam. The Tigers return four starters this year, an ACC-best 77 percent of their line-up. If the Pirates do end up meeting 1-1 Clemson, SHU’s frontcourt must be ready for Landry Nnoko, who scored 18 in a 77-74 loss to Winthrop on Tuesday. Along with 6-foot-8 Donte Grantham, the two could potentially pose issues for a Pirate frontcourt that combined for 29 Division I minutes outside of Brandon Mobley entering the season. Gardner Webb is looking to rise in the Big Sky after finishing in ninth last year. The Runnin’ Bulldogs have a strong guard in Jarvis Davis, who led Gardner Webb with a career-high 22 points in an 80-67 win over College of Charleston on Monday. Tyrell Nelson and Jerome Hill both had 12 rebounds in the win.
So, what are the Pirates’ chances?
According to the Pomeroy rankings, the Pirates are the highest-rated team at 76th. They’ll need the veterans to step up and perform in Brandon Mobley and Sterling Gibbs, and Angel Delgado has to be as active as he was after an eight-point, 12-rebound performance in the 63-47 season opener win over Mercer. Isaiah Whitehead will look to bounce back from a rough shooting performance, and if the Pirates are to win this tournament, they need the star power of their freshman to come out. Facing some tougher frontcourt units will be the task at hand, but if they are as active as they were in Sunday’s opener, there’s no reason why The Hall cannot win the Paradise Jam.
John Fanta can be reached at john.fanta@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @John_Fanta.
