Seton Hall Athletics
Serving as a precursor to a highly-anticipated men’s basketball season, the Seton Hall Pirates will take on Caldwell University on Sunday, Nov. 9 at Walsh Gymnasium for a preseason scrimmage.
The on-campus exhibition will be just one of two games the men play in Walsh all season. The other coming on Dec. 27 when the Pirates takes on the University of Maine.
Sunday will be the first time fans of the blue and white can see Seton Hall’s highly-acclaimed freshmen class which is headlined by McDonalds’s All-American Isaiah Whitehead.
The Pirates, to much surprise, landed the 13th-best recruiting class in the country, according to Rivals.com. In addition to Whitehead, freshmen guard Khadeen Carrington, as well as forwards Angel Delgado, Ismael Sanogo and Desi Rodriguez help highlight a Pirates team which has a conference-high seven freshmen on its roster.
“It’s been fun to have so many new guys,” head coach Kevin Willard said. “It’s a lot easier integrating six or seven freshman into a system than it is two or three… When you have to teach everything all over I think it’s really good for the older guys too because it almost refreshes them on some of the basic concepts.”
The Pirates have several “older” players returning this season, who are likely to be on the court Sunday as well. Brandon Mobley is expected to be a more-dominant force in the front court and guards Sterling Gibbs and Jaren Sina will be more involved in the offense while taking up roles as team leaders.
“When we lost Pat (Auda) I think Brandon understood that he was going to have a much bigger role this year,” Willard said of his senior big man. “We’ve always had that two-headed monster with both of those guys. Now it’s just Brandon.”
“I’ve been very blessed having Jaren and Sterling back after going through the ups and downs of last year,” the fifth-year coach added. “They have been really instrumental in helping all these young guys, especially the young guards, kind of get acclimated.”
In Caldwell, Seton Hall faces a Division II New Jersey-based program that tied for last place in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference last season with a 3-15 league record. Like the Pirates, this will be the Cougars’ first taste of game action this season.
“We’re treating it as a real game,” Sina said. “I think that’s important for obviously the team, but also the freshmen. We’re going over game scouting strategies, walkthroughs of the Caldwell offense, personnel, pretty much just trying to treat it like a real game and prepare.”
Tip-off for Sunday is scheduled for 12 p.m.
Immediately following the scrimmage, there will be a Meet the Teams event from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Seton Hall fans will be able to meet with players on both the Pirates’ men’s and women’s teams. They will have the opportunity to gets autographs, converse with players and eat. The event is free to attend and is available to season ticket holders of both teams.
“The fans make the program,” Sina said. “It’s a great opportunity to see the fans, talk to them and thank them for all of the support they give us.”
After Sunday the second-year guard will have his mind set on the Pirates’ season opener against Mercer at The Rock, which is less than two weeks away.
“I can’t wait,” Sina said. “I’m counting down the days, keep looking at the calendar. Just can’t wait for Nov. 16 to come. We’re just working on the game every day making sure we’re staying sharp.”
Gary Phillips can be reached at gary.phillips@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @GPhillips2727.
