With the Seton Hall men’s basketball season finally underway, there are bound to be questions. The media continues to guess on which teams will be Final Four bound each preseason, yet they still never get it right. Look at who most of the ‘experts’ picked to reach Minneapolis last season. Very few had Texas Tech, who eventually made a National Championship Game run, there. But in South Orange, there’s one factor that opposing coaches, broadcasters and fans will never have to guess on – the team is freakishly big.
The Pirates, who play in the Big East Conference, one of the top conferences in all of college basketball, have six players listen at 6-foot-9 or taller, two of whom are legitimate 7-foot players. Last year’s National Champion Virginia Cavaliers roster housed four such players.
Last season, the NBA finals featured the Toronto Raptors and the Golden State Warriors. According to basketballreference.com, the Raptors featured four players listed at least 6-foot-9 on their finals roster, while the Warriors had the same amount. These are A-grade franchises in a league where height not only matters but is often the basis on drafting one player over another.
The crazy thing for Seton Hall is how their tall players don’t just sit on the bench - they’re key cogs in the system. Take Ike Obiagu and Romaro Gill for example. Both are officially listed at over 7-feet tall and rotate in and out for the majority of each game (barring foul trouble or a certain matchup more preferred) in order to keep that kind of rim protection and length at the five position.
Then you look at the four spot, which mostly uses the 6-foot-11 Sandro Mamukelashvili and the 6-foot-10 freshman Tyrese Samuel. And if injuries happen? Well the 6-foot-11 stretch four Taurean Thompson is more than well versed, while 6-foot-9, 265-pound Darnell Brodie is always ready if his number is called. Altogether, these guys can be consistently counted on to score between 30 and 40 points per game, more than likely good for half of the offensive production each game.
It will be a topic of discussion all season along on who Seton Hall’s second-leading scorer will be. Fans will always be quick to question but hesitant to answer the correct way to handle a game down the wire. But that Seton Hall length will not be a question at all, but a problem imposed on every team the Pirates face off against.
Matthew Mlodzinski can be reached at matthew.mlodzinski@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @Mlodzinski_15.
