The Seton Hall men's basketball team will hit the road for its final regular season game with a matchup against the DePaul Blue Demons at Allstate Arena on Saturday night.
DePaul is on a nine-game losing streak and has lost 14 of its last 16 games entering Saturday.
The Blue Demons are 11-18 overall and 2-15 in Big East play, while Seton Hall is 19-10 overall and 8-9 in the conference.
Despite the better record, the Pirates are coming off last week's 77-72 senior night loss to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in front of a record-breaking crowd at Prudential Center.
"Yeah, it obviously hurts us," head coach Kevin Willard said. "Losing at home is tough, but we still got another conference game. I don't think we can go any lower than ninth or 10th in the seedings right now the way things are shaking down. We got to win on the road on Saturday."
Willard is not the only one looking forward to Saturday's game against the Blue Demons.
"It's not going to stop us from going to DePaul and kicking butt," senior guard Jordan Theodore said.
Theodore was recently named to the Big East's Weekly Honor Roll on Monday for the fifth time this season.
In his last two games, including the, 73-55, Feb. 21 upset over then No. 8 Georgetown Hoyas and the Hall's loss to Rutgers on Saturday, Theodore averaged 23.0 points and 7.0 assists per game.
Against the Hoyas, Theodore led all scorers with a career-high 29 points, shooting 8-of-11 from the field, including 5-for-5 from 3-point range. He also made all eight of his free throw attempts.
Theodore then went on to score a team-high 17 points against the Scarlet Knights, in addition to his nine assists and only one turnover.
But there's an entire week before the Pirates return to action, which Willard said concerns him when preparing for this weekend's game at DePaul.
"It's probably not good," Willard said. "I got to learn what to do with these off weeks in this league. We didn't do a good job last time as a staff handling the off week, so it's going to be a tough six days till we play again."
In last year's meeting, the Pirates handed DePaul a 78-67 loss. The game marked the return of then-senior Jeremy Hazell who missed two months with a broken bone in his left wrist and scored a game-high 23 points to help sink the Blue Demons.
Even with all the mixed emotions, Willard still has his preferences about his team's final matchup at DePaul.
"I'd rather have a home game to finish out the season if I had to win a game," Willard said. "Although we didn't do it tonight (against Rutgers), but I still would want a home game."
Saturday's tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Krissy Wrobel can be reached at wrobelkr@shu.edu.
