NEW YORK – The Seton Hall men’s basketball team needed every inch – every last one – on Friday night to reach the Saturday promise-land of the Big East Tournament. In an affair that was marred by controversial officiating, the Pirates overcame second-seeded Marquette, 81-79, setting up the ultimate rivalry renewal with top-seed Villanova.
Coming off a week in which it knocked off two ranked conference foes and secured a spot in the NCAA Tournament, Seton Hall picked up where it left off against Georgetown in the first round of the Big East Tournament and downed the Hoyas by a final score of 73-57 behind a dominant performance from Myles Powell.
Goodbye bubble, hello NCAA Tournament.
There are three certainties about the month of March, and the first two involve the color green – the return of verdant leaves as spring begins and the proliferation of green-clad revelers celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. The third certainty is the madness caused by the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Currently, Seton Hall fans are in a frenzy over whether the Pirates will be invited to the “Big Dance” or on the outside looking in. In a month of certainties, Seton Hall’s tournament status is anything but that.
On a slew of turnovers and miscues over the waning moments of the game, the Seton Hall men’s basketball team essentially saw its tournament hopes slip away in a 77-71 double-overtime loss to Georgetown on Saturday evening.
Seton Hall has three games left on its regular season schedule, but the final two will not mean much should the Pirates falter on the road against Georgetown this weekend.
After Seton Hall’s 78-70 loss to St. John’s on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, the Pirates’ chances of securing an NCAA Tournament berth for the fourth consecutive season are looking slim.
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The stark contrast between a hard-earned road win and a wasteful, damaging home loss three days later was jarring.
The Seton Hall men’s basketball team is now 16-10 after falling to Xavier on Wednesday night. Despite its recent string of success, three wins in its last four games, the team sits at 7-7 in conference play and is squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble.
NEWARK – The Seton Hall men’s basketball team saw its three-game winning streak snapped on Wednesday night as it fell to Xavier by a final score of 70-69.
The Seton Hall men’s basketball team extended its two-game winning streak to three after beating Creighton, 81-75, on Sunday afternoon in a tightly contested match.
With Big East Conference play winding down, Seton Hall will need to find a way to leverage it’s positioning before the Big East Tournament. The one and two seeds are heavily protected by Marquette and Villanova, respectively, but the team slotted in tenth place, can theoretically finish as high as third.The Pirates’ leverage point has to come from its go-to player, Myles Powell. Without a clear second option night in and night out, Powell’s production is heavily relied on. In games in which the junior guard scored less than 17 points, Seton Hall has lost four of seven such games.The scoring is a given from Powell, but what will push the Pirates over the hump is how well he scores. The Pirates are an undefeated 8-0 when Powell shoots 50 percent or better from the field.
Intensity was the name of the game for Seton Hall on Wednesday night, as the Pirates outran, outhustle and outshot the Georgetown Hoyas en route to a 90-75 victory on Wednesday night.Seton Hall’s 90 points scored were the second most by the team this season in Big East play, second only to the 93 points scored in a loss to DePaul on Jan. 19. The Pirates came out of the gate arguably faster than at any other point this season. Led by Myles Powell’s electric start, which included 17 points in the first half, Seton Hall jumped out to an early lead.
NEWARK – The Seton Hall men’s basketball team won a seesaw contest inside a stirring Prudential Center on Saturday night, 63-58.
The use of the three-point shot has become more common in Division I men’s basketball in recent years. The top 20 teams in the country with the most three-pointers attempted has gradually risen from 18,037 to 19,205 in only three seasons.
Kevin Willard has never been a fan of the way the Big East puts together its conference schedule.
Plenty of problems have plagued Seton Hall in its recent four-game losing streak, but none of those problems are more concerning than the Pirates’ alarming turnover rate over the past two weeks.
A January slump has many Pirate fans worried about the fate of this season. But only halfway through Big East play, the most important games are yet to come for the Hall.
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Solutions by The State News
