Charleston Classic Championship Preview

By Steve Valenti

What a second half from the Pirates. Even with St. Joseph’s holding a 7 point lead at the half it would not be enough as the Hall outscored the Hawks 46-31 during the second half for the 78-70 victory to send them into the Charleston Classic championship game.

The three headed attack of seniors Jordan Theodore and Herb Pope along with sophomore Fuquan Edwin once again led the team in scoring. Theodore led the team with 18 while Pope and Edwin both added 17. However for the first time this season a freshman made major scoring contributions with Aaron Cosby netting 13 points shooting 3-6 from three.

Offensively this is the best the team has looked all season.

The defense was a bit questionable for the first 3/4 of the game with the Hawks seemingly getting open shots ever possession with the Hall’s only stops coming on missed shots. Carl Jones set a new tournament record with 38 points and shot 12-17 from the field.

Once again just like in the season opener, held their opponents to next to nothing in the final minutes.

Now the Pirates get one of the few teams that have never earned a berth into the NCAA Tournament, Northwestern Wildcats. The Wildcats enter the matchup off of a 69-65 win over Tulsa.

When looking to score Northwestern relies on senior John Shurna and junior Drew Crawford. In their two wins in Charleston Shurna scored 37 in the first game and 15 in the second. Crawford has dropped 17 and 28 points in the two games. Both also lead the team in rebounds with 6.

Outside of those two players Northwestern just gets scoring from whoever is hot.

Expect another close game and this one to go down to the final minute with both team’s ability to shoot the ball well to have the ability to come back in any game.

Keys to the game:
Pirates
1. Pope scoring in the paint
2. Freshman contribute on offense
3. Don’t allow open shots
Northwestern
1. Shurna and Crawford take over the game
2. Don’t allow Theodore to drive
3. Outside contributions

Prediction- SH 74-66

Don’t Forget- The Women’s basketball team plays Michigan a 2 p.m. today with a chance to go 4-0.

Seton Hall Basketball: Charleston Classic, Game 2 preview: Seton Hall vs. St. Joseph’s

By Steve Valenti

What a difference a game makes. The same Pirates team that needed a late basket and overtime to beat St. Francis (NY) beat one of last year’s Final Four teams with ease.

Ok, so maybe it was a watered down version of that VCU team, but a 69-54 victory where the Rams were 10 or more points down for the final 11+ minutes of the game was a great performance.

Because of the Pirates victory and St. Joseph’s 66-53 win over Georgia Tech the two teams will meet at 6:00 p.m. tonight for a chance to go to the championship game of the Charleston Classic.

St. Joseph’s is probably a bit of an unknown to most people but don’t let that surprise you cause that’s exactly what happened in last year’s Atlantic 10 Tournament.

Entering as the 12th and final seed, the Hawks went on the road to beat No. 5 seed George Washington by 12 points and then on a neutral court defeated No. 4 seed Duquesne by 3 points. They would eventually lose in the semi-finals to Dayton but made a late comeback and ended up losing by 3.

Being home at the time of the tournament I was able to watch all of St. Joseph’s games, as a fan of the Big 5, I came away impressed. The most impressive thing was also that it was a young team that never stopped fighting and one that found their form near the end of the season.

Head coach of the Hawks Phil Martelli, one of my favorite coaches, always seems to get the most out of his teams and are enjoyable to watch. The 2004 Hawks team is my favorite college basketball team of all-time, being from the Philadelphia area, where they just missed out making the Final Four.

This year thought St. Joseph’s returns 3 starters but have no seniors that start.

With a very young team just like the Pirates, St. Joseph’s holds a 2-0 record, led by junior Carl Jones with 18.5 points per game and sophomore Langston Galloway with 17 points per game.

This is a team that can shoot the basketball but may be a big weak inside. They are led in rebounding by two sophomores Ronald Roberts Jr. and Halil Kanacevic averaging just 7 and 6 board a game respectively.

The play inside of the paint is where the Hall has the biggest clear advantage. Senior Herb Pope is averaging 20.5 points and 13.5 rebounds a game and has the senior experience that should weigh heavily in his advantage. Also in the each team’s last games the Hall scored 34 points inside the paint compared to 14 from St. Joseph’s.

It might seem like the Pirates have a big advantage and just seem more appealing to the eye but don’t sleep on St. Joseph’s cause as they like to say “The Hawk never dies.”

On a side note with my cousin being a freshman at St. Joseph’s I am going to need the Hall to win this game so I have bragging rights over the holidays.

Keys to the game:
Pirates
1. Get the ball inside to Pope
2. Don’t force passes
3. Bench points. Please?
St. Joseph’s
1. Get Pope into early foul trouble
2. Shoot the ball well
3. Make SHU’s freshman prove they can score

Prediction- SH 66-52

Looking Ahead- The winner of this game will advance to the Championship game to face the winner of the Tulsa and Northwestern game being played immediately before this matchup. I fully expect Tulsa to advance to the championship game, my pick to win it all, but Northwestern can win if they get another performance like they did out of senior John Shurna who had the biggest single game performance in the first round scoring 37 points.

The men’s basketball team is not the only Seton Hall team playing tonight as the volleyball team takes on Marquette in the first round of the Big East tournament. The past two times these teams have faced the Golden Eagles walked away with a 3-2 victory but tonight I see a different outcome led by All-Big Eats first team player Meghan Matusiak and second team player Shelbey Manthorpe.
Prediction: SH 3-2

Seton Hall Basketball: Seton Hall 69, VCU 54

By John Lopiano

After stumbling to an overtime victory over St. Francis last week, it was incredibly reasonable to assume that Seton Hall would struggle against a tournament tested Virginia Commonwealth team, even with only one returning start.

The Pirates did the exact opposite.

The way the Hall played transcended the scoreline, on both the offense and defensive ends. It’s tough to successfully have a team of mostly freshman work together so fluidly after just one game, but somehow head coach Kevin Willard will be sleeping well tonight knowing he was able to do just that.

For all the success the Pirates were able to have tonight, there was one major stat that was troublesome: bench points. Seton Hall had zero, as in none. Not any. Zilch.

The team was without sophomore Patrik Auda for the entire second half and then some after his controversial, albeit correctly called flagrant two foul and yet still were able to avoid having to pay for their depth issues late in the game. Up until the ejection, Auda had been having a pretty solid game on both ends of the court (despite two turnovers and two personal fouls); and throw in the fact that Seton Hall was left with just one big man on the bench in sophomore Aaron Geramipoor, it was a cause for concern.

If the Pirates plan to win games, they can’t rely on their upperclassmen in the way they did against VCU. Herb Pope, Jordan Theodore, and Fuquan Edwin combined for 58 of the Pirates’ 69 total points. Yikes.

Kudos to Herb Pope who finally looks like the player we all know he could be. After all that he’s been through and how hard he said he’s worked over the summer, it’s clearly come out in his game thus far through two games. He’s lighter on his feet, quicker, more agile, and clearly not shying away from crashing the boards. He tallied 20 points and 13 rebounds tonight, clearly demonstrating all of the work he did this summer with John Lucas down in Houston, Texas.

Jordan Theodore did some great things scoring, but it was his poise that was most impressive. He looked like the floor general all night, something he is going to need to be for this Pirate offense to successfully function. With his 20 points, four assists, and two rebounds, however, came five turnovers, something Pirate fans are all too familiar seeing. Theodore has been a turnover machine for a majority of his career, so that will be something to keep an eye on this year. It’s worth noting that he was a perfect 12-12 from the free throw line. He’s steadily improving that aspect of his game and it’s become evident.

Fuquan Edwin’s made his presence known in a massive way as well, drilling four three pointers and finishing with 18 points, nine rebounds, three steals, and a block. After having an all-around successful freshman campaign, it would be a huge lift for the Pirates to have him perform this way nightly.

Thursday’s showing can only be a good sign for Pirate fans, however the lack of production from the young bench is the exact opposite. In order for the Pirates to have any success this season, they must use the little depth they have to generate scoring opportunities, something that was lacking against VCU.

The Pirates will face St. Joseph’s today (Friday) at 6:00 p.m. for a chance to move into the championship game on Sunday evening.

Seton Hall Basketball: Charleston Classic Preview

By Steve Valenti

Now that the first game is over with, one that reminded me too much of the opener my freshman year, it’s time for the Pirates second straight appearance in a Pre-Season Tournament. Last season’s appearance in the Paradise Jam could not have gone much worse for the Hall, not only going 1-2 in the tournament but losing Jeremy Hazell to injury for half of the year.

In the opening game of the Charleston Classic the Pirates play their first of three regular season games against a team that made last year’s Final Four in the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Rams and possibly their toughest match up of the tournament.

While the VCU Rams come into the game with all of the media hype and national recognition, after last year’s run, they are in a very similar position as the Pirates with a new and young team.

The Rams return two starters but only one that saw significant playing time and struggled in their opener as well. They defeated St. Francis (PA) in their opener 63-57.

The player expected to lead them this year, senior Bradford Burgess, did not show up against the Red Flash going 0-12 from the field and only connecting on two free throws. Last season Burgess averaged over 14 points a game and shot 48.7 percent so it is unlikely he will duplicate his performance versus the Pirates.

However, the Rams might have found another scoring option in junior Troy Daniels. Daniels scored 22 points in 29 minutes on the court and is not afraid to take the three. Every shot he attempted was from three point range shooting 5-15 but also secured the victory with a three in the final 30 seconds.

Preseason VCU was picked third in the CAA’s preseason coaches’ poll.

Looking at the Pirates one can only think that they couldn’t have played any worse than they did. Senior Jordan Theodore having to make a driving lay-up with less than two seconds remaining to force overtime should never happen against St. Francis.

In the off season Kevin Willard had continually talked about how excited he was about this year’s team because of how unselfish they were and how well they could shoot the ball. In the opener though, the team showed did not show either ability. They shot a lowly 41 percent from the field, many close shots, and made only one of 14 three point attempts, not a good shooting team if you ask me.

The most troubling thing however was that the team had only ONE assist at the half and only finished the game with seven, compared to 14 turnovers.

I’ll give St. Francis their credit for the turnovers but there is no reason this team should only have seven assists.

Before forgetting about the opener completely cause of the poor performance it was, two things could be taken from the game. Senior Jordan Theodore is willing and will step up when needed and that the Pirates walked away with a win, cause at least in college basketball winning margin doesn’t matter.

Keys to the game:
Pirates I know these are obvious but they didn’t do them in the opener
1. Pass the Ball
2. Make open shots
3. Don’t allow runs to get countered
VCU
1. Burgess plays like the CAA first team player he is
2. Daniels doesn’t take bad shots
3. Force Seton Hall young guys to be the key guys

Prediction- SH 67-64

Looking Ahead- Pirates play either St. Joseph’s or Georgia Tech, depends on the outcomes of both games. Winners play and losers play. All teams are undefeated right now and Georgia Tech might be perceived as better but don’t sleep on St. Joe’s, they were impressive in last year’s A10 tournament as a young team.

Classic Predictions
1. Tulsa
2. Seton Hall
3. Northwestern
4. St. Joseph’s
5. VCU
6. LSU
7. Georgia Tech
8. Western Kentucky