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