Watch: Former Seton Hall players reunite on court at Creighton game
Watch: Former Seton Hall players reunite on court at Creighton game
This Seton Hall basketball team is climbing out of more holes than gophers.
On Saturday the Pirates rallied from 11 down to win at Georgetown 76-67 – the third straight contest they recovered from a double-digit second-half deficit to emerge victorious. A relentless, chaos-causing full-court press enabled by a deep rotation was the catalyst once again.
Is there a better story in college basketball right now? The Pirates (14-2 overall, 4-1 Big East) have doubled last season’s win total by Jan. 10. Their NCAA Tournament resume is looking sharp, with a 4-0 record on the road and a 6-1 mark in road/neutral contests, both highly valued metrics by the selection committee. Beating Georgetown (9-6, 1-4) is a Quad 3 triumph at the moment but could end up a Quad 2 if the Hoyas improve.
Junior guard Budd Clark was superb for the Hall, tallying 22 points and five rebounds while shutting down Georgetown point guard Malick Mack. Clark played so hard, he became bloodied and had to changed jerseys from No. 0 to No. 26, one with no name on the back. It was a fitting metaphor for both Clark — nobody plays harder than this former zero-star high school recruit — and these gritty, superstar-less Pirates.
Junior guard Tajuan Simpkins added 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting off the bench as the Pirates’ subs outscored the Hoyas’ by the whopping margin of 42-16 — another indicator of just how deadly Seton Hall’s depth is for opponents. Simpkins finished with an eye-popping plus/minus of plus-24.
The Pirates are off to a 3-0 start on the road in the Big East for the first time since 2019-20, when they won their first four on the way to a share of the league’s regular-season title.
Overall, Seton Hall is 14-2 for the first time since the 2017-18 squad opened with the same mark. That team wound up advancing to the NCAA Tournament’s second round.
Georgetown leads the all-time series 62-61, but the Pirates own an 18-6 edge dating back to the 2015-16 season. They are 5-2 at Capitol One Arena over the past seven seasons. Hall fans in attendance made themselves heard down the stretch with loud “Lets’ go Pirates” chant, and after the handshake line head coach Shaheen Holloway sent his players over to the stands to personally thank them for coming.
That was some sweet icing on the cake.
3 THOUGHTS
1. The art of manufacturing points
Offensively, these Pirates have to manufacture points, scoring off turnovers, offensive rebounds and free throws. It’s not a great-shooting team (shooting is extremely pricey in the portal). Some games, those “junk” points are going to be less available than in others, whether it’s because of the whistle or the opponent handling the ball well or some tough bounces off the rim, or a combination of all of the above. That’s when this squad can be vulnerable.
That said, this team has the brains and the fortitude to withstand quite a bit. The Pirates opened the Big East slate 4-1 with the following shooting numbers:
Against Providence: shot 45 percent overall, including 5-of-15 from 3.
Against Villanova: shot 33 percent overall, including 3-of-13 from 3.
Against Marquette: shot 39 percent overall, including 7-of-20 from 3.
Against Creighton: shot 35 percent overall, including 2-of-7 from 3.
Against Georgetown: shot 42 percent overall, including 4-of-14 from 3.
Those are tough numbers, but wearing teams down is an end-run around that. And the Hall beats foes over the head in the second halves, which is the beauty of having a deep rotation that plays with such intensity. Against the Hoyas it helped that Simpkins got hot, enabling the Pirates to set up their press. In the end, they finished with edges in points off turnovers (13-11), second-chance points (16-13), and free-throws made (24-18).
The Pirates owned those hustle categories in the second half. They manufactured a victory — again.
2. Tinkering with the rotation
Holloway does not like to tinker with his lineup. But he’s seemed a bit dissatisfied with his starting unit lately – and made a telling four-man substitution five minutes into this one. He also gave starting forward Elijah Fisher a quick hook at the beginning of the second half in favor of senior wing Jacob Dar, who brought a spark after nearly falling out of the rotation of late.
You never know how a guy is going to respond from being pulled from mothballs, but Dar’s three points and two rebounds in four active first-half minutes helped the Hall go into halftime tied at 29 after trailing by seven. That says something about both the player, who puts his ego aside, and the coach who knows exactly when to call on him. Afterward Holloway rightly praised Dar’s contribution.
Playing time is a powerful motivator, and Holloway deeply lamented not having that tool in the toolbox in the NIT title season of 2023-24, when he had to ride a seven-man rotation and hold his breath because the Pirates’ depth was so poor. Now there are options, and even though he’s not changing starters, the coach is using those options to excellent effect within the body of games. His feel for his personnel and his rotation has been outstanding this season.
3. UConn acid test incoming
It has to be Dan Hurley’s least favorite game on his schedule, the only one each year where he becomes Danny again, back home at the place where his college experience admittedly was rocky.
Despite UConn’s national dominance under Hurley, the Hall has beaten the Huskies four straight times at home dating back to 2021 – the Pirates’ longest home winning streak in the series, which UConn leads 50-24. Hurley is not the same uber-intense, explosive coach the rest of the country sees when he sets foot in the Rock (in fairness, he missed one of those four games due to COVID), and his team feeds off those cues.
That said, this edition of the Huskies (16-1 overall, 6-0 Big East) is outstanding, ranked fourth in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and winners of 12 straight. And they won’t be taking Seton Hall lightly.
It will be interesting to see if the students turn out like they did for Rutgers. Spring semester classes start Wednesday morning, so the campus is open Tuesday. A good night to go to a big game, you would think. Anything short of a circus atmosphere will be a disappointment.
Tip time is 8 p.m. on trueTV.
3 QUOTES
From Shaheen Holloway’s postgame radio interview with Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin…
On rallying once again thanks to the press: “I don’t want it to be like that. These guys did an unbelievable job of staying in there and keeping their composure. Different guys stepped up; I thought Jacob Dar came in and gave us some great minutes. The last eight minutes is the way Seton Hall is supposed to play the whole game.”
On point guards Budd Clark and Trey Parker: “Budd was super aggressive the whole game. When he’s playing like that, you kind of let him roll out. Trey, that combination of him and Budd (together) are really doing wonders for us. It’s something I looked at early in the year. Now that Trey is playing with some confidence, it gives us another guy you can put out there when (other) guys are not having their night.”
On much-improved sub Josh Rivera: “He’s just bringing energy, man, bringing passion, getting his hands on loose balls, rebounding. He’s doing the little thigs to keep himself on the court and I told him that from the beginning.”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at [email protected].
