While I admire your steadfast optimism, the reality is we just got our lunch taken from us, on our own home court, by an 0-8 Monmouth team. There is no denying it.
I mean, they beat us. The result wasn’t some kind of mistake. They were the better team. Let that sink in. Add to that the previous losses to Fordham and Hofstra, and there is no sugarcoating it: This is a program in crisis. We haven’t even started Big East play yet. Just imagine how brutal it’s gonna get. Forget about not being ready for prime time, this team isn’t ready for lunch. There may have been a certain amount and hype and hopefulness surrounding this team, but that’s done now. Reality should have set in for everyone by now.
We get that it’s Sha’s great trademark to get his teams to play better as the season progresses. We get that we are saddled with NIL and transfer portal woes. People can argue about where exactly Seton Hall belongs in today’s college basketball hierarchy, but what cannot be argued is that we should not be losing to Monmouth, Hofstra and Fordham in the same season. We are supposed to be better than that. We expect to better than that.
Now, we may win some games we have no business winning in conference play, but none of that changes that season is already awash. This isn’t last year, where we rebounded after a very, very disappointing start to the season. In case anyone didn’t notice, we don’t have the three very talented players who carried us to above .500 in conference play and an NIT Championship. We have nothing like that now. Great defense can of course turn into a good offense, but there needs to be the skill and talent to make that happen - to take advantage of the opportunities a great defense can create. This team doesn’t have it, and a tough Big East schedule is not gonna change this.
Start making changes. Start planning for next season. Start mapping out the future. There will be a nice surprise or two this season, but we shouldn’t accept this as the norm.
