Who's the center? Who's the power forward? Who's the back up guard? Yikes

CONNECTICUT

LOCATION Storrs, CT

CONFERENCE Big East

LAST SEASON 23-10 (.697)

CONFERENCE RECORD 13-6 (3rd)

STARTERS RETURNING/LOST 2/3

NICKNAME Huskies COLORS National Flag Blue & White

HOMECOURT Gampel Pavilion (10,167)/XL Center (15,564)

OFFICIAL WEBSITE UConnHuskies.com

COACH Dan Hurley (Seton Hall ’96)

RECORD AT SCHOOL 73-47 (4 years)

CAREER RECORD 224-152 (12 years)

ASSISTANTS
Kimani Young (UTEP ’98)
Tom Moore (Boston University ’87)
Luke Murray (Fairfield ’07)

WINS (LAST 5 YRS.) 14-16-19-15-23

KENPOM RATING (LAST 5 YRS.) 179-98-52-21-22 2021-22

FINISH Lost NCAA first round.

Our team clearly was not prepared for today. The moment that turned the game was when we tried an ally oop attempt down 6 in the first half. Kadary passed it up and no one was there! Our coaching staff was clearly out coached today. Shaka is the upcoming star in the Big East

I think it’s too early to officially tell, but I also don’t feel Kyle is getting a fair evaluation compared to his Hall of Fame predecessor in Jay Wright. We always say, you have to let the new coach bring in his guys. But at Nova the idea was that Kyle would be more of continuous succession plan within the Jay Wright coaching tree / family.

However, Chris Arcidiacono is an example of what can happen to a program when a 2 star player has not developed or dramatically improved their skill set at the Big East level and you don’t hit on recruiting otherwise.

Nova went from Ryan Arcidiacono, to Jalen Brunson, to Collin Gillespie from the 2012-13 season through last year. A 10 year run.
Those 10 season included 7 All-BE performances, 4 BE POY awards, and one National Player of the Year.

Prior to that they were 13-19 and were led by Malik Waynes, but their overall guard play was weak that year, with Darrun Hilliard only being a frosh, and Dominick Cheek not fulfilling his recruiting potential by his junior season.

However, there is no surprise why they were successful before that. Scottie Reynolds and Corey Stokes handled the ball in the backcourt together. Only another 5 All-BE awards amongst those two.
And oh yeah, right before Reynolds came four guards named Mike Nardi, Randy Foye, Allen Ray, and Kyle Lowry to get Nova’s program back on track.
This group of guards covers the last 20 years of Villanova basketball. When they found the right front court guys to compliment these leaders, they have made Final Fours and hung National title banners. But make no mistake about it, this program has been led by their floor generals.

Guard play, specifically point guard play, is so key to the success of your program in college basketball. It can take you from poor to good, good to great, and sometimes great to elite. Right now Nova fans are complaining that they are playing 4 on 5 on offense and the one guy who is putting them at that disadvantage is getting 30 mpg.

Caleb Daniels and Chris Arcidiacono are not going to go down in the annals of great Villanova backcourts. If Kyle Neptune had anyone of these BE POY type point guards I think he would be fine. Heck, if he had a healthy Justin Moore for the entire season this would be a different roster.
Let’s be fair, I also think the great Jay Wright would be struggling more than usual to dominate the BE with this roster.

If Kyle Neptune can build upon the success of Wright and restock his backcourt in his upcoming recruiting classes, Nova and he will be just fine.

What do I know, maybe just maybe Jay Wright knew Villanova could have NIL issues to compete at the level he established. So far Kyle Neptune only has 1 2/3 star recruit committed to his program for the upcoming season in SF Jordan Dumont. If he wants a two decade run of success he better have a plan to build his backcourt beyond what it currently is.

We keep winning and it will only be a matter of time before recruits take notice. Sha’s philosophy is for serious players only. Recruits at last nights game have to be thinking I want some of that mojo. Listen to Sha’s post game comments about the message he’s sending to Richmond about bringing his A game every night. I think we got ourselves a winner in more ways than we can imagine. Sha’s not perfect yet but he will be in the future. Look no further than the Giants at what a good coach brings to the table.

Game 21: No. 20 Marquette Golden Eagles (15-7, 7-2 BIG EAST) at Seton Hall Pirates (12-8, 5-4 BIG EAST)​

Saturday, Jan. 21 • 4 p.m. • Prudential Center (Newark, N.J.)​

TV: CBS Sports Network • Andrew Catalon & Steve Lappas​

Web: www.cbssports.com/watch/cbs-sports-network​

Radio: SHU Pirates Mobile App / Pirate Sports Network / SiriusXM 382, SiriusXM App 972 / Gary Cohen & Dave Popkin​

Game Notes: Seton Hall | Marquette​

Follow Along: Instagram | Twitter | Live Stats​

Game Promotion: 2023 SETON HALL ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME CELEBRATION​

• Hall of Fame Class of 2023 Celebration!
  • The five members of Seton Hall's Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2023 will be honored at halftime, including men's basketball alumnus Jeremy Hazell!
  • The first 2,000 fans in attendance will receive a No. 21 headband in honor of Hazell's induction!
• Pirate Varsity Club Reunion
  • Pirate Blue is calling all former student-athletes to come back and reconnect with their teammates during a pregame reception!
• During a media timeout, Seton Hall will honor the men's golf team, which won the 2022 BIG EAST Championship!

Game Presented by Broadway House for Continuing Care

MOBILE TICKETING
All tickets to gain entry into men's and women's basketball home games will be fully digital, which will help to make entry to Prudential Center and Walsh Gymnasium safer and easier for fans.

This transition to digital ticketing through a smartphone will also help to make ticket transactions more secure while reducing fraud and counterfeiting. Tickets are accessible through the SHU Pirates Mobile App, available to all iOS and Android devices. For more information and to watch an informational video, click here.

CASHLESS POLICY
Cash will NOT be accepted at concession stands, retail locations or the Box Office.
Pay with a debit or credit card using tap to pay, chip or swipe, or mobile payment, including Apple Pay and Google Pay. For guests needing to convert cash to a card, Reverse ATMs are available with no fees by sections 1, 14, 125 and inside the Box Office Lobby.

NOTES YOU NEED TO KNOW

• The Seton Hall men's basketball team will play its second ranked team in as many games on Saturday as the Pirates welcome No. 20 Marquette to Prudential Center for a 4 p.m. contest on CBSSN.
• Seton Hall has won four straight games and five of its last six after starting off 0-3 in BIG EAST play.
• Of its nine league games, only four have been played at Prudential Center.
• The Pirates are coming off of a thrilling 67-66 come-from-behind victory over No. 15 UConn on Wednesday where Seton Hall trailed by 17 in the first half but held the Huskies to 29 percent shooting and 26 points after halftime.
• Graduate student KC Ndefo (Elmont, N.Y.), who is the NCAA's active career leader in blocks with 351, came up with the go-ahead bucket with 1.6 seconds left, the Pirates' second game-winner with under two seconds to play this season.
• Seton Hall has allowed less than 30 points in the second half in each game over its four-game win streak and opponents are shooting 28 percent (29-for-104) from the field and 21 percent (9-for-42) from deep.
• The Pirates are 79-59 (.572) all-time at Prudential Center against BIG EAST competition.
• The Pirates are 7-2 at Prudential Center this season and their average margin of victory in Newark is 23.7 points.
• Seton Hall is 3-1 at Prudential Center in BIG EAST play this season.
• The Hall has already played four of the top five teams in the BIG EAST through nine games in league play with three of those contests coming on the road at Xavier (Dec. 20), at Marquette (Dec. 27) and at Creighton (Jan. 3).
• The difficulty of The Hall's schedule is reflected in the metrics as both KenPom and NET SOS rates the Pirates' slate as the fifth toughest in the country.
• Seton Hall has three Quad 1 wins this season: over Memphis, Rutgers and UConn.
• Seton Hall's strong play has been sparked by its defense, which leads the conference in field goal percentage defense (39.9 pct) and scoring defense (63.9 ppg) while ranking second in three-point defense (29 pct).
• The Pirates' three-point defense ranks 19th in the country and their opponent's field goal percentage ranks 33rd.
• The Hall is allowing a league-low 33.2 points in the second half of BIG EAST games and its allowed just 26.5 points after halftime over the last four games.
• The Pirates are 12-1 this season when they hold their opponents to under 70 points.
• The Pirates rank 17th in KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency.
• In Holloway's last 31 games as a head coach, his teams have allowed just 61.8 points per game and only eight opponents have scored more than 70 points.
• Ndefo ranks second in the BIG EAST and 20th nationally with 41 total blocks.
• Ndefo is averaging 15 points and 10 rebounds over the last two games.
• The Hall is 143-22 (.867) since 2015-16 when its lead gets to seven points.
• Senior Al-Amir Dawes (Newark, N.J.) was named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll on Jan. 16 after averaging 19.5 points on 57 percent shooting from deep in a 2-0 week.
• Dawes also averaged two steals per game and scored a career-high 24 points at Georgetown on Jan. 10.
• Junior Kadary Richmond (Brooklyn, N.Y.) leads the Pirates in scoring (13.1 ppg), rebounding (6.4 rpg) and assists (4.7) in BIG EAST play.
• Richmond was high school teammates with junior Femi Odukale (Brooklyn, N.Y.) at South Shore High School in Brooklyn.
• The Pirates rank 19th in the country in free throw attempts per game (23.4 FTA pg) and rank 27th nationally in free throw makes per contest (15.9 FTM pg).

MARQUETTE

LOCATION Milwaukee, WI

CONFERENCE Big East

LAST SEASON 19-13 (.594)

CONFERENCE RECORD 11-8 (t-5th)

STARTERS RETURNING/LOST 2/3

NICKNAME Golden Eagles

COLORS Blue & Gold

HOMECOURT Fiserv Forum (17,500)

OFFICIAL WEBSITE GoMarquette.com COACH

Shaka Smart (Kenyon ’99)

RECORD AT SCHOOL 19-13 (1 year)

CAREER RECORD 291-155 (13 years)

ASSISTANTS
Neill Berry (SE Louisiana ’03)
Cody Hatt (VCU ’15)
Deandre Haynes (Kent State ’06)

WINS (LAST 5 YRS.) 21-24-18-13-19

KENPOM RATING (LAST 5 YRS.) 53-33-31-83-56 2021-22

FINISH Lost in NCAA first round.

Stats

ALL heart! ❤️ My current favorite Pirate and thinking back to my all time favorite Pirate. Size doesn’t matter, battling against a formidable physical specimen in Sanogo and The Klingon…how freaking big is that guy! …doesn’t matter. Fights like a junkyard dog for position and any possible rebound he can get his hands on. 💪👊Gotta love this guy. Made me reminisce back to Jerry taking on Mourning and Mutumbo.

In no particular order

1. Where's the January swoon?
Down in Maryland (1-3)

2. A fitting end
The Hall couldn't buy a free throw in the first half. Then an intentional miss closes out the victory.

3. Heart attack
This is two parts.
Part 1 - Why would Holloway put a player in the lane on Ndefo's missed free throw late?
Part 2 - What the hell was Samuel thinking fighting for the missed shot with less than a second left on the game clock?

4. Game of inches
I asked the obvious question to Ndefo if he missed the shot on purpose and he said yes. But his high arcing shot didn't miss by much.

5, Hero ball
It almost killed the Pirates in the first half. Quick low percentage shots, many from range and just as many from Dawes put the Pirates in a hole that they didn't dig out from until the waning seconds of the game. UConn with the lead 39:20. Seton Hall with the lead 00:08.

6. How do you spell Ndefo?
THEMAN

7. What did the Hall do at the halftime break?
Practice their free throw shooting as they made 13-14 shots from the stripe until Ndefo's intentional miss.

8. Don't get off to a bad start
That was the Pirates goal to get the crowd into the game early. 10-2 minutes after the tip killed that theory.

9. Get out of my way!
Odukale did not have a strong offensive game. But his rim rattling dunk late over Sanogo (who had 4 fouls) brought the roof down.

10. What were you thinking?
The Pirates take their first lead of the game in the last minute or so and Dawes reaches in in the back court leading to a foul and 2 gifts points for the Huskies.

11. What's better than 100%?
UConn shooting 13-14 from the stripe and on their 1 miss getting the offensive rebound and a three point make.

12. From the culinary department
Switching the script for the Pirates. UConn 18 turnovers to the Hall's 9.

13. Word I got....
Two people close to the program said the Hall was having great practices of late as the team was finally buying into what their coach was selling. Holloway reiterated that in the post game.

14. Chicken wings are usually good.
But not when they belong to Richmond, who has a bad habit of using his off arm to create space. Got called twice last night and both calls were accurate.

15. Just in the nick of time.
Students just came back to campus and were LOUD last night. So loud that Samuel said in the post game after the Odukale dunk UConn was trying to call an offensive play and none of the players were able to hear it.

16. Physicality
Centers -
Sanogo 5 fouls.
Clingan 4 fouls.
Samuel 4 fouls.

17. Misleading
Dawes played 33:33 minutes and really struggled all night. 4-14 from the field. 1-8 from range. 3 turnovers and brutal shot selection. Yet he led the team with a +10.

18. Help
As in help defense. Credit Samuel for controlling Sanogo inside all game long. But he didn't do it alone. Weakside help and the guards dropping down low had a lot to do with keeping the UConn big man in check.

19. 20 rebounds from your point?
About 30 seconds into the 2nd stanza Richmond grabbed his 10th rebound. I was thinking 20. Shockingly that was his last carom of the game.

20. Who would have thunk it?
From 0-3 to 5-4.

Intensity, Effort, and Heart
It’s obvious the team is taking on the personality of their coach. Even though they trailed 40-26 at half, I thought the game plan and intensity to defend the post was solid. UCONN kept feeding Sanogo and Clingan, so they eventually were going to get theirs. However, 7/15 from 3 and a 7-0 fast break advantage is always going to be hard to overcome when you are offensively limited like this team is.

But they didn’t quit, they came out trading blows and buckets, and eventually they wore them down and made their rally in the second half. They could have folded on the Sha technical, THEY DIDN’T. They could have folded on the 5 point sequence that pushed the lead back to 7, THEY DIDN’T. They could have folded after Dawes’ poor judgment fouling near half court, THEY DIDN’T.

Femi and KC set the tone defensively all night. But then it DID become contagious. Best defensive game from Samuel in four years at the Hall, Dawes was up on his man all second half, and I thought Jackson even acquitted himself well at times too. Throw in a career high 10 rebounds from Kadary Richmond, your PG.

Edge of my seat all night, I was about to get into a defensive stance in front of my TV like Sha was doing on the sideline. You could feel the energy coming through the screen into your living room.

You need to score the basketball but I always believe that you win with defense.

Second half, Uconn 2-8 from 3 to go with 12 turnovers.

I have nothing else to add for observations.

We were 4-21 from 3
17-25 from the line
Minus 11 rebounds differential on the glass
Only 7 assists for the entire game
Some low BBIQ plays at key moments
And Femi ends up taking the final shot from 3.

You aren’t supposed to win games with what I described above.

But there is no statistical measure for HEART, our coach has it, our coach demands it, and I believe the players are buying into it. Whether they are more talented than the opponent on paper or not. If you give bring that desire, intensity, and heart to every basketball game, this fanbase will fall in love with you and support you no matter what.

Go Pirates…Go Big Blue!!

Under 4 minutes to go with SJU trailing 47-46. Loser here is in big trouble.

BY JOE LUNARDIUPDATED: 1/20/2023 AT 09:00 A.M. ET

Hopefully his arm is only bruised and will be completely healed by Saturday. He took such a violent fall and never flinched. This guy is the toughest college basketball player I've ever seen.

Section 16 season ticket-holder looking to bring my daughters along tomorrow. Figured I'd start here as there always seem to be some extras floating around.

Thank you in advance!! Go Pirates!!

C Angel Delgado
F Jerry Walker
F KC Ndefo
G Derrick Gordon
G Paul Gause

During the timeout prior to the last sequence, Tim Brando of “Desi Babalu fame, presciently mentioned the possibility of an offensive put back by KC.

where the shakers at??

what a freaking battle. Ndefo!

The entity that gave the incoming qb at Florida $13M backed out of the deal so what happens the kid says I’m not going and Florida, seeing the potential issues, let’s him back out of the NLI.

This is quickly becoming the Wild Wild West and the NCAA whether they want to or not will have to set some rules sooner or later.

I believe it is 15 years since the Saturday night game vs Louisville...after Sparnarkel interviews Gonzo and wishes him good sex....Hazell headband giveaway Saturday

So I hear on Friars.com, I grabbed 4. Hope to see you there!

Go Pirates!

I blame the coaches for even allowing him in the lane. I just watched the reply. But he actually tried to tip the miss in. He touched the ball after reaching over the much smaller guard on the first spot in front of him. He wound up falling to the floor, but up one and KC trying to miss, he could have had an over the back with 2 FTs by UConn.

I know he downplayed it after the game, but any reason to think we should be worried about it? I sure hope not!

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