Seton Hall Renews Rivalry With Rutgers in the Garden State Hardwood Classic
Seton Hall (5-2, 0-0 BIG EAST) at Rutgers (3-4, 0-0 Big Ten)
Dec. 5 · Rutgers Athletic Center (Piscataway, N.J.) · 12 p.m.
TV: ESPNEWS/WatchESPN with Mike Corey & Craig Robinson
Radio: AM970 The Answer with Gary Cohen & Dave Popkin
What to Know About The Hall:
Seton Hall (5-2, 0-0 BIG EAST) at Rutgers (3-4, 0-0 Big Ten)
Dec. 5 · Rutgers Athletic Center (Piscataway, N.J.) · 12 p.m.
TV: ESPNEWS/WatchESPN with Mike Corey & Craig Robinson
Radio: AM970 The Answer with Gary Cohen & Dave Popkin
What to Know About The Hall:
- Sophomore Khadeen Carrington led all players with a career-high 21 points on Wednesday night at GW but the Pirates fell just short of handing the Colonials their first home loss of the season in a 72-64 setback. The win also pushed GW’s home non-conference winning streak to 19 but Carrington has now scored 20+ points in consecutive games for the first time in his career; pushing his overall total to four 20-point performances in the process.
- Saturday marks the second installment of the Garden State Hardwood Classic and the first hosted by Rutgers after the Pirates rolled to an 81-54 victory in the inaugural game at the Prudential Center last season. The win was the most lopsided for either team in the series since a 109-81 SHU victory over the Scarlet Knights on December 13, 1986. Isaiah Whitehead was named the Joe Calabrese MVP of the game after finishing with a career-high 25 points and five assists without a turnover in perhaps his finest performance as a Pirate to date.
- The effort against Rutgers was one of nine games in which Whitehead recorded five assists or more in 22 appearances as a freshman and in seven contests as the team’s primary point guard this season, the Brooklyn native has already reached the five-assist mark two more times. To this point in the season, Whitehead has directly factored into nearly one-third of the Pirates’ 179 field goals on the season (36 FGM, 23A - .329).
- As one of the top backcourt tandems in the BIG EAST, Whitehead (15.7 ppg) and Carrington (14.6 ppg) join Providence’s Kris Dunn (18.6) and Ben Bentil (17.3) as the only pairs of teammates in the conference averaging over 14.5 ppg. To date, Whitehead and Carrington have particularly shouldered the load down the stretch of games this season; accounting for 119 of the team’s 258 points in the final frame (.461)
- Overall, the two Brooklyn natives are part of an all-sophomore starting five along with Desi Rodriguez, Angel Delgado and Ismael Sanogo that is responsible for 77 percent of the team’s points (389/505, .770), 74 percent of its rebounding (194/262, .740) and over 80 percent of its assists (70/86, .813).
- Delgado, last year’s BIG EAST rebounding champion, finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds in last year’s meeting with Rutgers - one of his 10 double-doubles as a freshman. The reigning BIG EAST Rookie of the Year again ranks near the top of the league, standing second at 9.3 rebounds per game and has posted at least 10 boards in three consecutive outings. Teamed with Sanogo (7.9 rpg), two have proven to be the top rebounding duo in the BIG EAST and have helped The Hall enter Saturday having finished even or better on the glass in 13 of 20 non conference games since the beginning of last season
- The prowess on the interior has extended itself to the offensive end as well as Seton Hall is coming off a game in which 40 of its 64 points came from inside the paint as the Pirates finished with a 16-point advantage over the Colonials in the category. The Hall has totaled at least 28 points in the paint in every game this season - scoring 40+ on three occasions - and is averaging 36.0 points per game from in close
- The attack-minded approach has led to SHU shooting over 40 percent from the field in each of its first seven contests, marking the program’s longest such streak since doing so in 12-straight games to start the 2012-13 season
- Freshman Michael Nzei has added another impact presence for the Pirates down low as is coming off a game against GW in which he recorded 8 points, six rebounds and two blocks in only 15 minutes off the bench. In his first season of action, Nzei ranks second behind Delgado (12.9) with 11.0 rebounds per 40 minutes and has misfired on just three of his 18 field goal attempts (15-of-18, .833) after connecting on all four of his shots on Wednesday
- Seton Hall leads the all-time series, 37-29
- SHU is 29-17 (.630) against RU since joining the BIG EAST as a founding member, winning by an average margin of 10.2 points
- Head coach Kevin Willard has led the Pirates to three victories in four games that he has coached at The RAC. Rutgers has shot under 40 percent in each of the last three and SHU has finished even or better on the glass in all four visits to Piscataway under Willard
- A Seton Hall victory Saturday would mark just the fourth time since the turn of the century that either team has won as many as three-straight in the series since the turn of the century. The Pirates won five consecutive games over Rutgers from February 2003 to January 2005 and four-straight from January 2009 to March 2010. The two sides have met 31 times during that span with SHU holding an 18-13 advantage 18 of the last 21 meetings have been decided by six points or less or in overtime. Two of the exceptions have been Seton Hall wins including last year’s Garden State Hardwood Classic
- Seton Hall assistant coach Fred Hill was the head coach at Rutgers from 2006-10
- SHU standout Khadeen Carrington and Rutgers guard Mike Williams were high school teammates at Bishop Loughlin
- The two sides are in the midst of a current agreement to play every year through 2020
John Fanta @John_Fanta 
