PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
By JP Pelzman
Yes, it has been four years since Seton Hall recorded a victory in the NCAA Tournament. And we’ll never know what the Pirates would have done in 2020 as a projected No. 3 seed.
But consider this--their upcoming first-round opponent, ninth-seeded TCU, received 11 points, four assists and four rebounds from its point guard the last time the Horned Frogs managed a win in the Big Dance. Oh, and this mystery player had their only made three in a 76-60 first-round victory over Marshall in Charlotte.
That young man’s name? Jamie Dixon.
Yes, not since 1987 has TCU scored an NCAA Tournament win, when the current coach was the senior floor leader. And unlike Seton Hall, which still has several players with tourney experience, not one current Horned Frog played in their last NCAA contest, a 57-52 loss to Syracuse in 2018.
Perhaps that’s why they were a bit, shall we say, outwardly confident Sunday night when discussing the matchup between the ninth-seeded Horned Frogs (20-12, 8-10 Big 12) and Seton Hall (21-10, 11-8 Big East) in San Diego on Friday at approximately 9:57 p.m. Eastern time.
“They gave us a chance, man,” 6-7 TCU junior forward Emanuel Miller said of the selection committee. “They gave this team a chance and now it’s upon us to capitalize on it. It's going to be a scary, scary, scary, scary sight for Seton Hall and for any team we’re going up against.”
Point guard Mike Miles took it a step further.
“Obviously we want to win a championship,” he said, “but it starts with Seton Hall. We want to do something that’s never been done at this school. We’ve got to get past the first team and we’ll play Arizona after that, but our main goal right now is Seton Hall and we’ve got to get past that game and we’ll see what happens after that.”
The Horned Frogs do have one legitimate reason to be confident.
“We play in the best conference,” said 6-11 center Eddie Lampkin Jr.
“Obviously, it’s the best conference,” Dixon said of the Big 12. “We’re not going to see anything we haven’t seen before.”
No argument here from me, despite what the selection committee and its apparent supreme being, Kenpom, think about the Big Ten, which got nine, count 'em, nine teams in the field.
As for Seton Hall, coach Kevin Willard said of watching the bracket announcement, “It felt great. It really did. That’s the most excited I've had a team on Selection Sunday besides the 2016 team.”
As for TCU, he said, “They have some really good young players.
“Jamie's teams are always well-coached,” he added. “They always rebound and they always defend. I like his young guards. I think they’re dynamic and explosive.”
Willard said on a Zoom call that the team will leave for California Tuesday night to get acclimated to the time change. “These guys are ready for it,” he said.
I asked him if he thought his team was underseeded.
He replied, “I thought we were close to a 7 seed, but then you look at all the 7s and they were very well-deserved. A 7 in Pittsburgh would have been great, but an 8 in San Diego is nice too.”
The Horned Frogs seem to like it too.
***
Injury concerns.
First, the bad news. Willard flatly, and glumly responded “no” when asked if Bryce Aiken would play.
More positively, being the last scheduled first-round game gives Kadary Richmond (thumb) maximum time to heal.
“He looked immensely better” in practice Sunday, Willard said, reporting that Richmond had “full range of movement” and “was able to shoot the ball much better.”
TCU’s Lampkin has been battling a knee injury and sat out practice Sunday but should be good to go.
Using the portal.
Dixon, much like Willard, rebuilt his team on the run via the transfer portal. Miles, a holdover, led the team with 15.0 points per game, but three of the other top six scorers joined in the off-season via the portal. Give Dixon credit, again, much like Willard, for molding them into a cohesive team.
No style points.
TCU shoots 30.4% from behind the arc and 66.8% (ugh) from the foul line. Seton Hall must make shots at a higher rate than it did at MSG last week or this could quickly deteriorate into a mug-ya, slug-ya affair, to borrow a Bobby Gonzalez phrase. The Horne Frogs also are plus-8 per game on the glass, but how much of that is playing ping-pong with their own misses?
