PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
By JP Pelzman
With a frame that eventually filled out to 6-foot-10, Grant Billmeier was never destined to be a point guard.
But that doesn’t mean the Seton Hall associate head coach doesn’t have a razor-sharp sense of court vision. Thus, where some might see a potential logjam on the court with The Hall’s haul in the spring transfer market, Billmeier envisions opportunity.
And that opportunity begins with Alexis Yetna, the 6-8 transfer forward from South Florida who brings an inside and outside game and plenty of options for 11th-year head coach Kevin Willard. Yetna shot 36.8% from beyond the arc last season.
“He's multi-dimensional,” Billmeier explained, “and he’s going to bring a lot of different mismatches, because he can play on the perimeter when we play small and play him at the 5. And we’ll play him at the 4 when we decide to go big (with Ike Obiagu at the 5) and he can create a lot of problems down low.”
And even better than his physical skills, Yetna’s attitude is what Billmeier appreciates that much more.
“You know what you’re going to get from him,” Billmeier said, “every day, every game, every workout, every practice, every lifting session.
“He's very enthusiastic,” he added, “for a guy who’s a fifth-year senior, he’s almost like a freshman because he’s really hungry to learn and be a part of our system. He’s really embraced how hard we work here at Seton Hall.”
As Billmeier noted, Yetna often will be paired in the frontcourt with the returning starter at center, Ike Obiagu, the Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year for men’s basketball last season.
“He's looked good,” in summer practices, Billmeier said. “Ike made a commitment to be here.
“He went back to (his home in) Atlanta for three weeks and then he’s been back here ever since and he’s been working extremely hard ever since. I'm excited (about the frontcourt). We've got three guys in Tyrese (Samuel), Alexis and Tray (Jackson) that are multi-dimensional players. I'm really excited about them and Ike had some really good games last season and I'm excited to see where he goes this year.
“We hope Tyrese can make a major jump,” Billmeier said of Samuel, who averaged 5.4 points and 3.3 rebounds last season. “Sandro (Mamukelashvili) made a major jump in his junior year and we need Tyrese to make that same jump. We've got high expectations for him this year.”
Jackson wasn’t supposed to be part of the equation last season after transferring from Missouri. It was expected that he would sit out, until the NCAA decided to waive the sit-out year for everyone in mid-December. That came as a surprise.
“Tray has been shooting the ball really well,” Billmeier said, referring to the summer workouts. I think last year was kind of tough. We kind of had the mindset that he was not going to play. … It was certainly challenging.”
Billmeier also noted that Jackson has had to endure constant changes of scenery, from high school in Michigan, to prep school in Kansas, then to college in Columbia, Mo. and finally in South Orange.
“This is the first time that he’s been in a place for more than a year,” Billmeier said. “I think he’s starting to feel comfortable. I think he’s starting to feel at home and he’s doing real good things.”
A newcomer to the program is recently signed junior-college player Jonnivius “Jo” Smith.
“We're excited to have him in the program,” Billmeier said. “He's really long and athletic. He has a really long wingspan. He's going to become best friends with our strength coach, Jason (Nehring).”
Billmeier noted that Myles Cale’s return to the team says something about the player and the program.
“It's great,” he said. “It says where we are as a program. If he wanted to put his name in the portal he could have gone to any school in the country. But he came back because he wanted to finish his career where he started.”
And as Billmeier said, “I think guard play wins. You can go small, you can play four perimeter players the way the game is evolving. Baylor had the best guards, from their starters to the guys they brought off the bench and they won the national championship because their guard play was unbelievable. I think you need tremendous guard play to win in this league.”
The Pirates figure to have that, not only with returnees such as Cale, but with players they signed in the spring, former Syracuse guard Kadary Richmond, who projects to start at the point, and former American guard Jamir Harris.
Richmond, Billmeier said, is a “really big guard who has a New York City feel to him. He does a really good job getting in the lane and making plays for himself and his teammates as well.”
“I think Jamir brings something we were lacking--a knockdown shooter,” Billmeier said. “He tries to be a perfectionist when it comes to shooting the basketball.
… He’s been known since middle school as a knockdown shooter. We’re excited to have him in our program and he’s really going to help us improve our three-point percentage.”
Willard and his staff’s ability to bring in players such as Yetna, Richmond and Harris are part of a sea change in college basketball.
“I think fan bases used to live off the early signing period,” Billmeier said. “Who are schools signing in November? But now who you are signing in April or May will be just as important if not more important throughout most of college basketball.”
The reason, he said, is “you're going to be able to get guys who have done it and have proven themselves at the college level as opposed to high school guys who until they do it, they haven’t done it.”
And also in that backcourt, don’t forget about sophomore Jahari Long, who performed well in the summer practices, freshman Ryan Conway and graduate student Bryce Aiken, who has looked good while finally playing without the leg woes that have plagued him for most of his college career.
“Ryan is a deadeye shooter, a younger version of Jamir Harris,” Billmeier said. “He's always in the gym and constantly trying to improve himself.”
The coach noted that Aiken already could be using his Harvard degree to pursue a career outside of basketball, but he wants to make one more run at college basketball.
“It says a lot about him,” Billmeier said. “He wants to write the final chapter of his story the right way.”
And then there is the potential centerpiece of this team, senior wing Jared Rhoden. With Mamukelashvili off oo the Milwaukee Bucks, Rhoden takes on the mantle of go-to guy for the 2021-22 Pirates.
“He did a great job with his body” since the end of the season, Billmeier said of Rhoden. “He really got stronger and he’s in the best shape of his life.”
Billmeier added that Rhoden “has a great confidence about him in everything he does and we’re going to need him to be a great leader. When we’ve had our great teams, our best players are our best leaders. We're going to need him to be a great leader every single day and he certainly has those capabilities.”
Something that will be on display for all Pirate fans to see when the widely anticipated season begins in November.
