PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
By Colin Rajala
FRONTCOURT - Tyrese Samuel, Alexis Yetna, LaTrayvion ‘Tray’ Jackson , Kenechukwu ‘KC’ Ndefo, D’Ante ‘Tae’ Davis, Abdou Ndiaye
Anchoring the frontcourt are returning forwards Tyrese Samuel and Alexis Yetna.
Samuel has shown glimpses of potential during his first three years in South Orange and he will be looked upon to take another giant step forward in the maturation of his game after increasing his averages to 7.3 points and 5.2 rebounds in 18.9 minutes per game as a junior from 5.4 points and 3.3 rebounds in 17.1 minutes per game as a sophomore.
While Samuel oozes potential despite starting just two of 29 games last season, Yetna serves as a more tried and true option for the Pirates after averaging 8.1 points and 7.6 rebounds (7th in the Big East) per game while starting in 17 of 31 games played in 2021-2022.
Last season, Samuel shot 48.8% from the field and 20% from three, while his 67% shooting from the charity stripe was the biggest improvement in his offensive game. Yetna shot 40.4% from the field, 22.8% from three, but showed a nice touch at the foul line connecting on 75% of his attempts. Yetna, and hopefully Samuel, should prove to be capable at drawing contact and converting from the foul line to help stymie opponents runs in the upcoming season.
The two have shown a tendency to let it fly from deep with Yetna connecting on just 0.6 out of 2.5 attempts per game last season and Samuel making 0.4 out of 1.4 attempt per game over three seasons. Despite the lackluster shooting splits, the two had the greenlight in many opportunities under former Head Coach Kevin Willard, which will likely be reined in with Holloway dictating play. That is not to say that they will not have the opportunity to show improvement from distance as the Seton Hall coach has mentioned that he has all of the bigs work on the same drills as his guards and wings, which should aid the bigs as they look to pursue the professional ranks after college. Samuel and Yetna are still best when going toward the hoop and operating down low or from the elbows, which is where they will be best served to lead the Pirates offensive attack.
Both players will be relied on by Holloway to set the tone defensively and on the boards. Yetna’s expertise comes as an active rebounder as he had the highest total rebounding percentage of players on the team with at least 300 minutes played last season at 17.2%, followed by Samuel at 14.9%. Yetna had a defensive rebounding percentage of 22.7% and an offensive rebounding percentage of 11.9% last season, which Holloway will look to carry through to the upcoming season to his advantage as extra possessions and scoring opportunities will be needed for the defensive-minded squad. Samuel was second on The Hall in blocks per game at 0.9 and fifth in steals per game at 0.6, showing that he has room to grow to be a defensive anchor.
