The Hall Heads West for Wednesday night matchup with Butler
Seton Hall (21-7, 11-5 BIG EAST, KenPom 30, RPI 31) at Butler (19-9, 8-8 BIG EAST, KenPom 39, RPI 57)
March 2 · Hinkle Fieldhouse (Indianapolis, Ind.) · 8:30 p.m.
TV: FS1 with Joe Davis & Donny Marshall
Radio: AM970 The Answer / Sirius 134 / XM 202 / Seton Hall Gameday Live App with Dave Popkin & Jon Schaeffer
WHITEHEAD LAST 9 GAMES
SETON HALL IS IN VIDEO GAME MODE – HALLin 2K16
What to Know About The Hall:
Seton Hall (21-7, 11-5 BIG EAST, KenPom 30, RPI 31) at Butler (19-9, 8-8 BIG EAST, KenPom 39, RPI 57)
March 2 · Hinkle Fieldhouse (Indianapolis, Ind.) · 8:30 p.m.
TV: FS1 with Joe Davis & Donny Marshall
Radio: AM970 The Answer / Sirius 134 / XM 202 / Seton Hall Gameday Live App with Dave Popkin & Jon Schaeffer
WHITEHEAD LAST 9 GAMES
SETON HALL IS IN VIDEO GAME MODE – HALLin 2K16
What to Know About The Hall:
- Seton Hall jumped out to a 9-0 lead against No. 5 Xavier Sunday at Prudential Center and never looked back, racing to a season-high 90 points in a 90-81 victory over the Musketeers. Sophomore Desi Rodriguez delivered career-highs of 27 points and 12 rebounds while Isaiah Whitehead continued his push for Player of the Year consideration with 22 points and five assists while matching a career-high with four rejections for the second-straight outing.
- The SHU advantage ballooned to 45-26 at halftime and The Hall improved to 17-0 this season when leading at the break. The Pirates have also built at least a seven-point lead in all 21 of their wins, while their largest lead lost in seven losses was a six-point edge in a 72-64 setback at George Washington (Dec. 2).
- Whitehead (9-of-10) and Rodriguez (8-of-10) combined to shoot 17-of-20 from the line in the contest as part of an effort in which the Pirates sank a season high 27 free throws (27-of-36, .750); out-scoring Xavier by 16 points from the stripe. In 21 wins this season, Seton Hall (530) has earned 150 more free throws than its opponents (380) and made a total of 355, averaging 16.9 points from the line to 11.5 for their opponents in those games.
- Whitehead (26) and Rodriguez (18) combined for 44 points in the first meeting with the Bulldogs have been at the center of a recent surge for the Pirates as the team has rattled off eight wins in nine outings following a setback at Xavier on January 23. Whitehead put on a show with a 7-for-7 performance from beyond the arc in the first half against Butler and is averaging 20.3 points, 6.0 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks while shooting 52.5 percent form deep (31-for-59) over the last nine. When compared to the first seven BIG EAST games, Whitehead’s true shooting percentage on all shots (FG, 3FG, FT) has jumped from 48.2% to 53.3%. Rodriguez has been scoring a highly efficient rate throughout a transformative sophomore season and currently stands as the only player in the league to rank in the top-10 of both field goal (.516, 9th) and 3FG (.394, 4th) percentage. Over his last nine, Rodriguez has ranked second on the team in both scoring (14.2 ppg) and rebounding (6.6 rpg).
- A preseason All-BIG EAST Second Team selection after taking home Rookie of the Year honors last season, Angel Delgado has been playing at a level worthy of First Team consideration as well. The big man is averaging 13.0 ppg and 10.6 rpg with five double-doubles over the last nine games. Delgado and Villanova’s Daniel Ochefu are the only two BIG EAST players who rank among the top-five in both rebounding and field goal percentage for the entire season with Delgado leading everyone outside of Marquette’s Henry Ellenson on the rebounding chart and climbing up the field goal percentage list with a 51-for-80 (.638) total over the last nine contests.
- Sophomore Khadeen Carrington has grown into one of the most consistent scorers in the conference and ranks second on the team with 23 double-digit scoring performances. Wednesday’s game will feature the only two trios of teammates in the conference that all rank among the top-15 in scoring with Seton Hall’s Whitehead (18.8 ppg, 2nd), Carrington (13.6 ppg, 13th) and Rodriguez (12.9 ppg, 15th) going up against Butler’s Kelan Martin (16.4 ppg, 6th), Kellen Dunham (16.4 ppg, 7th) and Roosevelt Jones (14.1 ppg, 11th).
- The victory over XU was the sixth in program history against an AP Top-5 opponent and the nine-point margin was the largest for SHU in any of those games. Two of the victories over AP top-5 foes have come in the six-year tenure of head coach Kevin Willard. It was the squad’s second win over a ranked opponent this season as Seton Hall also scored an 81-72 win at then-No. 12 Providence on January 16. With the win over Xavier Sunday, the Pirates now own victories over two BIG EAST opponents ranked inside the AP top-15 for the second time in as many seasons and the third in six years under Willard. In the four seasons prior to Willard taking the helm for the 2010-11 campaign, SHU posted only two victories over conference foes ranked inside the top-15.
- The win also punctuated a drastic one-year turnaround when it comes to the Pirates’ performance in the month of February. The Hall posted a 6-1 record last month after coming away with one victory in seven February games last season. The five February victories are the most for the Pirates since the team went 5-4 during the second month of conference play in 2005-06 en route to the NCAA Tournament. This marks the first time that the Pirates have recorded six wins in February since 2003-04.
- In sole possession of third place in the BIG EAST and assured a top-six seed in the BIG EAST Tournament for the first time since 2003-04 (6), the Pirates continue to make a push toward the program’s 10th all-time NCAA Tournament berth and its first since the 2005-06 campaign. Seton Hall currently ranks as one of the top-30 teams in the nation according to KenPom.com (30) and just outside the top-30 (31) according to the latest RPI rankings. With six true road wins already to their credit, the Pirates own more away victories than 21 of the 29 teams ahead of them in the RPI ratings and just seven others are as many as three games over .500 on the road, three of which are in the top-10.
- Overall, SHU owns a 6-3 road record overall and a 5-2 mark on the road in conference play. By getting past St John’s on Feb. 21, the Pirates reached five BIG EAST road wins for just the fifth time since the league’s inception and the first in 16 seasons. The previous four instances all led to NCAA Tournament berths
- 1988-89 - 5-3 BIG EAST road record/11-5 conference record (2nd) // 31-7 overall, National Runner-up
- 1991-92 - 5-4 BIG EAST road record/12-6 conference record (1st) // 23-9 overall, Sweet 16
- 1992-93 - 5-4 BIG EAST road record/14-4 conference record (1st) // 28-7 overall, BE Tourn. Champs
- 1999-00 - 5-3 BIG EAST road record/10-6 conference record (5th) // 22-10 overall, Sweet 16
- While the Pirates’ young team thrives at an up-tempo pace, it has been The Hall’s defense that has spurred a leap into the conversation among the conference’s elite. According to KenPom.com, the Pirates rank 13th in Division I in defensive efficiency and 15th in effective field goal percentage against. During BIG EAST play, the Pirates have held opponents to 30.0 percent from long range - the second-best mark in the league - but have also limited the opposition to 43.8 percent from inside the arc to lead the conference in that category.
- With the road win over the Hoyas, Seton Hall completed its second sweep of Georgetown in the last three years and head coach Kevin Willard became the sixth head man ever to record 100 wins at The Hall. No Seton Hall coach had reached the 100-win mark since SHU Athletics Hall of Famer PJ Carlesimo did so during a 31- win 1988-89 campaign that culminated in a national championship game appearance. With the victory, Willard joined John “Honey” Russell (294 wins), Carlesimo (212), Frank Hill (178), Bill Raftery (154) and Richie Regan (112) in the exclusive group and after adding another two more since, he sits just nine wins shy of cracking the top-five on the school’s all-time list. Prior to Willard (2), Carlesimo (5) was the only Pirate head man to lead the program to multiple 20-win seasons in the BIG EAST era.
- Seton Hall Athletics announced that in the fall, student-athlete academic performance reached a new all- time high for the 11th-straight semester. Head coach Kevin Willard’s squad boasts six Dean’s List honorees from the fall (Angel Delgado, Derrick Gordon, Michael Nzei, Desi Rodriguez, Veer Singh, Isaiah Whitehead) and increased its cumulative GPA to 3.18. The Willard-led Pirates earned an NCAA Public Recognition Award over the summer for posting a multiyear APR that ranks among the top-10 percent among all men’s basketball teams and are part of a collection of 14 varsity programs at The Hall that all own a cumulative GPA over 3.1.
- .@SetonHallMBB star @IsaiahW_15 ranks second in the @BIGEAST in scoring (18.8 ppg) and leads ALL Division I guards with 1.43 bpg #HALLin
- .@SetonHallMBB is assured top-6 seed in @BIGEASTMBB Tourney for first time since 2004; goes for first-ever win @ButlerMBB Wednesday #HALLin
- • National POTW @IsaiahW_15 and @SetonHallMBB on verge of posting 9 wins in 10-game @BIGEAST stretch for 1st time since 1999-00 #HALLin
