PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
By JP Pelzman
The Big East’s annual awards day was a good one for both Seton Hall and St. John's, as each program took home some well-deserved individual hardware.
And on Thursday at approximately 3 p.m., the Pirates and Red Storm are scheduled to take the court at Madison Square Garden for yet another honor, this one on a team level--the right to move on toward a potential Big East tournament championship and a shot at an NCAA Tournament bid.
Power forward Sandro Mamukelashvili shared the Big East Player of the Year award with two Villanova players, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and the injured Collin Gillespie. Each received three votes of a possible 11, accounting for the first tri-players of the year in conference history.
Center Ike Obiagu was named Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Obiagu is on track to earn a Bachelor’s degree in accounting this spring with a GPA above 3.7 and plans to pursue a Master’s in professional accounting at Seton Hall beginning with the coming fall semester.
But St. John’s also had two award winners, with Mike Anderson taking Coach of the Year honors. The Red Storm (16-10, 10-9) were picked ninth in the preseason coaches’ poll but are seeded fourth in the tournament after rallying from an 18-0 deficit to stun The Pirates (13-12, 10-9) on Senior Night last Saturday without dynamic freshman point guard Posh Alexander, who sat out with an injury.
But Alexander, who won Big East Freshman of the Year, said on a video media session that he is feeling a lot better and will play against the Pirates on Thursday.
Mamukelashvili who had a pre-written acceptance speech in which he profusely thanked the Big East, Seton Hall, the fans, his family, friends, teammates and the coaching staff, was later asked how he earned this honor after being a three-star recruit.
“The message,” he said, “is to just keep working hard, believe in God, believe in yourself. It’s all (about) self-confidence. There were a lot of ups and downs and sometimes you want to just quit and find an easier way but the biggest lesson of all is (a) comfort zone will kill you.”
Wise words, and ones the Pirates must heed as they attempt to reverse a four-game skid when they face St. John’s in the Big East tournament for the first time since 2002.
“I feel like both of the teams are really familiar with each other’s style of play, so we know what we have to lock in (on), and where we have to improve from the previous game. That will definitely help us.
"Everybody is 0-0," Mamukelashvili added. "I look at it that way. Everybody is fighting for one thing and one thing only, to win the Big East championship and nobody cares what you did before. … Tomorrow it starts and we’re going to come out and put 100% on the court and play like it’s a final.”
Obiagu said, “It doesn’t matter what seed you are, you still get to play. … It is a clean slate and everybody is going to come to play their best basketball.”
“We watched the film (and) we talked about some things we need to do differently,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said of the 81-71 loss to the Red Storm, noting that St. John’s did a good job of taking away some of the ball movement that led to the early 18-point advantage.
Seton Hall shot only 31.8% from three-point range in the game, and only 25% in the second half. St. John's shot 45.5% from long distance.
“We had been doing a pretty good job up until the last four” games, Willard added. “We’ve gotten into some bad habits.” The coach noted how the free-throw percentage has slipped recently and that “we missed some big one-and-ones in both of the first two losses and we’ve had some bad turnovers. I think it’s been a combination of a lot of pressure trying to get to the NCAA tournament and just playing some teams” playing well.
The Hall finally shot better from the foul line in the loss to the Red Storm, going 16-for-21 after a woeful 30-for-52 performance the previous four games.
Willard added, “We’re still in a good position. We still control our own fate, which is really important at this time of year.”
Willard was asked if there were any problems with Bryce Aiken’s knee at the end of Saturday’s game. He said he was “fatigued” but that was “OK.” When asked if he would be good to go Thursday, Willard replied, “That’s the plan.”
The winner of this game will face either eighth-seeded Georgetown or top-seeded Villanova (16-5, 11-4), which has lost Gillespie for the season with a torn MCL and also could be without guard Justin Moore, who replaced Gillespie in the starter's role and then suffered what Villanova has termed a significant ankle sprain against Providence.
Thus, the Wildcats could be down to third-string point guard Chris Arcidiacono, who had totaled 17 minutes this season before logging 25 in a loss to Providence on Saturday. He finished with zero points, two assists and one turnover.
Still, Alexander said the Red Storm won’t be looking ahead despite the convincing win over the reeling Pirates.
“I feel we have the right mindset,” he said when asked if this could be a trap game. “I feel like Seton Hall is going to come out and throw their best shot, but as a team, we’re just going to stay together. … We’re just going to come out and try to get the win and basically worry about just one game at a time.”
As for Seton Hall’s award winners, Willard said, “It shows the work ethic these young men have. They've really put in a lot of hard work. I give a lot of credit to my staff because they’ve put in a tremendous amount of time. We do things much differently from other programs in the summers because we really focus on the instruction side and it takes a lot of time and effort from the staff.
“I think these kids have a great mentality,” he added, and then he praised Seton Hall associate director of academic support services Amanda DiDonato, saying, “I have the best academic advisor in the country and it’s not even close. Not only is she the best academic person, she’s one of the best people I've met in my life.”
Obiagu mentioned DiDonato twice in his acknowledgements, and also thanked the coaching staff and the conference. He was “very humbled and honored” while noting He intends to continue playing for the Pirates as a graduate student next season.
