PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
Colin Rajala
Trove: That is an exciting update. While it may not seem like much, those spaces are significant in the grand scheme of Seton Hall’s small campus, so I look forward to hearing what the department decides to transform those spaces into for the betterment of the various programs.
Another recent announcement from the university was the release of the men’s basketball team’s 2023-2024 non-conference schedule, which features a bunch of road and neutral games against power conference opponents. What are your thoughts on the schedule and are there any games you are particularly looking forward to as part of the slate?
Felt: Coach did a great job with the schedule. I know I’ve used the word ‘balance’ a lot, but I think it’s a great balance of competitive games and teams we should beat. It’s an important part of being head coach and Sha really invests a lot of time in how he wants to shape the schedule. Sha likes to keep local teams on the schedule, so he did what he can in that regard. He also wants to challenge his program because he wants to put them on the road a little bit.
We have Rutgers at home this year, which is always a test and a great game for the fans. I think ideally, we would like to try and have another power conference team or something along those lines on the home schedule, but it's not always easy to accomplish.
We're going on the road to an MTE in San Diego, which provides three top caliber teams. We get USC first, which is a great test for the team right off the bat. I think if you asked coach, and we talk about it quite a bit, if we’re going to make a trip like that, he'll say let’s go play versus the top teams. I love that mentality.
Now we’re also scheduled in the Big 12 Challenge, which is great, we love that type of competition. We're traveling to Baylor this year, which is not an easy task, but it be will a test for our guys and it should be fun. We’ll get a home game next year in that Challenge, which we’re looking forward to.
One of the later games that came about was Missouri. It’s an opportunity where we can play at a neutral site, granted it’s in the same state, but it's a neutral site arena where you can test your team. When you look at these games nowadays, if you win those games it's such a massive boost to your resume and if you lose those games, it really doesn’t kill you losing to a power conference team on the road away from home. It's a risk worth taking. I think Sha was looking for a balanced schedule and he put together a really healthy one, as did Tony on the women's side.
I love what Tony has done. He’s done a fantastic job of working with our women's team administrator Tatum Colitz to put together nice schedules the last few years. He’s got UNLV coming to South Orange this year. He’s going down to the Bahamas to play USC in November. Scheduling is such an art; you must understand what you're trying to accomplish along with they type of team you have in a given year. At the end of the day, that’s the goal and it’s kind of like what can you do to enhance your resume, to put yourself in the best position to win games and get your team prepared to compete against the league competition. Both of our coaches understand that well.
