PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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By JP Pelzman
For Seton Hall, the struggle is real.
So, once again, is the swoon.
The Pirates finally are able to turn the page on yet another January to forget, but not before losing their fourth game out of five, 73-63 to Marquette on Wednesday night at the Prudential Center. Seton Hall (12-7, 3-6 Big East) will have plenty of soul-searching to do before visiting lowly Georgetown on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m.
“We’re not flowing into offense quite as nicely as we had been earlier in the year,” coach Kevin Willard said afterward, “and that’s something I’ve got to fix. I’m not putting these guys in very good positions right now, and I’ve just got to figure out where to get them and try to get them flowing a little bit.”
The Pirates shot 20-for-59 (33.9%) on the night, and hit only four of their first 23 attempts, which helped the Golden Eagles () get out to a 26-10 lead.
Marquette's margin was 38-21 at halftime, and the lone glimmer of hope came in the second half when a 16-4 Hall run sliced a 43-23 Golden Eagles lead to 47-39 with 12:41 left after Jared Rhoden’s layup via a feed from Kadary Richmond.
But Marquette coach Shaka Smart called a timeout and that quickly restored order for the visitors, who used a 14-1 run featuring two treys by Kam Jones to extend the lead to 61-40.
Game over. January over. Swoon still continuing.
The Pirates are three games under .500 in the conference for the first time since January 2017. Of course, that team responded and eventually made the NCAAs, falling in the first round to Arkansas.
“I think we just have to come back together (and) find our rhythm,” said Rhoden, who scored 14 points. “We’re going to figure it out.”
Again, a healthy Bryce Aiken would help immeasurably. Willard admitted he almost was cleared from the concussion protocol prior to the victory over St. John’s on Saturday.
“You’re talking about the leading scorer in the Big East in conference play, and a guy that has a 4-to-1 assist-turnover ratio,” Willard said. “We thought we might have him for St. John’s, so we really didn’t change anything, and then we found out we didn’t have him for the first St. John’s game. It’s tough to try to make adjustments when you have three games in five days without him. He’d been playing great. He’s a guy that can make shots off the dribble."
Rhoden said when asked, “Bryce gives us another option at the point-guard position. The past couple of games we’ve been getting pressured a lot. I think Bryce could have helped us contain it down and level us out.”
It was Seton Hall’s misfortune to be without Aiken when playing two teams that like to press. Without Aiken to share the ballhandling load, Kadary Richmond shot 7-for-36 with 17 turnovers in the three games.
Willard defended Richmond, saying, “Kadary’s giving us everything he’s got. It’s really hard to transition from playing 24 minutes a game to 39 minutes a game and taking on the whole load, and we’ve had to do that in a very short period of time.
“I’m seeing growth even though he’s struggling a little bit,” the coach added. “He’s not making good decisions, but he’s making right reads and again, this is his first year of playing point guard in college and there’s always going to be a learning curve.”
“We all know the situation we’re in,” said grad student Ike Obiagu, who set a school career blocked shots record with 169. He had four Wednesday. “We haven’t given up. We're going to keep fighting.”
And turning the page past January.
