Hall Aims to Sink Friars on Deep Blue Sea Night at The Rock (7 PM, FS1)

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Seton Hall is one victory shy of its second 20-win season under head coach Kevin Willard

Feb. 24, 2016

Game 27 // BIG EAST Game 15 // Home Game 15 - "Deep Blue Sea Night"
Seton Hall (19-7, 9-5 BIG EAST) vs. Providence (19-8, 7-7 BIG EAST)

Date Thursday, Feb. 24 | 7:00 p.m. ET
Location Prudential Center | Newark, N.J.
Tickets BUY NOW! | Pre-Paid Parking
Tune in FS1 | FOX Sports GO | Sirius/XM 84
Links Live Stats | Seton Hall Radio (PSN) (FREE) | @SetonHallMBB on Twitter | #HALLin
Notes Media Central | Seton Hall Notes | Providence Notes

The TipOn the heels of a pair of road victories over longtime BIG EAST rivals Georgetown and St. John's, the Seton Hall men's basketball team will return to Prudential Center Thursday to open its final two-game home stand against another original conference member in the Providence Friars.The Hall (19-7, 9-5 BIG EAST) is one of the hottest teams in the league and will enter Thursday's matchup with six wins in its last seven outings after completing sweeps of the Hoyas and the Red Storm away from home last week. The Pirates also own a road victory over then-No. 12 Providence (81-72, 1/16) and another triumph Thursday would help SHU finish the regular season 6-0 against the three other remaining founding members of the conference.

Sophomore Desi Rodriguez (Bronx, N.Y.) is playing perhaps the best basketball of what has been a breakout season and is coming off a performance in which he posted career highs of 24 points and four 3-pointers in a 62-61 win at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

It came down to the wire, but it was do-it-all sophomore Isaiah Whitehead (Brooklyn, N.Y.) who stepped up in the clutch and knocked down two pressure-packed free throws with 5.6 seconds remaining to help seal the Pirates' ninth conference win. Whitehead has been playing at an elite level - scoring in double-figures in 14-straight games - and Thursday's matchup will feature a showdown between two of the most dynamic guards in the country with Kris Dunn leading the Friars into The Rock.

Providence (19-8, 7-7 BIG EAST) has been off for a full week since coming up short at Xavier (85-74, 2/17) in its last outing. The Friars have dropped four of the last five overall but still boast an impressive 6-3 road record that includes three conference victories away from home; a collection highlighted by an 82-76 overtime win at current No. 1 Villanova that stands as the Wildcats lone setback in their last 30 games against BIG EAST competition.

Tickets
Tickets are available and can be purchased through Ticketmaster, by calling the Seton Hall Athletics Ticket Office at (973) 275-HALL (4255) or visiting the Prudential Center Box Office on gameday. Seton Hall will wrap up the home portion of its schedule on Sunday, February 28 when senior Derrick Gordon (Plainfield, N.J.) will be honored prior to a showdown with No. 5 Xavier. Tip time is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. and you can get your tickets TODAY!

Tune In:Tim Brando and Jim Spanarkel will be behind the microphone for the live national broadcast on FS1. A stream of the contest will also be available online and through mobile devices via the FOX Sports GO app.
The Seton Hall radio team of Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin can be heard on AM570 (WMCA) with a simulcast available on Sirius and XM channel 84. On Thursday, the online simulcast available PirateSportsNet.tv and through the Seton Hall Gameday App will be FREE for all users.

The Buzz

Isaiah Whitehead Nominated for State Farm Assist of the Year:

Following an incredible no-look dish in the win over Georgetown last week, Seton Hall men’s basketball sophomore Isaiah Whitehead (Brooklyn, N.Y.) has been selected as a third-round nominee!

Fans will determine if Whitehead becomes a finalist and should visit AssistoftheYear.com beginning Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 1 p.m., Eastern to vote. Fans can vote daily and have until Monday, Feb. 29 at 12:59 p.m., Eastern to participate. Whitehead is competing against Butler’s Kellen Dunham, Rochester’s Sam Borst-Smith and Charlotte’s Laia Raventós.

Follow Us:

For exclusive content and coverage throughout the season and especially on gameday, be sure to follow @SetonHallMBB on Twitter

Pirate Points
- Sophomore Isaiah Whitehead sank a pair of clutch free throws with 5.6 seconds remaining to help The Hall edge St. John’s, 62-61 Sunday at Madison Square Garden, as the Pirates scored their sixth win in the last seven outings. Desi Rodriguez finished with career-highs of four 3-pointers and 24 points to lead four Pirates in double figures as SHU completed its first season sweep of the Red Storm since 2004-05.

- The Pirates rattled off a string of six wins over seven BIG EAST games for the first time since the 2005-06 campaign, the last time The Hall made its way into the NCAA Tournament. A victory on Thursday would clinch a top-six conference finish for Seton Hall - its first since 2003-04 - and give SHU a 6-0 record against the three other remaining original BIG EAST members this season. After being pegged to finish seventh in the preseason conference poll, a triumph by The Hall against the Friars would also mark:

• The 15th 20-win season in school history and the second in six years under Kevin Willard (2011-12, 20-12)
• The ninth 20-win season for The Hall in the BIG EAST era (since 1979-80, first seven resulted in NCAA bid)
• The 7th time in the Pirates have reached double-digit BIG EAST wins (first since 2003-04)
• The 6th time SHU has posted 20+ victories and 10+ BIG EAST wins in the same year
• The third time in the last nine years that the Pirates have posted as many as 12 home wins (13 in ’09-’10 and ’11-’12)

>> The Hall’s success has not been confined to friendly surroundings however as following away victories over Georgetown and St. John’s last week, SHU now owns a 6-3 road record overall and a 5-2 mark on the road in conference play. By getting past STJ, 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

- Still in sole possession of third place in the BIG EAST, the Pirates continue to make a push toward the program’s 10th all-time NCAA Tournament berth and its first since 2006. Seton Hall currently ranks as one of the top-50 teams in the nation according to the latest RPI rankings (42) and just outside the top-30 (33) according to KenPom.com. With six true road wins already to their credit, the Pirates own more away victories than 30 of the 41 teams ahead of them in the RPI ratings. SHU is 9-2 against the teams it leads in the BIG EAST standings and three of the squad’s five losses over the last 11 weeks have come to teams among the top-five in RPI (Villanova, 2x - 2 / Xavier - 6). All seven of the Pirates’ losses overall have been against current RPI top-100 opponents and The Hall is one of 15 teams in the RPI top-50 without a single loss to a team outside the top-100

 

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- Khadeen Carrington (12) and senior Derrick Gordon (10) were the other two Pirates to reach double-figures in scoring against the Red Storm and the same quartet all scored 10 or more points at Providence to lead The Hall to victory in the series opener. It was the 22nd double-digit scoring effort for Carrington, who at 13.9 ppg, ranks 13th in the BIG EAST and combines with Whitehead to form the third-highest scoring duo in the conference behind Providence’s Ben Bentil (20.3 ppg, 1st) and Kris Dunn (17.3 ppg, 2nd) as well as Butler’s Kelan Martin (16.3 ppg, 5th) and Kellen Dunham (15.7 ppg, 7th). Gordon has scored 10+ points eight times in his only season at Seton Hall, coming off the bench in seven of those games.

- Gordon has made three starts for SHU as well, the most recent of which came in the victory at Providence as he added 15 points and seven rebounds in 29 minutes. Perhaps his greatest contribution came on the defensive end where he was primarily matched up with Dunn and helped limit his effectiveness by while drawing two offensive fouls that led to the PC point guard fouling out with just over three minutes to play.

- The Pirates’ postseason prospects have been bolstered by the current run of success that has seen Whitehead take his game elevate his game to another level. Over his last seven appearances, the Brooklyn native has logged averages of 19.4 ppg, 5.7 apg and 1.7 bpg while totaling 39 FGM and 40 ast as part of a balanced effort. Often times those dimes have come with a hint of flash and it was announced on Wednesday that Whitehead has been selected as one of four contenders in round three of the State Farm Assist of The Year competition. Fan voting opened online at assistoftheyear.com/contest on Wednesday and will run through the morning of Monday, February 29. Denzel Valentine of Michigan State claimed the first of four semifinal spots with a victory over Providence’s Dunn among others in round one while Kentucky’s Tyler Ulis was crowned round two champion.

- In year two at The Hall, Whitehead has blossomed into one of the most complete guards in the country, transitioning to the point guard position with results that place him among elite company. With Whitehead and Kris Dunn taking the floor, Thursday’s matchup will feature two of the three power conference players who rank among the top-three in their respective league in both scoring and assists with MSU’s Denzel Valentine coming in as the other. In three career appearances against the Friars, Whitehead has scored 48 points to counter 52 points from the PC standout Dunn over the same collection of contests.

- Whitehead’s recent surge has been fueled by terrific outside shooting but the Friars and Pirates have been the two best squads when it comes to defending the deep ball since the beginning of conference play. The Hall has held its opponents to 30 percent or lower from beyond the arc in five of the last seven with opponents shooting 39-of-134 (.291) overall on 3-pointers over that span. Over the same stretch, Whitehead (23-of-44, .523) and Rodriguez (7-of-14, .500) have combined to hit 30 3-pointers and will look to keep rolling against a PC squad that has allowed BIG EAST foes to connect on just 26.8 percent of attempts from long distance.

- With the win over the Hoyas last week, 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 against the Red Storm, he sits just 11 wins shy of cracking the top-five on the school’s all-time list

- 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.


Scouting Providence
- The Friars have had a full week off since dropping an 85-74 decision at then-No. 8 Xavier last Thursday despite 23 points from Kris Dunn and a defensive effort that limited the Musketeers to 10-of-31 (.323) shooting from the floor as well as 1-of-9 (.111) from deep in the second half. After opening the conference season with six wins in the first nine BIG EAST outings, Providence has lost four of its last five to fall to 7-7 in the league

- Three of those four losses have now come on the road where PC opened the year with six consecutive victories, including an 82-76 overtime win at Villanova on January 24 that stands at the top-ranked Wildcats’ only home loss of the season and snapped a 22-game BIG EAST winning streak for ’Nova. In the last three road losses, Providence has shot under 40 percent from the field each time with a 31- for-96 (.323) combined mark in the second half of those games. The Pirates held the Friars to 30.1 percent shooting (22-of-73) during the first meeting.

- Standout guard Kris Dunn has been as advertised and joins The Hall’s Isaiah Whitehead as two of three power conference players who rank among the top-three in their respective leagues in both scoring (17.3 ppg, 2nd) and assists (6.6 apg, 1st) - coming in among the top-10 nationally in the latter. The Preseason BIG EAST Player of the Year has been named to the mid-season watch list for four major national awards and has assisted on 43.6 percent of PC’s field goals when he is on the floor; trailing only Oakland’s Kay Felder (49.4) and Denzel Valentine of Michigan State (44.7).

- Over three games against the Pirates since the beginning of the 2014-15 campaign, Dunn has averaged 17.3 ppg (1-of-5 3FG), 6.0 apg and 4.3 rpg but managed just two helpers in the season opener with 0 in his final 12:12 of action before fouling out at the 3:02 mark of the second half. Stout defense by senior Derrick Gordon helped hold Dunn to one field goal and one assist in the second half

- The much-improved Ben Bentil is the conference’s leading scorer at 20.3 ppg and helped shoulder the load by scoring 17 of his team-high 21 points against the Pirates in the second half, sinking 10-of-11 FTs in the period. The top scoring duo in the conference, Bentil and Dunn have combined for 40 points or more seven times in conference play but the Friars have lost four of those games. PC ranks seventh with 72.4 ppg in BIG EAST play despite the fact that Dunn and Bentil have combined to score at least 30 points in 12 of 14 conference contests

- Rodney Bullock has been one of the top third options in the conference with a scoring average of 12.4 ppg in his first full season of collegiate action. Bullock has been an important part of the Friars’ success during the conference slate, averaging 13.6 ppg in seven wins as opposed to 9.0 ppg with four single- digit scoring efforts in seven losses


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