PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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By JP Pelzman
Thoughts and observations as Seton Hall tries to turn the page on a devastating loss to Creighton and focus on a what now is a must-win against Villanova, Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at the Prudential Center:
In the twilight zone.
Seton Hall was totally flummoxed on offense when Creighton switched to a zone midway through the second half. To be fair, it wasn’t an easy one to solve. Re-watching some of the game, it appeared to be a 2-3 at times and looked like a 1-3-1 on other occasions, although that may have been an optical illusion. Whatever the case, the Pirates began settling for a lot of jacked-up three-pointers.
“The zone was kind of a last-ditch effort,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott admitted on the post-game Zoom session. “It just kind of stymied their flow. … We don’t practice the zone a bunch but the guys were really good in it.”
Creighton's Mitch Ballock (game-high 29 points, 7-for-12 from long distance) admitted “It’s been a while” since the team practiced the zone and seemed to indicate the Bluejays hadn’t practiced it extensively since the preseason.
Huge swing.
Myles Cale, a 74.4% foul shooter, was hacked while grabbing the rebound of a missed three-point attempt by Ballock, and back-rimmed the front end of a one-and-one with 2:21 to go. Creighton rebounded the miss, worked the ball around, and Denzel Mahoney threw up a brick of his own from the right wing.
Only it somehow banked in for a three-pointer, cutting the Bluejays’ deficit to two points. If you were seeking a bad omen for Seton Hall, this was it.
Mamu needs to be fed.
Sandro Mamukelashvili’s mother was in attendance, all the way from far-off Georgia, as players’ families were allowed to attend for the first time this season at the Prudential Center. And she must have been disappointed, not only with the loss, but by the fact her son attempted only nine shots, two of them in the final five minutes.
You know, mothers want their children to eat.
Mamukelashvili, who was named Thursday as one of the final 10 candidates for the Karl Malone Award for the top power forward in the nation, missed a point-blank shot that he almost always makes with 1:24 left and the Pirates nursing a one-point lead. It was his only shot in the last four minutes.
When coach Kevin Willard was asked why the Pirates didn’t get the ball to Mamukelashvili more often, he replied, “(Creighton) did a good job. They took him away.”
The fault can be spread around. Certainly, the other Pirates could’ve done a better job of being more patient on offense and looking for their best player. Also, one of Mamukelashvili’s greatest attributes sometimes works against him. He is such a good person, such a good teammate and so unselfish. But sometimes he must demand the ball, the way great players do.
The Bryce is right.
Everyone got a glimpse of why Bryce Aiken was so sought-after last spring as a grad transfer. The former Harvard star scored 21 points in 18 minutes but subbed out with 5:04 left and the Pirates ahead 75-66 and didn’t re-enter the game until the final offensive possession, with The Hall trailing 84-81. He and Shavar Reynolds wound up in almost the same spot on the court and Reynolds missed a three-point attempt.
Willard said afterward Aiken is on a “minutes restriction” because of his injury problems. “He looked great,” Willard said, but added, “he can’t play eight, nine minutes in a row. It was great having him out there and him being aggressive really changed the tempo of the game for us, so I’m really excited about where he is.”
Aiken was requested for the post-game Zoom session, but was not made available.
The Wright stuff to beat Nova?
Perhaps a more dynamic Aiken will be the missing ingredient in the rematch against Villanova, which beat the Pirates last week with the help of a controversial call by referee Earl Walton on a rebounding foul.
Willard noted that the players shook off that tough loss with a very good effort in last night’s game.
“We lost a tough one (to Creighton) and we’ve got to respond again,” he said. “That’s life in this league. You never really have a night off. We'll see what they’re made of. So far, they’ve answered the bell.”
Villanova again will have more time to prepare, but it won’t be 25 days as it was for the first meeting. Still, the Wildcats’ scheduled game against Connecticut on Thursday night was put off because one of the officials who worked UConn’s win over Butler on Tuesday tested positive for the coronavirus, putting the Huskies into a pause. Thus, third-ranked Villanova hasn’t played since a 71-56 comeback win over Providence last Saturday.
