PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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Let's take one last look at Seton Hall’s important, but less than artistic 57-51 win over Marquette, and look ahead to life without the oft-injured Bryce Aiken for the foreseeable future.
Yes, still achin’ for Aiken.
Who would have thought that, after the 20th game of the season, freshman Jahari Long only would trail Bryce Aiken in minutes played by 70. But yes, Aiken has registered only 164 minutes, and Long has tallied 90. Long had to play 18 minutes against the Golden Eagles on Sunday with Aiken once again out of commission, this time because of a flareup of the troublesome left knee that had put the graduate transfer on the shelf for most of the season with Harvard in 2019-20.
So what happens now? Well, coach Kevin Willard said afterward the plan was for Aiken to get an MRI on Monday because of the tendinitis in his left knee. Yet the 11th-year Pirates coach offered no timetable for his return, and hinted he might not be back at all. It is possible (and this is pure speculation), that the Pirates could shut Aiken down indefinitely in hopes that the rest will help him to be available for the NCAA Tournament, should they make it that far.
Survive and advance.
Speaking of the NCAAs, this was the type of victory that the Pirates desperately needed. Style points aren’t important, especially in this bizarre season. At the moment, wins are the main ingredient.
“It means a lot to us,” Jared Rhoden said of the possibility of making the tournament. “It’s something we’ve been looking forward to since we were little kids. Knowing how big this game was and knowing how important this opportunity was, we had to take advantage of it.”
Certainly, that feeling is heightened by the fact the Pirates (and so many other teams) were denied a sure NCAA spot last season because of COVID. Their quest in 2021 continues this week with a home game against perennially woeful DePaul on Wednesday and then a road game against improving Georgetown on Saturday. The biggest thing for the Pirates is avoiding a virus pause on both their end and on their opponents’ end.
Right now, they are scheduled to play 19 regular-season Big East games, with a makeup game at Butler on Feb. 24. Sadly, the Xavier home game at Walsh Gym apparently will not be made up because the Musketeers have too much of a backlog of postponed games.
Rhoden doing the little things
Although it didn’t lead to a basket, Jared Rhoden made a key steal with 1:27 left and The Hall up 49-45, disrupting a Marquette handoff and taking the ball away from Greg Elliott.
“It was definitely an instinct thing,” Rhoden said when I asked him about it. “I knew I had to switch out. I saw the opportunity (for the steal) and I took it. Coach is always telling me to be aggressive. I saw my opportunity and I just seized it.”
Rhoden also was aggressive offensively in the second half, scoring 14 of his game-high 20 points after intermission. “My teammates told me to keep being aggressive” offensively, he said. “I kind of took it upon myself to be more aggressive and get the train going.”
Rhoden was 2-for-3 from long distance in the second half after going 0-for-4 from three-point range in the first 20 minutes.
‘Long’ way to go.
Willard praised Jahari Long for his defense, but admitted the offense didn’t run smoothly with him in the lineup, noting he hadn’t practiced that much with the first unit. It will be up to both Willard and starting point guard Shavar Reynolds to help mentor Long and help him become more relaxed on the offensive end. Mind you, he doesn’t need to be the second coming of Andre Barrett or Reynolds, for that matter. Long just needs to be able to get the Pirates into their sets more smoothly without turning the ball over.
“The main thing I tell him is,” Reynolds said of Long, “you’ve played this game your whole life. You know how to play basketball. You're a good, smart player. Don’t overthink it. Don’t try to do less. Don’t try to do more. Just do what you can do. Play hard. You can never go wrong with playing hard.”
Molson's offensive woes continue.
Nobody on the Pirates plays harder than sixth man Takal Molson, whose defense remains exemplary and whose persistence on the offensive and defensive glass is textbook. But his shooting woes have gotten worse. Molson missed his only three-point attempt Sunday and now is down to 20.6% from beyond the arc for the season, and 15% (3-for-20) in Big East play. He is shooting 67.3% from the foul line, missing his only attempt against Marquette.
Interestingly, the starters were 12-for-12 at the line Sunday, and 8-for-8 in the final minute to wrap up the game. Tyrese Samuel was 1-for-4 and now is a mind-boggling 23.8% from the stripe in 2020-21. Interestingly enough measured against 36.4% from three-point range.
Scouting DePaul.
Not much is new with the Blue Demons (3-9, 1-9), who are in their accustomed position in the Big East basement. They shot 30.6% in a 57-47 loss to visiting Providence on Saturday night, and their only conference win was over Marquette. DePaul’s leading scorer, guard Charlie Moore, sat out that game with a knee injury. His status for Wednesday is unclear.
DePaul shoots only 31.7% from behind the arc overall, which means a Pirates’ weakness at times might not be exploited. Yes, Marquette shot a woeful 3-for-25 from long distance, but the Golden Eagles missed a lot of open threes Sunday.
