PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
By JP Pelzman
Some thoughts and observations as Seton Hall attempts to turn the page from a fruitless week against the Big East’s upper tier and tries to right the (Pirate) ship on the road at Providence and Connecticut:
Opportunity lost. Winning one (or both) of those home games against Creighton and Villanova would have solidified Seton Hall’s grasp on a potential at-large NCAA Tournament berth in this strangest of all college basketball seasons. But now the Pirates’ path to March (or April, or however long it takes to play it) Madness becomes more difficult, beginning with this two-game road trip, COVID permitting.
What makes it even more frustrating for the Pirates is that they led the No. 17 Bluejays by 16 points midway through the second half before slowly letting the game slip away, and then trailed for most of the game against the third-ranked Wildcats before mounting a harmless rally in the final minutes. Although the physical effort was there against Villanova despite the heartbreak of the gut-wrenching Creighton loss, the mental focus was not. And mental errors are devastating against a team such as Villanova, which almost never beats itself.
Molson must play within himself. Canisius transfer guard Takal Molson has not recaptured the long-distance form of his freshman season up in Buffalo, when he shot 36.9% from distance. This season, he is only 7-for-31 (22.6%) from beyond the arc, including 0-for-2 on Saturday. In fact, Molson has made only two of his last 18 three-point attempts after a hot 5-for-13 start to the season.
It seems clear that, with the season on the line, Molson should focus on the things he does best, which are defending, playing with energy, and getting to the rim.
His teammates could take a page from his book in terms of his non-stop motor and intensity, exemplified on one play Saturday in which he grabbed an offensive rebound and made a putback basket amongst all the tall trees. All of the Pirates must focus on what they do best. The time for experimenting is over, at least until the off-season.
Mamu must finish better. Sandro Mamukelashvili suffered through a second straight difficult game. He shot 4-for-15 and finished with only 12 points. Mamukelashvili missed some shots he normally makes, especially around the rim.
I wouldn’t mind seeing some two-man game with him going forward. Teams have caught on to Seton Hall’s pick-and-roll stuff, because the mobile Euro is so good at moving with and without the ball. But Shavar Reynolds is excellent at feeding the low post, so perhaps Mamukelashvili could play with his back to the basket once in a while, a la Angel Delgado.
Not that such plays aren’t being utilized, but perhaps Mamukelashvili could do that a little more often. And if he is double- or triple-teamed, Mamukelashvili is adept at the kick out for an open three. The Pirates are eighth in the Big East, both overall and in conference games, in three-point field-goal percentage.
Raining threes. Speaking of treys, the Pirates are last in the Big East overall and in conference games in defending the three (40.5% allowed in their 11 league games), which obviously is galling to coach Kevin Willard, who has stressed defense, especially on the perimeter, since the moment he arrived in South Orange in March 2010.
The reasons were on display in the last two games, and most of them begin with lack of attention to detail. Failure to switch quickly enough, or to switch at all, failure to close out quickly enough on shooters, failure to quickly identify open shooters in scramble situations--all of these have come back to bite the Pirates repeatedly. There isn’t much Willard can do except continue to drill these things in practice and hope the message sticks during games. This isn't the NBA--he can't make a deadline-day trade.
Scouting Providence. The Pirates owe the Friars (9-8, 5-6) for a controversial 80-77 overtime loss at the Prudential Center in December on an A.J. Reeves’ three-pointer with 3.1 seconds left in the extra period. The winning basket was set up on an assist by David Duke, who clearly moved his pivot foot before passing, skating like “Bambi on ice” as wordsmith and former Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez once said of Rutgers’ Corey Chandler.
Interestingly, because of COVID, the game will be played at Providence’s on-campus Alumni Hall rather than at the downtown Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
That’s where the re-start of the February 2018 game between the programs took place, after it was suspended the night before. Because of unseasonably warm weather, moisture from the ice rink underneath seeped onto the court at The Dunk and created slippery conditions. Seton Hall’s Desi Rodriguez suffered a sprained ankle that led to him being sidelined for the next three games.
The game finally was suspended with 13:03 left, and finished the next afternoon. Seton Hall won, 89-77, and Myles Cale scored five of his eight points at Alumni Hall. Mamukelashvili played three minutes in the game, but all of them downtown.
