Key to the Rest of The Season

[cernjSHU]

Seton Hall is 9-2 with a solid win over Wichita St. This record has been achieved without Seton Hall's best player playing well. In order to make the move to be a top 5 team in the Big East and a chance to go to the Tournament, Seton Hall needs Whitehead to play better. If Whitehead plays to his ability, this team can do damage.

The supporting cast around Whitehead has played well. Trust them! I want to see Whitehead have a game where he has more assists than points and no turnovers. A line of 10 assists, 8 points and no turnovers would be a phenomenal game to see. I want to see him let the game come to him and not force shots and go one on one. He will get his points. He does not have to force shots.

 

[Piratz]

Couldn't agree more! This is also why Willard's management of IW against WSU was impressive to me. It's gone on for too long. I understand there's a learning curve with playing PG, but some of this stuff is just beyond that.

He's completely inefficient and it hurts the team. Shooting .346 with 39 assists to 32 turnovers when you dominate the ball and have taken almost 50 shots more than the next player is bad and belies his ability. Needs to get his head right.

He's an exceptional talent, but he has to realize that to get where he wants to go - NBA - he needs to play within the team concept. Probably seems counterintuitive to him, as it does to most HS kids who get put on that pedestal.

 

[Shuathelete]

Winning against wichita st while he played his usual game wont help enforce this. Willard benched him but IW persevered and came back with a ridiculous 3 pt attempt trying to win it all. cant really say hes learning. its ironic because he is shooting himself in the foot with his performance so far.

 

[Piratz]

shuathlete, I think he only played 2 minutes in OT.

 

[SHUHoopsFan]

Obviously the key is to get IW to play 5 on 5. The second key is boxing out. 15 offensive rebounds allowed will result in losses more times than not. I'm curious if Anthony is going to start seeing more time. He came into the game I believe we were down 10 and left the game I believe after his 2 free throws which either cut it to 6 or 4. I thought he brought a little bit of a spark. I can't believe he hasn't been mentioned on any thread on here.

 

[SPK145]

Whitehead is a great talent who is not a good player so far in his college career, quite an enigma. He needs to play better./

The real key to the season is how good are the other Big East teams in relation to Seton Hall. Seton Hall's OC schedule was weak, does it/will it matter? Edging Wichita State in OT at home was a real good win for Seton Hall but they will be playing a number of teams home and away that are better than Wichita State.

 

[Piratz]

Whitehead is a great talent who is not a good player so far in his college career, quite an enigma. He needs to play better./

The real key to the season is how good are the other Big East teams in relation to Seton Hall. Seton Hall's OC schedule was weak, does it/will it matter? Edging Wichita State in OT at home was a real good win for Seton Hall but they will be playing a number of teams home and away that are better than Wichita State.

And consecutively with lots of quick turnarounds. Are we good enough?

Look at this gauntlet, for example:

Wed Jan 6 at Villanova
Sat Jan 9 vs. Creighton
Sat Jan 16 at Providence
Wed Jan 20 vs Villanova
Sat Jan 23 at Xavier

 

[Shuathelete]

Whitehead is a great talent who is not a good player so far in his college career, quite an enigma. He needs to play better./

The real key to the season is how good are the other Big East teams in relation to Seton Hall. Seton Hall's OC schedule was weak, does it/will it matter? Edging Wichita State in OT at home was a real good win for Seton Hall but they will be playing a number of teams home and away that are better than Wichita State.

Is Novas that good? Who did they beat?

Providence has a similar schedule, probably better, as that good win Nova couldnt get.

Butler saved their schedule by getting that huge win vs Purdue. Beat cincy which has been bitten by the BE this year.

Marquette I already dissected in another post. Could see a lot of hollow wins come february.

Seton Hall will be playing better teams than Wichita st, which is why if they go .500 they have a serious case.

 

[batts]

Keys to the Season:
1. IW playing in control and not taking wild shots;
2. Keeping healthy, particularly the Guards; and
3. Willard continuing to evolve into a better Coach who maintains the respect of the players.

 

[Seton75]

That is something we definitely need. But to me, the key to the season is defending like we did vs WSU.

Isaiah dribbles too much and tries to make the hardest shot possible. He needs to cut that down, simplify and distribute more. Khadeen took it about 3 times in the first half and did the same thing with the same results, barreling into a bad situation and turning it over or missing a tough shot. But, they are going to be aggressive offensively and it is inevitable they will make some bad decisions.

But if we defend and rebound, we can overcome those issues. I have been saying for years, when I see a kid like Baker from WSU who was a nobody coming into college and developed into a terrific player, why don't we ever get lucky with the unsung kids we sign. And all of a sudden, we have three of them in Desi, Ish and Nzei. Those three work their asses off defending and have the heart and athleticism to really be a factor. So does Derrick. Isaiah and KC too. And I was very impressed with how hard Angel ran to the defensive end of the court. We simply have not had that in a long time, and staying true to that hardnosed way of defending and rebounding can take us far, and overcome some inevitable mistakes.

When we were good, after a bad offensive performance, PJ would say we have to defend better, rebound better and shot our fts better. I used to scream in my head, how about playing better offense!!! But of course, PJ was right, and if we do those things, this team might be a real surprise.

 

[Section112]

Nova is good at home so that first game will be tough and its in that bandbox on campus. That early schedule is going to be tough and more important tough on a young team's phsyche if they lose a lot of those games. I hope the staff is keeping it real and not letting these guys look any further than tomorrow night's game. This team has a lot of growing to do but I liked what I saw from the coach and team Saturday. And to IW's credit he was the biggest cheerleader on the bench for his teammates. Did not sulk or put his head down and came in and helped us close it down. He is showing slow signs of improvement but not enough. He will get there I believe.

Someone made a comment on Anthony. Have to give the kid credit - those were the best minutes I've seen him play in an SHU uniform. If he can give us 5 solid minutes a game like that I would be happy. He will not outplay Nzei or Ish but a few key minutes in the game without fouling and making a shot off a putback is what we need from him. He did a nice job and hopefully is making some progress. We need better minutes from our bench and he gave us just that Saturday.

 

[Seton75]

Nova is good at home so that first game will be tough and its in that bandbox on campus. That early schedule is going to be tough and more important tough on a young team's phsyche if they lose a lot of those games. I hope the staff is keeping it real and not letting these guys look any further than tomorrow night's game. This team has a lot of growing to do but I liked what I saw from the coach and team Saturday. And to IW's credit he was the biggest cheerleader on the bench for his teammates. Did not sulk or put his head down and came in and helped us close it down. He is showing slow signs of improvement but not enough. He will get there I believe.

Someone made a comment on Anthony. Have to give the kid credit - those were the best minutes I've seen him play in an SHU uniform. If he can give us 5 solid minutes a game like that I would be happy. He will not outplay Nzei or Ish but a few key minutes in the game without fouling and making a shot off a putback is what we need from him. He did a nice job and hopefully is making some progress. We need better minutes from our bench and he gave us just that Saturday.

Yes, Rashad played good minutes. He made 2 fts, and played D without a foul. Very nice to see. The WSU game also had Ish and Mike playing together for a minute or two, and also had Desi at the 2 with only one guard for a stint. Given the shortage of guards, I feel this will be seen a few times over the season.

 

[HallBall10]

This team can compete with anyone in the big east if they commit to playing tough defense like they did on Saturday.
I think our identity is starting to become that we get after it on the defensive side and our length causes problems.

Offensively we have weapons but collectively we need to avoid turnovers and IW needs to avoid forcing shots with plenty of time on the shot clock.