https://setonhall.rivals.com/
By JP Pelzman
There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the 2020-21 college basketball season, uncertainty like never before. Questions such as when will it actually start? Will there be fans in attendance? And, a question that would have seemed preposterous, oh, about, four months ago. Will there actually be a 2021 NCAA tournament?
Still, with all these question marks hovering over the college hoops landscape, longtime Seton Hall radio analyst Dave Popkin can point to one constant that should give Seton Hall fans confidence that the program’s unprecedented run of success will continue no matter what. That constant is head coach Kevin Willard, who will be entering his 11th season as the Pirates’ head coach and had assuredly sewn up a fifth consecutive NCAA berth and the program’s highest seed since 1993 until the coronavirus pandemic stole the hopes and dreams of Seton Hall and 67 other teams.
“Kevin is just so focused,” Popkin marveled. “Whenever I look up, immediately after the game, he’s already watching film and trying to get better for the next game. He really has that fire in his belly and takes the responsibility of leading the team very seriously. He’s just no-nonsense. I think he’s matured in a lot of ways as a coach and a person but that fire doesn’t go away. He really wants to win and I think Seton Hall is lucky to have him.”
Popkin, an analyst opposite legendary play-by-play man Gary Cohen but also an excellent lead broadcaster for Northeast Conference basketball and a play-by-play announcer for NEC football, is impressed by Willard’s ability to be both a motivator and father figure to his team.
"It's hard when you’re a leader to be both feared and loved,” Popkin said, “and I feel like every year he’s able to improve in that and walk that line and you see that he’s firm. He's not going to take BS from these guys but at the same time, (Myles) Powell, (Quincy) McKnight, Sandro (Mamukelashvili), they love him and they buy in and they listen to him. Sometimes it’s hard to keep the attention of a locker room. But I don’t think he’s had that issue. I think it’s a tough balance.”
After guiding Seton Hall to a three-way tie for first place in the Big East and a likely No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament That Never Was, Willard now will face the challenge of replacing the scoring of first-team Associated Press All-American Powell, the floor generalship of McKnight and the shot-blocking presence of Big East Defensive Player of the Year Romaro Gill.
“I think that those two losses collectively (McKnight and Gill) could be bigger than the Powell loss,” Popkin said. “Because you have (Harvard grad transfer) Bryce Aiken and (Canisius sitout transfer) Takal Molson coming in and they’ll score 30 points collectively. So I think you’ll be able to get Powell’s offense replaced by the new guards.
“I don’t know who replaces Quincy’s intangibles at the point,” Popkin continued. “You really have three combo guards now on the team, which gives you versatility, but he became a closer at the end of games, not turning the ball over, making a big shot, making his free throws, knowing when to take the air out of the ball. That turned a good team into a great team, in my opinion.”
“And with Gill, you saw the difference” from 2018-19, the veteran announcer said. “The year before, when he didn’t play, (the Pirates) didn’t block shots and they got out-rebounded. When he played at his top level this year, that is what made them a dominant defensive team. You had two of three best defensive players in the Big East on one team (along with Creighton’s Ty-Shon Alexander) and who replaces that? That’s a concern. But that said, you look at the rotation for next year, it’s pretty deep and there’s good talent there. I think they’ll be good. It's just going to be different.”
Going forward, how does Popkin think Seton Hall will be affected by the proposed NCAA transfer rule allowing student-athletes to be eligible to play immediately for their new teams without sitting out a year? That was tabled until at least next year, the NCAA announced Wednesday.
Popkin commented, “It’s hard to say. It will be good for the players and it will be the Wild West for the coaches and programs in general. I think you’ll see the number of transfers double. I think you’ll see coaches being nicer to players because they’ll lose some of their leverage. My gut says that it won’t affect Seton Hall that much. The only guys that have transferred (from The Hall) are the guys that are not playing and that it pretty consistent across every program.”
As for another proposal allowing collegiate players to profit from their likenesses and endorsement deals, Popkin accurately said, “It would have been good for Myles Powell,” but then quickly noted not many programs have players such as Powell, who make that kind of an impact through their play and their personality.
“There are not that many basketball players,” he said, “that cut through the public consciousness and are worthy of big endorsement deals. They don’t stay long enough. They're not in the limelight long enough. Do I think that the rich will get richer in some cases? Will North Carolina and Kansas (and other top-10 programs) be able to offer five-star players who were only going to stay one or two years anyway some good endorsement contracts in the local businesses? Yes.
“I don’t think Seton Hall competes for most of those players anyway. So, I don’t think that part of it will affect Seton Hall very much. I think (the Pirates) could be helped by the fact they’re on national TV every game on FOX (and its networks) and they’re in the No. 1 media market in the country, so that might help them in competition with some of the comparable schools that they’re recruiting against. I think it’s good for the players and it will be more of a factor in football than in basketball.”
Looking back at his 17 years (and counting) broadcasting the Pirates, Popkin was asked by PirateCrew.com about his favorite visiting arenas.
“The toughest venue was Saint Mary’s in California,” he recalled. “It was a bandbox, it was loud. The team was very good that we had to play. Some of my favorites are Hinkle Fieldhouse, great history obviously and Butler has a tremendous band. I'm a big music guy, so I like that, big crowds, it just feels like college basketball there. Creighton has an NBA-sized arena, but has college fervency in the fan base so that’s a really good combination as well.
“My favorite is the Garden. I get the most excited to do games at the Garden, still.”
And what about the two head coaches he covered prior to Kevin Willard? Well, he spent three seasons as the co-host of Louis Orr’s coach’s show on the YES Network, “so, I got to talk a little bit more at length with him. Obviously, he’s a philosophical guy and a real mensch and it was cool for me because Louis Orr was the first autograph I ever got as a kid. He signed my game program in the early 1980s (as a New York Knick). To work with him closely was a nice experience.
“He was always very accommodating. I always felt he was treated rather unfairly. He took a so-so team to the NCAA tournament (in 2006) and people didn’t appreciate it and I felt like that was wrong and that he deserved better.”
Orr was fired after that season and replaced by Bobby Gonzalez.
“Nobody knew more basketball and loved basketball more than Bobby,” Popkin said. “I felt like he got undone by his own paranoid tendencies. He felt like everybody was out to get him when that was not the case and that was counterproductive for him. He was obviously a great quote but those were some hard years. He would pick fights with everybody.”
Popkin considers himself very fortunate to be doing a job he loves.
“It's really been a great run at Seton Hall,” he said, “ and it’s now over 500 games with Gary and (engineer) Mike Infantino . It's been a great marriage as far as that goes. I still enjoy the games and our travel party and the whole art of putting the broadcast on. I miss that part of it (in the off-season) and I still enjoy that.”
Infantino is the unsung hero of the broadcasts and someone who has become a close friend of Popkin’s.
“He's taken over the family business,” Popkin explained. “His father Carl is the godfather of radio engineers in New York. Mike learned from him and is able to think on his feet and fix things when they go wrong. He is able to do all of the advance work for us with IP lines and phone lines and equipment so that Gary and I don’t have to worry about any of it. We sit down and we do the game. Having been on the other side of it, in minor league baseball, when you have to worry about each time you get knocked off the air, or there’s an issue with the crowd mic, or whatever, we can walk into the game with a clear mind.”
And as for the 2020-21 season, whenever it happens, “I'm encouraged,” Popkin said. “I think the rotation is going to be a strong one and that they’re going to score points and that it’s an NCAA tournament team in my view. Now when we start the season is anybody’s guess, but it’s certainly a top half of the Big East type of team, and those kind of teams make the tournament.”
Dave Popkin and co-director Tim Capstraw, radio analyst for the Brooklyn Nets, once again will be the lead instructors for the Sports Broadcasting Camp in July, which normally is held at Montclair State University but is going virtual this year. Speakers include Gary Cohen, Ian Eagle, Sarah Kustok, Chris Carrino, Kenny Albert and Jared Greenberg. Go to https://www.sportsbroadcastingcamp.com/ for more information.
By JP Pelzman
There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the 2020-21 college basketball season, uncertainty like never before. Questions such as when will it actually start? Will there be fans in attendance? And, a question that would have seemed preposterous, oh, about, four months ago. Will there actually be a 2021 NCAA tournament?
Still, with all these question marks hovering over the college hoops landscape, longtime Seton Hall radio analyst Dave Popkin can point to one constant that should give Seton Hall fans confidence that the program’s unprecedented run of success will continue no matter what. That constant is head coach Kevin Willard, who will be entering his 11th season as the Pirates’ head coach and had assuredly sewn up a fifth consecutive NCAA berth and the program’s highest seed since 1993 until the coronavirus pandemic stole the hopes and dreams of Seton Hall and 67 other teams.
“Kevin is just so focused,” Popkin marveled. “Whenever I look up, immediately after the game, he’s already watching film and trying to get better for the next game. He really has that fire in his belly and takes the responsibility of leading the team very seriously. He’s just no-nonsense. I think he’s matured in a lot of ways as a coach and a person but that fire doesn’t go away. He really wants to win and I think Seton Hall is lucky to have him.”
Popkin, an analyst opposite legendary play-by-play man Gary Cohen but also an excellent lead broadcaster for Northeast Conference basketball and a play-by-play announcer for NEC football, is impressed by Willard’s ability to be both a motivator and father figure to his team.
"It's hard when you’re a leader to be both feared and loved,” Popkin said, “and I feel like every year he’s able to improve in that and walk that line and you see that he’s firm. He's not going to take BS from these guys but at the same time, (Myles) Powell, (Quincy) McKnight, Sandro (Mamukelashvili), they love him and they buy in and they listen to him. Sometimes it’s hard to keep the attention of a locker room. But I don’t think he’s had that issue. I think it’s a tough balance.”
After guiding Seton Hall to a three-way tie for first place in the Big East and a likely No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament That Never Was, Willard now will face the challenge of replacing the scoring of first-team Associated Press All-American Powell, the floor generalship of McKnight and the shot-blocking presence of Big East Defensive Player of the Year Romaro Gill.
“I think that those two losses collectively (McKnight and Gill) could be bigger than the Powell loss,” Popkin said. “Because you have (Harvard grad transfer) Bryce Aiken and (Canisius sitout transfer) Takal Molson coming in and they’ll score 30 points collectively. So I think you’ll be able to get Powell’s offense replaced by the new guards.
“I don’t know who replaces Quincy’s intangibles at the point,” Popkin continued. “You really have three combo guards now on the team, which gives you versatility, but he became a closer at the end of games, not turning the ball over, making a big shot, making his free throws, knowing when to take the air out of the ball. That turned a good team into a great team, in my opinion.”
“And with Gill, you saw the difference” from 2018-19, the veteran announcer said. “The year before, when he didn’t play, (the Pirates) didn’t block shots and they got out-rebounded. When he played at his top level this year, that is what made them a dominant defensive team. You had two of three best defensive players in the Big East on one team (along with Creighton’s Ty-Shon Alexander) and who replaces that? That’s a concern. But that said, you look at the rotation for next year, it’s pretty deep and there’s good talent there. I think they’ll be good. It's just going to be different.”
Going forward, how does Popkin think Seton Hall will be affected by the proposed NCAA transfer rule allowing student-athletes to be eligible to play immediately for their new teams without sitting out a year? That was tabled until at least next year, the NCAA announced Wednesday.
Popkin commented, “It’s hard to say. It will be good for the players and it will be the Wild West for the coaches and programs in general. I think you’ll see the number of transfers double. I think you’ll see coaches being nicer to players because they’ll lose some of their leverage. My gut says that it won’t affect Seton Hall that much. The only guys that have transferred (from The Hall) are the guys that are not playing and that it pretty consistent across every program.”
As for another proposal allowing collegiate players to profit from their likenesses and endorsement deals, Popkin accurately said, “It would have been good for Myles Powell,” but then quickly noted not many programs have players such as Powell, who make that kind of an impact through their play and their personality.
“There are not that many basketball players,” he said, “that cut through the public consciousness and are worthy of big endorsement deals. They don’t stay long enough. They're not in the limelight long enough. Do I think that the rich will get richer in some cases? Will North Carolina and Kansas (and other top-10 programs) be able to offer five-star players who were only going to stay one or two years anyway some good endorsement contracts in the local businesses? Yes.
“I don’t think Seton Hall competes for most of those players anyway. So, I don’t think that part of it will affect Seton Hall very much. I think (the Pirates) could be helped by the fact they’re on national TV every game on FOX (and its networks) and they’re in the No. 1 media market in the country, so that might help them in competition with some of the comparable schools that they’re recruiting against. I think it’s good for the players and it will be more of a factor in football than in basketball.”
Looking back at his 17 years (and counting) broadcasting the Pirates, Popkin was asked by PirateCrew.com about his favorite visiting arenas.
“The toughest venue was Saint Mary’s in California,” he recalled. “It was a bandbox, it was loud. The team was very good that we had to play. Some of my favorites are Hinkle Fieldhouse, great history obviously and Butler has a tremendous band. I'm a big music guy, so I like that, big crowds, it just feels like college basketball there. Creighton has an NBA-sized arena, but has college fervency in the fan base so that’s a really good combination as well.
“My favorite is the Garden. I get the most excited to do games at the Garden, still.”
And what about the two head coaches he covered prior to Kevin Willard? Well, he spent three seasons as the co-host of Louis Orr’s coach’s show on the YES Network, “so, I got to talk a little bit more at length with him. Obviously, he’s a philosophical guy and a real mensch and it was cool for me because Louis Orr was the first autograph I ever got as a kid. He signed my game program in the early 1980s (as a New York Knick). To work with him closely was a nice experience.
“He was always very accommodating. I always felt he was treated rather unfairly. He took a so-so team to the NCAA tournament (in 2006) and people didn’t appreciate it and I felt like that was wrong and that he deserved better.”
Orr was fired after that season and replaced by Bobby Gonzalez.
“Nobody knew more basketball and loved basketball more than Bobby,” Popkin said. “I felt like he got undone by his own paranoid tendencies. He felt like everybody was out to get him when that was not the case and that was counterproductive for him. He was obviously a great quote but those were some hard years. He would pick fights with everybody.”
Popkin considers himself very fortunate to be doing a job he loves.
“It's really been a great run at Seton Hall,” he said, “ and it’s now over 500 games with Gary and (engineer) Mike Infantino . It's been a great marriage as far as that goes. I still enjoy the games and our travel party and the whole art of putting the broadcast on. I miss that part of it (in the off-season) and I still enjoy that.”
Infantino is the unsung hero of the broadcasts and someone who has become a close friend of Popkin’s.
“He's taken over the family business,” Popkin explained. “His father Carl is the godfather of radio engineers in New York. Mike learned from him and is able to think on his feet and fix things when they go wrong. He is able to do all of the advance work for us with IP lines and phone lines and equipment so that Gary and I don’t have to worry about any of it. We sit down and we do the game. Having been on the other side of it, in minor league baseball, when you have to worry about each time you get knocked off the air, or there’s an issue with the crowd mic, or whatever, we can walk into the game with a clear mind.”
And as for the 2020-21 season, whenever it happens, “I'm encouraged,” Popkin said. “I think the rotation is going to be a strong one and that they’re going to score points and that it’s an NCAA tournament team in my view. Now when we start the season is anybody’s guess, but it’s certainly a top half of the Big East type of team, and those kind of teams make the tournament.”
Dave Popkin and co-director Tim Capstraw, radio analyst for the Brooklyn Nets, once again will be the lead instructors for the Sports Broadcasting Camp in July, which normally is held at Montclair State University but is going virtual this year. Speakers include Gary Cohen, Ian Eagle, Sarah Kustok, Chris Carrino, Kenny Albert and Jared Greenberg. Go to https://www.sportsbroadcastingcamp.com/ for more information.
