PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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By JP Pelzman
There was no miracle comeback by the opponent. There were no last-minute mistakes on offense or defense, nor questionable, game-deciding calls by the officials that could be blamed.
And maybe all of that made this result, in a way, even more difficult to swallow.
Villanova didn’t need a favorable late whistle (although it got at least a couple early in the game) or late heroics to sweep the season series against Seton Hall. Instead, the third-ranked Wildcats led from start to finish in an 80-72 victory at Prudential Center, a win that really wasn’t as close as the score might indicate.
Jeremiah Robinson Earl led four scorers in double figures for Villanova (11-1, 6-0 Big East). Four players scored in double digits for Seton Hall (9-8, 6-5), led by Shavar Reynolds with 13. Star stretch four Sandro Mamukelashvili had a rough day, with 12 points on 4-for-15 shooting.
Had these been normal times, and had Villanova coach Jay Wright been sporting one of his tailored Italian suits, he wouldn’t even have needed to send it to be dry cleaned. That’s because he would have sweated very little once a 17-3 run put Villanova ahead 26-12 with 7:46 left in the first half.
He also didn’t perspire very much in the final two minutes because the Pirates never got closer than six points down the stretch.
“Our confidence is still high,” senior wing Myles Cale said, adding, “we still believe in each other. We're not going to turn away from each other. … We still think we have a chance, so we’re going to go back in the lab and fix things.”
There is plenty to repair. During that decisive run, the Pirates committed four turnovers and Villanova made two of four three-pointers. For the game, the Wildcats were 10-for-22 (45.5%) from long distance. Creighton was 17-for-35 (48.6%) from beyond the arc in its comeback win against The Hall three days earlier.
That prompted Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard to say afterward that Seton Hall’s three-point defense was “terrible, and that’s an improvement from horrific the other night. It's mind-boggling. We're working really hard on the defensive end, and we're in position, but we're having little breakdowns at really bad times with the wrong guys. That kills you against good teams.”
Point guard Reynolds echoed that.
“We have to guard the three-point line,” he said. “If we can limit those makes, it changes the whole perspective of the game. It's the details. We play good defense for 20, 22 seconds, then we have a breakdown. If we clean up those details, we’ll be perfectly fine.”
With that in mind, COVID permitting, the Pirates will have to lock in on Providence A.J. Reeves, who went 6-for-12 from three-point range for the Friars (9-8, 5-6) who otherwise went 2-for-9 from long distance in a 73-72 come-from-ahead loss to woeful Georgetown on Saturday. The Hoyas snapped a five-game skid and were coming off a three-week coronavirus pause. They rallied from a 15-point first-half deficit.
After that game, the Pirates are scheduled to visit Connecticut on Saturday at noon before returning home to host Marquette on Valentine’s Day. Willard said that it appears the Pirates at some point will make up the road game at Butler that was postponed, but not the home game against Xavier that was scratched, which would leave them with only 19 conference games as they pursue and NCAA Tournament bid.
He was asked how big this upcoming week will be.
“At this point, every week is big,” he replied. “Once you get to February, you stop eating, you stop being happy and you start kicking the dog. … We’ve got to rebound (mentally), get back after it on the defensive end, more than anything and get ready to play two tough teams.”
