Media release
RELOADED, NOT REBUILDING
7 AND 80 ARE THE HALL’S MAGIC NUMBERS
POWELL, GILL INK NBA DEALS
- Seton Hall is looking to respond after a setback at Rhode Island on Wednesday evening – the Pirates’ first of four games in seven days in four different states.
- The Pirates were 5-3 last season and are 1-0 this season when following a loss.
- Head coach Kevin Willard is tied with Frank Hill (1911-30) for third all-time in career coaching victories at Seton Hall with 191.
- The Pirates have 25 wins vs. AP top-25 teams in Willard’s tenure and they had four last season, with three of those victories coming against top-10 teams.
- The Hall has had a player record a double-double in all three games this season – junior Jared Rhoden (Baldwin, N.Y.) dropped 26 points and 10 rebounds against Iona (11/30/20) and senior Sandro Mamukelashvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) posted 22 and 10 at Louisville (11/27/20) and 25 and 10 Rhode Island (12/2/20).
- The Hall is 21-12 (.636) in neutral site games since the start of the 2015-16 season.
- With conference play only one week away, this will be the fewest non-conference games Seton Hall will have played before a BIG EAST game since 1997-98. The Pirates played only five games before facing Villanova on Dec. 2, 1997.
- Seton Hall and Oregon have played twice in their histories and the series is tied at 1-1.
- Following Friday’s contest, all three games in the series will have been played on neutral courts; Seton Hall’s 72-71 victory in the first round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament in Buffalo, Oregon’s 71-69 win at the Battle 4 Atlantis on Nov. 27, 2019 and Friday’s game at CHI Health Center Omaha.
- Through the first three games of his senior season, Sandro Mamukelashvili is living up to the preseason accolades and expectations bestowed upon him.
- “Mamu”, as he’s affectionately known, was named to the Preseason All-BIG EAST first team and watch lists for the Naismith Trophy and the Karl Malone Award in the preseason.
- He currently leads the BIG EAST in scoring with 21.7 points per game is and tied for fifth with 9.0 rebounds per game.
- He kicked things off the right way against Louisville where led the Pirates with 22 points and 10 rebounds for his eighth career double-double.
- Against Iona, he proved to be a matchup nightmare again as he dropped 18 points, pulled down seven rebounds and dished out two assists.
- His second double-double in three games came against Rhode Island where he put up 25 points and 10 rebounds.
- Mamukelashvili’s strong start follows a difficult 2019-20 season that saw him lose 10 games due to a wrist injury and go through the NBA Draft process over the summer before electing to return for his senior year.
- Mamukelashvili averaged 15.1 points and 7.8 rebounds while shooting 57 percent from the field and 50 percent from three over the final eight games of 2019-20.
- Jared Rhoden turned in a solid showing in the season opener at Louisville (11 points, six rebounds, three assists), but he really showed what kind of player that Kevin Willard and preseason prognosticators thought he could be against Iona.
- Rhoden erupted for a career-high 26 points to go along with 10 rebounds against the Gaels, marking his third career double-double.
- He found himself in double-figures again at Rhode Island where he posted 10 points and six rebounds.
- Last season, Rhoden blossomed in BIG EAST play when turned into one of the Pirates’ top rebounders and consistent scorers.
- In 18 conference games, Rhoden made 12 starts and averaged 9.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game with a 44.6 three-point percentage and a 50.0 field goal percentage.
- His clip in BIG EAST games from three-point range ranked fourth in the conference while his boards per contest ranked seventh.
- Shavar Reynolds, Jr.’s Seton Hall career began as a scrappy role player. He’s since turned himself into the Pirates’ starting point guard through the season’s first three games.
- His second career start came in this season’s opener at Louisville where he put up 11 points, three rebounds and three assists in 28 minutes.
- In the win over Iona, Reynolds, Jr. dished out a career best eight assists to go along with five steals and five points.
- His eight assists led to 19 team points & his five steals led to eight points on Seton Hall’s ensuing possession
- The guard was one of Kevin Willard’s first options off the bench in 2019-20 after shooting 47.8 percent from three-point range and oftentimes guarding the opposing team’s top scorer in all 30 games.
- Reynolds, Jr.’s workmanlike nature can be credited to his upbringing – his mother, Teekemia, is a social worker and his father, Shavar, Sr., is a retired U.S. Navy Master at Arms who served for 21 years.
RELOADED, NOT REBUILDING
- Despite losing three very critical members of the 2019-20 team, Seton Hall still returns 44 percent of its scoring, 63 percent of its rebounding and 50 percent of its three-pointers made from last season’s BIG EAST Championship squad.
- Plus, the Pirates gain the services of two transfers who have combined for over 2,000 points at the Div. I level.
- One of those transfers is Bryce Aiken (Randolph, N.J.), a two-time All-Ivy League honoree who scored 1,090 points and issued 174 assists in 65 career games with Harvard.
- His success in Cambridge impressed enough BIG EAST coaches that Aiken was named Preseason All-BIG EAST Honorable Mention entering his first season in the conference.
- The second transfer is Takal Molson (Buffalo, N.Y.), the 2018 MAAC Rookie of the Year and a first-team All-MAAC selection at Canisius.
- Through three games, Molson is averaging 7.0 points and 4.3 rebounds while providing a stout defensive presence off the bench.
7 AND 80 ARE THE HALL’S MAGIC NUMBERS
- In recent years, there have been two key scoring trends that have come about in Seton Hall victories; one is a seven-point lead, the other is scoring 80 points.
- The Hall is 102-13 (.887) since 2015-16 when its lead gets to seven points.
- The Pirates’ largest lead in the win over Iona on Monday was 30 late in the second half.
- Under head coach Kevin Willard, the Hall is 79-8 (.908) when it scores 80 points or more.
- The Pirates also hit that mark in their 86-64 victory over the Gaels.
POWELL, GILL INK NBA DEALS
- Former Seton Hall men’s basketball All-American Myles Powell signed a free agent contract with the New York Knicks on Nov. 29 to begin his professional career.
- The next day, the Utah Jazz announced that they had inked BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year Romaro Gill to a free agent deal.
- Powell’s signing with New York is apropos. The Knicks’ home court is Madison Square Garden, where Powell shined for four years while representing The Hall.
- In 13 career games at The World’s Most Famous Arena, Powell averaged 19.9 points while shooting 45 percent from the field, 41 percent from three and 74 percent from the free throw line.
- Powell was the 2020 recipient of the Jerry West National Shooting Guard of the Year Award and Seton Hall’s first NCAA consensus first-team All-American since 1953. He also was the BIG EAST Player of the Year and the Lieutenant Frank J. Haggerty Metropolitan Player of the Year.
- Gill developed into a force in the paint and one of the most feared rim protectors in the country en route to BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year and BIG EAST Most Improved Player honors.
- He led the BIG EAST in blocks per game, averaging 3.2 per game, and was the league’s blocks champion with 3.4 blocks during the 18-game conference schedule.
- He was only the third Pirate to lead the BIG EAST in rejections, joining Eddie Griffin (2001) and Samuel Dalembert (2000).
