Pirates Head To The Rocket Mortgage Fort Myers Tip-Off - Seton Hall University Athletics
Game 4: No. 19 Ohio State (3-1, 0-0 Big Ten) vs. Seton Hall Pirates (3-0, 0-0 BIG EAST)
Game 4: No. 19 Ohio State (3-1, 0-0 Big Ten) vs. Seton Hall Pirates (3-0, 0-0 BIG EAST)
Monday, Nov. 22 • Suncoast Credit Union Arena (3,500) • 6 p.m.
TV: FS1 with Brandon Gaudin & Bill Raftery
Web: FOX Sports Live
Radio: AM970 / XM 385 / SXM app 975 / Pirate Sports Network & TuneIn with Gary Cohen & Dave Popkin
Game Notes: Seton Hall | Ohio State
Follow Along: Instagram | Twitter
NOTES YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Seton Hall will face No. 19 Ohio State in its first game of the Rocket Mortgage Fort Myers Tip-Off on Monday, Nov. 22 at 6 p.m. on FS1.
- The Pirates will play the winner of Monday's second game between No. 24 Florida and Cal on Wednesday.
- Seton Hall is off to its first 3-0 start since 2017-18.
- The Pirates are expected to be ranked on Monday for the first time since the final Associated Press Top 25 Poll of the 2019-20 season.
- Seton Hall is 170-62 all-time when ranked in the AP Top 25.
- The Pirates' 67-65 win at No. 4 Michigan was the program's 10th all-time win over an Associated Press top-five ranked team and their first-ever on the road against a non-conference opponent.
- Head coach Kevin Willard is 10-5 against Big Ten teams in his Seton Hall tenure.
- Seton Hall has now overcome a double-digit, second-half deficit on the road against a Big Ten team in back-to-back seasons; the Pirates trailed by 11 last week vs. Michigan and last season the Pirates rallied from down 19 to win at Penn State.
- The Pirates rank 16th nationally in adjusted defense by KenPom and have held their first three opponents to 65 points of less on 8-of-60 shooting from three-point range (13.3 percent).
- Through three games, the Pirates have seven players that average at least 9.0 points per game and four players averaging double figures.
- No Seton Hall player is averaging more than 25.5 minutes per game.
- Graduate student Myles Cale (Middletown, Del.) is tied for ninth in program history with 128 career games played and ranks 43rd all-time in Seton Hall scoring history with 1,020 points.
- Just two full seasons and three games into his Seton Hall career, graduate student Ike Obiagu (Abuja, Nigeria) is tied with Glenn Mosley for No. 8 on the Pirates' all-time blocks list with 125.
- Seton Hall's combined margin of victory in its first two games was 80, its highest total since winning by a combined 82 points over its first two games back in 1956-57.
- The last time Seton Hall held two opponents to under 50 points in consecutive games was in 2005 against Northwestern (L, 42-44) and Morgan State (W, 93-46).
- The Pirates return four of their top six scorers from last season, add three transfers who have combined for over 1,400 career Div. I points scored and bring in a top-25 rated freshman recruiting class that will help Seton Hall once again compete for another conference championship and NCAA Tournament bid.
- The Pirates were picked to finish fifth in the BIG EAST Preseason Poll and senior Jared Rhoden (Baldwin, N.Y.) was named Preseason All-BIG EAST First Team.
- In head coach Kevin Willard's 11 seasons, the Pirates have met or exceeded their preseason poll rank eight times.
- Seton Hall is no stranger to testing themselves by playing in early-season tournaments during the regular season.
- Most recently, the Pirates took home the Wooden Legacy title in 2018-19 with wins over Grand Canyon, Hawai'i and Miami.
- The Pirates last played in a Feast Week tournament at the Battle 4 Atlantis in 2019-20 where they went 2-1 with wins over Iowa State, Southern Miss and suffered a narrow 71-69 defeat to Oregon.
- The Pirates are 110-79 all-time in regular season tournaments with 17 championships.
- Under head coach Kevin Willard, the Pirates are 31-13 in in-season tournaments and showcase games.
- The Hall has won two regular season tournament titles under Willard (2014 Paradise Jam; 2018 Wooden Legacy).
- Seton Hall is 2-3 all-time against Ohio State in a series that dates back to 1960
- The Pirates won the last meeting on Dec. 20, 2003 at the old Continental Airlines Arena (75-59), a game that assistant coach Donald Copeland played in.
- Ohio State assistant coach Tony Skinn served under Kevin Willard at Seton Hall from 2018-21, helping coach the Pirates to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2018-19 and the 2020 BIG EAST regular season championship.
- Chris Holtmann was 5-1 against the Pirates in three seasons as the head coach at Butler.
- An area of strength for the Pirates is their depth as at least nine or more players have seen the floor through the season's first three games.
- Seton Hall's bench has outscored its opponent's reserves 95-34 in three contests.
- It proved to be key in the win at No. 4 Michigan where 37 of Seton Hall's 65 points were scored by players off the bench.
- The Pirates' super subs are led by graduate student Bryce Aiken (Randolph, N.J.) and junior Tray Jackson (Detroit, Mich.) who average 12.3 and 10.7 points per game, respectively.
- A major point of emphasis for the Pirates entering the 2021-22 season was getting back to its roots as a program that prides itself on its defense.
- What has helped is the Pirates' length as they rank 13th nationally in average height according to KenPom and fourth in KenPom's effective height metric (the average height of the center and power forward position).
- The Pirates currently rank 15th in the country in KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency ranking.
- Seton Hall is allowing opponents to shoot 31.4 percent from the field and a miniscule 13.3 percent (8-for-60) from the three-point line.
- The Pirates held its first two opponents -- FDU and preseason Ivy League favorite Yale -- to only 49 and 44 points, respectively.
- The last time Seton Hall held two opponents to under 50 points in consecutive games was in 2005 against Northwestern (L, 42-44) and Morgan State (W, 93-46).
- The last time the Pirates held its opponents to 65 points or less in three consecutive games was from Dec. 6-12, 2016 against Hawai'i (68-57), Cal (60-57) and South Carolina (67-64).
