Pirates Visit The Garden, St. John's on Sunday in Search of Sixth Road Win (FS1, Noon)

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SHU aims for first season sweep of Red Storm since 2004-05

Feb. 19, 2016

Game 26 // BIG EAST Game 14 // Away Game 9
Seton Hall (18-7, 8-5 BIG EAST) at St. John's (8-19, 1-13 BIG EAST)

Date Sunday, Feb. 21 | 12:00 p.m. ET
Location Madison Square Garden | New York, N.Y.
Tickets Upcoming Home Games | Pre-Paid Parking
Tune in FS1 | FOX Sports GO
Links Live Stats | Seton Hall Radio (PSN) | @SetonHallMBB on Twitter | #HALLin
Notes Media Central | Seton Hall Notes

The Tip

Coming off yet another successful road trip, the Seton Hall men's basketball team looks to keep rolling on Sunday when the Pirates will make the short journey to the World's Most Famous Arena in search of a second win over longtime rival St. John's.

The Hall currently has a firm hold on third-place in the BIG EAST standings after completing the season sweep of Georgetown with a 72-64 win in the nation's capital on Wednesday; improving to 18-7 overall and 8-5 in BIG EAST play in the process.

Sophomore Isaiah Whitehead (Brooklyn, N.Y.) continued to distinguish himself among the conference's elite; delivering a 22-point, six-assist effort that continued what has been a prodiguous run over the last six outings - a span in which the former McDonald's All-American has averaged 21.0 ppg and 6.2 apg while shooting a lights-out 59.0 percent from beyond the arc.

Classmates Khadeen Carrington (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Desi Rodriguez (Bronx, N.Y.) added 18 and 17 points respectively while the man in the middle, Angel Delgado (Bajos De Haina, Dominican Republic), finished with seven points and a game-high 11 boards to help lift SHU to its fifth win in the last six games.

That six-game stretch began with a 79-60 Seton Hall victory over St. John's (8-19, 1-13 BIG EAST) at Prudential Center (1/27) that featured a well-balanced attack with Whitehead pouring in 19 points and Delgado (15), Carrington (11), Rodriguez (8), Derrick Gordon (Plainfield, N.J.) (8) and Ismael Sanogo (Newark, N.J.) (8) all scoring at least eight points.

The Red Storm only managed to shoot 29.2 percent (21-of-72) from the field in the first meeting with the Pirates but have topped the 40 percent mark in four of the five games since - most recently scoring an 80-65 home victory over DePaul on Wednesday that snapped a 16-game skid.

Leading scorers Durand Johnson and Federico Mussini combined for 35 points as STJ got into the win column for the first time in BIG EAST play while improving to 6-0 when holding their opponents to 65 points or less.

The Hall has scored more than 65 points in all eight meetings with St. John's during head coach Kevin Willard's tenure however, one that reached a milestone Wednesday when the sixth-year head man became the sixth head coach in program history to reach the 100-win mark.

The Pirates will look to begin the treck to 200 and continue the march to March with another victory on Sunday, one that would give the team six road victories for the season and match the program record of five wins away from home in BIG EAST play.

The Buzz

Tune In:Tim Brando and Tarik Turner will be behind the microphone for the live national broadcast on FS1. A stream of the contest will also be available online and through mobile devices via the FOX Sports GO app.
The Seton Hall radio team of Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin can be heard on AM970 (WNYM) with a simulcast available online at PirateSportsNet.tv as well as the Seton Hall Gameday App.

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For exclusive content and coverage throughout the season and especially on gameday, be sure to follow @SetonHallMBB on Twitter

Tickets
Seton Hall will wrap up the home portion of of its schedule next week with pivotal matchups against Providence (2/25, 7:00 p.m.) and Xavier (2/28, 12:30 p.m.). Tickets to upcoming home games are available and can be purchased online through Ticketmaster, by calling the Seton Hall Athletics Ticket Office at (973) 275-HALL (4255) or visiting the Prudential Center Box Office on gameday.

Pirate Points
- The Pirates completed a season sweep of Georgetown on Wednesday, prevailing 72-64 at the Verizon Center behind team-highs of 22 points and six assists for sophomore standout Isaiah Whitehead. Whitehead has been on fire shooting the ball and after going 4-of-5 from downtown against the Hoyas, the Brooklyn native is now 11-of-14 from beyond the arc in his last two outings. Over the last six games, he has led the team in scoring five times - topping the 20-point mark on four occasions - and finished with a team-leading assist total in each of the last five.

- During the six-game surge that has seen him average 21.0 points/game and nearly four treys per contest, Whitehead has knocked down 23-of-39 3-point attempts (.590). During the stretch, his 3-point percentage has risen from 30.0 percent to 37.6 percent for the season - a mark that currently stands ninth in the BIG EAST. The streak began with a 4-of-9 effort from deep in a 19-point win over St. John's prior to which he shot 11-of-41 (.268) on 3-pointers over the team's first seven conference games. With his shooting stroke thriving, Whitehead will enter Sunday's contest with the third-best 3-point percentage in the league since the start of conference play (.425)

- In year two at The Hall, Whitehead has blossomed into one of the most complete guards in the country, transitioning to the point guard position with results that place him among elite company. Entering the weekend, the former McDonald's All-American stands third in the BIG EAST in both scoring (16.8 ppg) and assists (4.9 apg) for the season, joining Providence's Kris Dunn (17.3 ppg/2nd, 6.6 apg/1st) and Michigan State's Denzel Valentine (19.7 ppg/1st, 7.3 apg/1st) as the only players in the power basketball conferences who rank among the top three of their respective league's in both categories.

- Due in large part to the current stellar run, Whitehead is now averaging 18.7 ppg and 5.7 apg in conference play, out-scoring last year's Co-BIG EAST Player of the Year Dunn (17.9 ppg in BIG EAST games) and nearly matching his assist average of 6.1 per contest while posting a better assist/turnover ratio (1.6/1.4). Getting the job done on both ends, Whitehead also leads all BIG EAST guards with 1.2 blocks/game against league foes.

- With the win over the Hoyas, Seton Hall completed its second sweep of Georgetown in the last three years and head coach Kevin Willard became the sixth head man ever to record 100 wins at The Hall. No Seton Hall coach had reached the 100-win mark since SHU Athletics Hall of Famer PJ Carlesimo did so during a 31-win 1988-89 campaign that culminated in a national championship game appearance. With the victory, Willard joined John "Honey" Russell (294 wins), Carlesimo (212), Frank Hill (178), Bill Raftery (154) and Richie Regan (112) in the exclusive group

- The Hall now sits at 8-5 in conference play, matching the program's high-water mark for BIG EAST wins during Willard's tenure. Four of those victories have come on the road and another on Sunday at The Garden would equal the Pirates' all-time high of five wins away from home in BIG EAST play. SHU has previously finished with five BIG EAST road wins four times, all of which were banner years in the illustrious history of the program:

1988-89 - 5-3 BIG EAST road record/11-5 conference record (2nd) // 31-7 overall, National Runner-up
1991-92 - 5-4 BIG EAST road record/12-6 conference record (1st) // 23-9 overall, Sweet 16
1992-93 - 5-4 BIG EAST road record/14-4 conference record (1st) // 28-7 overall, BE Tourn. Champs
1999-00 - 5-3 BIG EAST road record/10-6 conference record (5th) // 22-10 overall, Sweet 16

 

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- In sole possession of third place in the BIG EAST entering the weekend, the Pirates continue to make a push for the program's 10th all-time NCAA Tournament berth and its first since 2006. Seton Hall currently ranks as one of the top-50 teams in the nation according to the latest RPI rankings (42) and just outside the top-30 (31) according to KenPom.com. With five true road wins already to their credit, the Pirates own more away victories than 22 of the 41 teams ahead of them in the RPI ratings. SHU is 8-2 against the teams it leads in the BIG EAST standings and three of the squad's' five losses over the last 10 weeks have come to teams among the top-five in RPI (Villanova, 2x - 2 / Xavier - 5). All seven of the Pirates' losses overall have been against current RPI Top-100 opponents

- Sophomores Khadeen Carrington and Desi Rodriguez stepped up in a huge way to spur The Hall to its latest road victory over Georgetown, dropping 18 and 17 points respectively. Carrington, who averaged just 7.2 ppg in the 22 games in which Whitehead was active during their rookie campaigns - has combined with his fellow Brooklyn native to form the third-highest scoring tandem in the BIG EAST. Through 25 games, Carrington has scored in double-figures 21 times and ranks 12th in the league at 14.0 ppg overall. Rodriguez has sank 13 field goals while posting 17.5 ppg over the last two contests and has totaled 10+ points 15 times this year after doing so three times in 31 appearances as a freshman

- Big man Angel Delgado has continued to shine as well and on Wednesday, the 6-foot-9 sophomore gobbled up 11 rebounds to reach double-figures on the boards for the 17th time this season and the eighth since the start of conference play. Five of those double-digit rebounding efforts have come in the last six games, a stretch that began with a 15-point, 17-rebound performance against the Red Storm. In three career appearances against St. John's, Delgado has pulled down at least 12 boards in each and heads into Sunday's clash just three total rebounds behind Marquette's Henry Ellenson in the race for the rebounding title. Last year's BIG EAST Rookie of the Year and rebounding champion, Delgado would be just the sixth player to repeat as BIG EAST rebounding champion and the first since Notre Dame's Luke Harangody from 2007-09.

- In the first meeting with St. John's, each member of the all-sophomore starting lineup scored at least eight points, totaling 61 points between them to 60 for the Red Storm as a team. The effort is one of 22 in which Whitehead, Carrington, Rodriguez, Ismael Sanogo and Delgado have combined for over 50 points through 25 games but represents one of only two games in which all five have scored eight points or more (at Marquette, 12/30/15). Senior Derrick Gordon also finished with eight points against the Red Storm as part of the balanced effort, one of his 15 games with eight points or more this season - 13 of which have come in a reserve role.

- With a win Sunday, Seton Hall will have beaten St. John's twice in the same season for the first time since 2004-05. The Pirates and Red Storm have met 21 times at The Garden in the 94-game history of the series with STJ holding a 13-8 advantage. Fifteen of those meetings have taken place in the regular season

- By virtue of a victory at Creighton to close the month of January, the Pirates reached the 15-win plateau for the fifth consecutive season. This marks the first time since 1990-95 that The Hall has posted 15+ victories in five-straight years. SHU Athletics Hall of Famer PJ Carlesimo led the Pirates for the first four years of the stretch while George Blaney took over prior to the 1994-95 campaign. Sixth-year head coach Kevin Willard is the first Seton Hall coach to be at the helm for five consecutive 15+ win seasons in the BIG EAST era and is the first SHU head man to accomplish the feat since Bill Raftery did so in six-straight years from 1973-79. Including Raftery and Willard, eight different coaches have led SHU during that span.

- Seton Hall Athletics announced that in the fall, student-athlete academic performance reached a new all-time high for the 11th-straight semester. Head coach Kevin Willard's squad boasts six Dean's List honorees from the fall (Angel Delgado, Derrick Gordon, Michael Nzei, Desi Rodriguez, Veer Singh, Isaiah Whitehead) and increased its cumulative GPA to 3.18. The Willard-led Pirates earned an NCAA Public Recognition Award over the summer for posting a multiyear APR that ranks among the top-10 percent among all men's basketball teams and are part of a collection of 14 varsity programs at The Hall that all own a cumulative GPA over 3.1.


Scouting St. John's
- Durand Johnson scored 18 points to lead four Red Storm players in double figures as St. John's snapped a 16-game skid and picked up its first BIG EAST victory of the season with an 80-65 win over DePaul at Carnesecca Arena on Wednesday. Freshman point guard Federico Mussini - a starter in 11 of 13 previous conference games - added 17 points off the bench, all of which came in the 2nd half. The triumph was the first for STJ since beating Syracuse, 84-72, on December 13 and the squad had lost nine BIG EAST games by double-digits entering the matchup.

- The Red Storm dominated the glass against the Blue Demons, pulling down 49 boards to just 33 for the Blue Demons. The effort marked a season-best rebounding performance for St. John's during BIG EAST play and came after the team had not recorded more than 35 boards in any of its previous five outings. STJ recorded 40 rebounds in the first meeting with the Pirates but The Hall finished with a +16 advantage behind a season-high 56 boards

- Freshman big man Yankuba Sima has appeared in a reserve role in each of the last four outings after missing seven games, including the contest against SHU, due to injury. Sima started the first 16 games of his debut campaign and after swatting three shots against DePaul, he has recorded 54 blocks for an average of 2.7/game. Classmate Kassoum Yakwe blocked four shots in the series opener with The Hall and leads all freshmen with 2.86 blocks/game (11th nationally) as part of a Red Storm defense that stands fifth in Division I with 6.0 swats per contest.

- The win over DePaul marked the 6th time this season that St. John's has held its opponent to 65 points or less, all of which have come at home. The Red Storm is unbeaten in those six games but had held its opponent under 66 points since a 48-44 win over Niagara on December 9 before doing so on Wednesday

- STJ has shot 40 percent or better from the floor in four of the last five games with the lone exception being an 89-56 home loss to Butler on February 6 (15-of-49, .306). In the first meeting the Pirates held their longtime rivals to 29.2 percent from the floor; marking the first time Seton Hall held its opponent under 30 percent shooting since a first round BIG EAST Tournament victory over USF (.242) on March 12, 2013

- St. John's will be making its fourth of six scheduled appearances at Madison Square Garden during the regular season. STJ defeated Syracuse and St. Francis (N.Y.) (63-56, 12/6) at The Garden during non- conference play but has dropped league games against Georgetown (93-73, 1/13) and Villanova (68- 53, 1/31) in the building. STJ and Marquette were slated to play at MSG on January 23 but the game was moved to Carnesecca the following day due to winter weather and St. John's will return to The Garden on March 5 against Providence


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