This five part series will chronicle the past four years and will touch on the individual seasons following the commitments of Isaiah Whitehead and his fellow class of 2018 teammates.
At the conclusion of each season I will attach a grade for head coach Kevin Willard.
2015
Relevant Kenpom stats at the conclusion of the season
#83 Seton Hall BE 16-15 6-12
Conference-only offense 8th
Conference-only defense 7th
Tied for 7th with DePaul
Beaten in Big East Tournament by last place Marquette 78-56
Final RPI
Seton Hall #103
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Did Charles Dickens know something that we didn't in the fall of 2014?
Prior to the beginning of the 2014/15 season euphoria might have been the word most associated with Pirate basketball. After four seasons with Kevin Willard at the helm and only 1 NIT victory, a 63-61 rock fight at Walsh over Stony Brook to show for it, a recruiting class not seen since the early days of Tommy Amaker was coming to South Orange with the express purpose to, in their words, put Seton Hall back on the basketball map.
The class was led by top 5 HS recruit Isiah Whitehead and top 35 Angel Delgado. They were supplemented by two high school standouts Khadeen Carrington and Desi Rodriguez and two under recruited players in Ish Sanogo and Mike Nzei.
Surely this group added to returning players Sterling Gibbs, Brandon Mobley, and Jaren Sina would instantly change the fortunes of the Pirates. And on January 10th 2015 after the Hall took down Creighton on the Blue Jays home court and improved their overall record to 13-3, 3-1 in conference you would have had a difficult time finding anyone who would disagree.
Surely it was the Best of Times in South Orange. Especially when the rotation included only one senior, that being Mobley.
But as it turned out it was only fools gold. Who could have possibly foreseen that from that date forward the Hall would finish the season losing 12 of their last 15 games punctuated by an embarrassing no show 20 point loss to Marquette at the Garden to the worst team in the conference?
After that game rumors abounded that Kevin Willard was looking to leave the program or maybe worse be fired.
Clearly what at first seemed so promising deteriorated into a disaster. It was the worst of Times in South Orange.
The question on the minds of the Seton Hall community is where did it all go so wrong? The answer probably began far earlier than anyone could have imagined.
After finishing the prior season 17-17, 6-12 in the Big East, freshman Jaren Sina wanted to transfer out of the program. With so little talent on the roster Kevin Willard had a sit down with Sina and his father trying to convince each that Jaren staying at the Hall was his best option. Eventually Willard satisfied both father and son that was the best immediate course of action. But that decision came with a price, guaranteed playing time. An issue that didn't seem important at the time but became a major one with the future influx of talent on its way.
In short playing Sina, especially at his comfortable position the point meant that the far more talented Whitehead had to play small forward bumping the obvious choice to play there Desi Rodriquez to the back-up 4 behind Mobley, and sending Sanogo to the bench and out of the rotation.
At first this lineup seemed to work as noted by the team's 13-3 start which included winning the Paradise Jam Tournament title in St Thomas in front of an appreciative pro Seton Hall crowd that followed the Pirates to the Virgin Islands.
But there was an undercurrent of locker room disharmony brewing. One that did not rear it's ugly head until the losing began.
Sina, who clearly was not having a good season was eating up a lot of minutes on the court and it was affecting the far more talented freshmen who saw their minutes greatly reduced because of that.
Eventually it came to a head when Willard finally gave in to the obvious and benched his starting PG deep into the season in a game at the Rock. The benching did nothing to stop the losing streak and the season for all intents and purposes was lost. But in the aftermath of the loss Sina so enraged by the benching stormed off the court at the conclusion of the game and confronted the team in a loud rant when they joined him in the locker room.
As one would expect that did not end well with a near fight among teammates the result and Sina leaving the locker room still in his uniform. The next day it was announced that the sophomore guard had left the team.
In short it was obvious that Kevin Willard did not handle the situation well and the result as all SHU fans will sadly remember was the rumors that the head coach was looking for greener pastures not being happy at the Hall.
Kevin Willard's 2015 season grade: F
Next part, the rebirth.
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
COMMENTS.
At the conclusion of each season I will attach a grade for head coach Kevin Willard.
2015
Relevant Kenpom stats at the conclusion of the season
#83 Seton Hall BE 16-15 6-12
Conference-only offense 8th
Conference-only defense 7th
Tied for 7th with DePaul
Beaten in Big East Tournament by last place Marquette 78-56
Final RPI
Seton Hall #103
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Did Charles Dickens know something that we didn't in the fall of 2014?
Prior to the beginning of the 2014/15 season euphoria might have been the word most associated with Pirate basketball. After four seasons with Kevin Willard at the helm and only 1 NIT victory, a 63-61 rock fight at Walsh over Stony Brook to show for it, a recruiting class not seen since the early days of Tommy Amaker was coming to South Orange with the express purpose to, in their words, put Seton Hall back on the basketball map.
The class was led by top 5 HS recruit Isiah Whitehead and top 35 Angel Delgado. They were supplemented by two high school standouts Khadeen Carrington and Desi Rodriguez and two under recruited players in Ish Sanogo and Mike Nzei.
Surely this group added to returning players Sterling Gibbs, Brandon Mobley, and Jaren Sina would instantly change the fortunes of the Pirates. And on January 10th 2015 after the Hall took down Creighton on the Blue Jays home court and improved their overall record to 13-3, 3-1 in conference you would have had a difficult time finding anyone who would disagree.
Surely it was the Best of Times in South Orange. Especially when the rotation included only one senior, that being Mobley.
But as it turned out it was only fools gold. Who could have possibly foreseen that from that date forward the Hall would finish the season losing 12 of their last 15 games punctuated by an embarrassing no show 20 point loss to Marquette at the Garden to the worst team in the conference?
After that game rumors abounded that Kevin Willard was looking to leave the program or maybe worse be fired.
Clearly what at first seemed so promising deteriorated into a disaster. It was the worst of Times in South Orange.
The question on the minds of the Seton Hall community is where did it all go so wrong? The answer probably began far earlier than anyone could have imagined.
After finishing the prior season 17-17, 6-12 in the Big East, freshman Jaren Sina wanted to transfer out of the program. With so little talent on the roster Kevin Willard had a sit down with Sina and his father trying to convince each that Jaren staying at the Hall was his best option. Eventually Willard satisfied both father and son that was the best immediate course of action. But that decision came with a price, guaranteed playing time. An issue that didn't seem important at the time but became a major one with the future influx of talent on its way.
In short playing Sina, especially at his comfortable position the point meant that the far more talented Whitehead had to play small forward bumping the obvious choice to play there Desi Rodriquez to the back-up 4 behind Mobley, and sending Sanogo to the bench and out of the rotation.
At first this lineup seemed to work as noted by the team's 13-3 start which included winning the Paradise Jam Tournament title in St Thomas in front of an appreciative pro Seton Hall crowd that followed the Pirates to the Virgin Islands.
But there was an undercurrent of locker room disharmony brewing. One that did not rear it's ugly head until the losing began.
Sina, who clearly was not having a good season was eating up a lot of minutes on the court and it was affecting the far more talented freshmen who saw their minutes greatly reduced because of that.
Eventually it came to a head when Willard finally gave in to the obvious and benched his starting PG deep into the season in a game at the Rock. The benching did nothing to stop the losing streak and the season for all intents and purposes was lost. But in the aftermath of the loss Sina so enraged by the benching stormed off the court at the conclusion of the game and confronted the team in a loud rant when they joined him in the locker room.
As one would expect that did not end well with a near fight among teammates the result and Sina leaving the locker room still in his uniform. The next day it was announced that the sophomore guard had left the team.
In short it was obvious that Kevin Willard did not handle the situation well and the result as all SHU fans will sadly remember was the rumors that the head coach was looking for greener pastures not being happy at the Hall.
Kevin Willard's 2015 season grade: F
Next part, the rebirth.
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
COMMENTS.
