PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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By JP Pelzman
Wednesday was a night for the Seton Hall Pirates to look back at what at they’ve accomplished and look forward at what is to come.
But what happened in between the pregame Senior Night festivities and the postgame interviews was both frightening and satisfying.
The Pirates (19-9, 10-8) kept alive their hopes of a fifth-place finish, and thus, a first-round bye in the Big East tournament by outlasting woeful Georgetown at the Prudential Center, 73-68. Seton Hall must beat host Creighton (20-9, 12-6) on Saturday and have visiting St. John’s (16-13, 8-10) upend free-falling Marquette (18-11, 10-8) that same day. Marquette has lost six of its last eight games
If it doesn’t play out that way, the Pirates will get the sixth seed and play Georgetown (6-23, 0-18) again, this time in the first round of the Big East tournament next Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.
"Senior night has become a really big deal here because of the consistency that we’ve had at keeping guys,” said Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard, who then mentioned each of the players honored in pregame ceremonies.
There were six of them, super senior Myles Cale, the program’s all-time leader in games played; senior star Jared Rhoden, grad student and shot-blocker extraordinaire Ike Obiagu; and transfers Jamir Harris, Alexis Yenta and Bryce Aiken, the latter of whom was in sweats and still is out due to a concussion, his second in less than a year.
Rhoden said of the pregame ceremonies, “It was just like a blur,” adding, “We were lost in the beginning (of the game.) It took us a little while to settle in.”
Willard said, “It's my least favorite night of the year, obviously and this has been a really good group. … It’s been such a fun group to coach. It takes a lot of emotion out of us every year and it happened again this year. I was proud of the way they fought and kind of stayed with it and got a big W.”
The Hall led by 10 in the first half and nine in the second half, but couldn’t quite shake the desperate Hoyas, who are trying to avoid becoming the first Big East team since DePaul in 2008-09 to go through a conference season winless.
“I've seen it all, the highs, the lows,” said Cale, who scored 11 points. “We had lost four times in a row (actually only two straight) on Senior Night.
“This one actually meant a lot to us because we didn’t want to go out like that,” he added.
The veteran Pirates made just enough plays to prevent that. Seton Hall led 60-51 after a basket by Kadary Richmond (12 points, career-high 10 assists) with 7:08 left, but the Hoyas rallied and cut the deficit to 68-66 on two foul shots by Donald Carey with 2:12 left. A Carey driving layup later trimmed The Hall’s lead to 70-68.
After Rhoden (16 points) split a pair of foul shots, the Hoyas had a chance to tie when Kaiden Rice (17 points, 5-for-8 from three) launched a contested shot from beyond the arc.
But it was an airball and Rhoden’s two free throws settled the matter.
“It feels good,” Cale said. “We’ve got a lot of basketball left and let’s go.”
Rhoden said, “I'm at a loss for words. … It’s an amazing feeling to come out here and have amazing support from the fans.”
Cale said missing the NCAAs last season was a factor in his coming back.
"That played a part in my decision also," he said.
Obviously, he and the rest of the Pirates won't have that regret in 2022, thanks to the work they've done recently.
