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Today's question

Halldan1

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Jan 1, 2003
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Who do you see as the Hall's biggest rival?

Rutgers
St John's
Villanova
Someone else

WHY?
 
Rutgers- just seems like it should be an in state rival. Like Ga/ Ga Tech or So Carolina Clemson. No need for it to be an in league rival IMO.
I am happiest when we beat RU and utterly miserable when we lose. Not like that with any other team.
 
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For myself?

1a) RU
1b) Nova
1c) StJ

ItsThatClose.

RU - Family, Friends, In State rivalry. I'm utterly disgusted when we lose to them. And love looking at everyone else's disappointment when RU loses AGAIN to us.

Nova - Budding rivalry, and if we stay at the top of the conference, this will continue to grow. It will be great for the BEC, BET & MSG in march.

StJ - We are now better and they look like they are now getting better. We both have tons of NYC kids and coaches. It's a natural rival. If we can both maintain Top 4/5 status in the BEC it will be another great rivalry for the new BEC, BET & MSG in march.
 
Villanova. If you think back the last five years, our games get a great raucous crowd whereever we play. All the games have been wars. Villanova is clearly the toast of the BE especially after having won the National Championship last year and consistently being in the Top 20. Seton Hall seems to give them a really good game almost every time (with last year's exception at Nova). If you consider the last five years, which games do you remember the most? You would have to answer the BE Championship against Nova, the win at the Garden in the BE Tourney (the Gibbs shot) and lots of very close affairs at the Rock where they won by a point or two or we did. Hands down it's Nova. Our fans get very excited and come out to see when we play them and so do the Nova fans too. I'm friends with some Nova fans and they hate playing us because we usually give them a tough game.

Rutgers is a rival but not in our conference so it's definitely losing it's juice. St. Johns is a local rival but has not been competitive. In the last five years it's clearly Nova from SHU's perspective. Nova fans would not admit it but the Hall has given them a run for their money and has become their biggest rival too. From Nova's perspective who else can they name as their key rival since the new BE formed? GTown and St. Johns have been bad. They have dominated the local Philly teams each year. Providence? Since the new BE has been formed it's SHU/Nova.
 
Rutgers- just seems like it should be an in state rival. Like Ga/ Ga Tech or So Carolina Clemson. No need for it to be an in league rival IMO.
I am happiest when we beat RU and utterly miserable when we lose. Not like that with any other team.


Rutgers

1 Big school.... small school
2 public..... private
3 Both in New Jersey
4.Thirty miles apart
5 Family and friends involved.
6 Their fans are the worst
7 Real easy to root against
8 Sick of that Scarlet R
9 Personal
 
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Just from my perspective:

1. Nova - We compete head to head at least twice a year, we compete for similar recruits and we've had some great head to head battles and some bad blood to an extent in recent years.

2. St. John's - Would easily overtake Nova based on the metro-area angle if we both can become top tier BE mainstays again.

Re: Rutgers, obviously those who are NJ natives and/ or those who have lived there for most of their lives will have a different perspective than I do, but to me there's zero juice here from a rivalry perspective, especially now that Rutgers is no longer a BE team.
 
As far as a balance of recruiting, conference play, local media coverage, etc.; I'd go:

1. St. John's
2. Rutgers
3. Providence
4. Nova

Important to beat # 1 and #2 on the court whenever you can, and important to try to stay pace with 3 and 4. One could argue whether or not we really compete for recruits with PC, but I see our programs being similar as far as fragility.
 
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Right now, ru gets the most action here, but nova is our most important opponent. If we stay good enough to challenge them yr in yr out, we will be back where we hoped to be. But nova, sju, are dependent on both being good. The ru game got tons of action when we both sucked. I think that is how to define a true rivalry.
 
Good question. For me, it's been St. John's #1 and Villanova a close second. I absolutely hate losing to St. John's and cannot stand them. With Villanova, I can live with a loss because of how much respect I have for their program. But it sure is sweet when we beat them, especially these days. We're not on Villanova's level yet but we're starting to close the gap somewhat in the current conference format. This rivalry will only grow over the next decade.

Rutgers is irrelevant, even more so now that they're out of the Big East. It's a contrived "rivalry" by those in the NJ media. The schools have very little in common, as opposed to comparing Seton Hall to Villanova and St. John's.
 
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I don't think it is really a question. Since the formation of the new Big East, it is Villanova and there is no one really close. First, they are the standard for the conference. Two, in order to be the best, you have to beat the best. Three, the games have always drawn the biggest crowds. Fourth, some of the games have been great games between the two teams especially in the Big East Tournament. Beating Villanova gives the biggest satisfaction than beating any of the other teams. Fifth, there is a little animosity between the teams, i.e. Gibbs punching Arch and Hart stepping on Delgado. Animosity yet respect which is the key.

St John's is certainly a rival but it has never been number one. But it has been a consistent rival

Rutgers is more of a rivalry when we stunk as a team. We had to beat RU just to know we are not the lowest form of D-1 basketball. The last three years have shown there is not much too this battle but it is more to shut up our RU friends.
 
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I go with Nova as well at #1 as they have been the Conference standard as its most consistently successful program.
1. Nova
2. SJU .
3. GT
4. RU
 
I would say Rutgers, for same reasons many have posted above.

Reason do not agree on Nova and SJU, in order to be a rivalry, do not both schools have to consider it a rivalry? I do not believe Nova or SJU fans consider SHU a main rival, other than the fact we play twice a year in same conference and we are currently a top tier team.

If SHU and Nova weren't battling for a top spot lately, and Nova was not a top team in the country, the game would just be another conference game, but even with Rutgers being terrible lately the game still spurs a lot of fan interest.
 
When we're good it's Villanova because they are the measuring stick in the Big East and to get where we want to be we have to go through them.

Given a choice next season of beating Nova or Rutgers I think most would choose Nova.

However, if SHU is not good then I say Rutgers because of the instate rivalry and the at times contemptuous history between the two schools.

Thus if SHU was only a .500 team I think beating Rutgers would take precedent over beating Nova.
 
I personally wouldn't want to define who my biggest rival is by how mediocre a team we are or for that matter how good we are. A rival is a rival is a rival !
 
That's certainly your option to choose but in mine I believe my comments were based on past experiences. The importance of a game or season can change minds when talking about rivalries.

Rutgers IMO has been our no doubt about it rival for quite some time. But now that the stakes are higher, at least for this year and hopefully beyond Nova has caught up to the Scarlet Knights for most fans and maybe if we continue trending upwards and they stay where they have been for years that will continue.

But if for some reason we revert back to prior years the luster of playing Nova will be diminished and RU would again become the one team we do not want to lose to.
 
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I would still argue that your biggest rivalries will be your conference peers as beating a conference peer counts toward your standing and seeding in the BET and can help secure a NCAA bid .While having a game against an in-state rival like RU may help with local recruiting and bragging rights the value of that game depends for its importance on how good that school is . If that in-state rival is mediocre it's just another game against a weak OOC opponent but if they're good then that game gains importance.
 
Rutgers

1 Big school.... small school
2 public..... private
3 Both in New Jersey
4.Thirty miles apart
5 Family and friends involved.
6 Their fans are the worst
7 Real easy to root against
8 Sick of that Scarlet R
9 Personal

This.

I'll add another reason. When RU joined the Big East in the 90s, I thought SHU would have to fight to maintain its status in the State as the premiere Mens Basketball School. Wenzel / Bannon and Blaney / Amaker were involved in recruiting wars for the likes of Sha, Tim Thomas, Freeman, Webb, etc. Tom Luicci wrote some stories back then pumping up RU recruiting success with the infamous OO from Nigeria, and a Fab 5 story with Webb. Amaker had the top 5 recruiting class and Bannon had some near misses which could have put RU on the map. Except for some fleeting success with Amaker and Orr, both Teams more or less floundered until recently.
 
Nova. The rivalry spilled into other sports. I'm delighted to say we kick their butts in everything except hoops. How about that no-hitter and sweep we got to end the baseball season ??
 
Going back to when they Ran up the score at the barn and refused to play at Walsh it has been and always will be Rutgers. We beat them at the Garden the next year with John Ramsey hitting bombs.In any and every sport. Favorite team is Shu, 2nd Favorite is whoever is playing Rutgers.

Hopefully we will always be battling with Nova and that in itself will always be a rivalry.
 
Rutgers, easily. Regardless of how we've been the past 15 years, the Rutgers matchup always meaning because of the in-state rivalry.

Nova is fun the past two years because we've been good and Nova's been great. Before that there wasn't much juice, though having a million Nova fans in Northern Jersey and the greater NYC area makes it fun when both teams are good, because Nova is the new measuring stick for the BE as Dan aptly pointed out.

If St. John's gets back to being a solid program, and we stay a solid program, those games will be really fun. I was at the Garden two years ago during Mullin's first year, when St. John's was hideous and we were good, and that game still had a ton of juice (and was a highly entertaining game, especially because SJU blew the lead and we pulled it out).

But both teams need to be good at the same time. When St. John's had a few good years under Lavin a few years back, we weren't good. When we broke through two years ago, they were in year 1 of the massive rebuild under Mullin. I can't remember when we were both performing near the top of the league. Need both doing well at the same time, and then it will be fun. I actually think it will be the most fun because we are going after similar kids in NY and NJ.


Nova. The rivalry spilled into other sports. I'm delighted to say we kick their butts in everything except hoops. How about that no-hitter and sweep we got to end the baseball season ??
 
The reason I think it's Nova for now is this........

When we play Nova at the Rock this season will that game sell out the upper tier or come close?

If we played RU at the Rock, same question?

Despite the easier access for RU fans I think clearly there will be far more buzz and butts in the seats for the conference game and more satisfaction for Hall fans if we win.

That's why I think the importance of a game, season and beyond has to be factored in when answering the question.

I'm old enough to remember the Yankee's hatred of Baltimore and vice versa. That no longer exists as the Red Sox have taken their place as the heated rival due to being the much better team.
 
I was at the Garden two years ago during Mullin's first year, when St. John's was hideous and we were good, and that game still had a ton of juice (and was a highly entertaining game, especially because SJU blew the lead and we pulled it out).

Actually it was Seton Hall that blew a big lead, only to rally late in the game on a pair of Whitehead free throws to win it.
 
Good question. For me, it's been St. John's #1 and Villanova a close second. I absolutely hate losing to St. John's and cannot stand them. With Villanova, I can live with a loss because of how much respect I have for their program. But it sure is sweet when we beat them, especially these days. We're not on Villanova's level yet but we're starting to close the gap somewhat in the current conference format. This rivalry will only grow over the next decade.

Rutgers is irrelevant, even more so now that they're out of the Big East. It's a contrived "rivalry" by those in the NJ media. The schools have very little in common, as opposed to comparing Seton Hall to Villanova and St. John's.
Pretty much what I would have put down if I wrote a post to go with my response.
 
That was a rough game to see in person. At least after the lead started dwindling. We had a ton of momentum heading into that game, and continued it after that game obviously, but to this day I wonder what a loss that game would have done to the team's psyche.

I just glanced over our schedule from that year...not to beat a dead horse, but we went 12-2 over our last 14, including 4 road wins and 3 "neutral" wins at the Garden and still drew a 6 seed and Gonzaga in Denver. Brutal.
 
I'm starting to lean towards Villanova over Rutgers. These games with Nova are outstanding and there's a tremendous buzz as both teams have been good the past couple of seasons.
 
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Want to say Rutgers, as I am ill if we lose to them, but I am sticking in the Big East:
1) Villanova, because they are currently considered the best in Big East, and I want us there. This scenario creates the rivalry
2) St. John's - sharing the Metropolitan area with St. John, we want to win those matchups
3) RU - our in state but out of conference rival...I do root for them when we don't play them, but as stated sick when we lose
 
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