PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
by JP Pelzman
Throughout the day, throughout the game, it had been building. And finally, as Kadary Richmond backed down UConn’s Isaiah Whaley, it reached a crescendo.
Not merely the noise and cheers among the 10,977 in attendance at the Prudential Center early Saturday afternoon. But the transformation of Richmond from talented Syracuse transfer to true Seton Hall Pirate, at least in the minds of those outside the inner sanctum of the program. (Those on the inside already had made that leap.)
Richmond eventually banked in a shot over Whaley for the go-ahead basket with 31 seconds left in overtime and the sophomore guard from Queens finished with a career-high 27 points as Seton Hall outlasted Connecticut, 90-87 in overtime in Newark for the No. 24 Pirates’ second consecutive victory.
At one point during the second half, Richmond scored 17 consecutive points for the Pirates (11-3, 2-2 Big East), trimming a 54-45 deficit to 65-62.
“I haven’t been in a zone like that,” he said afterward. “Today was the first day I broke out and got loose, and it felt good.”
“I just liked the fact that Kooks was being aggressive getting to the rim,” coach Kevin Willard said, referring to Richmond by his nickname, pronounced like cooks.
“Early in the second half,” the coach added, “we settled for some jumpers and I thought we just needed someone being aggressive getting to the rim. And I thought he played physical and aggressive while Bryce (Aiken) was out there with him. We’ve had both of them out there at times and both of them have not been aggressive at the same time, and I thought with both of them out there, they were both aggressive, which I thought put a lot of pressure on their defense.”
And once Richmond was in a groove, Aiken and the rest of the Pirates knew just what to do.
“It’s pretty simple,” Willard said, “and what I like about this team is everyone knew he was cooking. So it was just get out of his way and let him go.”
“When a guy’s going like that, you gotta give him the ball,” said senior wing Jared Rhoden, who scored 15 points to reach exactly 1,000 for his career.
“We just couldn’t guard him,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “I don’t think that we were prepared for him to take over the way he did, … We were kind of waiting for him to come back down to earth, but he never really did.”
He added that the Huskies tried double-teaming him on occasion, and did force some turnovers. (Richmond had three.) Hurley said, “I think that last possession, we allowed Isaiah Whaley to play him one-on-one, and he just made a better move.”
Richmond drew a foul on Whaley but missed the free throw, leaving The Hall ahead 88-87. UConn (10-4, 1-2) had another chance, but Rhoden thwarted that by stealing the ball from Tyrese Martin and then alertly calling timeout before he could be tied up for a held ball.
Rhoden said UConn’s original play “got broken up and I saw Tyrese Martin was trying to iso. I saw when he was dribbling, he bobbled it just a little bit, and that’s when I started to say I was going to be a little bit more aggressive.”
He added, “Ike (Obiagu) did a great job of hedging out really hard, and I just took my opportunity and stole the ball.
“I’ve got to get it,” Rhoden added. “If I don’t get it, the game’s over, because the jump-ball arrow was in favor of Connecticut so I knew I had to get that one.”
Hurley said, “We were trying to get a little misdirection back to the block. Ike did a good job fronting him, and then Tyrese just stayed with trying to get it in. With Ike fronting him, there was an opportunity to drive it with the shot blocker now out of position to contest at the rim. I think Tyrese kind of stayed with it a little bit longer and pass-faked, which created another lane for him to drive it. I think it was just a little bit of fatigue there with the decision making.”
“That was the play of the game,” Myles Cale said.
After the timeout, Seton Hall got the ball inbounds to Aiken (22 points, seven assists), who made both free throws with 1.7 seconds left for the final margin. UConn was able to peg a long pass to Adama Sanogo (18 points, 16 rebounds), but his three-point attempt was off the mark and came after the clock ran out.
Rhoden said of the victory, “It just shows that we’re battle-tested. We're one of the toughest teams I've ever been around. It shows a lot about (the) character of who we are individually and collectively as well. We showcased that.”
And Richmond showcased what he can do. As a Pirate.
