PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
By JP Pelzman
Looking back at Seton Hall’s 73-68 victory over Georgetown and looking ahead to the regular-season finale at Creighton:
Half-full or half-empty?
Seton Hall went 5-1 against the bottom three teams in the Big East--Butler, DePaul and Georgetown--but only the road game against the Bulldogs was a bona fide blowout. The three recent home games were won by a total of 13 points, and all were in doubt late in the game.
Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard credited his team’s veterans for pulling the Pirates through once again Wednesday night.
“(Experience) helps and the fact that we’ve played in so many of them,” he said. “Our last three home games have all been barnburners.”
The fact that The Hall has been resilient enough to pull them out is admirable. But the scoring droughts and defensive lapses that cause those games to be close is a cause for concern. The Pirates might not be so fortunate in a win-or-go-home scenario against a much better team two weeks from now in the NCAAs.
Adjusting on the fly.
Willard noted that he threw out half of his offensive play sheet when it became apparent Bryce Aiken wasn’t returning anytime soon, and again, he credited his veteran team with making the necessary adjustments.
"They did a great job of understanding how we had to play a little bit differently without Bryce and with Kooks (Kadary Richmond) out there” more, Willard said.
Welcome JaQuan Harris.
JaQuan Harris, a 6-4 combo guard and the younger brother of Jamir Harris, will be an incoming freshman for the Pirates in 2022-23. His older brother was asked after the game what advice he would have for him.
“Come in and be ready to be a part of the Seton Hall way,” Jamir Harris said. “Be a hard worker in practice, day in and day out and continue to improve, stay the course. It's not going to be smooth sailing. There’s going to be a lot of ups and downs, but he’ll be on a team with a group of guys that can help him through it and he’ll be good.”
And what’s Jamir’s scouting report on JaQuan? “He's a guy that can shoot the ball, can shoot the three. He’s a good passer, very athletic. He does everything really well. He's a very unselfish player that really cares about winning.”
Will the two brothers play together?
“I'm not sure yet,” Jamir said when asked about returning. “I just want to focus on finishing out the season strong with my teammates and making a run. And at the end of the year, I'll know what I'm going to do.”
Hoyas destroyas.
If Georgetown cannot upset skidding Xavier on the road Saturday, the Hoyas will join DePaul (2008-09), Miami (1993-94) and Providence (1979-80) as the only Big East teams to go winless in conference play. The Friars were 0-6 in that first year of the conference’s existence. DePaul and Miami were both 0-18.
Still, coach Patrick Ewing will be back next season, per Wednesday’s statement by Georgetown athletic director Lee Reed. And his team does play hard, but often does just enough to lose, as the Hoyas did Wednesday night.
Scouting Creighton.
The Bluejays (20-9, 12-6) can clinch third place with a victory Saturday night after completing a regular-season sweep of UConn on Wednesday. Trey Alexander is averaging 9.0, 2.5 assists and 2.0 turnovers in two games since taking over as starting point guard in the absence of freshman sensation Ryan Nembhard, out for the season with a fractured wrist.
The Bluejays, who lost 74-55 in Newark, are 8-1 at home in Big East play. They don’t shoot the three as well as usual, hitting only 30.9% from beyond the arc.
