PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
JP Pelzman
Looking back at St. John’s and ahead to St. John’s (don’t get to say something like that too often):
Aiken's status.
Point guard Bryce Aiken (14.5 points, 2.7 assists) sat out because he still is in concussion protocol. The reason, according to a source, is that foul he committed with his face on Marquette’s Greg Elliott.
Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard was noncommittal in the postgame about whether Aiken would play on Monday against the Red Storm at historic Walsh Gym. On his radio pregame and postgame, he seemed pessimistic. However, a source indicated Aiken was close to being cleared for Saturday’s game.
These types of delicate injuries are hard to predict, however, so we will just have to wait until Monday and see.
Rhoden struggles.
Jared Rhoden isn’t in a slump or anything like that. His 2-for-11 shooting performance Saturday came on the heels of a three-game stretch in which he was 22-for-49 from the field, which computes to 44.9%. Those are not awful numbers.
But it is hard to shake the notion that something is not quite right with Seton Hall’s senior leader, if only judging by the sometimes-flawed eye test.
Willard attributes it to roster depletion during the COVID pause, which cut down on full practices.
“Jared’s shooting,” the coach said, “is a direct correlation to us not running the same stuff we were not able to run in December for a ton of reasons. We played two Big East games with seven guys, but no big men, so we couldn’t run the stuff we were running. “
And then we got away from that,” he added, “and it’s been hard to--we didn’t have much practice time--it’s been hard to get back into a rhythm offensively, and (with) some of the things we’re running, he’s getting stuck with the ball late in the shot clock and he’s having to take some tough shots. So, I think his struggles are a little bit kind of like our struggles. We’re not as smooth as we were before the COVID pause.”
Make no mistake, for The Hall to maximize its potential this year, it needs the talented, savvy, gutty Rhoden to maximize his, too.
Cale the grad student.
Myles Cale doesn’t only study in the classroom. He does it in the film room, too, as he explained afterward when asked his defense on St. John's star Julian Champagnie.
“I watched a lot of their Creighton game, and I saw Alex O’Connell try to make his shots uncomfortable,” Cale said.
O’Connell helped limit the 6-8 Champagnie to 7-for-21 shooting in the Bluejays’ 87-64 victory Wednesday in Omaha.
“He actually did a good job on him too, so I was watching a lot of his film," the 6-6 Cale said. "(Champagnie) uses his size for his ability, so I just had to hold my ground a little bit more.”
Cale added, “We had a week to prepare for them and our coaches did a phenomenal job just breaking it down. All we did was go out there and execute.”
It will be interesting to see what instant adjustments St. John’s coach Mike Anderson and Champagnie make. Champagnie is 10-for-35 in his last two games.
Johnnies on the spot.
The Red Storm, at 2-4 in the Big East and with a road game against Villanova on deck, would be in serious trouble with a loss Monday.
“We have to have someone that can come in and absorb some of the pressure,” Anderson said after Champagnie struggled and his team shot 29.3% as a whole. “We need somebody to absorb the pressure and knock shots down. We need to get to the free-throw line. We got there today and didn’t cash in.”
The Red Storm was 11-for-17 (64.7%) from the foul line. But that isn’t anything new. St. John’s shoots only 66.5% from the stripe.
The bigger problem is this. St. John’s halfcourt offense is haphazard at best. The Johnnies scored 19 points off 17 Pirate turnovers Saturday, but it wasn’t enough.
As Anderson noted, “We missed a lot of lay-ups that would’ve given us an opportunity. If you can’t score, you can’t get into your defense.”
Which means pressure, which means potential turnovers and easy points in the open court. Seton Hall cannot afford to play into St. John’s hands by getting sloppy with the ball.
An unprecedented atmosphere?
When Seton Hall last hosted a Big East game at Walsh Gym, an 85-80 win over UConn on March 2, 1985, the building seated 3,200. The newly renovated Walsh Gym seats 1,316. With students accounting for 900-plus of those in attendance, it figures to be the bandbox of all bandboxes at 9 p.m. Monday
The ever-focused Willard indicated he hadn’t thought much about the unique setting.
As for the students, he said, “They’ve been great all year. They’re going to be great on Monday. We have a great student section.”
