SETON HALL PIRATES - 2015-16 Blue Ribbon's Preview

BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS

BACKCOURT B 

FRONTCOURT B 

BENCH/DEPTH C+ 

INTANGIBLES C+

LOCATION: South Orange, NJ 

CONFERENCE: Big East 

LAST SEASON: 16-15 (.516) 

CONFERENCE RECORD 6-12 (t-7th) 

STARTERS RETURNING/LOST: 2/3 

NICKNAME: Pirates 

COLORS: Blue & White  

HOMECOURT: Prudential Center (10,862)  

COACH: Kevin Willard (Pittsburgh ’97) 

RECORD AT SCHOOL:  82-81 (5 years) 

CAREER RECORD: 127-130 (8 years) 

ASSISTANTS:
Shaheen Holloway (Seton Hall ’00) Fred Hill (Montclair State ’81) Grant Billmeier (Seton Hall ’07)

WINS (LAST 5 YRS.):  13-21-15-17-16 

RPI (LAST 5 YRS.): 104-70-133-136-103  

2014-15 FINISH: Lost in Big East first round.

Even though it was raining in downtown Newark, N.J., the world looked bright and beautiful for Seton Hall in early January. On that particular Saturday afternoon, there seemed to be no limits to how far the Pirates’ basketball program could rise in the Big East.

It didn’t matter that their second-leading scorer was sidelined with an injury and their top big man was limited to 15 minutes because of foul trouble. The Pirates upset sixth-ranked and previously unbeaten Villanova, 66-61, sending the Prudential Center crowd into a state of delirium. Two days later, with a 12-2 record, Seton Hall moved into the AP rankings at No. 19 and was ready to continue its upward climb.

No one knew it then, but that was to be the last highlight of the Pirates’ season. They were 4-13 after that, losing nine of their last 10 games. Various reports and observations told of a locker room divided between veterans and newcomers with the leading scorer of each group — junior Sterling Gibbs and freshman Isaiah Whitehead — at odds, as evidenced by an argument the two players had on the sideline during a timeout in a game against Georgetown.

The problem reached crisis proportions on Feb. 11, when starting guard Jaren Sina left the program, telling the Asbury Park Press, “It’s not a good situation for me right now.” And shortly after the season ended with a 22-point loss to Marquette in the opening game of the Big East tournament, Gibbs (16.3 ppg) also departed, the last member of a backcourt with Sina that started 31 games over two seasons.

Coach Kevin Willard thought a combination of Whitehead missing 9 games — 8 in the Big East—with a stress fracture, and a tough stretch of the schedule caused things to start to spiral downhill.

“It was hard putting him back in and trying to play at the level that he tried to play at, but he couldn’t because he’d never missed so much time and tried to come back again,” coach Willard said. “Then I thought the schedule kind of wasn’t in our favor, and we lost some games. Being young, we lost confidence. We still tried to play hard, but we just never could get momentum back on our side.”

Willard conceded that “some guys maybe were unhappy with their roles” but didn’t think a rift existed between veterans and underclassmen. Losing, Willard said, caused “a lot of frustration, but we had a pretty good locker room for most of the year.”

The locker room this season is dominated by sophomores — 8 in fact, 5 of whom played significant minutes last season. Willard thinks the class learned last year “just what it takes to sustain at a very high level.”

“The first time you go through the Big East, you get 8 games through, you look up and you’ve still got 10 games to go,” he said. “So it’s crazy. I think just the fact of maintaining, of playing at a very hard and high level, which these kids were doing up until the dog days of February... they couldn’t do it mentally more than anything.”

The 6-4, 210-pound Whitehead (12.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 3.5 apg, 1.4 spg), the Hall’s  first McDonald’s All-American since Andre Barrett and Eddie Griffin in 2000, led Big East freshmen in scoring but averaged more than 3 turnovers per game and shot just 36.7% from the floor.
Coach Willard is encouraged by Whitehead’s work ethic during the summer, which he called “the first summer where he’s been healthy and has been able to work on his game.”

Whitehead is competitive in practice and games and will lead by example. But Willard brought in a pair of graduate transfers — Derrick Gordon (Massachusetts) and Braeden Anderson (Fresno State) — “to help some of the younger guys understand what leadership is all about.

“Isaiah is not an overly vocal guy, but what he does, he comes to practice and he works extremely hard every day, and he plays extremely hard every day. So that’s where we expect big things from him.”

Another valued member of the sophomore class is 6-9, 230-pound forward Angel Delgado (9.3 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 1.3 bpg), last year’s Big East Rookie of the Year and the only other player in program history—Griffin was the first in 2001—to win that award. He averaged a Big East-high 10.7 rebounds in league play and played the beast role on the o ensive boards.

Delgado, who is from the Dominican Republic but played his senior year at the Patrick School in Elizabeth, N.J., impressed coaches throughout the Big East with his relentless play. He grabbed a career-high 19 boards in a game against DePaul and posted 10 double-doubles.

Being a little undersized against the likes of Georgetown’s Josh Smith and Xavier’s Matt Stainbrook — both have since graduated — tended to get him “a little worn down as the season went on because of the size he had to battle, but he played as good as we could have possibly expected,” coach Willard said.

Willard chuckled when asked if Delgado could play more of a role on offense and boost his scoring.

“If he had shot his free throws better, he would have averaged almost 12 points a game,” coach Willard said, referring to Delgado’s 41.4% success rate from the line. “If he can get his free-throw shooting up to the mid-60s, then he’s averaging 12 points a game and a double-double.”

Sophomore guard Khadeen Carrington (8.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 1.8 apg) could be part of a starting backcourt. The 6-3 lefthander struggled with his shot at times, hitting 38.3% from the field and 28.3% from deep, but he showed a great ability to slash through the lane for buckets or drawing fouls. He demonstrated his all-around game in late January at Marquette with season highs of 20 points (including three 3-pointers), 7 rebounds and 5 assists.

The candidates to start at guard are Whitehead, Carrington and perhaps Gordon (9.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 2.7 apg), a 6-3 fifth-year senior. While Gordon has more experience playing than anyone on the roster, he had almost as many turnovers (79) last season at UMass as assists (85).

Gordon grabbed national headlines when he announced in April 2014 that he was gay, becoming the first openly gay player in Division I basketball.

Willard loves Gordon’s experience and leadership. As for the added publicity Gordon may receive, the coach said, “Derrick’s a terrific young man. I think the reason he wanted to leave UMass was he needed a fresh start. There was a lot of pressure and there was a lot of stuff, and I think he just wanted to get back to playing basketball. That’s the way we look at it.”

Another sophomore who could start is 6-6, 215-pound forward Desi Rodriguez (5.6 ppg, 4.5 rpg.) who was productive for someone who averaged 16.6 minutes and, as a power forward, battled many bigger opponents. He scored 16 points in 20 minutes against Xavier and pulled down 11 rebounds against both Rutgers and Villanova.

Rodriguez will move to small forward this season.

“I think that will help him a little bit,” coach Willard said. “From a size standpoint, he did really good in the non-conference, but in the Big East, when he went up against bigger power forwards, he struggled just a little bit. So I think moving him over is going to give him a chance to be an even better rebounder and a little more of a dynamic scorer on the wing.”

The fifth sophomore in the rotation will be 6-9, 255-pound Rashed Anthony (0.9 ppg, 1.4 rpg), who came o the bench in all 30 games last season. Anthony, who redshirted in 2013-14, scored in only 10 games last season and was whistled for one personal foul every 3.7 minutes, but coach Willard said he is steadily getting better.

“Sometimes you’ve got to be real patient with big guys,” he said. “I really thought he did a good job of coming in and playing some good spot minutes and helping us inside. So I think that’s something that we’re going to look for him to kind of continue to improve and get minutes.”

The 6-9, 240-pound Anderson (1.0 ppg, 1.8 rpg) played in 17 games for Fresno State last year before he was released from the team in February to focus on graduating and getting ready for law school. Willard likes having an extra big man to assist Delgado.

“This will give Angel a chance to move over to the power forward spot a little bit,” he said. “Having another guy in there with some muscle will help Angel, especially as the season goes on.”

A third transfer during the offseason, 6-0 guard Jevon Thomas (4.5 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.3 apg) from Kansas State, must sit out the season. The Queens, N.Y., native will have 2 years of eligibility remaining.

Coach Willard signed 3 freshmen who will compete for playing time. Swingman Amarveer Singh, a 6-7 native of New Orleans, averaged 14 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists last season at urgood Marshall High in New York.

Dalton Soffer, a 6-5 guard from Poway High in San Diego, is a fine shooter from deep and will be a player Willard looks to for a 3-point threat.

Willard calls 6-9, 230-pound Myles Carter a “bouncy big man” who provides size and good post defense.

“Amiveer (Singh), I think, has a chance to be a really, really good player,” coach Willard said. “He’s got a great motor, can really shoot it, which I think we need. Dalton is a great shooter. When Sterling left us, we lost a lot of 3-point shooting. Myles has been a great surprise for us. So I think all three of them are really going to need to come in and help us.”

Ismael Sanogo (0.5 ppg, 1.0 rpg), a 6-7 sophomore guard, played in 18 games last season but scored in only ve of them. Michael Nzei, a 6-7 sophomore, did not play last season.

This could be a make-or-break year for coach Willard after things fell apart last season. The frustration came to a head in February when Gibbs, the team’s best player, delivered a shot to the face of Villanova’s Ryan Arcidiacono during a scramble for a loose ball. An embarrassed Gibbs apologized via Twitter after the game, but he received a two-game suspension.

The bottom line was no postseason tournament after a terrific start. In Willard’s four seasons, the Pirates have been to one NIT. The prevailing feeling is that coach Willard will be in trouble if his team doesn’t find itself in the NIT — or better yet, the NCAA tournament — at the end of the season. For his part, the coach said he does not feel any pressure, or at least no more than any other season as a result of his own expectations.

Now the team belongs to the sophomores led by Whitehead, last year’s Big East preseason rookie of the year, and Delgado, the actual league ROY. The rest of that class must do more of its share, and must learn from the experiences of last season.

“I think the whole sophomore class is excited to go back out there and show what they have,” coach Willard said. “I think as a sophomore you know more of what’s coming and you prepare yourself mentally and physically to do it.”

Shooting from 3-point range will be an issue. The Pirates made 213 baskets from behind the arc last season; the players who sank about three-quarters of that total are gone.
They need a second rebounder to help Delgado; perhaps that could be Rodriguez. 
The freshmen are going to have to help in terms of depth.

But above all else, a united roster and solid team play will be required to get Seton Hall where it wants to go.

Joe Juliano