Talk about worst possible outcomes.

In the aftermath of a 92-66 drubbing at the hands of the Mountaineers, it’s hard to believe that the Pirates were within eight points during the second half.

West Virginia had six players in double digits – the Hall only had six different players score, for the record – shot better than 50 percent from the floor, and simply overwhelmed the flailing Pirates.

Jeremy Hazell gave the Hall everything he could, with 29 points, but received little to no help. Robert Mitchell, coming off an impressive performance against Syracuse, was neutralized. His 2-11 mark from the floor hurt.

John Garcia came back, but wasn’t even close to 100 percent. That can be evidenced by his zero points and five fouls in 16 minutes on the floor.

It all leads into what will be another tough one for Seton Hall when Villanova rolls into town on Tuesday. The Wildcats lost their Big East opener against Marquette two days ago, and will come to South Orange hungry.

I’ll have more on that as it approaches.

-Skip

It’s about an hour from Gametime at The Rock, and the Pirates are gearing up to host the Mountaineers.

West Virginia hasn’t played a Big East game yet this season, so you can expect them to come out ready to roll. They’re winners of four straight, and destroyed Ohio State last weekend.

The Mountaineers are 10-2 on the season, only falling to Kentucky and Davidson. They aren’t as hyped as an upper echelon team this season, but have plenty of talent – and certainly come packing with enough to be heavy favorites today.

Local kid Da’Sean Butler killed the Hall last year, and will likely do so again today. He’s a step ahead of what the Pirates can throw at him. Alex Ruoff and Darryl Bryant are talented enough to run with the Pirates’ guard heavy attack and, like everyone else in the Big East, West Virginia has a deeper bench than the Hall.

For Seton Hall to come out of this with a win, they’ll need Jeremy Hazell to be lights out, and Robert Mitchell will have to play like a man that’s five or six inches taller. Otherwise, it could get ugly.

Every team wants to get its first conference win, but todays really represent something for the Hall. The Pirates next three games are against Villanova, Notre Dame, and Connecticut – which means a loss today makes an 0-5 start all that more likely.

I’ll be back throughout, or after, the game.

-Skip

Oh what a difference conference play makes.

Bobby Gonzalez’s one game suspension for the Big East opener or no, the Pirates got whacked by Syracuse on Tuesday night. The 7 percent mark from three point range was a nice kick in the rear too, especially considering the Hall’s general success from long distance this season.

In the end, a loss really could have been anticipated. Syracuse is an elite team, Seton Hall is not – pretty simple math. It’s, as usual with the Hall, the how that really grinds things home. The Pirates were never in this basketball game, and looked entirely overmatched in every aspect.

Worse, in Mike Davis’ first chance to really impress he looked like… well, Mike Davis. It seems quite apparent to me that until John Garcia returns, the Hall will need a minor miracle to beat the Big East teams with legit big men.

Fortunately for the Hall, they won’t be outsized all that much by West Virginia in tomorrow night’s contest. The Mountaineers are good, but sheer size isn’t their game.  That said, Da’Sean Butler could still eat the Hall up in his homecoming (he hails from Newark, so I’m envisioning quite a following for him at the Prudential Center).

I’ll have more on the game itself tomorrow, now that I’m back from my unfortunate hiatus.

That’s all for now, y’all.

-Skip

A couple quick things as I take a momentary break from the final exams that have been breaking my back this week…

The tight wins over Cal Baptist and St. Peter’s (and I consider 12 and 14 points tight against an NAIA team and a MAAC team anyday) were good wake up calls for the Hall last week. IUPUI and James Madison, two of the tougher non-conference, non-tournament games that Bobby Gonzalez scheduled are coming up next.

IUPUI is a legit program that has a player sometimes starting for the Spurs, so the Pirates will want to look out on Saturday. A game like they played in Jersey City WILL be a loss, no questions asked.

Meanwhile, Fox Sports is reporting that JC recruit Cliff Dixon has “unverbaled,” leaving the Hall again without a recruit for next season.

I’ll have word on Keon Lawrence when I get it.

That’s all for now.

-Skip

24 hours later, I still have no idea what to make of the Cal Baptist Lancers.

They were ranked No. 1 for awhile in the NAIA, but lost to the league’s No. 18 over the weekend. None of the players, conferences or even schools in the NAIA ring any bells, which is going to lead me to believe that not many folks have scouting reports on these kids.

I can tell you that they rely on three players to do most of their heavy lifting, however. Seniors Omar Krayem and Mark Roussin average 18.2 and 17.8 points a game, respectively, while sophomore Davey Hopkins chips in 14. Yes, his name is Davey.

The Lancers have okay depth on the bench, including a 6-foot-three-inch FORWARD (that’s what he’s listed as, anyway) that averages just over 10 points a game.

Regardless, tonight’s matchup should be a runaway win for the Pirates. The Lancers have no real size outside of Roussin, which will allow John Garcia, Robert Mitchell and maybe even Mike Davis dominate the small Cal Baptist team. I could see Garcia popping for 20-plus points and 15-plus rebounds easy, if they even need him on the floor that long.

Cal Baptist is a great team for their league, but shouldn’t be butting heads with a Big East school, especially right before getting into their own conference schedule. Cal Baptist seems to know this, though, and officially list the game as an exhibition.

If anything I’d say that gives them a few points… they have legitimately nothing to lose in this game, and can play without any regrets. Seton Hall, meanwhile, would be torn to pieces if they lose.

I’m still calling a massive win for the Pirates, though I could see Cal Baptist giving them a good 15 minutes.

If you need somewhere to listen to the game tonight, check out www.wsou.net, where the call’s free.

That’s all for now, folks.

-Skip

The Cal Baptist Lancers roll into Newark tomorrow night, and I really don’t know how to project them.

Hailing from the NAIA (that’s a division of play, by the way, not a conference) Cal Baptist isn’t a team that pops up on the radar very often – even if they are currently ranked No. 1 in the NAIA.

I dug through some Cal Baptist schedules, and honestly haven’t been able to locate their last game against a “power conference” team, let alone one from the Big East. In short, Tuesday’s contest could easily be a massacre of massacres.

If Jeremy Hazell, Eugene Harvey and John Garcia do what they’ve done all season, the Cal Baptist game should be a cake walk. That’s why it really won’t count as a win (I’m being serious, here, folks) on Seton Hall’s record come tournament consideration time. Conversely, a meltdown would count as a loss.

It’s a game that really doesn’t have much going for it, and really should just function as a way to keep the team fresh and active before the approaching Big East season.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a full breakdown of the “powerhouse” Lancers.

-Skip

The Pirates got up big Tuesday night, and never looked back. The thumping of Monmouth was a resounding one – especially when you consider the fact that last year the Hall had to take the Hawks overtime before securing the victory.

Jeremy Hazell continues to dazzle. He dropped 32 points and had a ridiculous one-handed throw down off a pass from Eugene Harvey that was one of the few things that seemed to inspire a rather small and dour fandom on Tuesday.

Hazell is still flopping an awful lot, though. Yes, every now and then he does get hit with a legit foul – but the kid continues to hit the hardwood when no one is even near him. I’ve seen him fall into people, chairs and anything else that gets in his way. Short of that, though, he’s been astounding.

Robert Mitchell, though his 23 points may say different, still seems lost. He took 21 shots, which should never happen again and only knocked down seven. He chucked up eight threes, most of which were ugly. Mitchell is undersized at the No. 4 spot, yes, but against smaller non-conference foes like Monmouth he’s not at much of a disadvantage, and needs to get inside far more often.

The rest of the crew did their usual, and John Garcia (with 16 minutes) was finally able to get a break courtesy of the blowout. Brandon Walters and Mike Davis were relatively inconsequential off the bench, but that’s something fans are getting used to.

Regardless, the win is something to take to heart, especially since the Hall won’t play another semi-decent opponent until IUPUI or JMU. Cal Baptist, the NAIA “powerhouse” comes next Tuesday, and then it’s St. Peters at the Jersey City Armory. That 11-1 non-conference schedule is certainly looking attainable.

In other news, MSG is reporting that Melvyn Oliver has been cleared to practice. More on that as it develops.

Until later,
-Skip

The Pirates have to be happy to be 5-1 20 percent of the way through the year’s schedule. The wins over USC and Virginia Tech weren’t expected, and the Hall has cleaned house against lesser opponents – something that hasn’t happened consistently in the Bobby Gonzalez era.

They’ve got Monmouth and the second half of their non-conference schedule coming tomorrow night, but today I want to talk about what went right and what went wrong through the first six games.

The Right:

-Jeremy Hazell has been lights out. He’s averaging 21.8 points per game, and hasn’t had a dry spell from behind the three point line yet. He’s fitting into the No. 3 spot fairly well, which is good, because he’ll be there for the duration of the Big East season when Mike Davis stops getting playing time.
-The rest of the guards – Harvey, Gause, Theodore – have come together too, and are keeping the team straight
-John Garcia is averaging a double-double a night, finally becoming the big man the team needs. Better, his knees are good enough to give him 33 minutes a game and keep him on the floor.

The Wrong:

-John Garcia is playing 33 minutes a contest. Yes, I know I’m contradicting myself, but this is both good and bad. Good because it’s helping the Pirates win now, bad because there’s no way Garcia holds up throughout the season at this rate. He’ll be done for mid-way through the Big East schedule if he doesn’t get some breaks, and that’s a bad, bad thing.
-Brandon Walters and Mike Davis still look lost. This is the problem that keys Garcia’s 33 minutes. Walters and Davis have not stepped up, and are only getting more playing time because the bench is so short. It’s not good, and they’ll have to turn things around fast.

I’m still undecided on Robert Mitchell, though he has boosted the offense.

Again, the team goes for 6-1 when they play Monmouth tomorrow night. I’ll be back in the morning for a breakdown of that.

-Skip

It’s amazing how four days can change a season’s perspective.

The Pirates entered the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tipoff Class as one of the second-tier teams – a power conference club, yeah, but no Memphis, Xavier, or USC. Grabbing a win would be great, two phenomenal, and then it would be back to life as one of the Big East’s bottom dwellers.

Instead, the Hall left 2-1, with third place honors and wins over a ranked Southern California and a very talented Virginia Tech. Oh, and they scored a couple votes in the AP Top 25.

How’d they do it? First, Jeremy Hazell was phenomenal. He had 15 points in the win over USC, an astounding 32 in the loss to Memphis, and 23 against the Hokies. John Garcia had two more double-doubles. Eugene Harvey returned to form, and the rest of the team fell into line behind him.

It was a great weekend to be a Pirates fan, but it sets up an even better month. The Hall has Delaware, Monmouth, Cal Baptist (still don’t know why), St. Peter’s, IUPUI, James Madison and Fairleigh Dickinson left before they start the Big East schedule. Those are seven winnable games.

Heck, Delaware, Monmouth, Cal Baptist, Fairleigh and St. Peter’s should be guaranteed wins. IUPUI isn’t what they were last year (not easy when your best player bolts for the San Antonio Spurs) and James Madison took this team to the last second in 2007 before ultimately falling.

So, if I’m right, we’re looking at a Hall team that could be anywhere between 9-3 and 11-1 going into the Big East opener against Syracuse. That’s scary, and nowhere near what most folks were projecting

I’ll break the team’s performance down a bit more in the coming weeks, because games are going to get sparse for awhile. But for now, know that Seton Hall could well be one of the earliest surprise stories in this still young college basketball season.

-Skip

Coming off commanding victories over St. Francis and Columbia, the Pirates will get their first shot at a fellow power conference opponent when they hit the floor at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico. USC enters the game ranked No. 19 in the nation by the AP, making them the second highest touted program in the tournament – trailing only No. 12 Memphis, last year’s national title runner-up.

The Trojans have matched the Hall’s 2-0 start to the season, thank to wins over UC Irvine and New Mexico State.

USC is led by a pair of juniors – forward Taj Gibson and guard Dwight Lewis. Gibson has been a mainstay in the Trojan’s rotation since joining the program, and is shouldering the load of their inside-game this season.

A Brooklyn product, Gibson racked up 17 points against UC Irvine and 22 against New Mexico State and has little trouble grabbing boards. He stands at six-feet-nine-inches, and will be a challenge for the Hall’s John Garcia and Mike Davis underneath. He also comes with a good eye for blocks, already knocking 10 shots away this season – which is good for six more than the Pirates’ four as a team.

Meanwhile, Anthony Fuccilli of MSG.com is reporting that Junior College recruit Cliff Dixon has verballed to Seton Hall. I haven’t seen this pop up anywhere else yet, so read into it what it’s worth. Dixon doesn’t seem like an easy player to project, but his size (he lists at six-feet-nine-inches) will be quite welcome for the Hall. Here’s MSG’s initial report, posted earlier today.

That’s all I’ve got for now. More to come tomorrow. I won’t be doing regular game updates for tomorrow’s game, because I don’t really have the funds to go to Puerto Rico. Instead, I’ll be at Madison Square Garden for the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. But I’ll pop in at the end of the night for reactions.

-Skip