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

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

Students at Seton Hall can pull double duty this coming Nov. 4.

Aside from exercising the right to vote, it’ll be possible for anyone that’s interested to go ahead and help the men’s basketball program – by trying out for a spot on the roster.

The awaited open tryouts are next week, and things could certainly get interesting. The official release came out just before the weekend, and can be found here.

I love the wording, by the way. Coach Gonzalez is “entertaining” the idea that the team will add walk-ons to the roster? Yes, because worst case scenario, you can get by with two-thirds of roster in the best conference in the entire country.

Right, I forgot that was a feasible option. This is ridiculous. The Pirates have eight players (maybe, maybe nine at some point). Each of the last three years have seen multiple guys get hurt and ultimately miss extended periods of time. If that happens this year, not only do things get bad – they get absolutely embarrassing for the entire program. The walks-on players are necessary, if unfortunate.

Now, I’m sure there are some folks that the program has in mind for the spots, who will do their jobs admirably. You’ll never see me bash a walk-on for their play here – it’s not their fault that they’re being asked to do what scholarship athletes normally do.

Hopefully the Setonian can get out to the open tryout, and if so I’ll have coverage about it next week.

I’ll be back.

-Skip