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.

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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.

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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.

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If you’ve been living under a rock, you may have missed the latest chapter in the Bobby Gonzalez saga – the one where he allegedly starts a controversy with one of the more respected college hoops reporters in the region.

I’m not going to get too deep into this one – I’m just not close enough to the situation. However, for the full scoop, go ahead and check out Adam Zagoria’s column on SNY right here.

It’s a shame that this comes after what wound up being a great game for the Hall. Jeremy Hazell stayed hot, John Garcia and Eugene Harvey both had double-doubles, and big Mike Davis actually still had a foul to give at the end of the game. It leaves the Hall at 2-0 entering their trip to Puerto Rico next weekend, which I’ll talk about more as it gets closer.

Meanwhile, the Pirate women are also 2-0, coming off resounding wins against Rider and Caldwell College (yeah, I know).

That’s all for now folks.

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After a scary first 10 minutes, the Pirate prevailed last night, whooping the St. Francis Terriers 88-61.

Jeremy Hazell looked great with his 23 points; Robert Mitchell added 17 (but still looked like he was talking some trash, which is kind of disconcerting. You’re playing St. Francis!); and walk on Peter Peregrin brought the crowd to its feet on three separate occasions.

Peregrin, one of the four walk on players that the Pirates announced just hours before the game, donned a nameless No. 4 jersey, but was given a shot in the final five minutes, ultimately draining two free throws to get his first collegiate points. Paul Gause desperately appealed to the crowd both when Peregrin came in and when he went to the line, a great gesture that the fans happily responded to.

Meanwhile, Eugene Harvey and Jordan Theodore had pretty identical lines – though, in my mind, Theodore still seems more confident in running an actual offense. I think he should get every opportunity to run the point during this out of conference stretch.

Mike Davis picked up 13 points and had a few moments, but still fouled out in 17 minutes. For that matter, both Gause and Mitchell spent the latter half of the game in foul trouble. That’s worrying, because the Pirates aren’t always going to be able to set their defense to ‘coast’ and let players with four fouls stay on the floor for so long. We could see walk on players stepping in during tight games if that stuff continues, which isn’t exactly ideal (no offense, guys).

Speaking of the walk on recruits, the other three are: 6-foot-7-inch forward Matt Cajuste, 6-foot-7-inch Jason Simmons and 5-foot-9-inch Darnell Gatling. Simmons is the only one of the four with any collegiate experience, having spent time at Alaska-Fairbanks. All four players have New York or New Jersey backgrounds.

Simmons has DII experience, and Cajuste had opportunities coming out of school, making Gatling and Peregrin the real crowd-pleasers of the walk on class.

Peregrin was reportedly only cleared to play an hour or so before St. Francis, so it’s unknown whether or not tomorrow’s game will be the first for Cajuste, Gatling and Simmons.

I’ll have more on that tomorrow, when the Pirates host Columbia at 1 p.m.

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It’s time to get serious. The Hall takes the floor for real tonight. Expect the starting five to be what we saw during the exhibition: Eugene Harvey, Paul Gause, Jeremy Hazell, Robert Mitchell and John Garcia.

I’ll be off to the arena a little later today, and you should hear from me after the game.

If you’re out of market, you can catch a free internet radio broadcast on www.wsou.net

That’s all for now folks.

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We’re tipping off in just under a day, so I figured I’d sign on and throw a few of my keys to the weekend out there. Neither St. Francis nor Columbia should present any kind of threat (or so the Pirates hope), but I’m still thinking the Lions could make things interesting on Sunday.

Regardless, the keys remain the same:

1.    Attack the basket, over and over again- Outside of Jeremy Hazell, I still see no real three-point threat on the Pirates’ roster, so they should just do what Bobby Gonzalez loves and run, run, run. The Hall is simply faster, and there’s no need to let Terriers or Lions slow things down.
2.    Get Robert Mitchell involved on the inside- Mitchell is going to be relied on as the power forward for this team, and he didn’t look like it against Molloy. Get him inside often, and find out if he’s going to be able to do what the team needs him to.
3.    Get up big and work in the subs- There’s no need to force things if the Pirates get a good lead going – lets face it, this team can’t afford to lose someone in a blowout. Plus, this team needs to know if Mike Davis – who embarrassed himself by fouling out in just 14 inconsequential minutes last Friday – and Brandon Walters can ball well enough to get this team through the non-conference schedule. It’s their sophomore year, so more is to be expected of them.

The third key is particularly important, since Robert Mitchell will be missing two games in Puerto Rico. Gonzalez will need to know which of Walters and Davis will be able to start in Mitchell’s place.

Either way, it’ll be an interesting weekend. Stay tuned for more from me, and get ready for the action.

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We’re just under 95 hours from the Hall’s official home opener, and things are heating up. The exhibition game went well enough, and the four walk on players were originally going to be announced today – but no release has come from the school just yet. Keep an eye out for that.

The Fighting Terriers of St. Francis – and no, Fighting is not officially part of the name, I just feel that any team called the Terriers could do with an adjective or two – will roll into South Orange on Friday. They’ll try to replicate what their NEC colleagues, Monmouth, did in the opener last year. The Pirates had to force overtime, and then narrowly escaped the Hawks last November, so don’t think they’ll take the Terriers lightly.

St. Francis lost their leading scorer, Robert Hines, but retained diminutive guard Jamaal Womack, who the offense will likely run through on Friday night.

The Terriers lack much size, topping out with six-foot-nine-inch freshman import Richard Clark. You can expect that’ll lead to a lot of the Harvey-Gause-Hazell-Mitchell-Garcia line – if the Pirates don’t need to rotate Mike Davis and Brandon Walters in very often, they won’t. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Theodore be the first man off the bench if the Pirates aren’t having trouble on the boards.

I’m going to have more on the Terriers, including keys to the game, as the date nears. Keep an eye out for those walk on profiles too.

That’s all for now, folks.

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The Pirates unofficially opened their year last night, trouncing Molloy College 101-68 at Walsh Gymnasium.

For the full game wrap, be sure to check out Adam Zagoria’s report here.

I sat courtside for the event, and a few things caught my eye.

1. Yes, Brandon Walters had his moments. The sophomore dropped 18 points, grabbed 10 boards, and proved that he does in fact know what a basketball is. But he seemed to get lost on defense more than once, which isn’t acceptable. I still doubt we’ll see much of Brandon at first – and Bobby Gonzalez already said that Mike Davis is his first guy off the bench.

2. Robert Mitchell wasn’t impressive. Mitchell is being hailed as the program’s replacement for Brian Laing, something I can’t fathom. That’s really not a fair load to drop on a kid from Duquesne that hasn’t played a real game in a year and a half, but I was still generally unimpressed by Mitchell. He seemed to hang around the perimeter way too much, and spent little time inside – where he’ll wind up this season, playing the four.

3. This team is still dismal from long distance. Jeremy Hazell had one of his cold nights – something that will kill this team against real competition – and the team was 6-24 from long range. The loss of Laing and Nutter could really grind home here, because when Hazell’s off, this team has no distance threat. Mitchell had good numbers when he was in the A-10, but whether or not that’ll translate, and how long it might take to do so, is debatable. Someone will have to step up, or the Pirates will become a one dimension offense – which spells doom, since they’re nowhere near as talented on the inside as most teams in the Big East.

4. This isn’t the team’s fault, but the South Orange Cemetery had more life last night than the student portion of the stands at Walsh Gym. No emotion, no enthusiasm, nothing. The last thing this team needs is an apathetic fan base. C’mon folks, act interested.

I don’t mean to be such a doom and gloom type, but it’s easier to see the bad than the good. There were good things to take away from last night’s game, and we’ll see things put to the test soon enough.

That’s all for now folks. I’ll be back later in the weekend.

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Little Molloy College, of the East Coast Conference, rolls into South Orange tomorrow night to finally get things started for the Pirates.

Yeah, the “Meet the Team” party went well, and the team’s had a few closed door scrimmages, but the exhibition showdown in Walsh Gymnasium with the Lions will be the first time the Hall’s newcomers have played a full game in front of a full house – expect Walsh to have a capacity crowd despite the offseason controversies.

Molloy, as anticipated, is no real challenge. They’re a below average team in a poor conference. There’s really not much to say about them. They were brought in as a warm up type of game, and are going to function as such. It should be a good experience for the players, who’ll get to face some Big East caliber talent.

What we’re really going to be looking for tomorrow, though, is some sign that things have turned around on the Pirates’ front. The scrimmage at the “Meet the Team” party wasn’t exactly pretty, and it included players that still aren’t on the active roster. Molloy will give the Pirates their first real taste of having an eight man team.

How long that’ll last, though, is questionable. It remains to be seen if Bobby Gonzalez will take on anyone from his open tryout, which was held Nov. 4. I caught a glimpse of the kids that signed up, and there were at least one or two guys there that local hoops fans might recognize.

I’ll have much more on this game tomorrow, right down to what I expect to see and hear. We’re now eight days away from St. Francis (NY) and the home opener, so check back on a more daily basis for stuff as I break down things just in time for the regular season.

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