A post-Feast Week checkup for Seton Hall, Rutgers and more
Seton Hall and Monmouth are trending up. Rutgers, well, not so much.
I don’t remember when the term “Feast Week” came into popular usage. I’m sure it was invented in a back room somewhere at ESPN headquarters, and the company has been pushing it more in recent seasons. In fairness to them, more college basketball games than ever before are available at our fingertips with the advent of streaming platforms like ESPN+, so thanks for feeding our hunger for the sport.
Now, Feast Week – the week of Thanksgiving, featuring a large majority of the in-season college basketball tournaments – is a good early milepost for how things are going. Duke and Purdue are on the rise. Gonzaga is insanely talented but won’t have to carry around the burden of a perfect season. Michigan and North Carolina, meanwhile, have some stuff to figure out.
With that in mind, let me present what’s likely to become an occasional feature on Guarden State: a “checkup” of all eight New Jersey teams, with a concise overview of what’s been going right and wrong for each program.
Seton Hall
Record: 5-1
Best win: Without a doubt the 67-65, come-from-behind road win against then-No. 4 Michigan on Nov. 16.
Pleasant surprise: The strength of the Pirates’ bench as a whole, and the emergence of Tray Jackson in particular. The junior was not a factor in Kevin Willard’s rotation last year but has grown as a player since then. Now he’s averaging 7.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game off the bench while shooting 55 percent from 2-point range. Per KenPom.com, the Pirates rank 11th in the country in giving their reserves 41.4 percent of the team’s total minutes.
What needs work: The perimeter defense could stand to be better. We don’t know how much longer Myles Cale will be out with a groin injury, and he’s proven himself to be the team’s best on the perimeter. You saw it last year when Hall blew a big lead against Creighton: These players don’t often lock down the outside shot, and it can come back to bite them.
What’s next: Seton Hall aren’t going far for most of December. After Wagner and Division II Nyack this week, the Pirates welcome No. 7 Texas and Rutgers to complete a five-game homestand. They’ll meet Rick Pitino’s upstart Iona Gaels at MSG a week before Christmas right before hosting none other than St. John’s to open conference play. Let the fun begin.
Rutgers
Record: 3-3
Best win: The only choice here is a 75-61 win over NJIT, and even that game had flaws. This team is trending down in the worst way after Saturday’s last-second loss at UMass.
Pleasant surprise: I’ll give freshman Jaden Jones a shout-out here. I don’t think anyone thought he would be the Scarlet Knights’ sixth-leading scorer, but he’s averaging 6.0 ppg in just under 13 minutes a game. He’s taking and making smart shots, and Steve Pikiell is already showing trust in him in important second-half situations.
What needs work: Not to be overly blunt, but what doesn’t? You don’t lose three straight games in November, two straight to mid-majors, by playing good basketball. Their shooting has been far too inconsistent to open the season, and it doomed them when no one could hit a shot for five minutes at the end of the UMass game. Rutgers needs to find ways to close out games they ought to win, simple as that.
What’s next: The Scarlet Knights host Clemson Tuesday for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, a rematch of their first-round NCAA Tournament game in March. Then get ready for a brutal stretch: at Illinois and home to No. 2 Purdue to open Big Ten play, followed by a visit to Seton Hall. There isn’t much time for Rutgers to right this ship, quite frankly.
Princeton
Record: 5-2
Best win: Take your pick between the Tigers’ two wins over Power Five foes. More recently, they beat Oregon State, a team that played last March, in a true road game. Their win at the Asheville Championship over South Carolina was on a neutral court, but I’ll choose that as Princeton’s best win; don’t look now, but it’s the only L on the Gamecocks’ 5-1 record.
Pleasant surprise: If Jaelin Llewellyn entered this season as a candidate for Ivy League Player of the Year, he’s now got competition in his own backcourt in the form of Ethan Wright. The guard is leading Princeton in scoring (15.3 ppg) and rebounding (8.0) while trying to join the 50-40-90 club. He’s already set two career highs in scoring: 24 against the Beavers, then 29 last night against FDU.
What needs work: Defense. The Tigers are allowing opponents to make 43.1 percent from the field, and KenPom ranks them 264th in adjusted defensive efficiency. Monmouth scored 37 points in the second half to beat Princeton last Wednesday, and FDU scored 43 second-half points in a surprising effort to keep up.
What’s next: Princeton visits Hofstra Wednesday before hosting Drexel and Bucknell. A total of six nonconference games in December will give way to the start of the Ivy schedule Jan. 2.
Monmouth
Record: 5-1
Best win: Saturday’s two-point win over Cincinnati on the road. For context, that Cincinnati team drubbed Illinois by 20 (and that’s after Kofi Cockburn returned from his suspension!). The Hawks clawed back throughout the second half and once they took the lead, they never let go.
Pleasant surprise: All of it. Monmouth is a bucket away from being 6-0. This was a team that the Lindy’s preseason preview magazine picked to finish last in the MAAC – though, it’s important to note, that went to print before Shavar Reynolds joined the team. Click here if you missed my feature story on Reynolds in last Friday’s edition.
What needs work: It’s nitpicking, but 61 assists to 77 turnovers is not a good ratio. They’ve had four different players lead them in scoring at least once, so the desire to share the ball can’t be questioned, but collectively they can be more careful with the ball.
What’s next: The Hawks spend the next few weeks away from home. First they head to the Buffalo area to play Niagara and Canisius. They’ll visit St. John’s on Dec. 9 and Pittsburgh Dec. 12, the latter of which looks like an extremely winnable game given how the Panthers are playing.
Rider
Record: 3-5
Best win: Wednesday’s 85-79 win over Bucknell, usually a good team despite being 2-5 this year, at the Cancun Challenge. If nothing else, Rider avenged an 81-74 loss to the same team earlier this month.
Pleasant surprise: Talk about sharing the ball: Six different dudes have led the Broncs in scoring at least once. They’re just as cohesive attacking the boards, where four different players average at least 5.0 rebounds a game. It hasn’t resulted in many wins yet, but that’s the right mindset.
What needs work: Shooting, in general. The effective field goal percentage stat adds some extra weight to 3-pointers into the calculation, given that they’re worth more. Rider ranks 330th out of 358 teams in eFG%, partly owing to the fact that the long ball isn’t part of its repertoire as a team (27.2 percent from three).
What’s next: Big road tests against Ole Miss, Iona and Rutgers.
Saint Peter’s
Record: 1-3
Best win: Well, they only have the one, a 64-62 result over Long Island.
Pleasant surprise: Props to Daryl Banks III for setting a career high of 26 points on the road against a good Providence team Saturday. It’s very early, but Banks has improved his shooting percentage almost 70 percentage points over last year, including a huge jump from inside the arc from 34.2 to 56.3 percent.
What needs work: I’ll refrain from answering this section due to a lack of evidence. The Peacocks are the team on this list I’ve seen the least of, partly because they’ve only played four games and partly because I’ve been concentrating on other teams. We’ll give them some time to sort things out.
What’s next: At Quinnipiac Friday before a three-game homestand.
NJIT
Record: 2-3
Best win: Laugh all you want, but three days after Lehigh came to the RAC (sorry, Jersey Mike’s Arena) and pushed Rutgers to overtime, NJIT went to Lehigh’s place and won 73-56.
Pleasant surprise: Dylan O’Hearn (16.2 ppg) and Miles Coleman (15.4 ppg) both rank among the America East Conference’s top five leading scorers. The Highlanders needed to replace the production of departed transfer Zach Cooks, and so far this tandem is up to the task.
What needs work: This team will appear overmatched on paper against many of its opponents, though give the Highlanders credit for taking St. John’s to overtime on Saturday. Even in an elongated game, only six players scored and only six saw double-digit minutes for NJIT. Other bench players have to make the most of their limited chances.
What’s next: Three of its next four are at home, starting Tuesday against Sacred Heart and concluding with a game against Army Dec. 10.
Fairleigh Dickinson
Record: 0-5
Best win: N/A
Pleasant surprise: Freshman Ibrahim Wattara has come off the bench to give the Knights a spark in tough situations. He’s led them in rebounding on three occasions and scored a team-high 12 points against Northwestern.
What needs work: Hard to say, when you consider the tough strength of schedule they’ve had in the early going. The Knights lost to Seton Hall, Northwestern and St. John’s to begin their season; the first two were blowouts. They’re playing closer games of late; in an 89-79 loss to Princeton yesterday, Brandon Rush went for 27 points and the team shot 45.9 percent from the field and 54.2 percent from three.
What’s next: Three more road games, starting with a visit to Manhattan Tuesday. Hang in there, Knights, you finally get your home opener on Dec. 15 – and follow it immediately with a visit to Virginia.
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Time to quickly clean the glass with notes on today’s new AP poll...
Seton Hall hung onto a spot in the Top 25, slipping four spots to No. 25. To review: The Pirates fell from the ranks of the unbeaten by losing to Ohio State on a buzzer-beater, they only beat Cal by three and they looked shaky for a half against Bethune-Cookman before running away. I don’t get a vote, but if I did, I’m not sure I would have reserved a spot for the Pirates considering 7-0 LSU and 7-0 Colorado State are still on the outside looking in.
On another note, the Big Ten added Michigan State and Wisconsin to the Top 25 after good Feast Week performances. The Badgers handed both Houston and St. Mary’s their first losses of the season. I watched Michigan State against Loyola Chicago early in the week and came away impressed. Illinois and Indiana are lurking around outside the Top 25. The upshot: The conference gaining strength is bad, bad news for Rutgers.