‘Game by game,’ Seton Hall is getting stronger in time for March
Shaheen Holloway's Pirates improved to 11-5 in the Big East by beating tournament bubble companion Butler.
NEWARK – When Seton Hall rallied to beat St. John’s a week ago out on Long Island, the first question Shaheen Holloway received postgame pertained to his team’s NCAA Tournament resume. Holloway didn’t wait to hear the reporter finish.
“I’ll answer that. We don’t care about that,” Holloway said. “We just care about game for game. Sorry to interrupt that.”
It’s obvious that Seton Hall’s players take after their coach on the court – toughness and hard-nosed defense ruling the day – but it became clear that they follow Holloway’s example after the whistle, too, when they were asked Saturday how they were approaching the lead-up to March.
“We’re just gonna keep playing basketball game by game, and wherever the chips fall, they fall,” Kadary Richmond said.
Seton Hall improved to 11-5 in the Big East and 18-9 overall with Saturday night’s 76-64 win over tournament bubble companion Butler. The Bulldogs are winless since I declared they “are that good” on Feb. 15. They’re starting to crumble at the wrong time; Holloway’s Pirates are coming together at the precise right moment.
My game story for Field Level Media has more of the blow by blow for those interested, but Seton Hall came out playing some of the best defense it’s shown all season. The Pirates had made four steals and returned three for fast-break buckets before the Bulldogs had made their second shot of the night. The 16-3 run to start the game was reminiscent of Seton Hall’s start against Xavier on Valentine’s Day, not the weak first halves at Villanova and St. John’s. The players made clear they want those to be a thing of the past.
“We just had to set the first punch, you know?” Al-Amir Dawes said. “We didn’t want to come out there slow and have a slow first half. We had to start it up with our defense, and the offense is gonna come. We were just defensive-minded, came out there and got the job done for the most part.”
Dre Davis, Richmond and Dawes combined for 60 of Seton Hall’s 76 points (21, 20 and 19 respectively). Butler drew within two points on three occasions in the second half, but every time, one of Seton Hall’s big three guards responded on offense. The final of these blows came on Davis’ consecutive layups, the latter on a beautiful spin move around Andre Screen.
Then, of course, Richmond did what Richmond does, this journey to the hoop worthy of any highlight reel of his 2023-24 season.
Seton Hall skeptics can rightfully point out that the Pirates got next to nothing from their bench in this game, but not much needs to be asked of the reserves when their trio of scorers are all firing this late in the season.
“Our three guys gotta be our three guys,” Holloway said.
The Pirates are healthy at the right time, too. Richmond is well past his two-game absence to heal up from unspecified soreness. Davis was nearly held out of the St. John’s game with an ankle issue, but he came off the bench for 35 important minutes. Then Seton Hall had a mini-bye week, with five days between games and time to both practice and recover.
“I thought we had three solid days of practice,” Holloway said. “This was a good bye week for us. We kind of needed it, guys were banged up.”
That break and this Butler win set up Seton Hall for two pivotal weeks. Road games against Creighton and UConn are on the horizon. Then, rival Villanova brings its own tournament aspirations into the Prudential Center on March 6. Can Seton Hall win at least one of these games to further strengthen its metrics and overall body of work? Should that even matter, given the Pirates’ quality wins and crystal-clear standing as a top-four team in a major basketball conference?
Those questions are worth pondering for us media and fans, but you can tell Holloway is not one to play ball. Nor did he indulge a question about saying last preseason that he had the best backcourt in the Big East.
“They don’t get a lot of credit, I don’t think Dre gets a lot of credit,” Holloway said, “but we’re not worried about that. Things speak for themselves. They’re just trying to take each game day by day.”
When the Pirates took the court for the final time during warmups, Davis and Dawes had their arms around one another as they jogged out. And when the players left the press conference room, Davis put his arm on Richmond’s shoulder.
Seton Hall’s NET may have only improved to No. 62 after beating Butler, and certain online bracketology amateurs may be hanging on to losses to USC and Rutgers like they’re the worst results they’ve ever seen. But when this Pirates team is this connected, on and off the court, most coaches wouldn’t wish to run into them next month.
………
Hi, etc. It’s a new morning and I’ve got another game to get to in a few hours, so let’s jump right in and clean the glass after a busy few days:
Leede Arena in Hanover, N.H., isn’t an easy place to play. It’s got to be a mix of the old Ivy back-to-backs and the journey to the far reaches of New England to play a not-so-inspiring opponent. Princeton lost at Dartmouth last season, and the Tigers trailed for most of the first half at Dartmouth on Saturday. Then the better team won, 68-56. Caden Pierce had his 13th double-double of the season (22 points, 11 rebounds). While Xaivian Lee ought to be the favorite for Ivy League Player of the Year, Pierce had better join him on the All-Ivy first team. We’re talking about someone who ranks seventh in the league in scoring and field goal percentage, second in rebounding and fourth in assist-to-turnover percentage. Like Tosan Evbuomwan before him, he’s an all-around dude in his own way.
Drama elsewhere in the Ancient Eight! Brown caught Cornell sleeping and won 78-74 in Ithaca. That, plus Yale and Princeton winning, created a three-way tie for the league lead at 9-2. Cornell comes to Princeton on March 2; a Tigers win could be the difference-maker for the regular season title.
A few teams now have one week left in the regular season, including Monmouth. The Hawks lost big at Towson on Thursday and soundly defeated North Carolina A&T on Saturday. With two games to go, the Hawks – say it with me now – are 9-0 at home in the CAA and 0-7 on the road. It would be a terrible omen for the conference tournament if Monmouth can’t finish the season with one or two road wins against Hampton and Elon, two of the worst teams in the conference going by KenPom.
Ansley Almonor scored a career-high 30 points to power FDU’s 68-58 win at Le Moyne. Though the Knights couldn’t complete the season sweep of Sacred Heart two days earlier, the win over Le Moyne put them in a tie for third with Sacred Heart entering the final week of the NEC regular season. The top two is out of reach, but FDU is in good shape to get a conference tournament game at home. A very tall task awaits Thursday when league leader Merrimack comes to Hackensack.
The Princeton women lost to Columbia 67-65, ending the Tigers’ 15-game winning streak. They rallied from an 11-point deficit in the final five minutes to get within a point, but this was always Abbey Hsu’s day. The guard had just become Columbia’s all-time leading scorer the previous time out, she had her number retired before her Senior Day game and she reached 2,000 career points in the third quarter. Here’s the thing: The Lions will want an even bigger prize a few weeks from now, and they’ll get to go for it on their home court when the school hosts Ivy Madness. We didn’t get a third battle between the Tigers and Lions last season because Harvard knocked off Columbia in the semifinals. It would be a banger this time around.
Saint Peter’s and Rider have embarked on three-game winning streaks ever since I visited them both for home losses on Feb. 10. Funny how life works. Rider scored a nice win over Tobin Anderson and Iona on Friday but hosts first-place Quinnipiac this afternoon. Saint Peter’s (10-6) hosts Marist (10-5) and can leapfrog into the top three of the ever-tightening MAAC with a win.