“He is” Isaiah Coleman, and Seton Hall needs him beyond 2024-25
Which players are trending up and trending down after Seton Hall’s big comeback against DePaul?
NEWARK – Seton Hall basketball has a pregame tradition driven by public address announced Tim McLoone. It’s so simple that you can miss it if you aren’t already aware of what McLoone is doing.
As with most college programs, the fifth and final starter announced during introductions is the team’s best or most accomplished player, or perhaps a senior captain. McLoone’s personal touch for years now has been to save the best player for last and introduce him with a “He is… Kadary Richmond.”
It was Richmond’s honor last year, and Tyrese Samuel, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Myles Powell before that. But this year, the succession of star players was interrupted, and McLoone didn’t utilize the “He is…” for weeks. He told Jerry Carino he was still undecided who it should be because of the roster turnover.
In the Pirates’ first Big East home game on Dec. 22, it finally happened.
“He is… Isaiah Coleman.”
McLoone kept Coleman in the spotlight in Wednesday’s intro against DePaul. And not only did Coleman continue to score like an alpha dog needs to score, the way he willed a 19-point comeback into existence showed just how badly Seton Hall needs him to lead the way for the rest of this campaign – and beyond.
The Pirates were down 19 in the first minute of the second half after Shaheen Holloway picked up a technical foul. Coleman, who didn’t score from the field in the first half, hit an important 3-pointer to spark a 12-0 stretch while the Pirates’ defense stymied DePaul with a full-court press and forced several turnovers.
Even after the Pirates drew as close as 50-49, it looked like it would be too little, too late as DePaul pulled ahead by 11. Instead, Coleman scored eight more points in the final 2:14 of regulation and hit the game-tying three (his third of the half) to send the game to overtime.
He added a three for the first points of overtime, and by then Seton Hall was in complete control, the thin crowd fully on their feet and cheering at the top of their collective lungs as the Pirates finished an 85-80 victory.
Coleman scored 22 of his 24 points after halftime, with six rebounds and five assists, and the Pirates avoided the dishonor of the program’s first six-game losing streak since 2015.
The main way Seton Hall showed progress Wednesday was in its late-game execution. Against Georgetown, the Pirates didn’t stop fighting, either, scoring the final 10 points of the game to make it close. But Coleman and Dylan Addae-Wusu botched the last play, in which Coleman was the No. 1 option for a look at a game-winning shot.
Wednesday, the game-tying play was a completely different one, according to Holloway.
“We didn’t run it 100 percent right, but we ran it right enough and Zay stepped up and made a good shot, Prince (Aligbe) had a good screen,” Holloway said. “But the whole thing was designed right. Dylan did his job by taking his man down, the five man who was guarding Prince kind of helped out a little bit, Prince set the screen and Zay took him right off. He made a big shot, and that’s something that we needed.”
Then Holloway revealed something that made his showing far more astounding – Coleman was “in bed for four straight days” with food poisoning. The sophomore wasn’t available to the press while getting postgame treatment.
“It started in the Xavier game, the day of the game,” Holloway said. “I’m not sure how he played, and when we got back from there, he was in bed all the way till Sunday.
“Both him and Dylan and a couple guys are getting more than fluids.”
Coleman didn’t pull this off single-handedly. Addae-Wusu, who’s had a tough season, played 39 minutes and put up season highs of 24 points and seven assists. His three steals all came while the Pirates were employing their full-court press in the second half.
But we’ve hit a point of Seton Hall’s season where it’s more interesting to think about what next year could look like, and Addae-Wusu is out of eligibility. Coleman, we shouldn’t forget, was a four-star prospect and the first recruit to commit to Holloway at Seton Hall out of high school. However the transfer portal shakes out in the spring, it’s imperative that the program retain Coleman and make him the centerpiece of anything they do in 2025-26. Not only for his scoring ability, toughness and desire to win, but for his apparent connection with Holloway and understanding of how to play the coach’s way.
Then McLoone can continue to announce, “He is… Isaiah Coleman,” and fans can have a reason to keep coming back to support this program.
In that spirit, there are 16 games left in the regular season and Holloway indicated Wednesday he’s likely to play a six- or seven-man rotation going forward, after weeks upon weeks of him saying he was learning his guys, trying to find the right combinations, getting them to play how he wants them to, etc.
Besides Coleman, the anchor of this lineup as long as he’s healthy, whose stock is rising and whose is falling? Here are three of each:
Stock up: Jahseem Felton
Through the Villanova game Dec. 17, the freshman guard had played just 45 minutes over six appearances. He’s received a bigger role since then, including his first-ever start at Xavier, and he’s picking his spots offensively. With the energy he plays with, there’s a lot for Seton Hall to work with here. “I didn’t like that he gave up offensive rebounds,” Holloway said. “He’s just playing hard, so you’re out there because you’re playing. You ain’t out there because you’re doing something great, you’re just playing hard, you’re doing what you could do, you could make a shot. And he’s got the confidence to go try to get a shot, and I like that about him.”
Stock down: Godswill Erheriene
Seton Hall’s other three-star freshman isn’t going to cut it at the Power Five level. Erheriene started throughout November and came off the bench in every game in December. He got to start again Wednesday, played six minutes, checked out when DePaul led 10-7 and never entered again. Godswill Erheriene, welcome to Club Trillion:
Stock up: Prince Aligbe
Seton Hall played its best basketball in weeks when it deployed the small-ball lineup of Addae-Wusu, Coleman, Felton, Scotty Middleton and Aligbe. The 6-foot-7 forward profiles as Hall’s best option for a small-ball five. Remember, KC Ndefo was the same height, had a slighter build than Aligbe and still played center for Holloway in the Big East. Aligbe has had an up-and-down season but can get going from the field when they keep him in the game (16 points, 7-of-13 FG Wednesday). He’s also the Pirates’ best rebounder per 40 minutes among players who get consistent minutes.
Stock down: Yacine Toumi
Aligbe basically needs to be Seton Hall’s five going forward unless Toumi gets his act together. Gus Yalden is an energy guy who plays well in spurts, but is obviously a project. Erheriene and Emmanuel Okorafor are in the doghouse. That leaves Toumi, who had his least productive game yet on Wednesday after missing the Xavier game. He’s yet to make a basket in Big East play.
Stock up: Scotty Middleton
This final pairing compares two guys generally considered Hall’s biggest gets in the portal, and who even had light NBA talk around them. Middleton, like several Pirates, was better in the second half Wednesday, playing the full 20 minutes and contributing seven points, four rebounds and two assists. The Ohio State transfer hit some critical shots in the final four minutes and extended his streak to six games with at least one three, dating back to his 4-for-4 showing against Oklahoma State.
Stock down: Garwey Dual
Dual straight up didn’t play against DePaul. He was dressed for the game, seated right near the coaches and never checked in. After a stretch of decent performances in December, he’s clearly so deep in Holloway’s doghouse after managing a minus-9 rating in eight minutes at Xavier. Dual played for Providence last year, so of any newcomer on this team he was the one expected to be able to perform against Big East competition. I even named him the best defender in New Jersey last month, yet his offense has been so directly harmful to Seton Hall that a defensive-minded coach like Holloway can’t find a way to play him.
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Hi there, and thanks as always for stopping by. We’ve got time for a short, Rutgers-focused cleaning the glass section today:
Kiyomi McMiller update: She traveled with Rutgers to Minnesota and was not listed on Wednesday’s pregame availability report. Then came word from a program spokesperson that McMiller wouldn’t play: “The decision for her not to play was a game-time decision, made after the availability report was submitted.” Minnesota won 76-50, and the Scarlet Knights fell to 0-5 in the Big Ten. Here’s the column I wrote Tuesday about the situation if you missed it, and I stand by every word of it.
The Rutgers men host two ranked teams in the next two games, although the latter likely won’t be ranked when they reach Piscataway on Monday: No. 20 Purdue and No. 22 UCLA. With the Scarlet Knights standing at 8-7 (1-3 Big Ten), it feels imperative that they win both. Even one out of two would spell a 1-2 homestand and won’t be enough to reignite tournament talk. The disappointment in the Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey-led group is reaching the national media. An anonymous high-major assistant coach whose team has faced Rutgers told Matt Norlander in his CBS Sports column, “Those two are incredibly talented young men with very bright futures in the NBA but they don’t try hard defensively.” He added that “You don’t have to guard everyone else,” a knock on the supporting cast of Jordan Derkack, Zach Martini, PJ Hayes and others who have not been providing that all-important secondary scoring of late.