Previewing Seton Hall at Rutgers: Consistently inconsistent

Keys to a game both sides desperately need to win.

Shaheen Holloway and Steve Pikiell guide their teams into the Garden State Hardwood Classic this Saturday. (Combo photo of YouTube screengrabs via Seton Hall Pirates and The Knight Report)

This is my fourth season professionally covering New Jersey college basketball, and lately it’s felt like the most underwhelming. Princeton isn’t off to its usual sensational start. NJIT and Monmouth took a hell of a long time to get their first wins. And then, of course, there’s Rutgers and Seton Hall.

I wanted to see whether I was off base about this being the worst start for these programs in four years, so I went back to check Seton Hall’s and Rutgers’ records on Dec. 10 of each of the past three seasons.

Dec. 10, 2021: Seton Hall was 8-1 after beating Texas; Rutgers was 5-4 after upsetting No. 1 Purdue.

Dec. 10, 2022: Seton Hall was 5-4; Rutgers was 6-3.

Dec. 10, 2023: Seton Hall was 5-4 and Rutgers was 6-3 the day after the Scarlet Knights defeated the Pirates 70-63 in Newark.

Today: Seton Hall is 5-5 with three losses to mid-majors and owns one of the worst KenPom ratings in power-conference basketball. Rutgers is 5-4 – could be 5-5 after facing a good Penn State team later tonight – and enduring a generally disappointing start to the most anticipated, most hyped season in program history.

The middling records have hardly changed, especially once Seton Hall entered the Shaheen Holloway era. But the expectations have.

That’s why Saturday’s Garden State Hardwood Classic between two up-and-down programs feels like a must-win for both the Scarlet Knights and the visiting Pirates.

Rutgers looks like the better team on paper, but what good is paper in a rivalry this intense? Let’s break down each team’s lineup, followed by how both Seton Hall and Rutgers could win this game.

(But first! A quick plug for the “Hoist the Colors” podcast with Timmy Ice and Patrick Madden. I joined the guys last night to preview Seton Hall-Rutgers, and you can check it out right here.)

Projected starting lineups:

Seton Hall: G Dylan Addae-Wusu, G Chaunce Jenkins, G Isaiah Coleman, F Prince Aligbe, C Godswill Erheriene

Rutgers: G Dylan Harper, G Jeremiah Williams, G Jordan Derkack, G/F Ace Bailey, C Emmanuel Ogbole

First, a quick observation: Only two of these players have game experience in this rivalry series. Williams (suspension) and Ogbole (knee rehab) were on Rutgers’ roster but didn’t play in last December’s edition. Addae-Wusu and Coleman combined for seven points vs. Rutgers last year.

I project Jenkins returns to the starting five even though he came off the bench on Sunday against Oklahoma State due to a knee injury that kept him out of practice. He only played 10 minutes and was held scoreless, but if the injury was minor enough that he was still allowed to suit up, and he’s gotten several more days to recover, I’d like to assume he is healthy for Saturday.

We’re also swapping Erheriene back into the starting lineup after Emmanuel Okorafor got the nod vs. NJIT and Oklahoma State. That’s because Okorafor was yanked from Sunday’s game after three whole minutes as he wasn’t getting back on defense fast enough, and the FS1 cameras caught Holloway giving Okorafor a looong, silent staredown. The big man did not play the rest of the day, and after the game Holloway outright said, “I was kind of trying to find matchups and stuff, but it’s a new team. I’m still learning them, but I’m over that. I’m just playing guys that are gonna play the way I want them to play.” He didn’t name Okorafor specifically, but he may as well have.

The problem is the freshman Erheriene has made only a minimal impact so far this year. He may start, but expect a rotation with Yacine Toumi and Gus Yalden, the latter of whom played his best game yet on Sunday.

All in all, it goes without saying that Rutgers has more talent in both the backcourt and the frontcourt. (Emmanuel Ogbole has had his ups and downs as Rutgers’ starting five, but overall he’s head and shoulders above his same-name counterpart in blue.) But talent alone doesn’t hand you anything – someone should remind these SEC football coaches and sycophants that.

3-point shooting