Seton Hall preview: Jared Rhoden, defense will determine Pirates’ ceiling
We heard some competing messages from members of the Seton Hall contingent at Big East Media Day last month.
We heard some competing messages from members of the Seton Hall contingent at Big East Media Day last month.
In various one-on-one, made-for-YouTube interviews, Jared Rhoden, Ike Obiagu and coach Kevin Willard previewed their season. Rhoden, hands folded with a confident posture, explained he was “really hurt” that the Pirates landed fifth of 11 in the conference preseason poll.
“I actually think we’re going to be one of the top two teams that finish in the Big East this year, and not only one of the best teams in the Big East, but we’ll be one of the best teams in the country when it’s all said and done,” Rhoden said.
Willard, as he’s often known to do, tempered expectations.
“At times I look at us and I’m like, ‘Ooh, man, we can be pretty good,’” Willard said, “and then there’s other times I’m like, ‘Man, we stink.’”
So there you have it, right? Glad we cleared that up.
It’s the first season of the post-Myles Powell and post-Sandro Mamukelashvili era in South Orange, leaving the Pirates as one of the several question marks in the middle of the Big East. Everyone is reasonably confident that Villanova and Connecticut are the league’s top two, and DePaul and Marquette will settle in at the bottom.
Whether Seton Hall can rise to the league’s upper echelon once again will first depend on how Rhoden does replacing Mamukelashvili – currently earning some minutes with the NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks – as the Pirates’ No. 1 offensive threat.
“Losing a guy like Sandro, you see how well he’s playing in the NBA right now, the opportunities he’s had. That’s a big gap,” Willard said. “(He was) a guy that can create a lot of shots.”
Don’t take that quote to mean that Willard doesn’t have faith in Rhoden, a preseason All-Big East first team selection who started every game last season on the wing. Entering his fourth year in the program, Rhoden’s production has risen along with his minutes, but even his per-40 averages show promising trends. As a junior, he was not only scoring more, but also getting to the foul line more, collecting more assists, committing fewer fouls.
Rhoden knew that having Powell and Mamukelashvili ahead of him in line prepared him for this moment, and he made sure to study them up close.
“I feel like Myles and Sandro paved the way for me,” he said. “I had a first-hand experience to see what they went through as being the alpha and being the main guy on the team. I feel like I got a chance to see their experiences of the highs and the lows, where they went wrong and where they did very well. I just took notes and took my time and really analyzed it.
“I’ve had extensive conversations with Myles and Sandro about me being in this position one day, and for it to finally come full circle is just amazing.”
So why didn’t last year’s Sandro-led team stretch the program’s streak of NCAA Tournament bids to five? Peruse the schedule, and it’s easy to see where things got derailed. A string of four red L’s at the end of the regular season usually does not portend a tournament berth.
Entering that stretch, the Pirates were 13-8, dragged down only by one blowout loss to Creighton and a Quadrant 3 loss in overtime to Providence. They had given third-ranked Villanova a scare in Philadelphia and beaten UConn on the road. It was a bubble type of resume, but there was ample time to improve it.
The Pirates finished with three of their last four games on the road, but they dropped all four, including a vital chance to sweep UConn in Newark. Patterns emerge upon reflection. Three of those opponents had four or more scorers in double figures; Georgetown shot 50 percent from the floor and 62.5 percent from three, while in the season finale, St. John’s made 51.8 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from three.
And in the last three games in particular, Seton Hall was badly outpaced in the second half. This was never more evident than against St. John’s: The Pirates led by 10 at the break and lost the second half 53-33. Spreading the ball around to 10 different players, St. John’s was the deeper team and stepped on the gas in a way Seton Hall couldn’t.
At media day, Willard said his team’s biggest challenge is how it will gel defensively. Luckily for him, Seton Hall’s offseason cruise through the transfer portal was a successful one. Jamir Harris is projected to pop as a scoring point guard, but former Syracuse guard Kadary Richmond might be the most vital pick-up of them all. A top-100 recruit in his class, Richmond has the length to defend multiple positions and averaged 1.6 steals per game in his lone season in the ACC.
You can’t talk about Seton Hall and defense without mentioning the Big East’s reigning leader in blocked shots, Obiagu (3.3 per game).
“I think we are very deep this year,” Obiagu said, “maybe one of the deepest we’ve been because anybody can come off the bench and give the same productivity as one of the starters, so I think that’s gonna be very huge for us.”
Indeed, hearkening back to those second-half collapses last season, their depth will be the key. Willard kept his rotation to a tight eight during the four-game losing streak, perhaps partly because he had to. (This year’s lineups will be tested early against No. 6 Michigan and No. 17 Ohio State in November, followed by No. 5 Texas and Rutgers in December.)
Does it all spell a return to March Madness? Rhoden might say so. Don’t expect Willard to get ahead of himself.
“I like us long-term,” Willard said. “Right now, it’s just we’re a little bit behind.”