Seton Hall, Rutgers land lopsided wins to tip off new season
NEWARK – With under four minutes to play Wednesday, Monmouth put the ball on the floor once again, a theme throughout a sloppy season opener.
Seton Hall turned it into a 4-on-2 break, and freshman forward Tae Davis took the ball most of the way. Davis’ two-handed jam made it 73-45, an exclamation point for a game that was already in the bag.
After 12 seasons under Kevin Willard, the Pirates launched the Shaheen Holloway era with a 79-52 opening-night victory over Monmouth on Wednesday. And while there will be plenty of time for everyone to reflect on Holloway’s journey once more – watch this space over the weekend – some of the individual performances we saw at the Prudential Center are worth taking inventory of as the season gets rolling.
Davis is a 6-foot-9 freshman forward from Indianapolis and the younger brother of junior Dre Davis. At one point Tae was committed to Louisville, where Dre started 23 of 30 games last year. He decommitted after Louisville let go of coach Chris Mack, Dre subsequently entered the portal and Holloway scored a buy one, get one free deal by signing the Davis brothers.
Jump ahead to Wednesday, and while Louisville loses its opener to Bellarmine, a relative newcomer to Division I, Tae Davis is busy posting 11 points and eight rebounds (five offensive) to help guide Seton Hall to a runaway win.
“I really didn’t say too much to him, just tried to continue to encourage him, help him stay positive and confident,” Dre Davis said. “But what you’ve seen, that’s him. That’s who he is as a player and who he will continue to be.”
Tae was one of the last Hall players to get involved in the scoring, canning all 11 points in the second half after he picked up two fouls in his lone minute of action in the first half.
“I was happy with Tae Davis’ second half,” Holloway said. “He got in foul trouble early and then he came out in the second half and showed why I’m high on him.”
Holloway said it, and he showed it: He wants a deep rotation, just like at Saint Peter’s, where 12 guys averaged at least eight minutes per game last year and the top nine averaged 13. At Big East media day he said he wasn’t sure if the Pirates were ready for it yet. Come Wednesday, they were, even if it was partly a product of the up-tempo playing style.
“We had a couple guys who were really winded early and asked to come out,” Holloway said. “And that’s how it’s gonna be. This is how I want to play. I want to play 10 guys.”
Because Holloway is always going to start three guards, it squeezes Tray Jackson out of the starting five. Holloway instead deployed KC Ndefo down low next to Tyrese Samuel with Alexis Yetna injured.
Jackson still led the Pirates’ balanced scoring effort with 12 points (4-for-6 shooting) and had five rebounds. He didn’t make a three, but the strides he took as a perimeter threat last season won’t just disappear.
Keep in mind that Holloway could easily create a new starting combination for all 11 nonconference games, and my point would become moot. But if Jackson’s role this season is to be a scoring threat off the bench, and his rebounding and defense stay up to par, I don’t see why he can’t be in the mix for Big East Sixth Man of the Year when it’s said and done.
Holloway’s style is more up-tempo than Kevin Willard’s. His defense was aggressive, too, with a full-court press that succeeded in causing multiple Monmouth turnovers.
But this was hardly a perfect start for Seton Hall. Both teams were generally sloppy; while the Hawks had 18 turnovers in the first half alone, the Pirates committed 13. They were beaten on the boards 26-19 in the first half before that evened out over time. They missed 16 free throws.
And Holloway absorbed it all, saying it wouldn’t be good enough going forward.
“It was a good win, but I thought we could’ve done a lot better,” he said. “But it’s gonna be games like this to get us to where I think we could get eventually.”
Monmouth might have a long season ahead of it, though I don’t think the Hawks will shoot 29.8 percent from the floor or 2-for-20 from the arc every night. Whatever happens, Myles Foster figures to be a bright spot. His 18 points and 15 rebounds were both career highs, and he looked right at home back at the four, his natural position.
On the other end of the sideline, Holloway took notice, later mentioning Foster in an answer about Samuel.
“I want Rese to be more,” he said. “I gotta get Rese to almost be like the kid, Myles Foster. We’ve gotta have that type of aggression. He gotta be aggressive that way.”
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Hi there, hello. Thanks as always for reading. Let’s clean the glass with a quick review of how the other New Jersey teams began their seasons:
That was as complete a performance as you could have asked for from Rutgers. Yes, Columbia is expected to be bad, i.e. “last place in the Ivy League” bad, but you remember how last season began for the Scarlet Knights, don’t you? Overtime required to beat Lehigh at home. Ugly offense against Merrimack. Loss to DePaul. Loss to Lafayette. Loss to UMass.
So Rutgers fans will happily take a 75-35 beatdown of Columbia, in which all five starters scored in double figures and Cam Spencer posted 17 points and six steals in his team debut. The steals were what I was more impressed with – he’s active on the defensive end, and it filled a need on a night that Caleb McConnell (knee) had to sit out. The comfortable lead allowed Steve Pikiell to give Derek Simpson, Antwone Woolfolk and Antonio Chol some real court time in their freshman debuts.Rider was taking it to Providence. At Providence! “The Dunk” is now “The AMP,” but that building didn’t lose its character for a college basketball weeknight. The Friars were 18-1 there last season, but it was evident that while Providence will miss a lot of last year’s lineup pieces, Rider is already cohesive. That’s what returning four starters and spending part of summer playing in Europe together will do for you. Providence took back control midway through the second half, but looking past Allen Powell’s slip/trip, the Broncs had a real chance to win that game on the final possession.
Princeton led a good Hofstra team by 10 with 10:48 to go, but the Tigers slowly let that slip away and fell 83-77. Growing pains. Tosan Evbuomwan started the year with 22 points and seven boards. Freshman Caden Pierce had seven points, 10 rebounds and two assists starting on the wing.
Here’s something I didn’t think I’d write: Fairleigh Dickinson nearly took down Loyola Chicago, on the road, in regulation. Then… well, if you haven’t seen this yet, take a look:
LOYOLA-CHICAGO AT THE BUZZER!!!!! The Ramblers go the length of the court in 1.8 seconds to force overtime against Fairleigh Dickinson.The Knights lost 88-82 in overtime in Tobin Anderson’s coaching debut, but they showed a lot more fight than many would have predicted. They’re now 1-1 after creaming Division II Mercy 106-66 Wednesday night. Senior guard Demetre Roberts had 22 points in both games.
Finally, Saint Peter’s beat NJIT, 73-59. I can’t wait to get a better look at these Peacocks. Freshman Corey Washington, an unheralded recruit from Arkansas who signed late in the summer, led the team with both 18 points and eight rebounds. NJIT’s (more-heralded) freshman Paul McMillan IV had 12 points (8-of-8 from the foul line) and three steals in his debut.
Speaking of the Peacocks, I’m back at the Rock on Saturday for Seton Hall-Saint Peter’s. I don’t have to spell out why. Stay tuned, and follow me on Twitter, too, while you still can.