Seton Hall’s Walsh Gymnasium return becomes a night to forget
Seton Hall fans got to help create a unique atmosphere Monday, a treat that wasn’t originally on the schedule, but those fans surely left Walsh disappointed.
I couldn’t make it to South Orange to cover Monday’s Seton Hall-St. John’s tilt in person. Irrespective of the outcome, I really wish I’d been there.
For the first time since 1985, Seton Hall hosted a Big East game on campus at the historic Walsh Gymnasium. Due to its slim capacity, only students were allowed to attend, and about 1,300 showed up to make some noise late on a Monday night.
On TV, it seemed like a fantastic, throwback atmosphere. The game attracted the attention of national writers like The Athletic’s Dana O’Neil, who went in person and came away with the same conclusion I’ve made: This should be a more regular thing.
But not far across the river, in Queens, there resides another Big East program used to playing in compact, on-campus arenas.
It’s jarring that the Pirates didn’t look ready to play in Monday night’s environment and lost their most lopsided result of the season, 84-63. In a twist of irony, Kevin Willard thought the setting actually benefited St. John’s much more.
“I don’t like playing here,” Willard said. “It’s almost like it fits them perfect. They play at Carnesecca all the time, it’s a bandbox. But it is what it is. You have no control over the schedule. Our home crowd at the Prudential Center’s really good. We get like 9,000 people for a Big East game, so that’s 8,000 less people that were there that would have been there. We don’t practice up there, I think that’s the first time we’ve been up there in about three months, so I’ll take the Prudential Center.”
First off, we know it hasn’t been three months, but you’d be forgiven if you forgot Seton Hall beat up a Division II team called Nyack College at Walsh on Dec. 4 (final score: 113-67). But it sounds like a failure of preparation if 1.) it’s been so long since your team saw the inside of Walsh, and 2.) said team then looked discombobulated for about 35 minutes of Monday’s game.
St. John’s plays much of its schedule at Carnesecca Arena each year. It holds roughly 5,600 people and the general public can buy tickets, so the comparison isn’t spot-on, but Willard has a point about the setting.
The Johnnies owned the first 15 minutes of the game, taking a 21-point lead while Seton Hall started with 6-of-30 shooting from the field. It’s a credit to Jared Rhoden and Myles Cale that the Pirates ripped off 10 straight points and fought back for the rest of the half, bringing themselves within 10 at halftime.
Seton Hall fans watching at that point had to have thought that the game was still there for the taking. They watched the Pirates come from behind at Michigan, against Texas (down by 5 with 17:56 left), against UConn. Instead, Hall committed 13 of its 20 turnovers after halftime and St. John’s had no trouble running and hiding.
Get this: St. John’s star Julian Champagnie had another rough shooting night, going 2-for-10, yet his team still won by 21. Posh Alexander (19 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals) was very impressive; so was Aaron Wheeler (17 points, 10 boards).
“I think Wheeler was the biggest difference,” Willard said. “I thought defensively he ran and trapped the first half. He was a nuisance all night long, especially defensively. I think Posh plays good every game. Just because he had an off night the other night – we kept him off the glass, I thought that was the biggest thing.”
So Seton Hall fans got to participate in creating a unique atmosphere, a treat that wasn’t originally on the schedule, something positive born out of the daily struggles of coronavirus setbacks. But those fans left Walsh disappointed, to be sure. If Hall sets up this type of game again in the near future – and to reiterate, I think it should – here’s hoping it remembers to show up to play.
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Thanks for reading. Time to clean the glass and unveil some updated power rankings:
Pirates guard Bryce Aiken sat out for a second straight game while in concussion protocol. Even though Hall managed to beat St. John’s 66-60 on Saturday without Aiken, his absence was glaring during Monday’s fiasco. The Johnnies focused much more on pressuring Kadary Richmond, and while he did have four assists and three steals, his 0-for-8 shooting and four turnovers explained the outcome pretty well. “This was what I was afraid of on Saturday. With one primary ball-handler, (Richmond) was going to be a little tired,” Willard said. “The effort he gave on Saturday was phenomenal, the effort he gave today was great. It’s just he had to do it a lot, and so sometimes you have to have a short memory.”
It would make for appointment viewing if Aiken can return to play Wednesday against No. 22 Marquette. He’s only concussed because of the controversial play at the end of their first game, where Greg Elliott’s elbow to Aiken’s nose counted as a foul on... Aiken. Don’t get me wrong, Marquette deserves its new ranking in the AP poll. But Seton Hall ought to be up to the task of avenging that loss on Wednesday, and Aiken in particular probably wants to get a piece of that action.
Rutgers’ next three games are against the three worst teams in the Big Ten. It starts tonight when the Scarlet Knights host Maryland. Then they’ll travel to Nebraska and Northwestern. Going 3-0 needs to be their goal, because after that, they face five straight ranked teams and later visit Michigan and Indiana – the former currently rounding into form, the latter nearly unstoppable in its home building.
I think Monmouth is back on track. After the Hawks’ tough one-point OT loss to Iona, they pulled out a 61-58 road win at Fairfield before dominating Manhattan Sunday (15 rebounds for Nikkei Rutty!). Besides Iona, the only teams in the MAAC on a multiple-game winning streak are Monmouth and Canisius (each at two games); much of the league is just beating up on one another at present, leaving an opening for the Hawks to start asserting themselves once more.
League power rankings
Big Ten
1. Michigan State
2. Wisconsin
3. Purdue
4. Illinois
5. Ohio State
6. Indiana
7. Iowa
8. Michigan
9. Rutgers
10. Minnesota
11. Penn State
12. Northwestern
13. Maryland
14. Nebraska
I ranked Michigan State far too low last week (fifth), in hindsight. Sorry if having the Spartans jump from fifth to first looks like an overreaction to their win over Wisconsin, but it’s hard to make an argument in favor of any other team being No. 1 in this league right now. Illinois can be really good, but falling apart against Maryland just because you don’t have Kofi Cockburn available isn’t completely excusable. Even though Minnesota beat Rutgers head-to-head, Rutgers has more wins and more quality wins in recent weeks, so I decided to be nice and keep them at No. 9 for now.
Big East
1. Marquette
2. Villanova
3. Providence
4. Xavier
5. UConn
6. Creighton
7. St. John’s
8. Seton Hall
9. Butler
10. DePaul
11. Georgetown
Last week I had Villanova, Xavier and Marquette 1-2-3, and all Marquette did since then was beat Nos. 1 and 2. The Golden Eagles have earned this. Providence got a small boost since it returned from its COVID pause; the Friars didn’t dominate their opponents last week, but wins are wins and that 16-2 record is sparkling. A few weeks ago I couldn’t have imagined Seton Hall dropping this low, but at 3-5 in the Big East, and coming off such an embarrassing game Monday, it’s no longer the time to make excuses for a loss here and a loss there. The league is too tough.
Ivy League
1. Princeton
2. Penn
3. Yale
4. Cornell
5. Harvard
6. Brown
7. Dartmouth
8. Columbia
Princeton pulled out a close win at Dartmouth to remain unbeaten in the league. Penn’s win over Yale made it easy for me to keep the top three the same. Due to postponements, Yale has still played just three Ivy games, so it has time to heat up and prove itself. Slid Cornell over Harvard this week thanks to a 15-point head-to-head win and a lack of much other data to go off. The Big Red did have Princeton on the ropes, after all.
MAAC
1. Iona
2. Saint Peter’s
3. Monmouth
4. Marist
5. Siena
6. Quinnipiac
7. Fairfield
8. Niagara
9. Manhattan
10. Canisius
11. Rider
Jersey teams occupy Nos. 2 and 3, and I believe this is the correct order, given the Peacocks’ head-to-head win earlier this month. They were one late basket away from beating Canisius on Sunday and extending their winning streak to five. The middle of this league is too jumbled to come up with any meaningful separation between the teams. It gives me the feeling that – at least below Iona – anyone could beat anyone at the MAAC Tournament.