‘Work in progress’: Iowa shows Seton Hall where it needs to step up
Shaheen Holloway says his players are learning on the go. They discovered at least four areas of deficiency in Wednesday's loss.
NEWARK – Shaheen Holloway said it after a 79-52 win over Monmouth. He said it after an 80-44 beatdown of Saint Peter’s. But it rang truer than ever Wednesday night after Seton Hall couldn’t keep up with visiting Iowa in its first loss of the season, an 83-67 defeat in the Gavitt Tipoff Games.
“Like I told you guys before, man, we’re a work in progress,” Holloway said at the end of his postgame remarks. “We’re going to get better … I take the blame. Anytime we lose, it’s on me.”
Holloway says his players are learning on the go, especially during games, since this collection of transfers, freshmen and holdovers have not had much time to get used to one another. The Pirates overmatched their first two opponents, though a few cracks showed. On Wednesday, Iowa fell behind 10-2 and then breezed right past them.
Tyrese Samuel may have put it best.
“I just think we’re still a new team – we’re still learning each other, we’re still trying to find everyone’s niche,” Samuel said.
That also means identifying everyone’s weaknesses and honing in on them now while there’s still plenty of time. In the wake of the Pirates’ first loss, let’s quickly break down four areas that beg for some stark improvement.
We’re going to put aside the foul calls for this exercise. I know Seton Hall fans were furious with the refs throughout the night, and for several of those calls, I don’t blame them. Iowa scored 28 points at the foul line and won by 16.
But the refs are an X-factor you can’t control night in and night out. Let’s try to be more instructive and think in pure basketball terms, because there was lots to learn about this team in its first true test of the season.
1. Finishing inside
Stats like this can make you queasy: Not only did Seton Hall shoot 6 of 30 in the first half, it made just 3 of 20 2-point attempts. On the night, the Pirates went 14 for 37 on layups, getting just two to fall in the first half.
The Pirates’ cold stretch in that half was brutal. At times it seemed like the classic “lid on the basket” trope. At other points, an Iowa defender was there to alter the Pirates’ shot, forcing them to add an extra move just to get it up in the air.
“I thought we got there” to the rim, Holloway said. “We gotta finish, right?”
This goes hand in hand with No. 2…
2. Be ready for that press
Iowa is a fast team, certainly the faster team on the court Wednesday. Part of the reason the Hawkeyes kept the Pirates at bay in the second half was how quickly their offense got up the court after a Seton Hall basket.
And on the other end, for the first time this season, Seton Hall encountered a defense as swarming as its own.
Harris was asked how Iowa’s pressure compared to what they go up against in practice.
“It was very similar,” he said. “In practice, Coach Shaheen’s practices are very intense, very physical, so we knew what we were walking into. It was nothing that we’ve never seen before. Their pressure, they tried to pressure us to basically waste clock.”
Nonetheless, it threw a few players off their game on offense. Holloway was displeased with the lack of off-ball movement he saw on certain possessions. From where I was sitting, so were the fans.
3. Kadary’s consistency
I was all ready to write a different story for this newsletter, one in which Kadary Richmond carried the Pirates back from the dead and made it a tight finish, if not an outright victory.
Richmond imposed his will on the first two minutes of the second half. He tipped Iowa’s opening inbounds play and managed to corral it before feeding Harris for two. He scored Hall’s next basket in the post and then took another steal that turned into an assist.
That was a 6-0 run that cut Iowa’s lead in half and forced a timeout, brought to you almost exclusively by Richmond. He had eight of his 11 points in the second half, but it left Holloway wondering where that was from start to finish.
“Kadary, right, he had a stretch in the second half when he drove the ball three straight times,” Holloway said. “He’s got to do that a lot. Like, there’s no reason for him not doing that all the time. He’s supposed to be the guy on our team who’s second-team All-Big East. He’s got to learn how to take the game over. And I think this is us learning each other.”
I followed up to ask whether Richmond’s start to the half provided an offensive spark to his teammates, who finally started to shoot much better.
“He came out, he got a steal on an out-of-bounds play that you never really see,” Holloway said. “Then he got another steal and got his hands active and then he made some drives. Kadary, I think once he gets 100 percent, he’s got to be a big part of who we are. Especially on the offensive side.”
4. Interior defense
KC Ndefo and Samuel comprise a good starting tandem at the four and five positions, but this team has thin depth behind them. Tray Jackson and freshman Tae Davis are being asked to play some five in some of Holloway’s lineups, and neither had memorable nights (on either side of the ball) against a guy of Murray’s caliber.
During the course of his press conference, Holloway evolved from saying the defense had “sucked” Wednesday to saying that he thought it succeeded in taking away Iowa’s strength, 3-point shooting. It was a different story down low. Everyone had to know Iowa was going to target Murray often, yet the forward got multiple open looks early on, inside and out. It requires learning throughout the course of the game.
And now we can talk about fouls. Samuel played great when he was on the court, finishing with nine points and eight boards in just 13:49. But he picked up his third foul on a questionable charge call early in the second half and Holloway kept him on the bench just a bit too long.
“I had some guys in there that are still trying to embrace that role of playing at the five. And Rese was playing good,” Holloway said. “… I wish I got him back in a little earlier than I got him, but the game was kind of moving so fast that I got away from it.”
This will improve for Hall if and when Alexis Yetna returns from his knee injury. Illinois State transfer Abdou Ndiaye, also injured, would give them another option down low as well. It’s also good news that the Pirates aren’t going to play many Kris Murrays in the near future. But the upcoming schedule includes Memphis and defending champ Kansas, and you don’t want to let them bully you in the post.
………
Thank you for reading. That’s enough Seton Hall for a bit, don’t you think? The beginning of their schedule happened to align with my own, but in the next few weeks I have plans to see a number of other teams, starting Saturday with a team I did not cover live last year: NJIT.
Let’s clean the glass with some notes on local mid-majors:
Some kudos are in order. After starting last season 0-10, Fairleigh Dickinson is 2-1 above .500 for the first time since beating Division III FDU-Florham on opening night of the 2019-20 season. The Knights were competitive in all three games; after losing in overtime at Loyola Chicago and defeating Division II Mercy, they rallied Sunday to beat Manhattan 77-74, with Ansley Almonor and Grant Singleton combining for 42 points on 17-of-31 shooting.
Princeton got in the win column Monday by throttling UMBC 94-64. I caught some of this game at home while working my desk shift. A good eight-man rotation has formed, with heavy involvement from freshmen Caden Pierce, a starting forward, and Xaivian Lee and Deven Austin as guards off the bench. Blake Peters hit three treys and I liked what I saw out of Keeshawn Kellman again.
After a road game at Marist on Saturday, Princeton heads to London next weekend to face Army and one other team in the inaugural London Basketball Classic. Before that, another team from Jersey will fly out toward the Isle of Jersey; Rider begins play Friday in Ireland in what I just learned was named the “MAAC/ASUN Dublin Challenge.” Who’s getting up with me at 5 a.m. Eastern to stream the Broncs’ game against Stetson?
The Princeton women got their revenge on Seton Hall for last year’s defeat, winning 62-58 on Monday in South Orange. Ellie Mitchell had 23 rebounds and six steals. It’s ridiculous, I know. Here: Have a link to the box score. I won’t begrudge you for not believing me. Mitchell leads Division I with 17 rebounds per game after another close Tigers win last night, 70-67 over Fordham.