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| Photo: Yahoo! |
February 28, 2016
Peter Solari Follow @4PeteSakeNY
What a difference a year makes! Just one season ago, coach Kevin Willard's Seton Hall Pirates opened their season at 12-2 before a collapse of epic proportions. After their promising start, the Pirates finished the season 4-13, including losing nine of their final ten games, one of which was an embarrassment at the hands of Marquette in the first round of the Big East Tournament.
All of that is just a distant memory for Willard and Seton Hall as Sunday, the Pirates capped off an impressive week which should all but lock up their ticket to the NCAA Tournament next month.
On Thursday, Seton Hall ran Providence, currently #24 in the USA Today Coach's Poll, out of the Prudential Center, with a convincing 70-52 win. They followed it up on Sunday with a rout of #5 Xavier, just five days after the Musketeers knocked off #1 Villanova. The Pirates opened the game on 9-0 run and never trailed on their way to a 90-81 victory. The win marked Seton Hall's second win over an AP Top 25 team this season. The Pirates won on the road at then-#12 Providence in January.
Seton Hall is now 21-7 overall and sitting in third place in the Big East at 11-5. The Pirates have two games left on their schedule. They will play at Butler this Wednesday night, and at DePaul next Saturday afternoon, before the Big East Tournament opens on March 9th at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Seton Hall currently has an RPI of 39 and a strength of schedule of 71. The Pirates went 4-3 against RPI top-50 teams this season, and 3-3 against the RPI top-100. That, along with finishing third in a pretty good Big East, should be enough to punch Seton Hall's ticket to the big dance. ESPN bracketologist, Joe Lunardi, currently has the Pirates as #9-seed in the south region, matched up with old foe Connecticut, while CBS Sports puts them as a #8-seed in the midwest region against another old Big East foe, Syracuse. Regardless, Willard and the Pirates should have their sights set higher.
Seton Hall is playing some it's best basketball of the season at the right time. Villanova and Xavier, the teams currently ahead of Seton Hall in the Big East standings, are locks to make the NCAA Tournament, which makes them ripe to be picked-off in the Big East Tournament, and who better than Seton Hall to do that?
Even if the Pirates don't win the Big East championship and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, a few wins in the Big East Tournament could raise their profile and perhaps their seeding, which couldn't hurt. If the Pirates enter the NCAA Tournament as a #8 or #9-seed, a first round victory would most likely mean a second round matchup with one of the tournament's four #1-seeds, so climbing to #6 or #7-seed could be vital for Seton Hall.
No matter what happens from here on out, Seton Hall should be dancing in March, but coach Willard and his Pirates shouldn't let that go to their heads. If the team stays focused and continues this level of play, Seton Hall could put themselves in a position to do some serious damage in the NCAA Tournament.
In a college basketball season that has been so unpredictable, why not the Seton Hall Pirates?
Stay tuned to The Monday Morning Quarterback for full coverage of the 2016 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament Presented by Jeep, March 9-12, from Madison Square Garden in New York City.
