Post by 01- PirateDave on Mar 4, 2015 11:55:34 GMT -6
5 keys for Seton Hall tonight
By Andrew Garda | For NJ Advance Media
Newark, N.J. --As Seton Hall's (16-12, 6-10 Big East) tries to build some momentum off of Saturday's 67-66 win over Creighton (13-16, 4-12), they'll take a moment Wednesday night to honor their seniors in the last home game of the year at the Prudential Center.
They'll be taking on the Providence Friars (20-09, 10-6), who are fighting with Butler for second place in the Big East and the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament. They'll come to play.
The win against Creighton took a huge game from Haralds Karlis and a great half from Angel Delgado but it's unlikely to get both things again.
Aside from that, falling behind against Providence by 14 is a far worse thing than it was against Creighton.
You can catch the game at 7pm on Fox Sports 1 or by listening to the play-by-play on AM970 or FM89.5.
How can Seton Hall beat Providence? We've got five keys to victory for them.
1. Paint Paint Paint Paint
As you can tell, I think both defending and scoring inside is fairly critical. They did a good job at times against Creighton, but this has been a long-standing problem. If they are going to beat Providence, they need to be more consistent about scoring in the paint and keeping the Friars from doing the same.
2. Keep Delgado Centered
Delgado had half a fantastic game against Creighton, but consider how dominant he would have been if he had kept his head on straight for the first half too? He's young, he's passionate and by his own admission, that can be his downfall as well as his strength. And it's not like the rest of the team wasn't lethargic enough to have Willard yelling--so that half wasn't just on Delgado.
But the key here is to defend the interior and Delgado is the key to that.
3. Get Gibbs involved
Gibbs has been sitting for two games after delivering a blow to the head of Villanova's Ryan Arcidiacono, and he's likely to be a bit rusty. He's also the most consistent shooter on the floor and a huge piece to the puzzle of how the Pirates beat the Friars.
Whatever drama has been going on internally between Gibbs and freshman Isaiah Whitehead had better not drift onto the floor Wednesday night because if it does, Gibbs could get frozen out (ala Jaren Sina) and if that happens, this team will absolutely lose.
4. Keep turnovers low
They did a better job against Creighton--particularly in the second half--but overall the team has struggled with decision-making, shot selection and overall ball handling for a large portion of the recently ended six game losing streak. Even against the Jays, it wasn't completely gone--some of the passes they tried across the middle of the key were baffling.
Whitehead has been the worst example of this as he was turning the ball over about 6 times a game for a while, but it's on everyone. They need to be smarter about how they handle the ball because Providence will turn an errant pass into a fast break and an easy bucket.
5. No more open 3s
It's an odd problem because overall Seton Hall has been sharp on the perimeter defense. But when they break down at the edge, they really break down and the resulting baskets seem to be back-breakers. Even against Creighton--a bad perimeter shooting team--Seton Hall allowed some long shots which made things rough.
Seton Hall needs to get back to stouter perimeter defense and do so consistently. Especially when trying to stifle a run or create their own.
By Andrew Garda | For NJ Advance Media
Newark, N.J. --As Seton Hall's (16-12, 6-10 Big East) tries to build some momentum off of Saturday's 67-66 win over Creighton (13-16, 4-12), they'll take a moment Wednesday night to honor their seniors in the last home game of the year at the Prudential Center.
They'll be taking on the Providence Friars (20-09, 10-6), who are fighting with Butler for second place in the Big East and the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament. They'll come to play.
The win against Creighton took a huge game from Haralds Karlis and a great half from Angel Delgado but it's unlikely to get both things again.
Aside from that, falling behind against Providence by 14 is a far worse thing than it was against Creighton.
You can catch the game at 7pm on Fox Sports 1 or by listening to the play-by-play on AM970 or FM89.5.
How can Seton Hall beat Providence? We've got five keys to victory for them.
1. Paint Paint Paint Paint
As you can tell, I think both defending and scoring inside is fairly critical. They did a good job at times against Creighton, but this has been a long-standing problem. If they are going to beat Providence, they need to be more consistent about scoring in the paint and keeping the Friars from doing the same.
2. Keep Delgado Centered
Delgado had half a fantastic game against Creighton, but consider how dominant he would have been if he had kept his head on straight for the first half too? He's young, he's passionate and by his own admission, that can be his downfall as well as his strength. And it's not like the rest of the team wasn't lethargic enough to have Willard yelling--so that half wasn't just on Delgado.
But the key here is to defend the interior and Delgado is the key to that.
3. Get Gibbs involved
Gibbs has been sitting for two games after delivering a blow to the head of Villanova's Ryan Arcidiacono, and he's likely to be a bit rusty. He's also the most consistent shooter on the floor and a huge piece to the puzzle of how the Pirates beat the Friars.
Whatever drama has been going on internally between Gibbs and freshman Isaiah Whitehead had better not drift onto the floor Wednesday night because if it does, Gibbs could get frozen out (ala Jaren Sina) and if that happens, this team will absolutely lose.
4. Keep turnovers low
They did a better job against Creighton--particularly in the second half--but overall the team has struggled with decision-making, shot selection and overall ball handling for a large portion of the recently ended six game losing streak. Even against the Jays, it wasn't completely gone--some of the passes they tried across the middle of the key were baffling.
Whitehead has been the worst example of this as he was turning the ball over about 6 times a game for a while, but it's on everyone. They need to be smarter about how they handle the ball because Providence will turn an errant pass into a fast break and an easy bucket.
5. No more open 3s
It's an odd problem because overall Seton Hall has been sharp on the perimeter defense. But when they break down at the edge, they really break down and the resulting baskets seem to be back-breakers. Even against Creighton--a bad perimeter shooting team--Seton Hall allowed some long shots which made things rough.
Seton Hall needs to get back to stouter perimeter defense and do so consistently. Especially when trying to stifle a run or create their own.
good luck to all!