Post by 01- PirateDave on Mar 12, 2015 13:56:04 GMT -6
Was It Hall-Dan? Steve? LOL Pirate Dave: If things were as bad as Hall-Dan and his VULTURES claim.....the players would certainly be complaining. Fact of the matter....they admire and respect Coach Willard!
Seton Hall completes dispiriting collapse with loss to Marquette
Photo: Elsa/Getty Images
BY BRENDAN PRUNTY
Posted: Thu Mar. 12, 2015
NEW YORK — His team eliminated, his season over, Kevin Willard's move was to make a beeline for the locker room. Seton Hall had just been unceremoniously dumped from the Big East tournament in the first round, blown out by 22 by Marquette, it's fall from the high perch of college basketball now complete. Willard made his way off the court at Madison Square Garden and to the tunnel when the jeers began.
A Seton Hall fan, his blue and white tie wrestled loose from the collar of his dress shirt, was relentless.
You've gotta go coach!
Five years! You're out!
Then, he spit at Willard. The final indignity to what was the end of a season where his team was ranked in the Associated Press top 25 as late as Jan. 19, only to see it lose 11 of its last 14 games to end its season prematurely.
"We became very fragile in the second half of the year, which sometimes happens," Willard said in his postgame remarks. "When shots bank in on you a bunch of times, their fight and grit is still there, they're just not mentally able to get over that hump. That's kind of what we fought the whole second half, was we just couldn't get over the hump when something went bad."
That narrative plagued Seton Hall, dooming it from a team that showed such promised halfway through January, to a team barely competitive in its final game of the season. In just 51 days, the Pirates went from a top-25 team to one that left the court, searching for reasons as to where everything went wrong.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
mark turgeon melo trimble
Video
Mark Turgeon deserves credit for Maryland's NCAA tournament return
by Chris Johnson
Pressure and sudden expectations proved to be a toxic mix for a young roster that struggled with the success so early in the season. Seton Hall was picked to finish sixth in the conference's preseason poll, but when the team started 12-2, with wins against ranked St. John's and Villanova teams to begin Big East play, expectations soared.
It only made the crash that much harder.
"The way we were winning, it just kind of got to us a little bit," star freshman Isaiah Whitehead said outside the team's locker room after. "The ranking, everything—it probably just happened too fast. We won a couple games and then everybody just started going crazy. I think once we got those two wins, when we stepped on the court, we just expected everybody to lay down to us."
Whitehead's post game admission, echoed by many of his teammates, points to just how ineffective Seton Hall was able to handle its success. After beating St. John's and Villanova, the Pirates split their next two games, before the tailspin began in earnest. Three straight losses set a tone that a young team which had never experienced anything, was not ready for the primetime.
Then came the off-the-court distractions. Sophomore guard Jaren Sina, one of the team's most reliable contributors, quit the team following its 86-67 home loss to Georgetown. One of Willard's first high-profile recruits from within the New Jersey borders, Sina's defection was the sign of issues larger than losses. Making matters even more complicated, was a blog post from a local reporter claiming Sina quit the team because of race-related taunts directed at the point guard.
Seton Hall, as well as Sina's father, a local high school basketball coach, refuted those claims.
Whitehead, a top-25 recruit brought in as part of a nationally-ranked class this season, then clashed with the team's leading scorer, Sterling Gibbs during that Georgetown loss. The two players got into a shouting match during a timeout, with associate head coach Shaheen Holloway needing to separate the two.
Seton Hall completes dispiriting collapse with loss to Marquette
Photo: Elsa/Getty Images
BY BRENDAN PRUNTY
Posted: Thu Mar. 12, 2015
NEW YORK — His team eliminated, his season over, Kevin Willard's move was to make a beeline for the locker room. Seton Hall had just been unceremoniously dumped from the Big East tournament in the first round, blown out by 22 by Marquette, it's fall from the high perch of college basketball now complete. Willard made his way off the court at Madison Square Garden and to the tunnel when the jeers began.
A Seton Hall fan, his blue and white tie wrestled loose from the collar of his dress shirt, was relentless.
You've gotta go coach!
Five years! You're out!
Then, he spit at Willard. The final indignity to what was the end of a season where his team was ranked in the Associated Press top 25 as late as Jan. 19, only to see it lose 11 of its last 14 games to end its season prematurely.
"We became very fragile in the second half of the year, which sometimes happens," Willard said in his postgame remarks. "When shots bank in on you a bunch of times, their fight and grit is still there, they're just not mentally able to get over that hump. That's kind of what we fought the whole second half, was we just couldn't get over the hump when something went bad."
That narrative plagued Seton Hall, dooming it from a team that showed such promised halfway through January, to a team barely competitive in its final game of the season. In just 51 days, the Pirates went from a top-25 team to one that left the court, searching for reasons as to where everything went wrong.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
mark turgeon melo trimble
Video
Mark Turgeon deserves credit for Maryland's NCAA tournament return
by Chris Johnson
Pressure and sudden expectations proved to be a toxic mix for a young roster that struggled with the success so early in the season. Seton Hall was picked to finish sixth in the conference's preseason poll, but when the team started 12-2, with wins against ranked St. John's and Villanova teams to begin Big East play, expectations soared.
It only made the crash that much harder.
"The way we were winning, it just kind of got to us a little bit," star freshman Isaiah Whitehead said outside the team's locker room after. "The ranking, everything—it probably just happened too fast. We won a couple games and then everybody just started going crazy. I think once we got those two wins, when we stepped on the court, we just expected everybody to lay down to us."
Whitehead's post game admission, echoed by many of his teammates, points to just how ineffective Seton Hall was able to handle its success. After beating St. John's and Villanova, the Pirates split their next two games, before the tailspin began in earnest. Three straight losses set a tone that a young team which had never experienced anything, was not ready for the primetime.
Then came the off-the-court distractions. Sophomore guard Jaren Sina, one of the team's most reliable contributors, quit the team following its 86-67 home loss to Georgetown. One of Willard's first high-profile recruits from within the New Jersey borders, Sina's defection was the sign of issues larger than losses. Making matters even more complicated, was a blog post from a local reporter claiming Sina quit the team because of race-related taunts directed at the point guard.
Seton Hall, as well as Sina's father, a local high school basketball coach, refuted those claims.
Whitehead, a top-25 recruit brought in as part of a nationally-ranked class this season, then clashed with the team's leading scorer, Sterling Gibbs during that Georgetown loss. The two players got into a shouting match during a timeout, with associate head coach Shaheen Holloway needing to separate the two.
good luck to all!