HALL OF A SHOT

Carrington’s move to pass-first could be key to late-March run

With Carrington pointing way, Pirates have chance to make serious run in NCAA

There is a bearded coach on the Seton Hall sideline inside Walsh Gymnasium. A white banner stitched with the blue surnames and numbers of the 1989 NCAA West Region championship team hangs on the wall. Elements of the past surround the present as Khadeen Carrington, the current point guard, pushes the ball up court. He gets his Pirates going against La Salle’s Explorers in a game to benefit Puerto Rico’s hurricane victims. Break after break, assists come on a school night. First Carrington leaves the ball for Desi Rodriguez to finish. Then he finds Rodriguez for a three. Finally, Carrington slips between two defenders before rising for a pull-up jump shot. It’s good. Credit is given on the court. He displays a senior’s nonchalance.

“I’m not really worried about the scoring aspect,” Carrington says. “Everybody knows I can score.”

Carrington, 22, is delving into “the deeper zen of the role,” per coach Kevin Willard. His team, ranked No. 23 in national preseason polls, is dependent upon Carrington, a southpaw, meeting the demands and meting out passes. At his disposal are the likes of All-American center Angel Delgado in the post and sophomore Myles Powell on the wing. They are picked to finish second in the Big East, and they plan to negotiate a challenging non-conference slate the next two months with Carrington transitioning to pass-first thinking. In the rearview are back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances the last two seasons, but March’s maw remains the hurdle ahead. Willard sees Carrington as the caretaker. The coach goads the guard to find a voice.

“It’s like becoming a father: You are the least important person in the world,” Willard says. “You’re the most important, but you’re the least important. In his mind, everyone else has to be in front of him.”

Carrington is capable of adapting. He traces his roots to Trinidad and a childhood in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. He first enrolled at P.S. 268 in first grade, but, as he says, “I was too bad so my mom took me out of there, put me in private school for a few.” Keith Oliver, a recreation coach, put the ball in Carrington’s hands at 7 years old, and the boy bounced around the corner of 23rd Street and Clarendon Road. He finished eighth grade at I.S. 211, and hopped the rock to friends by the Vanderveer Houses. For high school, he attended Bishop Loughlin. In the gym on the third floor, he proved to be a lodestar for the Lions, leaving with 2,196 points — the most in school history — and a scholarship to Seton Hall. He took the two-bridge commute with fellow Brooklyn star Isaiah Whitehead, and Carrington started eight games that season. He managed to put up 27 points in a Big East Tournament game as a sophomore. Last year he went for 41 points against Creighton. The continued upticks were welcome, but Willard wants Carrington creating now. Delgado, the aggressive rebounder underneath, notes the evolution of Carrington’s career.

“It’s a new Khadeen every year,” he says. “He’s a surprise guy.” No film study is needed to show how the Hall’s season fell apart last March. Images are seared in their minds. The Pirates remember being tied at the half, and going on a 15-3 run to take a 64-56 lead with 8:41 remaining in a first-round game against Arkansas. Mistakes down the stretch — from a flagrant on Rodriguez to a pair of turnovers by Carrington — cost them a chance to collect the program’s first NCAA tournament win since 2004. Up one with 61 seconds left, Carrington lost the ball twice and missed three shots as Arkansas rallied to win, 7771. The Hall committed 15 turnovers. Carrington finished with 22 points and four turnovers.

“I look at it as a good teaching moment, a learning experience,” Willard says. “Each year is a different motivation. I try not to go back. I try to look forward.”

Willard refers to Carrington as “the head of the snake.” He wants Carrington to be aware of his body language, how he steps into practice, how he calls out a play or picks up a ball handler to defend 92 feet. He knows he can average 17 points per game in an era of position-less play, as he did last season, but he is training Carrington to approach the game with a March mien in November.

“This has to be his biggest step,” Willard says. “My biggest worry, believe it or not, is not this year, it is for the seniors next year. That’s what keeps me up at night. At the next level, they’re all piranhas. You can’t be a weak fish. If you go in flailing around, people are going to see weakness and they’re going to go eat you up.”

Of the Pirates, Delgado goes back with Carrington the longest. The big man is a Dominican immigrant, and he laughs when remembering that he knew Carrington, then on his AAU team, when the only English word Delgado knew was “hungry.” He considers the plan to press more and the request for Carrington to carry himself as a leader. He believes the end game is understood. Their focus is on moving forward with the ball in Carrington’s hands. He looks at Carrington before eyeing the rafters.

“I hope we concentrate more,” Delgado says. “At the end of the year, we always get tired. This year we more prepared. I think it is going to be a helluva year. We’re not done yet. There’s a couple more need to be there.”