Pirates show fight, but Hall is not well
An already unsettling week took another wrong turn Saturday afternoon for Seton Hall.
The day after senior forward Ismael Sanogo was suspended indefinitely for violating team and school rules, and three days after freshman guard Jordan Walker returned to the team after initially wanting to transfer, sophomore guard Myles Powell was ejected for his role in a skirmish late in the first half of a 74-62 rout of Manhattan.
Clearly, the holiday spirit in Newark is lacking.
“I’m not a happy camper,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said. “You put time, effort and energy, and hope you are guiding young men the right way. When it goes off the rails, it’s like getting stabbed in the heart a little bit.”
Fortunately for the 23rdranked Pirates, Powell was tossed for a Flagrant-2 foul, not fighting, meaning he will not have to miss Thursday’s Big East opener against No. 25 Creighton. Powell jumped on top of Zane Waterman from behind as the Manhattan forward and Angel Delgado were tied up going for a rebound with the Pirates up 22, 49-27, and landed a forearm. Willard was upset about the other issues, not Powell’s actions. He was merely protecting a teammate.
“I love my team because my team will always have each other’s backs, plain and simple,” Willard said.
Manhattan senior Rich Williams was also ejected and assessed a Flagrant-2 foul for pushing Powell from behind into cheerleaders.
The rest of the afternoon was considerably tamer, Seton Hall cruising to its seventh victory in eight games. Delgado notched his ninth double-double of the season with 15 points and 18 rebounds, Khadeen Carrington added 15 points, Desi Rodriguez had 13 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and Powell had 13 points and four assists before getting ejected for Pirates, who had no trouble with Manhattan (5-7), moving to 11-2 entering the league season. It is their most wins entering conference play in five years.
“I think we’ve put ourselves in good position heading into the Big East,” Willard said.
But there seem to be problems off the court that are now bubbling to the surface. Walker left the team Tuesday with the intention of transferring, upset that he didn’t play in the loss to Rutgers on Saturday, sources said. The next day, however, Walker was accepted back into the program after apologizing to his teammates for the distraction. He didn’t play in Wednesday’s win over Wagner, but appeared against Manhattan, playing 16 minutes.
And on Friday, Sanogo was suspended. There is no timetable for his return, though Willard plans to reevaluate the situation after Christmas. An immediate reinstatement seems unlikely.
“We’ve just got to fight through this,” Delgado said. “We don’t want what we’ve built — our legacy — to go down.”