Agonizing wait looms for Pirates
Now comes the hard part. The agonizing. The uncertainty. The wondering.
Seton Hall has to wait until Sunday night to find out if it is an NCAA Tournament team or not. It had a chance to really cement an at-large bid, but was overwhelmed by No. 5 St. John’s, 91-72, Thursday afternoon in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals.
“I’m down in the dumps right now,” Pirates coach Shaheen Holloway said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or even later on tonight, nor do I f---ing care, to be honest with you. You know, I’m super, super disappointed. I’m sorry for my language. I apologize if I’m offending anybody, but I’m super down right now.”
His disappointment was understandable. St. John’s outtoughed fourth-seeded Seton Hall (20-12). It was dominant in the paint (42-26) and superior on the glass (plus-10). It didn’t even need a big game out of star point guard Daniss Jenkins, who only logged 22 minutes due to foul trouble. It didn’t matter. Of the Pirates’ big three, only Al-Amir Dawes (22 points) showed up. Kadary Richmond and Dre Davis combined to miss 14 of 20 shots from the field.
“I thought their guys came out, they were hungry. They did everything that we do to teams, they did to us, which is disappointing,” Holloway said. “We didn’t defend like we’re capable of defending. They got a lot of stuff in transition. They lived in the paint. They got a lot of paint points. Like I said, everything that we do to teams, they kind of did to us today.”
Where this leaves Seton Hall is uncertain. Most bracketologists still believe it will make the tournament, although a trip to Dayton and the First Four seems likely. The Pirates own poor metrics — their NET ranking of 64 will surely fall when it is updated Saturday — but do they have several strong wins over the likes of No. 2 Connecticut and No. 10 Marquette, along with victories over bubble teams St. John’s (twice), Providence and Villanova. Picked to finish ninth in the Big East, Seton Hall came in fourth, as arguably the biggest surprise in the league.
“I’ll be honest: I think our résumé speaks for itself,” Holloway said.