NOW OR NEVER!
ONE LAST SHOT FOR SETON HALL SENIOR CLASS
The draw isn’t a favorable one. The location isn’t desirable. The selection committee didn’t do Seton Hall any favors.
But that doesn’t matter now. All that matters is winning Thursday afternoon, ending the program’s March Madness drought, and getting a crack at one of the sport’s giants.
“From the time we got in the locker room at the [end] of the Big East Tournament up until now, they understand the next step for all of us,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said on a conference call. “We got to go out and play well and give ourselves a chance to get a win in the NCAA Tournament. But it’s never easy. Everyone you play is a really good basketball team.”
The eighth-seeded Pirates will meet No. 9 N.C. State in Wichita, Kan., Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in a Midwest Region opening-round game, looking to atone for losing in the first round each of the last two years. A win and Seton Hall would likely draw No. 1 Kansas, the 14-time defending Big 12 regular-season champions, on Saturday in the Jayhawks’ backyard.
“No matter who you play, you’re going to play somebody good. So I never have an issue with how the committee seeds,” Willard said.
Two years ago, Seton Hall (2111), as a sixth seed following a Big East Tournament crown, was overwhelmed by under-seeded No. 11 Gonzaga, which reached the Sweet 16. Last year, as a No. 9 seed, the Pirates blew an eightpoint lead in the final 8:46 to No. 8 Arkansas.
Before the season, few predicted N.C. State (21-11) would reach the tournament. It was picked 12th in the ACC, but first-year coach Kevin Keatts led the up-tempo, pressuring Wolfpack to upsets of Arizona, North Carolina and Duke.
“Very tough, hard-nosed team. They offensive rebound the basketball extremely well, good a ss i s t- to- t urnover ra t i o, and they’re very balanced,” Willard said.
The Hall’s four core seniors — starters Angel Delgado, Khadeen Carrington, Desi Rodriguez and Ismael Sanogo — now have one last chance to get it right, to win the program’s first tournament game in 14 years, to snap Seton Hall’s four-game March Madness losing streak.
They’ve turned this once-floundering program around together, reaching three straight tournaments, winning a Big East crown. Three of them — Rodriguez, Carrington and Delgado — have scored more than 1,000 points apiece. Delgado is the Big East’s all-time leading rebounder. Carrington is in the top 10 in Seton Hall history in scoring. But without a win on Thursday, their lega-
cy would be incomplete.
Despite the last-second loss to Butler on Thursday, Seton Hall is entering the tournament playing well, with wins in four of its last six games.
They’re also healthier then they have been in recent weeks. Rodriguez and Sanogo both returned Thursday from injuries, and the two practiced Sunday. Willard said Sanogo is all but 100 percent, while Rodriguez is improving. The team’s leading scorer missed the previous three games with a foot/ankle injury. He scored eight points in 17 minutes, but didn’t look quite like himself, lacking explosiveness, and wasn’t on the floor in the final minutes of the narrow loss to Butler. But Willard thinks Rodriguez will be “75-80” percent by game time, and did more in the Hall‘s most recent practice than he had previously.