PRESSURE POINT
Carrington must handle N.C. State D
There is leading scorer Desi Rodriguez’s health. How eighth-seeded Seton Hall handles No. 9 N.C. State’s versatile 7-footer Omer Yurtseven, an inside-out force. And whether sharpshooter Myles Powell snaps out of his recent 3-point struggles.
All are storylines for this Midwest Region openinground game in Wichita, Kan., Thursday afternoon. But forget about them. They pale in comparison to what will ultimately determine whether the Pirates move on in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 14 years: How they handle the N.C. State full-court pressure, in particular senior point guard Khadeen Carrington handles it.
“I put it on myself to stay composed and be calm, and handle the pressure,” Carrington said. “Once we beat it, we’ll get easy baskets.”
Easier said than done. The Wolfpack force 15 turnovers and 7. 5 steals per game, and Seton Hall (21-11) commits 12.8 turnovers, a mediocre figure. N.C. State (21-11) plays as many as nine guys, shuttling in fresh legs every few minutes, and features four players who average at least one steal per game. But that didn’t seem to concern Carrington.
“I’ve been seeing pressure all year, I’ve been seeing the best defenders all year,” the 6foot-4 Brooklyn native said. “Try to take it on like I know how to take it on. I always take it upon myself to play my best, give my team everything I got.”
The all-out pressure won’t be completely new for Seton Hall. Three teams it faced this season — VCU, Rhode Island and Villanova — will pick up full court, especially VCU. The Pirates won one of those four games and committed an average of 12.2 turnovers. Carrington coughed it up just eight times in the four games.
“I’m sure we’re going to do well against their pressure,” he said. “We’re kind of prepared for it already.”
If they do handle it well, it could lead to easy baskets. Overall, the Wolfpack’s defense is leaky, allowing opponents to shoot a generous 46.5 percent, the worst mark in the ACC. It’s what happens when a press doesn’t work.
“It definitely can play into our hands, them coming up to trap me,” said Carrington, the 10th all-time leading scorer in Seton Hall history. “We’re good in transition, we’re good in that type of [game].”
“If you don’t make them pay, you got to make them work, and you got to run good offense,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said. “You just can’t come down, all right we beat the press, stand for five seconds, let the shot clock get down to 10 seconds, and run a pick-and-roll. I think they’re very good defensively when [that happens].”
Entering the season, Carrington’s move to point guard was the major question hovering over the program, how well the senior could adjust to being on the ball after playing off of it his entire life. There were ups and downs. His scoring and shooting percentage dropped, but his assists went up, and his turnovers didn’t increase, a noteworthy stat considering how much he had the ball in his hands.
Most importantly, he enters the tournament playing the best basketball of his career, averaging 20.5 points, 4.5 assists, just 2.8 turnovers and shooting 45 percent from the field over his past six games. Seton Hall, not coincidentally, won four of those games, and the two losses were by one point apiece to tournament teams Villanova and Butler.
“I thought Khadeen Carrington played as well as any guard in the country over the last month and a half,” Willard said.
If that continues, it’s likely his Seton Hall career will for at least two more days.