Seton Hall enters the month of February facing a road game against lowly Georgetown (6-12, 0-7 Big East) that has turned into a must-win for the talented but slumping Pirates.
Seton Hall (12-7, 3-6) went 3-5 during January and has lost four of its last five games as a once very promising season has fallen on hard times. The slide started in a most unlikely place: Chicago, where the Pirates were the victims of DePaul’s only Big East victory this season.
To avoid a similar fate against another struggling conference opponent, the Pirates must take advantage of the Hoyas’ defense. Georgetown permits opponents to shoot 44.9 percent overall and 35.4 percent from 3-point range.
The problem is that Seton Hall has not been proficient in this area, hitting only 32 percent from long distance. However, grad transfer Jamir Harris, who had been in a bit of a slump, has started to heat up from long range, going 7-for-14 from deep the last two games.
When asked after a loss to Marquette last Wednesday if he would give Harris more playing time, Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said, “I’ve got to figure a lot of stuff out, and that’s one of them.”
It also would help if Bryce Aiken could return from a concussion that has caused him to miss three consecutive games. Kadary Richmond, the Pirates’ other primary ballhandler, has struggled while taking on more responsibility of running the offense. He has shot 7-for-36 (19.4 percent) with 16 assists and 17 turnovers in that span. Aiken’s status for Tuesday is unclear.
“Kadary’s giving us everything he’s got,” Willard said. “It’s really hard to transition from playing 24 minutes a game to 39 minutes a game and taking on the whole load.”
The Hoyas rallied from a 12-point deficit at Butler on Saturday to go ahead on a basket by freshman Aminu Mohammed (13.8 points per game, leading the team) with 1:24 left only to have Butler score the last four points to win 56-53.
“You can definitely see some growth,” coach Patrick Ewing said, “but it’s hard to concentrate on that. When the objective is to win, you do whatever you have to do to win. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for us (Saturday) even though we did do some good things.”
–Field Level Media
