Men's Basketball Season Preview
11/6/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By all accounts, the 2011-12 Seton Hall men's basketball season was a smashing success. The Pirates won 21 games, the most since the 2003-04 season. They defeated Stony Brook, 63-61, in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) for their first post-season victory in eight years and snapped a 10-game losing streak in the NIT. Seton Hall was also ranked for the first time since 2001 and registered upset victories over #8 Connecticut and #9 Georgetown, the first time it has defeated two top-10 teams in a season since 2002-03.
Although the Pirates resurgence was a team effort, their success was due in large part to play of Herb Pope and Jordan Theodore, who both graduated in May.
Head Coach Kevin Willard, now in his third year at the helm, will look to build off of last year's success while leading his youngest team since he arrived in South Orange. The Pirates are without a senior this year, aside from graduate transfer Kyle Smyth, and will look for new leaders to emerge.
One of the Pirates who may be looking to take a larger leadership role is Fuquan Edwin, who enters his junior season as the team's top returning scorer. Edwin has seen his place in the Seton Hall offense expand over the last two years as his average has gone from 7.9 points per game as a freshman to 12.5 points per game last season.
Most notably has been Edwin's improvement on the defensive end. The Paterson, N.J. native was a pest defensively last year and emerged as one of the leading contenders for BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year. Edwin led the conference and the nation with a school single-season record 102 steals, becoming the first BIG EAST player in history to lead the country. With two full season of eligibility left, he is more than half way to Dan Callandrillo's Seton Hall career record.
Junior Patrik Auda is another third-year player who has seen dramatic improvement while at Seton Hall. The Czech Republic native's scoring average has more than doubled over the last two years while continuing to show great versatility in his game as both a long distance threat and a front court presence.
After dealing with a lingering toe injury as a freshman, Auda played in all 34 games as a sophomore and made 26 starts as a valuable floor leader. On Valentine's Day vs. St. John's, he re-discovered his love of the rebound, collecting a career-high 10 of them, to complete his first career double-double with 12 points and 10 boards in a 30-point Seton Hall victory.
Aaron Geramipoor has had difficulty remaining healthy so far as a Pirate, but was able to provide some necessary depth to the Pirates' front court last year. His freshman campaign was severely hindered due to a case of Mononucleosis, which caused him to miss nearly half of the season. Last year, despite missing some time due to a sports hernia, the junior center appeared in 25 games and was able to make a much larger impact.
The 6-foot-11 Geramipoor continues to add bulk to his frame and figures to be a key cog in the paint for Pirates this season.
A year ago, none of the Pirates' freshmen made an impact greater than Aaron Cosby. The 6-foot-3 guard appeared in all 34 games and made 31 starts, the most by a Seton Hall freshman since 2006-07. Cosby averaged 7.9 points per game and ranked 10th in the BIG EAST with a .377 three-pointer percentage and 1.9 made three-pointers per game.
Cosby exploded for a career-high 19 points on the strength of 5-for-9 shooting from three-point range in a victory over Pittsburgh. He made 66 three-pointers in 2011-12, which ranks him just outside of the top-20 of Seton Hall's all-time single-season leaders. For his efforts, the Louisville, Ky. native was named Seton Hall's Male Freshman Athlete of the Year.
Forward Brandon Mobley missed the first nine games of his freshman season while rehabbing a shoulder injury, but proved his worth quickly once medically cleared. The Savannah, Ga. Native played in all 25 games once healthy and made six starts for the Pirates. Another versatile forward, Mobley was very efficient everywhere on the court, firing at a .362 percent clip from behind the three-point arc and shooting at .423 percentage overall from the floor. Mobley also showed a penchant for rebounding, averaging 4.4 per game in limited minutes.
On Feb. 8, Mobley grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds at in-state rival Rutgers. Showing a flare for the big stage, he scored a career-high 16 points on 6-for-7 shooting vs. Providence in the first round of the BIG EAST Championship at Madison Square Garden.
One of the most athletic players on the team, sophomore Haralds Karlis showed flashes of what could be a very impressive college career. Another foreign-born star, Karlis, a native of Latvia, averaged just 16.6 minutes per game, but proved his long-range shooting ability. With Seton Hall's offense struggling against a stout USF defense on Jan. 13, Karlis connected on four of five three-pointers to keep the Pirates in the game.
Karlis recorded a career-high 13 points vs. St. John's on Feb. 14.
Serving as the primary backup point guard to Jordan Theodore last season, Freddie Wilson will be expected to take another step forward this season. Wilson played in 32 of the Pirates' 34 games and showed his ability to run the offense.
In one particularly impressive outing, Wilson tallied career-highs of seven points and three assists at Marquette on Jan. 31. The Pirates nearly knocked off the 15th-ranked Golden Eagles in their arena thanks in large part to Wilson's efforts.
As one of Tom Petty's songs exclaim, "the waiting is the hardest part." Fortunately for two Pirates, the waiting to play in a game for Seton Hall is over. Per NCAA transfer regulations Brian Oliver and Gene Teague were able to practice, but not play in games for the Pirates last season. In 2012-13 however, if Seton Hall is going to be successful, Brian Oliver and Gene Teague will play a large role.
A natural scorer, Brian Oliver transferred to Seton Hall from Georgia Tech and brings significant experience playing on a high level. The 6-foot-6 guard has two years of eligibility remaining and factors to pick up a large portion of the scoring lost from the graduation of Pope and Theodore.
Oliver left Georgia Tech as one of the school's greatest three-point shooters. As a sophomore, the Glassboro, N.J. native erupted for 32 points in a four-point loss to Syracuse. Two months later, Oliver poured in a game-high 28 points in a 15-point win over Virginia Tech. Prior to leaving, Oliver averaged a team third-best 10.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game for the Yellow Jackets.
Eugene Teague joins the Pirates' family by way of Southern Illinois University. The massive center figures to take up some of the rebounding slack left by Pope's departure. Having a full year of banging against Pope, one of the greatest rebounders and front court players in Pirates' history, should have a positive effect on Teague moving forward.
The hulking 6-foot-9, 290-pounder had four double-doubles and led the Salukis with a .606 field goal percentage as a sophomore.
Center Kevin Johnson, who sat out last year, has been cleared for court action and will add another large presence to the paint for the Pirates in 2012-13. The 6-foot-9 Johnson attended perennial high school power William H. Taft in California and led the team to a 29-3 record his senior year, averaging nearly a double-double.
Seton Hall also made two new additions that will bolster the roster for the 2012-13 season.
Graduate transfer Kyle Smyth finished up his undergraduate degree at Iona and won't be required to sit a year in residence before taking the court for Seton Hall. The 6-foot-4 guard leaves Iona as one of the school's top three-point shooters of all-time. He has 163 career made three's and his 75 made during the 2010-11 season was the third-highest single-season total in school history. Smyth played his first two years for Willard in New Rochelle.
Freshman Tom Maayan, a fourth product of the prestigious Canarias Basketball Academy to land on the Pirates' roster, will play a crucial role for Seton Hall assisting at point guard. The Galil, Israel native led his school to back-to-back national high school championships and was named Most Valuable Player in 2011. Maayan's international experience includes participation on Israel's U-17 squad at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics.
With a talented, albeit young, roster in hand, the Pirates will take on a difficult gauntlet of a schedule in 2012-13.
The season's first four games will be part of the 2012 Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament. The first two will be held at Seton Hall, while the second two will be at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The Pirates will open the regular season with the University of Missouri at Kansas City on Friday, Nov. 9, in Walsh Gym. It will mark the first regular season game held at Walsh since defeating Norfolk State, 97-87, on Dec. 4, 2000. Three days later, Seton Hall will host the aforementioned Norfolk State in the season's first game at the Prudential Center on Monday, Nov. 12.
Continuing play at the 2012 Tip-Off Tournament, Seton Hall will face Washington at Mohegan Sun Arena on Saturday, November 17, and play the winner of the game between Rhode Island and Ohio State on Sunday, Nov. 18.
Additional non-conference Seton Hall home games include Maine on Wednesday, Nov. 21, Saint Peter's on Sunday, Nov. 25, NJIT on Tuesday, Dec. 4, North Carolina A&T on Saturday, Dec. 15, Longwood on Wednesday, Dec. 19 and Stony Brook on Friday, Dec. 28.
Seton Hall will take to the road on Thursday, Nov. 29, when they face LSU as part of the 2012 SEC/BIG EAST Challenge. Additional road contests include Wake Forest on Saturday, Dec. 8 and Long Island University on Saturday, Dec. 22 at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Seton Hall's BIG EAST schedule features a home-and-home series with Louisville, Marquette, Providence and Rutgers. The Pirates will open the BIG EAST slate on the road at DePaul on Jan. 2. In addition to their opener, Seton Hall will play road games at Notre Dame (Jan. 5), Marquette (Jan. 16), St. John's (MSG - Jan. 27), Georgetown (Jan. 30), Pittsburgh (Feb. 4), Rutgers (Feb. 12), Louisville (Feb. 23) and Providence (Mar. 5).
The Pirates will host Louisville on Jan. 9 for their first home BIG EAST game of the season. Seton Hall will also host Providence (Jan. 13), USF (Jan. 23), Cincinnati (Feb. 2), Connecticut (Feb. 10), Syracuse (Feb. 16), Marquette (Feb. 19), Villanova (Feb. 25) and Rutgers (Senior Day - March 8). It is the second straight year that Seton Hall will host Rutgers for its final home game.
The BIG EAST Championship, which will include all 15 schools, begins on Tuesday, March 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
