Seton Hall Heads to Brooklyn for CVC Classic
11/21/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 21, 2013
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SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - A Friday night marquee matchup awaits for the Seton Hall men's basketball team as the Pirates head to the Big Apple and the Barclays Center, Brooklyn's modern house of hoops, to take on the Oklahoma Sooners in the semifinal round of the 2013 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.
The Hall heads into the clash of major conference teams riding the momentum of a commanding 82-66 victory over Monmouth on Monday night. Against the Hawks, everything was clicking for Patrik Auda (Brno, Czech Republic) as the red-shirt junior forward broke out for a career-high 27 points on 8-of-9 shooting, running up his tally with an array of dunks, drives and long range connections.
Despite missing the majority of the 2012-13 campaign, it hasn't taken Auda long to regain his shooting stroke. The 6-foot-9 southpaw has connected on 17 of his 22 field goal attempts through four games, ranking as the BIG EAST leader with a 77.3 percent success rate.
Seton Hall topped the 80-point mark for the second time this season after doing so in a season-opening 83-72 defeat of Niagara and the Pirates are now averaging 79.2 points per game as a team. Red-shirt sophomore Sterling Gibbs (Scotch Plains, N.J.) contributed 16 points and has come on to lead the team in scoring after the four game stretch; boasting an average of 17 points per game. Preseason All-BIG EAST Second Team selection Fuquan Edwin (Paterson, N.J.) is adding an average of 15.3 points per night and both stand among the top-15 scorers in the conference.
In addition to the win over Niagara, the Pirates also previously downed Kent State (78-76) as part of the preliminary rounds of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic event but Friday night's matchup with the Sooners will provide a stiffer test.
OU is guided by former NBA head coach and longtime college coach Lon Kruger and the storyline in Norman early in the season has been dominated by the team's ability to score the basketball.
In 2012-13, Oklahoma posted just 70 points per game during a 20-12 season that came to an abrupt end with losses in their first game of the conference and NCAA Tournaments. This season, the Sooners have raced out to a 3-0 start that includes a win over SEC opponent Alabama on a neutral floor by putting up 87 points per game. A balanced attack that features four players that average more than 10 points per contest is led by 6-foot-4 guard Buddy Hield at 18.3 per game.
Seton Hall is no stranger to lighting up the scoreboard at the Barclays Center, having blasted eventual Northeast Conference (NEC) champion LIU-Brooklyn, 89-58, last season but this game will most likely come down to which team can come up with key stops.
The Hall and Oklahoma enter the game with identical 48.2 team field goal percentages, while allowing opponents to shoot around 43 percent from the field, meaning creating extra possessions and limiting second chances could go a long way in deciding a winner. Both squads register nearly eight steals per contest but Oklahoma is among the Big 12 leaders with a +4.00 average turnover margin. The Sooners also grab an average of three more rebounds per game but the Pirates' stout frontline of Auda, Aaron Geramipoor (Manchester, England), Brandon Mobley (Savannah, Ga.) and Eugene Teague (Vineland, N.J.) will be among the deepest that OU faces all season.
Another aspect of the game that may loom large is free-throw shooting, an area in which the Pirates boast a distinct advantage. With one more game played, Seton Hall has attempted nearly double the amount of foul shots that Oklahoma (153-to-79) and has converted on a BIG EAST-leading 105 (68.6 percent) - 40 more than the second-ranked team in the conference (Providence, 75).
SHU and the Sooners have only met twice all-time, playing in consecutive years from 1990-91. Each team took home a win on the other's home floor, with Seton Hall securing a 92-85 victory in the most recent installment.
When the teams tip-off; The Hall will be looking for its eighth win in its last 11 games as part of in-season tournaments over the last three years. With a win, the Pirates will get a chance to play for the 21st in-season tournament title in program history against either #1/#1 Michigan State or Virginia Tech.
Seton Hall and Oklahoma are scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. tip from Brooklyn on Friday night in the first part of a doubleheader. The game will be shown nationally on truTV and a radio broadcast can be heard on 970 AM and SHUPirates.com.
