MBB Looks to Bounce Back Thursday
12/4/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 4, 2013
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SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The Seton Hall men's basketball team returns to the floor on Thursday night for the first of three games in six days as the Pirates are set to host reigning Northeast Conference (NEC) champions LIU-Brooklyn at the Prudential Center.
Seton Hall (4-3) enters the contest coming off a 58-54 defeat at the hands of Fairleigh Dickinson in which the team employed its seventh different starting lineup in seven games. One constant in the starting five has been senior Fuquan Edwin (Paterson, N.J.), who made his 52nd-consecutive start and the 99th of his career, but his team-high 16 points were not enough to lift a shorthanded SHU squad past the Knights.
Edwin also totaled five steals in the contest, increasing his BIG EAST leading average to 3.0/game and is now just 22 shy of breaking the all-time career mark of 260 set by former BIG EAST Player of the Year Dan Callandrillo.
With forward Patrik Auda (Brno, Czech Republic) out due to injury and center Eugene Teague (Vineland, N.J.) limited by illness, the Pirates' 18-game home winning-streak against non-conference opponents that began in 2011-12 was snapped and the team sustained just its third home loss to a team outside the BIG EAST in three-plus seasons under head coach Kevin Willard.
Senior Brian Oliver (Glassboro, N.J.) scored in double-figures off the bench for the third-consecutive game, knocking down four 3-pointers to finish with 12 points and help the Seton Hall reserves outscore the FDU bench 24-to-4. Oliver has been a key presence in the second group for The Hall as Willard has frequently gone six or seven players deep into his bench early on. The Glassboro product ranks fourth in the BIG EAST with 2.4 treys per game and as a group, SHU subs have consistently out-producing their counterparts. Over the last four games, the Pirates' bench is scoring 29.5 points per game against only 14.2 for the opposition.
In LIU-Brooklyn (2-4), the Pirates draw their fifth opponent of the year that advanced to the postseason a year ago. Former assistant turned head coach Jack Perri guided the Blackbirds to their third consecutive 20-win season and an unprecedented third-straight NEC Conference title in his first year at the helm, earning the Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year award as the top first-year head coach in Division I.
This is however a different LIU-Brooklyn team than the one that bowed out to James Madison in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last March as 2012-13 NEC Player of the Year Jamal Olasewere and 2013 NEC Tournament MVP CJ Garner were lost to graduation. In last season's matchup between the two squads, a lopsided 31-point victory for the Pirates at the Barclays Center, Garner and Olasewere combined for 36 of the team's 58 points while the rest of the Blackbirds combined to shoot 7-for-26 (26.9 percent) in the game.
Perri returns an experienced group that remains dangerous however, as evidenced by a one-point loss at then #23 Indiana earlier this season. This year's team is led by senior floor general Jason Brickman, the 2012-13 national assists leader after averaging 8.3/game as a junior. Perhaps more than any point guard in the nation, Brickman is at the controls for the Blackbirds offensively as he has dished out 62 assists through six games in 2013-14 (10.3 apg), the highest average in the nation, while committing only 18 turnovers.
Brickman totaled 14 assists in a comeback 74-72 victory over Norfolk State in LIU-Brooklyn's most recent contest (12/1), as team scored its first win since they topped Saint Peter's to open the season. SHU limited Brickman to six assists and four turnovers last December while keeping him out of the score column as well.
The San Antonio product is a veteran guard who can score when needed, but struggles with efficiency as he is shooting only 37.8 percent from the field and has connected on just over 20 percent of his 3-point attempts (5-for-24). The assignment of limiting his ability to assume the role of facilitator figures to be shared by the backcourt trio of Sterling Gibbs (Scotch Plains, N.J.), Tom Maayan (Galil, Israel) and Jaren Sina (Lake Hopatcong, N.J.).
While disrupting Brickman will go a long way towards helping Seton Hall score its fifth win of the season, LIU-Brooklyn features several other players who excel on the offensive end of the floor. The Blackbirds' three most active 3-point shooters aside from Brickman - Troy Joseph, Gerrell Martin and Gilbert Parga - all sink better than 40 percent of their attempts from behind the arc while an undersized but active frontcourt comprised of Landon Atterberry and E.J. Reed combines for an average of 23.4 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.
Both standing at 6-foot-6, Atterberry and Reed have been charged with filling the void left by the absence of 2011-12 NEC Player of the Year Julian Boyd who re-injured his knee in the offseason after being granted a sixth season of eligibility. 6-foot-8 freshman Glenn Feidanga also averages 16 minutes per game for an LIU-Brooklyn team that is thin up front and has been out-rebounded in all six of their games this year. The Blackbirds are also allowing 13.3 offensive rebounds per game which has led to an average of 16.5 second chance points per game for their opponents.
Seton Hall ranks among the BIG EAST leaders in defensive rebound efficiency (72 percent, third) meaning one key factor in Thursday's game will be if the Pirates can continue to limit extra opportunities while creating their own.
Last season, The Hall turned nine offensive rebounds into 16 second chance points en route to an 89-58 win, as six players including Edwin, Oliver, Teague and Brandon Mobley (Savannah, Ga.) finished in double-figures. The victory was the fifth-straight by at least 23 points in the series against the Blackbirds and in the stretch which dates back to the 1989-90 season, SHU has averaged 97.2 points per game. With the Blackbirds currently surrendering more than 80 points per contest, Seton Hall will look to get its offense back on track on Thursday night.
FOX Sports 1 will carry a live broadcast of the game which is set to tip-off at 7 p.m. A radio broadcast will be available on 970 AM and through SHUPirates.com with the Pirates' broadcast team Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin.
Following tomorrow's matchup, Seton Hall will head to Rutgers on Sunday before hosting NJIT two days later.
