MBB Season Preview: Laying the Foundation
11/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The college basketball season is an arduous one, one that is much more a test of endurance than a sprint to the finish.
So much for starting slow.
On Sunday, the Seton Hall men's basketball team will open the 2014-15 regular season against Atlantic Sun title holders Mercer - a matchup we will explore in depth tomorrow - in a contest that will set the stage for the four month journey towards the madness in more ways than one.
The Bears are coming off a banner year in which they advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament - knocking off Duke in the round of 64 - and represent the first of what could be five opponents in the first six games that reached the postseason a year ago.
When the two teams met in Macon last November, 50 minutes were needed to decide what ended as a 77-74 Mercer win. Gone however is a decorated seven member senior class that included the team's five starters against the Pirates which accounted for 60 points in the contest. Head coach Bob Hoffman has built a consistent winner but averaged only 16 wins in his first three years at Mercer as opposed to 26 per season over the last three when the Class of 2014 was steering the ship.
The Hall will head from the opener to the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands, making its second trip to the in-season tournament in five seasons under head coach Kevin Willard. SHU will face a re-structured Nevada team in the first of three scheduled games at the event, drawing the Wolfpack as they begin life without All-Mountain West guard Deonte Burton who averaged over 20 points in nearly 39 minutes per game as a senior.
Nevada won 15 games in 2013-14 but will also be looking to replace another four-year starter in Jerry Evans Jr. as they enter their first-ever matchup with The Hall and will lean on junior college transfer Tyron Criswell to fill the void.
Following day one, SHU faces potential matchups with Clemson and Gardner Webb. Clemson brings back 77% of its starts from last year but must replace current Philadelphia 76ers rookie K.J. McDaniels who led the team in 25 of its 36 outings during a run to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) last March.
New coach Tim Craft led Gardner Webb to 18 victories in his first year at the helm, earning a nomination for the Joe B. Hall Award as the top first year coach in the nation. 6-foot-5 sophomore forward Jerome Hill is one of the top players in the Big South, returning after averaging 14.4 points and 8.5 rebounds per contest.
On the other side of the bracket lie LSU, Old Dominion, Illinois State and Weber State.
The Tigers won 20 games and reached the NIT in year two under Johnny Jones. Jones and Willard have met before, with LSU coming away with a 72-67 triumph at home in the 2012 BIG EAST/SEC Challenge. Old Dominion captured the Paradise Jam crown when the Pirates last attended in 2010 and recorded 18 wins last year, as did Illinois State.
Weber State is the reigning Big Sky champion and lost by just nine as a #16-seed to top seeded Arizona in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Willard has said that he wanted to test his youthful group early in order to prepare them for the grueling crucible that is the BIG EAST's round-robin schedule and things get no easier for The Hall upon their return stateside.
Another date with a 2014 NCAA Tournament serves as a welcome back as George Washington will visit the Prudential Center on November 29. The Colonials were selected to finish second in a stout Atlantic 10 Conference this season after going 24-9 behind senior leaders Maurice Creek and Isaiah Armwood. Despite those two losses, a core of four junior standouts is expected to guide GW to similar success.
Reigning NEC champs Mount Saint Mary's visit Newark four days later but coach Jamion Christon will need to find a way to replace his top three scorers from a year ago in order to recapture the magic that saw The Mount rattle off three-straight wins to earn the conference tournament title. Junior Taylor Daneher gives Mount Saint Mary's a unique presence as a 7-footer with touch around the basket and Byron Ashe returns to guide the backcourt after starting 15 games as a freshman.
The Pirates will remain home for what will be a landmark moment in their longstanding rivalry with Rutgers as Seton Hall will host the first-ever installment of the Garden State Hardwood Classic. Sterling Gibbs helped lift The Hall over the Scarlet Knights 77-71 at The RAC last season but the result marked the 18th time in the last 20 meetings that the matchup has been decided by six points or less.
With an all-new trophy at stake, more than Garden State bragging rights will be on the line when The Hall clashes with the new Big Ten member.
The challenging stretch continues with one of the most difficult true road contests a high-major program will face this season as the Pirates will head to Wichita State. Preseason All-Americans Rod Baker and Fred VanVleet are a primary reason why the Shockers earned their highest preseason ranking since 1981-82 (#11) after running the table on the way to last season's Big Dance, WSU has dropped just three home games in three years.
The last non-conference home loss for the Shockers came by one-point in 2010-11 to a VCU squad that went on to the Final Four.
The Pirates will make one more appearance at the Prudential Center prior to conference play, hosting the most common opponent in program history in Saint Peter's. SHU will look to avenge last year's overtime loss in what will be the 86th meeting between the in-state foes.
A two-game swing to USF and Georgia marks the final road contests before the new year as the Pirates take on two more teams from power conferences.
Former Seton Hall assistant Oliver Antigua is now serving in the same role alongside his brother Orlando in Tampa as the Bulls look to find success following a coaching change. USF is the second youngest team in the nation with just three players with NCAA experience but two of them - guard Anthony Collins and forward Chris Perry - landed on the Preseason All-American Athletic Conference second team.
The Bulldogs were a bit under the radar last year despite finishing second in the SEC. Head coach Mark Fox guided the squad to the 12th 20-win season in program history and an NIT berth. Junior guards Charles Mann and Kenny Gaines proved a difficult tandem to contain as sophomores with Mann taking home All-SEC Coaches Team after averaging 13.9 points per game while Gaines led the team with 14.8 ppg in conference play.
The Pirates will once again close its non-conference schedule in Historic Walsh Gymnasium when they face Maine for the second time in three seasons.
Seton Hall downed the Black Bears 76-49 in the inaugural meeting between the programs in 2012-13 and Maine is looking to rebound from a six-win campaign.
Following the trying 13-game stretch, the Pirates will embark on another BIG EAST season after being tabbed to finish sixth earlier this fall. As a league, BIG EAST teams went 94-31 against non-conference competition in its first year in its current form, compiling the fourth-best conference RPI in the country.
As always, the league boasts no shortage of talented teams and standout performers and all roads once again lead to the mecca that is Madison Square Garden.
A closer look at the storied conference is warranted once the first two months of the season have been completed but while there is always an eye towards March, now is when the groundwork is laid.
For the Pirates; the journey starts against the Bears on Sunday.
