Pirates Invade MSG in Sat. Clash with St. John's

2017 BIG EAST Conference Game Seton Hall Pirates (15-8, 5-6 BIG EAST) vs. St. John's Red Storm (11-14, 5-7 BIG EAST)
Date/Time/Location	Saturday, Feb. 11 \| 12 p.m. \| Madison Square Garden (New York, N.Y.)
Tickets	Ticketmaster.com
Television Broadcast	CBS Sports Network
Radio Broadcast	WMCA 570 AM \| Pirate Sports Network (FREE)
Game Notes	Seton Hall \| St. John's
Links	Live Stats \| Twitter \| Facebook

The World's Most Famous Arena. The Mecca of College Basketball. The arena where Seton Hall has been comfortable the last 12 months.

Madison Square Garden has been a home away from home for the Pirates, who have won five straight games there since February 2016. The first of those five wins was a victory over host St. John's, a 62-61 thriller, and The Hall hopes to continue the streak Saturday against an upstart Red Storm team that has alternated wins and losses the last six games. The winner of this game will be in control of sixth place in the BIG EAST, a coveted spot that receives the final bye into the BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinals. A victory would give the Pirates their first three-game winning streak since rattling off six straight Dec. 1-23.

Rich Waltz will have play-by-play duties, Doug Gottlieb will provide color and Jon Rothstein will roam the sidelines on the national CBS Sports Network television broadcast. The dynamic duo of Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin will have the radio call on WMCA 570 AM, simulcast on the Pirate Sports Network (available at SHUPirates.com and the SHU Pirates Mobile App).

Pirate Points

>> Freshman Myles Powell hit what proved to be the game-winning basket with 7.9 seconds remaining in overtime as Seton Hall overcame a 15-point first half deficit to complete a 72-70 victory over Providence at Prudential Center Wednesday night. Junior Angel Delgado collected his 18th double-double of the season with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Fellow junior Khadeen Carrington delivered his best performance in conference play this season and finished with a game-high 21 points, seven rebounds, five assists and just two turnovers in a career-high 44 minutes. Powell totaled 14 points in 34 minutes off the bench for The Hall. The last two games mark the first time SHU played consecutive overtime contests since Dec. 9 & Dec. 22, 2007 against Penn State and James Madison.

>> The Pirates head to Madison Square Garden Saturday seeking a season sweep of the Johnnies for the second consecutive season. They cruised to an 86-73 victory over St. John's in Newark on Jan. 22 behind Delgado's historic 21-point, 20-rebound game. It was the first 20-20 game for The Hall since Eddie Griffin vs. Saint Peter's on Nov. 27, 2000 and just the 14th to occur in any BIG EAST regular season conference game.

>> St. John's has a 58-38 lead in the all-time series and is 36-11 on its home court. One of those 11 home losses came last season when Isaiah Whitehead hit a pair of free-throws with 5.6 seconds remaining and the Red Storm could not get off a shot in the final moments as the Pirates emerged with a 62-61 victory. The win clinched a Seton Hall season sweep of St. John's for the first time since the 2004-05 season. SHU has made Madison Square Garden its "home away from home" recently and has been comfortable there to the tune of five straight wins. The Pirates won all three BIG EAST Tournament games and defeated St. John's at The Garden in 2015-16. Earlier this season, SHU defeated then-ranked No. 16 South Carolina in the Under Armour Reunion game.

>> Head coach Kevin Willard and the Pirates have proven the ability to make in-season adjustments and take advantage of experience against BIG EAST competition. Since the start of the 2015-16 season, Seton Hall is 11-3 when facing an opponent for the second or third time in the same season.

>> The Pirates are on the heels of back-to-back, two-point overtime victories, and have shown resilience all season. They have five wins when trailing at halftime and three wins when trailing by 10 or more at any point in the contest. SHU is shooting 47.9 percent (313-of-653) in the second half overall and 51.9 percent (217-of-418) in the second half of 15 wins this season while limiting opponents to 40.0 percent shooting. Additionally, SHU is outscoring opponents by 3.2 in the final frame while scoring 38.6 points.

>> Though grossly underrated in the national scope, the Best Big Man in the BIG EAST™, Delgado, resides in South Orange. He enters Saturday as the nation's top rebounder with 13.2 per game, and has 6.3 more per game (137 total) than any other player in the conference. He has five 20-point games this season including a career-best 26 at Georgetown, and is one of two players in the top-15 in the BIG EAST in scoring, rebounding and field goal percentage. He was named Metropolitan Basketball Writers' Association Player of the Week on Tuesday and earned a nod on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll for the seventh time this season after averaging 19.5 points and 15.0 rebounds over two games last week. Delgado is furthermore averaging 13.1 points and 13.1 rebounds in seven road games this year.

>> The big man is posting truly historic numbers in his junior campaign, and has aligned himself with some of the elite rebounders in school and conference history. Delgado's 22 rebounds against Butler are the most by any Pirate since the school joined the BIG EAST in 1979. He is only the seventh Pirate in program history to record a 20-rebound game, and the first since Pope vs. Syracuse on Jan. 8, 2011. Additionally, Delgado is one of four student-athletes from a "Power Basketball Six" conference since 1996 to have back-to-back 20-rebound games (courtesy of FOX Sports & Anthony Masterson):

Tim Duncan, Wake Forest (1996-97)
Blake Griffin, Oklahoma (2008-09)
Caleb Swanigan, Purdue (2016-17)

>> Through 11 conference games this season Delgado has pulled down a staggering 14.7 rebounds per game - 7.8 more than any other player in the league, and has four of the top five individual rebounding performances in the BIG EAST. The conference record for rebounding average in a single season is 14.0 (Jerome Lane, Pitt). The 6-foot-10 Dominican native is the only player during BIG EAST play in the top-10 in scoring (15.7), rebounding (14.7) and field goal percentage (50.0). He is averaging 11.12 rebounds through 47 career BIG EAST games, which is currently second best in league history.

>> Including the game winner at Georgetown last week, the versatile swingman Rodriguez has had the hot hand offensively for the Pirates in BIG EAST play. He leads the team and is seventh in the BIG EAST in scoring (16.6 points per game) during league play, and is shooting 43.3 percent (29-of-67) from beyond the arc. He has made 2.6 triples per game in the team's 10 BIG EAST contests, third most in the conference. Prior to league play, Rodriguez was 6-of-29 (20.7 percent) from three-point range.

>> Coming off his top BIG EAST game to date, Carrington is eighth in the conference with 16.8 points per game. The Brooklyn native has the ability to drive it to the rim or shoot it from long range. He has nine 20-point games and has scored in double figures in all but two games this season, 53 times throughout his career. Carrington has been clutch in late-game situations. He scored five points in overtime on Wednesday, and is averaging 9.6 points during the second half on 48.7 percent shooting. He currently has a team-high 1,138 career points (33rd all-time in school history), and became the 41st student-athlete in school history to reach the 1,000-point threshold after a 27-point performance at Creighton.

>> With innate defensive awareness and leadership at the point, senior guard Madison Jones has shown the ability to be a true impact player in BIG EAST competition. Against Xavier on Feb. 1, Jones totaled eight points, nine assists, a career-high five steals, five rebounds, and turned the ball over just once. He is fifth in the BIG EAST with a 2.0 assist-to-turnover ratio, seventh in assists (3.7) and fourth in steals (1.7). Additionally, Jones has provided more assists than turnovers in eight of the last nine games. During BIG EAST play, he is third in the league with 4.0 assists per game.

>> Largely considered one of the top defenders in the BIG EAST, and described by head coach Kevin Willard as the team MVP day in and day out, junior forward Ismael Sanogo has also proved his worth on the glass. He is fifth in the BIG EAST with 6.3 rebounds per game and pulled down a career-high 16 in the Garden State Hardwood Classic victory over Rutgers on Dec. 23. He also grabbed 12 boards in a victory over then-ranked No. 16 South Carolina at The Garden. In the last meeting with St. John's, Sanogo played a crucial role in limiting the BIG EAST's fifth leading scorer, Shamorie Ponds (17.2 points per game), to just nine points on 3-of-11 shooting. Against Butler on Jan. 25, he totaled a season-best three blocks and matched a career-high four steals.

>> SHU prides itself on defensive tenacity and it shows. Opponents are shooting just 41.8 percent from the field, the third-best field goal defense in the conference; and SHU is 8-1 when opponents shoot under 40 percent. Furthermore, the team's 7.0 steals per game are good for second most in the BIG EAST. Seton Hall and its strong defense has also proven to be well equipped at holding leads. The Pirates are 38-1 in their last 39 games (dating back to the start of the 2015-16 season) when holding at least a seven-point lead at any point in the contest.

>> Perhaps the biggest struggle offensively for the Pirates this season has been consistency at the free- throw line. The team is shooting just 61.9 percent from the stripe, but went 12-of-14 on Wednesday and is 33-of-43 (76.8 percent) over the last two games. Delgado leads the team with 148 attempts while shooting 56.1 percent. He is also 20-for-25 (80.0 percent) over the last three games.

>> Powell leads the team in free-throw percentage (84.2) and has shown the ability to be a dynamic scorer and dangerous three-point threat through the first 23 games of his career. Just three games into his rookie season he put up 26 points in SHU's victory at Iowa (Nov. 17) to snap the Hawkeyes 41-game home winning streak over non-conference foes. He went 9-for-14 from the field, 5-for-7 from beyond the arc, and was named BIG EAST Rookie of the Week on Nov. 21. Powell scored 26 and made a career-best 10 field goals at Xavier Feb. 1 including a 6-of-12 mark from three-point land. He is one of only two Pirates since 2008 to have multiple 25-point games as a freshman, joining Jeremy Hazell. He has canned three or more triples in seven different games this year and is averaging 10.9 points per game.

>> Rodriguez has been dominant in road games this year and is averaging 19.9 points, 6.0 rebounds, and is shooting 47.7 percent from beyond the arc. He has had six 20-point games and two double-doubles this season. He scored a career-high 30 points at Marquette and was named BIG EAST Player of the Week on Jan. 9 after a 25-point performance against DePaul in which he made each of his first 10 field goal attempts. Affectionately known as #DunkinDesi, Rodriguez has thrown down 11 dunks this season and 34 for his career. He is 13th in the conference in scoring (15.3 ppg) and 16th in rebounding (5.3 rpg).

>> The Hall has been dominant down low all season and leads the BIG EAST in several rebounding categories. SHU has out-rebounded its opponent in 19 of 23 games (including nine of 11 league games), is seventh in the country and leads the BIG EAST with 41.1 boards per game and is 23rd in the nation with a +6.6 rebounding margin. It is also atop the league standings and 16th in the nation with 13.5 offensive rebounds per game. Earlier this season the team pulled down a season-best 27 at Marquette. The Pirates are outscoring opponents in the paint by 7.6 points per game (800-626).

>> One of the most critical aspects of the Pirates' offense is its ability to produce second chance points. That effort is led by Delgado, who is third in the country with 4.6 offensive rebounds per game. Earlier this season, he grabbed 13 offensive boards at Marquette, which is the most by any Pirates player in recent history and it is the first 13-offensive rebound game by a BIG EAST player since Kentrell Gransberry of USF had 13 vs. DePaul on March 3, 2007. Effort on the offensive glass has led to 13.2 second chance points per game, 3.9 more than opponents. Delgado has grabbed 105 offensive rebounds, and the Pirates have scored on the ensuing opportunity 57 times, which is 53.2 percent of total chances. The team has scored 114 second chance points off his offensive boards alone. The Pirates grab an offensive board on 35.2 percent of all available chances, the best in the BIG EAST.

>> In addition to their offensive rebounding prowess, the Pirates have done a nice job on the defensive glass. It limited Columbia, Creighton and Providence to just four offensive rebounds, and allowed just six against Rutgers, who entered the game averaging 15.7 offensive boards. As a team, SHU holds opponents to an offensive rebound on only 26.0 percent of available chances.

>> Sophomore forward Michael Nzei has been a valuable contributor in the post off the bench all season, and is expected to make his fifth start of the season Saturday afternoon. He has proven worthy of starter minutes by averaging 14.0 points and 10.0 rebounds in a pair of starts earlier this season at the AdvoCare Invitational. Nzei is tied for the team lead with 15 blocks and is a blistering 69.5 percent (41-of-59) from the field over 18.0 minutes per game. He has also shown the ability to throw it down and is tied for the team lead with 11 dunks this season.

>> In addition to all of his other statistical achievements this season, Delgado is also the BIG EAST's active leader in double-doubles with 41 (second most in the country), and when he delivers one, good things happen for The Hall. Dating back to last season, the Pirates have won 26 of the last 31 games when he doubles up (13-0 in 2015-16, 13-5 in 2016-17), and are now 32-9 during his career. Earlier this season, Delgado recorded 11 double-doubles in a row, averaging 16.3 points and 13.5 boards during the stretch.

>> Delgado is currently fifth in school history with 925 career rebounds and is producing numbers that rank alongside SHU all-time greats. He is now the leading rebounder in school history during the BIG EAST era. Furthermore, Delgado became the seventh player in school history to reach 900 rebounds following a 17-rebound performance at Xavier on Feb.1. He is on pace to reach 1,000 career boards later this season. Only four players in program history have reached the 1,000-rebound milestone: