On The Road Again: Pirates Open 2023 At Creighton

Game 16: Creighton Bluejays (8-6, 2-1 BIG EAST) vs. Seton Hall Pirates (8-7, 1-3 BIG EAST)
Tuesday, Jan. 3 • 8:30 p.m. Eastern • Omaha, Neb. • CHI Health Center Omaha
TV: FS1 • Matt Schumacker & Nick Bahe
Web: FOX Sports Live
Radio: SHU Pirates Mobile App / Pirate Sports Network / SXM 388, SXM app 978 / Dave Popkin & Kim Adams

NOTES YOU NEED TO KNOW

The Seton Hall men's basketball team will pack their bags once again for its third road contest in the last four games as the Pirates travel to Omaha to take on BIG EAST preseason favorite Creighton on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. on FS1.
Seton Hall has opened the New Year with a win in nine of the last 11 seasons.
After starting off league play against three of the top four teams in the BIG EAST, including the current top-two teams (Providence and Xavier), the Pirates are coming off of its first BIG EAST win of the season thanks to a strong second half performance in an 88-66 drubbing of St. John's on New Year's Eve.
Senior Al-Amir Dawes (Newark, N.J.) matched his career high with 22 points on 5-of-10 shooting from three-point range and junior Kadary Richmond (Brooklyn, N.Y.) finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
Seton Hall's 88 points marked a season high and it held an opponent under 70 points for the ninth time in 15 games.
The Pirates are 8-1 this season when they hold their opponents to under 70 points.
The 22-point margin of victory was the Pirates' largest in league play since a 31-point dispatching of DePaul, 87-56, on Jan. 7, 2017.
Through four BIG EAST games, Richmond is averaging 18.3 points on 56 percent shooting from the floor, 6.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game.
Richmond ranks in the top 10 in scoring, assists and steals in conference play.
Richmond has dished out at least five assists in all four BIG EAST games.
Richmond was high school teammates with junior Femi Odukale (Brooklyn, N.Y.) at South Shore High School.
In the three BIG EAST games he's played in, Odukale is averaging eight points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.3 steals per game.
Senior Tyrese Samuel (Montreal, Quebec) was named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll on Dec. 2 after averaging 13.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and making 64.3 percent from the field in a 1-1 week.
In the three-point loss at Xavier on Dec. 20, Seton Hall held the Musketeers, one of the top offensive teams in the country, to their lowest three-point shooting percentage this season (25 pct.) and their second-lowest point total of the season (73).
The Pirates have allowed just 64.2 points per game over the last six games.
The Pirates' 63.9 ppg allowed ranks second in the BIG EAST.
The Pirates rank 31st in KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency.
Seton Hall ranks second in the BIG EAST in both field goal percentage defense (40.4 percent) and three-point field goal defense (28.7 percent).
In Holloway's last 26 games as a head coach, his teams have allowed just 61.4 points per game and only seven opponents have scored more than 70 points.
Graduate student KC Ndefo (Elmont, N.Y.) is the NCAA's active career leader in blocks with 346.
After starting the season off slow from a blocks standpoint, Ndefo is averaging 3.9 blocks per game over the last seven contests.
The Hall is 140-22 (.864) since 2015-16 when its lead gets to seven points.
The Pirates look to generate offense at the free throw line and they rank 10th in the country in free throw attempts per game (25.6 FTA pg) and rank 17th nationally in free throw makes per contest (17.1 FTM pg).
The Pirates lead the BIG EAST in bench points, averaging 25.6 points per game.
Seton Hall's bench has outscored its opponent's reserves in 11 of its 15 games this season.
Al-Amir Dawes passed the 1,000 career point threshold at Xavier on Dec. 20, becoming the second active Pirate to surpass 1,000 points (KC Ndefo, 1,296).