Game Preview: Seton Hall takes on Wofford in first round of NCAA Tournament (3/21/19)

Date: March 20, 2019

By Wilnir Louis

At the media availability day on Tuesday before Seton Hall’s NCAA tournament matchup, Seton Hall’s Myles Powell knew the accomplishment that the Pirates have just completed.

“No one expected us to be here. Everybody said that this is a rebuilding year, and just for us to believe in each other and do things that people didn’t think that we could, that’s an achievement.”

On a year where they were voted to finish 8th in the conference in the preseason polls, the Seton Hall men’s basketball team is going dancing for the fourth straight year, this time being a No. 10 seed. With the NCAA tournament draw, the Pirates will be playing No. 7 seed Wofford. These two teams are currently two of the hottest teams in the country.

For Seton Hall, after a double-overtime loss to Georgetown, the Pirates were on the brink of missing the big dance. However, they were able to bounce back and win back-to-back games against Marquette and Villanova to enter the Big East tournament as the No. 3 seed. As the No. 3 seed, Seton Hall made a run to the championship game by way of a 73-57 victory against Georgetown, and a scrappy 81-79 win versus Marquette. In the final game of the tournament, the Pirates had to battle the Big East regular season champions Villanova. The match between those two seemed like a 12-round boxing match, but the Pirates were unable to convert their final two offensive possessions, and Villanova cut down the nets in Madison Square Garden, winning 74-72. Powell credited the mindset of this group for the way they were to finish out their season.

“We showed what we’re about these last two weeks. We could have [taken] the easy way out when everyone was saying that we needed two more wins to get in… [But] we’re fighters, coach knows we’re fighters and we’re never going to give up”

On the other side of the matchup, the Wofford Terriers are coming out of the Southern Conference. In the final AP poll, they were ranked No.19 in the nation and this season is the first time that they are ranked in program history. The Terriers went undefeated in conference play to win the SoCon Regular Season title. Within the SoCon tournament, Wofford steamrolled through their first two games, defeating Virginia Military Institute and East Tennessee State University 99-72 and 81-72 respectively. In their championship game, they had an electric second half, outscoring UNC Greensboro 43-27 in that half on route to a 70-58 championship victory.

Scouting the team as a whole, offensively they are very explosive. They rank top 20 nationally in 3-point field goal percentage (41.6), scoring margin (+17.4), 3-pointers per game (11.0), field goal percentage (49.3), points per game (83.0), rebound margin (+6.5), as well as assist-to-turnover ratio (1.40). Individually, they rely heavily on the play of Fletcher Magee. Magee is first in the nation in made three-pointers this season (151), 6th in free-throw percentage (90.7), and 23rd in three-point percentage (42.8). Magee is also three three-pointers away from breaking Travis Bader’s NCAA Division I record for career made 3-pointers. Pirates head coach Kevin Willard gave high praise to the play that Magee brings to the Terriers offense.

“Myles can beat you off the dribble, where Fletcher if you give him an inch off a screen it’s literally going down. He’s probably one of the best guys I’ve seen coming off screens in a long time”

For comparison, on the season, Seton Hall allowed opponents to score 71.5 points and allowed opponents to make 7.8 three-pointers per game. Myles Powell has made 103 pointers this season, shooting 36.3% from behind the arch. Powell also shot 44.9% FG and 84.6% from the free throw line.

This will also be uncharted territory for Wofford. Head coach of the Terriers Mike Young has only played one Big East team in his 17 years at Wofford. That one team was Georgetown in 2010. Wofford also has not won an NCAA tournament game in their program, going 0-4 in their history. The lone player on their team who has NCAA Tournament experience was the redshirt senior Cameron Jackson.

For the Pirates, they will try to see if they can continue to grow from their experience. Last year was the first NCAA Tournament win for the Pirates since 2004. Current Seton Hall players Powell, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Myles Cale, and Michael Nzei all logged minutes in that NCAA tournament victory. However, for Powell, there will be extra motivation for this team during the big dance.

“[We will] just keep proving everybody wrong. We have so much fun doing this. Even when we lost, we still got into the locker room, looked at everyone and said that no one expected us to be here. So we’re good, we know we’re good, and we believe that we really can make a run.”

March Madness will officially start for the Pirates on Thursday at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. Tip-off is scheduled for around 9:40 PM, and WSOU will give you all of the coverage of the matchup on 89.5 FM and the iHeartRadio app with Matt Ambrose and Dagen Hughes on the call.

Wilnir Louis can be reached at wilnir.louis@student.shu.edu.

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