Sunday SHU Sports Update July 13th

Date: July 13, 2014

by John Fanta, Assistant Sports

If there is one guarantee heading into the 2014-15 Seton Hall men's basketball season, the expectations are higher than normal. A consensus top-15 recruiting class enters South Orange, led by the best incoming freshman in the New York area, Isaiah Whitehead. While the pressure is on, there is one positive for The Hall – the renovation of the Big East will continue to leave the door open for the blue and white to make a move.

Here is just a quick breakdown of what the league adds and loses:

First off, "Doug McBuckets" is "McOut." He won't be able to help out the Bluejays from Chicago with the Bulls, graduating from Creighton with many question marks as life without Doug begins. Austin Chatman will be back for his senior season and mans the backcourt while Will Artino looks to take the spotlight down low. Avery Dingman is a stingy player to watch, but the fact is, the Birds don't have that glue that was holding them together. Head coach Greg McDermott deserves credit for challenging his team with a reasonably testy non-conference slate. The Jays will host Oklahoma in their third game of the year before playing in the Emerald Coast Classic. All in all, they'll play five NCAA Tournament teams. A drop in the Big East is expected without McDermott. As for Providence, a loaded frontcourt is still present powered by LaDontae Henton and Carson DeRosiers. With Bryce Cotton gone and Kris Dunn being a question mark that needs to pan out for Ed Cooley, the Friars could be anywhere from near the top to outside of the top five. Xavier lost Semaj Christon and surprisingly Justin Martin, but Matt Stainbrook is a formidable force. The Pirates didn't seem to care for that last year, sweeping the Musketeers. While Chris Mack expects a year in the top half of the league, The Hall seems to match-up well, but has to find a way to defend Stainbrook with Eugene Teague gone. Marquette has a new staff and so many question marks that it's almost unfair to make a judgment on them. Georgetown is loaded with incoming freshman, much like The Hall, but the Hoyas need D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera to be a leader and not the other-half of a duo after Markel Starks departed. Isaac Copeland and Paul White will both be big additions down low and if L.J. Peak can pan out at the wing, it could give the Hoyas something nice to work with in the back-court. And, don't forget about Trey Mourning, the son of Alonzo. The front-court is young, but potential is high. The Hoyas could easily be a top three team in the league but questions remain as to whether John Thompson III can produce results.

Butler and Depaul aren't expected to make much of a move, but The Hall still has to get business done against those opponents after going a combined 1-3 against them during the 2013-14 regular season. The Blue Demons had a solid freshman class, so it's not all gloom-and-doom for them. St. John's should be a top-five team in the league with D'Angelo Harrison in the back-court and Chris Obekpa leading a deeper frontcourt with the additions of Adonis Delarosa and JUCO transfer Keith Thomas. Christian Jones also returns for the Johnnies, who are looking to earn an NCAA Tournament berth after a deflating 2013-14. Steve Lavin has something to prove, that's for certain. Villanova will once again stand at the top. There's simply nothing the Pirates can do about that. Darrun Hilliard and Jayvaughn Pinkston were left with a bad taste in their mouths in March. Combined with the talent and head coach Jay Wright, the motivation entering 2014-15 should have 'Nova as a top team in the nation once again.

The Pirates may have some question marks, but they won't have trouble scoring, or at least they shouldn't. Kevin Willard knows the x's and o's as well as anybody, and with the way he handled a locker room that eventually came together last season, things are looking up. Sterling Gibbs and Whitehead will start, but the intriguing thing about this team is that there doesn't appear to be anything set in stone with the starting line-up. Senior Brandon Mobley and incoming freshman Angel Delgado are expected to be the frontcourt starters, but Willard can do a lot with his fifth starter in the middle of the line-up. Khadeen Carrington or late addition Desi Rodriguez could be added into the equation. Jaren Sina also has to be a candidate after showing composure in the clutch last season. With Ismael Sanogo factored into the backcourt and Our Savior's Michael Nzei along with Chier Ajou joining the team for conference play, depth is present. Experience is not, but there isn't much to begin with in the Big East. And, with a better non-conference schedule from Willard, the set-up is there for a program improvement. The Pirates have been unable to find consistency. With a youthful bunch, that doesn't get any easier. That's the apprehension associated with the upcoming season, but the ability to rise up and maybe even grab a ticket to the Big Dance can't be ruled out of the question completely. One thing is for certain: with this talent and the framework of the Big East, the Pirates should receive a bye in the conference tournament and should be looking at a postseason berth of some sort. But at the very least, SHU needs to have a clean year on and off the court. The conduct of a young bunch is a question mark for any program.

Coming off of the first 20-win season in 19 years, head coach Tony Bozzella enters the second year of his tenure with even bigger expectations. With an All-Big East First Team player in point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons and the conference's most improved player, Tabatha Richardson-Smith, returning, there is good reason to expect more. While the Pirates no longer have guard Alexis Brown and forward Sidney Cook, who combined for over 17 points per game last season, Bozzella looks at the upgrades and the improvement of the culture of the program. "The change from the first summer that I was here to now is massive," Bozzella said. "We've established a culture and each one of our players is on the same page with our staff. I couldn't say that during this time last year."

The frontcourt's talent for 2014-15 remained unknown for some time, but with the help of strong recruiting from Bozzella's staff and the addition of forward Janee Johnson for one final year after her appeal to the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility was granted, The Hall has options. The biggest addition for Bozzella that has potential to be in the starting line-up in the upcoming season is 6-foot-3 wing Tiffany Jones. "We expect Tiffany to make an immediate impact," Bozzella said. For a team that shot just under 40 percent last season, a mark that stood 9^th in the Big East, Bozzella sees Jones as a big step toward improving the blue and white's execution near the rim. With Bra'Shey Ali also back, arguably the team's best defender and rebounder, the idea that the Pirates are just guard-oriented is not correct. There's no question that Simmons is the motor of the team, but depth is still a question that needs to be answered. The Pirates have the options with guards Jordan Mosley, Tara Inman, and Teresa Kucera back along with a solid incoming class, but Bozzella is looking for them to contribute in the scoring column a little bit more to find more production on a consistent basis.

As for the schedule, the Pirates will partake in the Preseason WNIT for the first time since the inaugural tournament in 1994. Following a contest with Rider on Nov. 14 to get the invitational action underway, the Pirates will battle either West Virginia or Eastern Kentucky on Monday, Nov. 17. For the full bracket, go to http://womensnit.com/photos/bracket42.pdf.

The Pirates will play nine of their 12 non-conference contests inside Walsh Gym, with the one road game coming at Fordham on Friday Dec. 5. The Rams have had a complete turnaround as a program under head coach Stephanie Gaitley. The Rams won the Atlantic 10 last season, producing a 25-win campaign before getting knocked out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by California, 64-63. Three years in, Gaitley has taken a program that went 0-28 three years ago to being a contender in the A-10. Along with the road test at Fordham, Bozzella designed a solid slate at Walsh Gym. The Pirates will once again have a jam-packed Thanksgiving Week, with St. Joe's, St. Francis Brooklyn, and St. Peter's participating with them. The Big Ten's Illinois will pay a visit to South Orange on Dec. 9 before Fairfield invades Walsh on Dec. 18. Georgia will close out the non-conference slate at Seton Hall on Dec. 28.

"This schedule raises the bar for us and I expect us to be more than ready for Big East play with a slate like this," Bozzella said. He aims for a boost from the 138^th RPI ranking in the country.

Full schedule (Officially released on SHUPirates.com)

11/08/14	vs. Philadelphia (Exhibition)	South Orange, N.J.	2:00 p.m. ET
Preseason WNIT First Round
11/14/14	vs. Rider	South Orange, N.J.	12:00 p.m. ET
11/26/14	vs. Kennesaw State	South Orange, N.J.	2:00 p.m. ET
Seton Hall Thanksgiving Classic
11/29/14	vs. Saint Peter's	South Orange, N.J.	2:30 p.m. ET
11/30/14	Saint Joseph's/St. Francis (N.Y.)	South Orange, N.J.	2:30 p.m. ET
12/05/14	at Fordham	Bronx, N.Y.	7:00 p.m. ET
12/07/14	vs. Lafayette	South Orange, N.J.	2:00 p.m. ET
12/09/14	vs. Illinois	South Orange, N.J.	7:00 p.m. ET
12/18/14	vs. Fairfield	South Orange, N.J.	5:00 p.m. ET
12/19/14	vs. NJIT	South Orange, N.J.	7:00 p.m. ET
12/28/14	vs. Georgia	South Orange, N.J.	2:00 p.m. ET

For news on the rest of Seton Hall sports, go to https://soundcloud.com/89-5-wsou-sports/seton-hall-sunday-sports-update for an all-access audio report.

This week, we'll check in on what's to come for fall sports in South Orange, and we'll look at the success of the Seton Hall Athletic Department. It starts at the top, and the impact that Pat Lyons has made continues to be remarkable.

To contact John Fanta, tweet @John_Fanta or e-mail john.fanta@student.shu.edu. You can tune in to WSOU every Sunday from 6-8 p.m. for sports talk. Call in at 973-761-9768 or let your voice be heard by tweeting @WSOUSports.

Posted in: Sports