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Preview: No. 24 Pirates Travel to Butler Searching for First Big East Victory

Date: January 4, 2022

By: Justin Nicosia

Players from the Seton Hall men's basketball team help Myles Cale to his feet during a home game.

Kayla Fonseca/WSOU Sports

The No. 24 Seton Hall men’s basketball team (9-3, 0-2 Big East) will travel to Indianapolis, Ind. to take on the Butler Bulldogs (8-4, 1-0 Big East) in a Tuesday night tilt.

The Pirates look to bounce back after a pair of tough losses on the road at No. 16 Providence and home vs. No. 19 Villanova. The games were the first for the Pirates after a 17-day COVID pause, during which the team was only able to practice twice.

While Seton Hall returned to action last Wednesday, they are still feeling the harsh effects the pandemic has brought onto the sport. They still have seven inactive players, including key rotational pieces Tyrese Samuel and Ike Obiagu, who are in COVID protocols, and sophomore point guard Jahari Long, who had season-ending knee surgery during their pause.

While the Pirates did practice twice before the Providence game, they have not practiced since then. Seton Hall has only had eight active players on the roster, and head coach Kevin Willard has stuck to a seven-man rotation, as Jo Smith has only played two total minutes between those two games.

“We can’t play these guys this many minutes and expect them to practice,” said Willard.

All signs point to the Pirates heading in the same situation against Butler, with the same eight players that played last week being the only ones available Tuesday night. The starting lineup for both games included Kadary Richmond, Myles Cale, Jared Rhoden, Alexis Yetna, and Tray Jackson, with Jamir Harris and Bryce Aiken acting as key contributors off the bench.

Despite playing shorthanded against both Providence and Villanova, the Pirates got great production from a variety of guys, most notably Yetna and Aiken.

Yetna averaged 11.5 points and 9.5 rebounds-per-game on 52.6% shooting between the two games, while Aiken has led the team with 16.5 points-per-game during that stretch. Aiken also averaged 2.5 steals-per-game in those contests

While Seton Hall continues to deal with absences due to COVID, Butler may finally be returning a key player against the Pirates.

Bo Hodges, who averaged 8.2 points and 6.0 rebounds-per-game last season, has yet to appear in a game this season, as he suffered a fracture in his knee in August. Hodges was set to be a game-time decision last Wednesday before a non-COVID illness kept him out against DePaul.

Butler is far from the offensive juggernaut they used to be as recently as four years ago, when they averaged 78.9 points-per-game. This season, they rank 321st in the country with 60.8 points-per0game against Division 1 opponents.

While some of that can be attributed to their slow style of play (they rank 326th out of 357 Division 1 teams in adjusted tempo), their KenPom adjusted offensive efficiency ranks 161st in the nation and dead last in the Big East. They could reasonably struggle to score 50 against a Seton Hall team which ranks in the top 30 of adjusted defensive efficiency.

Keys To The Game

Seton Hall:

Jamir Harris needs to stay locked in from three

After a tough stretch against Texas, Rutgers, and Providence, where he only saw 1/10 three-point attempts fall, Harris found his stroke Saturday against Villanova where 4/6 long range attempts found the bottom of his basket.

This is the shooting the Pirates expected from Harris, who shot 43.8% from three at American last year. Butler holds Division 1 teams to just 30.4% from three, so the Pirates need their best three-point shooter to be at the top of his game.

Put more attention on rebounding

Seton Hall entered play last week with an average rebounding margin of +7.9. Since then, they’ve lost the rebounding battle by an average of 9.5 rebounds-per-game, including getting outrebounded 42-28 and allowing 13 offensive rebounds to a Villanova team that ranks 105th in the country in the rebounding category.

Fortunately, Butler ranks 276th in rebounds-per-game and has an average rebounding margin of just +1.4, but the Pirates cannot manage to lose the rebounding battle by double digits playing without their two tallest players.

Butler:

Play a physical, low post style of offense

Butler’s main focus on offense should be working the ball into the paint and getting points inside. Without Samuel and Obiagu, the Pirates lack a true center, and their interior defense is not as menacing as it is when the conference’s fourth-leading blocker is playing.

Not only will working the ball inside evade Seton Hall’s top-10 perimeter defense, which is anchored by Cale, but it will also force Seton Hall into foul trouble early and often. Advising a team that ranks 220th in the country with a 69.0% free throw percentage to get to the line sounds counterintuitive, but in Seton Hall’s situation it is necessary.

Even when the Pirates weren’t in foul trouble, they were forced to put 6-foot-6 guard/forward Rhoden at the power forward position, with either the 6-foot-8 Yetna or the 6-foot-9 Jackson in at center. This really helps level the playing field for a Butler team, whose two tallest rotation players are 6-foot-9.

Put defensive focus on Bryce Aiken, especially in crunch time

This year, Aiken has been everything the Pirates could ask for and more. Even though he comes off the bench, Seton Hall’s offense has run through Aiken in the waning minutes of games, and it has paid dividends for the Pirates.

He’s made deep threes in the last two minutes multiple times for the Pirates, some acrobatic layups, and he’s gotten to the line more than any Pirate not named Rhoden.

If this game is close, which it could be considering the Pirates are still shorthanded, not practicing, and in a road environment at the always-tough Hinkle Fieldhouse, this game’s deciding factor can and will be how much Butler contains the sixth year “super-senior.”

In the end, I expect this to be a low-scoring game, considering the defensive mindedness of both teams, as well as the slower pace of play of Butler. Do not be surprised if neither team breaks 60 points.

Be sure to tune into 89.5 FM WSOU Tuesday night at 7:30 for all the pregame coverage. Wilnir Louis and Liam Plate will be on the call for tipoff, which is set for 8:00 p.m. Be sure to stay with us after the game and call in to Hall Line, where Haley Zemek and Jimmy Bliss will recap the game.

Justin Nicosia can be reached at justin.nicosia@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Game Previews, Men's Basketball, Sports

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