(1) Monday Game 12/12/16 Seton Hall-Carolina

[gtmoBlue]

Great win. Seton Hall didn't play very well but still got the win. Seton Hall could get even better if Thomas is an improvement on Jones who almost cost Seton Hall the game.

Excellent win while playing badly. Way to go The Hall! Bodes very well for conference play. The Hall will be a tough out all season (i hope).

[Novachap]

Congrats Hall, great win over SC.

[Letsgonova]

The Hall must be a frustrating team to root for. A lot of apparent talent, but low basketball IQ. So many times they had the chance to extend a lead and drove into the teeth of the defense, or just handed the ball to SC on the perimeter. Gotta put that blame at Willard's feet. Terrific rebounding team, though. Short another ball handler from what I could see.

[Novachap]

Well letsgonova, they have figured out how to give us trouble!

[SJHooper]

The Hall must be a frustrating team to root for. A lot of apparent talent, but low basketball IQ. So many times they had the chance to extend a lead and drove into the teeth of the defense, or just handed the ball to SC on the perimeter. Gotta put that blame at Willard's feet. Terrific rebounding team, though. Short another ball handler from what I could see.

Do you know what SJ fans would give to have a team win the Big East tourney (reg season) and actually have a bunch of 4 year players who are consistent like SHU has? They beat 4 straight ranked teams. If that's "frustrating" what does that make us?Seton Hall has become the team St. John's was supposed to be. We recruited a lot of the players on their team...the difference seems to be that they have a coach. SJ was always in the SJ/PC/SHU mix in terms of competitiveness for a while, but now PC has Cooley and they are quickly pulling away after being a regular tourney team and being in the top 10. SHU was just ranked recently and they won the BE reg season tourney. Now they are off to another great start under Willard. If SJU doesn't turn it around rather quickly, you risk being partners with DePaul long-term which is essentially waving the white flag for the program. When every other team except DePaul and SJU seem to "get it", it can be alarming being a fan of one of those programs.

[Letsgonova]

SJHooper - I definitely realize how good I have it as a 'Nova fan. You are right to worry. St. Johns hasn't shown real signs of life in a long, long time now, and there is no real structural advantage for the program that they can fall back on. At least DePaul is getting a new arena. Maybe Mullin can still turn it around, but bringing in another problem case like Brown for next year doesn't bode well.

[Hall2012]

The Hall must be a frustrating team to root for. A lot of apparent talent, but low basketball IQ. So many times they had the chance to extend a lead and drove into the teeth of the defense, or just handed the ball to SC on the perimeter. Gotta put that blame at Willard's feet. Terrific rebounding team, though. Short another ball handler from what I could see.

I agree there were some dumb mistakes in the last few minutes, primarily by Jones (passed to guy not looking, missed/blocked fast break layups, lost handle on the perimeter for turnover), that made the finish a lot closer than it should have been, but I wouldn't consider that an indictment on Willard or the team-wide basketball IQ. If you're gonna criticize Willard for "driving into the teeth of the defense", you need to praise it too because it's exactly what got SHU back in the game. In the first half, SHU was turning everything over trying to move the ball and run their offense against SC's high pressure defense. At half time, Willard essentially told them screw running the offense and just drive. It worked. It got some easy buckets, the SC bigs in foul trouble, and eventually opened up some space for jump shots. It was the winning play too. He drew up a play to get Desi a mismatch on their freshman center with 4 fouls, and his instructions as he put it in his press conference were "Get Desi the ball and get out of the way."

He may not make every perfect decision, but Coach Willard was the reason Seton Hall won this game. He made the halftime adjustment that changed the game and drew up a perhaps simple, but very effective winning play.