Seton Hall Basketball

Bobby Gonzalez certainly took risks during the 2008-2009 season, accepting several high risk-high reward transfers in Herb Pope, Keon Lawrence, and Jeff Robinson. The season before that, he brought in Robert Mitchell, a former Atlantic-10 Freshman of the Year winner.

Last September, Seton Hall rewarded his ability to bring in Big East caliber talent from other schools with a contract extension that was supposed to keep Gonzalez tenured until 2015.

Now, after three of those four transfers embarrassed this program during the 2009-2010 season, Brandon Prunty of The Star Ledger reports that Gonzalez is out as the Pirates' coach.

Gonzalez's fiery personality resulted in frequent outbursts on the sideline that often led to technicals and even suspensions. His seventh technical of the season came last night in a game that was almost certainly the death blow to his time to Newark.

That game featured not only Gonzalez's technical for arguing with officials, but also an unfortunate incident in which the aforementioned transfer Herb Pope punched a Texas Tech player in a region no man wants to be punched.  Texas Tech added the cherry on top with an 18 point beat down of the Pirates.

Prunty's anonymous source stated that the results on the court were not the reasons for his firing, but rather the behaviour of both the coach and the program led to Gonzalez's dismissal. 

Two season ago, Gonzalez brought in Robert Mitchell from Duquesne, a potential star in the making. In his first year playing with the team in 2008-2009, Mitchell quickly became that star, averaging 14 points per game. This season, Mitchell fell in the depth chart because of transfers Keon Lawrence, Herb Pope, and Jeff Robinson.

His minutes decreased and his frustration towards Gonzalez increased until he lashed out at the Seton Hall skipper.

“It’s hard to stay consistent as a player, when the coach isn’t consistent,” Mitchell told The Record of Hackensack .

Mitchell questioned Gonzalez's substitution patterns and Gonzalez's demeanor on the sideline. Seton Hall immediately dismissed the junior.

In November, another of Gonzalez's star transfers, Keon Lawrence, drove drunk with a suspended license. He crashed his car and was charged with assault-by-auto and driving with a suspended license. Despite the charges, Gonzalez only suspended Lawrence for eight games.

In Seton Hall's opening round NIT game Tuesday night, Gonzalez's third transfer, Herb Pope violated a written rule of basketball and the unwritten rule of manhood and took not one, but two shots at Darko Cohadarevic.

Officials obviously ejected Pope and following the incident and Gonzalez's team lost control of the game, falling behind by double-digits at halftime.

Ironically, the final transfer Jeff Robinson was really the only player that played last night with the attitude that he gave a darn. Seton Hall fans greeted him with arguably the loudest ovation of the night when he left the floor for the final time.

CBS's Gary Parish questioned Gonzalez's behavior and program mismanagement in November. Predictably, Gonzalez cursed the writer out, denying that his acceptance of high-risk transfers was bad for the program.

Clearly, they were bad for the program and according to Adam Zagoria , at 2PM Wednesday, Gonzalez will be officially let go.

So what's next for Seton Hall?

The school's administration needs to find a coach who stresses discipline, recruits well, and teaches defense. If the Pirates can reel in a coach that can recruit the New York City area better than Gonzalez, then he will likely have the offensive talent to succeed.

Teach his kids defense and discipline, and the future coach could succeed at a school that hasn't been consistently successful during the past two decades.

Seton Hall doesn't have many current New York City coaching options as college basketball in the city has generally been lacking. One option could be Iona's Kevin Willard who almost instantaneously turned that program around.

He preaches defense and team basketball, and the result was the school's best season since 2006. Keep in mind, Iona won just two games the following season in 2007.

Willard has connections in the coaching community as his father is Ralph Willard, the former Holy Cross headman and current Rick Pitino assistant at Louisville.

Seton Hall could go big as well. Tuesday night, Pat Knight, the son of Bob Knight, told Adam Zagoria, “If I’m St. John’s or Rutgers, to me, you gotta be an idiot…if you’re an AD or president, it doesn’t hurt to call."

There are options out there for Seton Hall basketball. At this point, it is finding the right coach that can clean up the program and instill the discipline found at most successful Big East schools.

For more updates on college basketball, follow @JamesonFleming on Twitter.

Entering championship week, there were about 20 teams fighting for the final eight spots. Realistically, all these teams needed a win to either get into the field or ensure their spot, however not all of them could win out. 

If you're a fan of Seton Hall, Memphis, UAB, and USF I feel for you—it's tough.

I bet you're thinking, "Is there any way we can miraculosly still make it?"

All that work, coming so close. Was it all for nothing? 

It may have been all for nothing at the current moment, but here is why you should still have hope.

Seton Hall lost their biggest game in the past four seasons to Notre Dame on Wednesday, which if they won, would have put them in the field. The result of losing put them a few spots back, but they still remain a "last four in" team.

So that's it right? Nope. Even though Seton Hall is currently out, it depends on what the other bubble teams do in their next games. This applies for Memphis' situation as well as UAB, USF, and all the other bubble teams that will be ending their seasons one win shy of making the field. 

Here is a look of the next games for the "last four in" teams:

Illinois plays Wisconsin on Friday at 2:25 p.m. That looks to be a loss for the Illini.

Washington plays Oregon State tonight. That should be a win for the Huskies.

Arizona State plays Stanford. That game can go either way.

San Diego is leading Colorado state 25-22 with 6:27 remaining in the first half. Anything can happen there.

So you can see that if these "last four in" teams lose just as your team has, things can change.

We saw this today when Memphis, who was a "last four in" team, lost to Houston 66-65. Washington, who was idle, was pushed into the field after being a "first four out" team. 

Keep hoping that these bubble teams can lose just like your team did, and you never know, maybe your team can find itself a place in the field. 

The camera caught a Seton Hall player looking dejected in the middle of the second half. He knew the game was over for his team, and his team would be heading to the NIT.

Seton Hall needed to get at least two Big East tournament wins to qualify for the NCAA tournament, but instead, they settled for only one victory after taking a 68-56 loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night.

The Pirates blew it after losing to Marquette at home few weeks ago. They wouldn't be fighting for their playoff lives had they done their job at home.

That's when they lost their bid. It had nothing to do with tonight's game, when one analyzes what really went wrong for the Pirates.

It wasn't surprising the Hall lost to the Irish. Yes, they defeated them in January, but their opponent is a different team now than back then. The Irish had won six of seven heading into the Big East Tournament.

In this game, it came down to a superstar. Notre Dame has one and Seton Hall doesn't.

When Seton Hall struggled to make baskets in a tight game, the Fighting Irish knew they would— thanks to Luke Harangody.

Harangody scored in the middle of the first half, and he helped give the Irish a nice lead heading to halftime.

By then, the Pirates never recovered. The Irish continued to score by running their fast break to start the second half.

The Pirates would make it interesting, but everyone knew the Irish would not blow this lead. If it came down to that situation, Harangody would bail them out.

Of course, they didn't need him in that situation.

There's something to learn from this game. Until the Pirates get a star like Harangody, they are going to be fighting for a tournament spot every year.

Marginal players are not enough to win in the Big East. It works for the mid-major conferences, but as Bobby Gonzalez finds out, it does not work here.

Gonzalez has not found success in getting the stars to play at Seton Hall. The stars know they can win and be good players for better programs in the Big East.

The Seton Hall coach settles with getting guys from junior-college instead. He feels he can develop them into stars, but that's hard to do.

They can only do so much. So far, it hasn't worked either.

Herb Pope and Jordan Theodore have not exactly panned out as stars. Keon Lawrence does not perform much.

It's one thing to play well against the bad teams, but it's another thing to go up against the great teams.

Something has to be done. This can't go on.

Either Gonzalez needs to hire someone to help him recruit those guys or he has to do a better job. One wonders if his reputation scares off others.

If that's the case, maybe it's time for the school to go in another direction.

They might as well. Does anyone think Gonzalez is the guy to lead the Pirates to where they want to be?

Seton Hall fans called for Louis Orr to be fired for two reasons. For one thing, he didn't recruit well enough, and secondly, he never took them far into the postseason.

Gonzalez is in the same situation, however, fans seem to believe in him for whatever reason.

It's hard to believe. It's been three years with nothing to show for it.

Seton Hall will stick with their guy for a while, but if this is the best he can do for the next two years, they need to think long and hard about firing him.

They probably should, but they won't.

Gonzalez will talk about how his team overachieved and how being in the NIT is a good thing for his program. Who's he kidding?

By now, they should be a tournament team under Gonzalez's leadership every year.

They're no better than they were under Orr.

Hard to believe things are changing anytime soon.

Seton Hall (19-11) came into the Big East tournament with an RPI at 54. The Pirates knew they needed to make a serious run in the next few days in order to impress the NCAA selection committee.  Tonight’s win over Providence (12-18), 109-106 will get them that much closer to their dream.

It wasn’t Jeremy Hazell who made Providence nervous this game, it was Herb Pope. Pope went into the half with 18 points and eight rebounds; he finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds. He was the main reason Seton Hall took a 55-39 lead into the half. This was his 13th double-double on the season.

Providence knew it was only a matter of time before Hazell, Seton Hall’s star player, made his impact on the game. It came in the second half as Hazell scored 18 points in the game, mostly in the second half before fouling out with 31 seconds left.

Seton Hall had all five starters in double figures against the porous Friar defense. Eugene Harvey finished with 12 points, while Jeff Robinson chipped in 15 points and six rebounds.

Jordan Theodore finished with 21 points and six assists. He was Seton Hall’s sharpshooter tonight going 3-3 from behind the arc. The Pirates finished shooting 53 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range.

Providence doesn’t know how to play defense, but they do know how to score. It was the fourth time this season Providence has scored 100 or more points in a game.

Jamie Peterson finished with a career high 38 points, he also had 16 rebounds, 10 of which were offensive. He was a large part of the offensive success for the Friars, not only in this game, but also throughout the season.

Marshon Brooks had 15 points, Sharaud Curry added 14, and Bilal Dixon tallied 16 as the other Friars in double figures in scoring.

This was the second time this season the Friars have allowed 100 or more points; both were losses. USF scored 109 in an overtime victory against Providence in January. This was the highest total they’ve allowed in a Big East tournament game.

The largest lead was 26 points, but Providence cut it down to three with 21 seconds left in the game. Once Herb Pope fouled out, the Friars got some late momentum even though it was too little too late.

Seton Hall will turn its focus onto Notre Dame. These two teams are in the thick of the bubble talk and both could use the win. Notre Dame currently has an RPI of 57, and an impressive Big East resume going into tournament play. The Pirates won the previously meeting this season 90-87 a month ago.

Pete Thamel wrote an unflattering piece about Bobby Gonzalez in today's New York Times. The article focused on how he was hated during his coaching days in Manhattan.

We all know Gonzalez is crazy no matter where he goes, but it's shocking to read how no one from Manhattan was sad to see him leave despite the good work he did over there.

One would think he would be appreciated for putting that university on the map by promoting it and winning games. Instead, many players despised him for the way he treated them—along with his boss.

Maybe it shouldn't be surprising after experiencing Gonzalez's wrath. This writer covered Big East Media Day for SPMSportsPage.com in Gonzalez's first year as Seton Hall head coach.

Gonzalez was asked what he can do to live up to the standards Louis Orr created. He was insulted by the question. He was defensive, and he looked like he wanted to go punch the questioner.

When New York sportswriters were asked about him after what took place, they all talked about Gonzo being Gonzo. That means behaving like a child.

For this crazy coach, it serves him well—but it does not represent the fine program well. Seton Hall always had people who won with class.

The university decided it would rather sell its ethics to win. At the time, it was a good hire, but after watching the way Gonzalez behaved during his time at Seton Hall, it turned out to be a mistake.

What exactly has he won at the university? This team has not made an NIT appearance under his leadership. At least, Orr led his team to play in March—whether it's the NIT or the NCAA tournament.

Gonzalez led the Pirates to the CBI, but Seton Hall athletic director Joe Quinlan decided not to let the team play in the tournament.

This, along with Gonzalez's suspension for an driving incident, started a strained relationship between Quinlan and Gonzalez. Of course, Gonzalez won the power struggle, because New Jersey state Sen. Richard Codey likes him.

Politicians always seem to play a role in college programs. One would think Codey would have something better to do, like finding a way to bring employment back to the Garden State, instead of protecting the well-compensated coach.

Gonzalez has brought nothing but headaches to the school. What has he exactly done to earn admiration from the fans?

If they think he is out to stand up for his program, they don't know him that well.

Gonzalez is all about himself. It's something Manhattan players said publicly in that interview with Thamel.

It's one thing to defend him if he was winning. But he hasn't. He has done an decent job, but this is not what was expected when he took the Pirates job. By now, the Pirates should be making the tournament—not fighting for a spot.

When Orr was there, the program had the pieces to be successful—yet Gonzalez has not found a way to make it work. Sorry, but being in the NIT does not constitute success.

Even Gonzalez would be the first to admit that privately.

He can talk about how Seton Hall beats its metropolitan rivals, but that's not a big deal. Rutgers and St. John's are terrible. Seton Hall should be beating them.

Gonzalez has been so-so in recruiting at best. This is not what Seton Hall had in mind when they hired him. They fire Orr for his lack of recruiting, but looking back, Orr recruited better players than Gonzalez.

Those high school stars would rather play elsewhere than play for a crazy person. It's hard to blame them, either.

When we think of Gonzalez, we think of incidents. That's not meant to be a compliment.

It's not passion. It's idiotic on his part.

Is it necessary for him to pick fights with Fred Hill and his staff all the time? Seriously.

He talks about how it's a rivalry regarding the incident with him and couple of Rutgers coaches last Thursday night. There's nothing to be proud of when a grown man fights with an assistant coach—not to mention his players dunking a couple of times when the game was out of hand in Seton Hall's favor.

He needs to channel his emotions at games. Great coaches find a way.

No question, most coaches are not really nice guys in their own right—but they manage not to get carried away.

In the game against Marquette last Sunday, Gonzalez spent most of the time barking with the referees rather than concentrating on coaching. He lost his train of thought, naturally—and it's no coincidence that he could not find a way to get his team to win a game it needed to get into the tournament.

He can't be doing this. Bad calls are going to happen.

His job is to coach and put his team in a position to win. When he behaves like that, the referees remember this type of stuff. It hurts the team in the long run.

No one noticed his act at Manhattan, but in the Big East, Gonzalez knew he was going to get exposed. He talks about how he's wired that way, and it's hard for him to change.

Baloney. It's up to him to know what is right from wrong. How come other crazy coaches know what to do?

Gonzalez's bobos talk about why no one wanted to hire him when he was doing well at Manhattan.

But now we know why.

He's not worth the trouble.

He has not lived up to the expectations. He will be back because the boosters like him.

At the end, the boosters get what they want, and Gonzalez gets away with his act.

Let's hope Gonzalez does so well next year that he can move on to another university that will tolerate him.

For college basketball fans March is the greatest time of the year.  Every spring a 65 team tournament is held, with one initial play-in game, to determine the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Champion.  The tournament takes place at various sites across the U.S. over a three week span.  Teams earn a spot into the NCAA basketball tournament by winning their conference championship or by receiving at-large bids for remarkable play by the NCAA selection committee.  

The tournament is split into four regions with each team being assigned a seeding, 1-16, based on a teams ranking, win-loss record and RPI data(calculating the strength of a teams schedule.)  This year the Final Four and National Championship will be played in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium.  Towards the endpoint of the season, the favorites to make a deep run in the tournament, and possibly win the whole thing, are the Kentucky Wildcats, Kansas Jayhawks, and the Syracuse Orangemen.  Out of all the conferences in the NCAA, the Big East Conference is arguably the most talented in the nation. The Big East consistently has teams ranked in the top 25 and always sends numerous squads to the NCAA tournament.

 

The Big East Conference consists of Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Marquette, Louisville, Georgetown, Notre Dame, South Florida(USF), Seton Hall, UConn, Cincinnati, St. John’s, Rutgers, Providence, and Depaul.  Due to how competitive this conference is, many analysts and experts are predicting that the Big East could possibly send 10 teams to the NCAA tournament.  But, before any teams focus on the big dance they have to perform well in the Big East Conference Tournament.  

All sixteen teams make the Conference Tournament, with the teams that finish nine through sixteen in the regular season standings playing the first round games.  Teams that finish five through eight receive a bye to the second round and the top four teams receive a bye into the quarterfinals.  Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh have already clinched at least a first-round bye in the Big East Conference Tournament.

In my opinion, West Virginia and Syracuse are the two best teams in the Big East this season, and both will be in the Big East Conference Championship.  Syracuse is the most complete team in the conference and maybe the nation, playing textbook team basketball every single game.  Two teams that may surprise you in the Big East Tournament are UConn and Seton Hall.  UConn only posted a record of 7-9 in the Big East, but fought for some tough wins against numerous elite teams, such as, Notre Dame, Texas, Villanova, and West Virginia.  On the other hand, what makes Seton Hall such a dangerous team is their fast tempo offense and extreme athleticism.  If Herb Pope can continue to contribute his threatening down low presence, and Eugene Harvey can consistently break down the opposing defense, then Seton Hall can be a nightmare to face.  

This year the Big East Conference Basketball Championship will begin on Tuesday, March 9th and will be played at Madison Square Garden.  Selection Sunday is on March 14th at 6 P.M, televised on CBS.  On Selection Sunday, the teams that the NCAA Committee selected to be at large-bids are announced.  The Play-in game is on March 16th at 7:30 P.M. in Dayton, Ohio.  The field of 64 begin to play on Thursday, March 18th.  The brackets that everyone loves to fill out will be available shortly after all of the Tournament teams are announced.  As every other year, eyes will be glued to the television sets in hope of numerous upsets, with some less popular programs destroying the powerhouse teams hopes at the “big dance”.  That is why the NCAA tournament is so great.  Even the little guy has a chance.

If the season were to end today, the Big East would be receiving eight bids to the NCAA Tournament.

With Notre Dame's victory over Connecticut this past Wednesday, ESPN's Joe Lunardi's "Last Four in" is as follows: Notre Dame, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and San Diego State.

This makes two Big East Bubble team's just making the field, but what about the other team's in the league who deserve bubble consideration?

The Seton Hall Pirates and USF Bulls both have 8-9 Big East Records and consider themselves worthy of a spot in the field.

As of March 5th, Only Seton Hall has been given any credit towards that consideration with their spot in the "Next Four Out."

What has hurt their chances? The Eye Test. For all you fans who don't know what the Eye test is, it's a blindfolded resume comparison in which analysts look at a team's record, conference record, RPI, and strength of schedule.

When comparing the three Big East team's resumes who are fighting for that historical ninth bid (Connecticut, Seton Hall, and USF), we see many flaws and similarities.

Take a look for yourself and see which team you would pick:

Team 1: Record: 17-11, Conference record 8-9, RPI 62, SOS 22.

Team 2: Record 17-13, Conference record 7-10, RPI 49, SOS 2.

Team 3: Record 18-11, Conference record 8-9, RPI 67, SOS 51.

That was an example of how the eye test works.

If your big thing is the conference record than Connecticut would be out. If you're a big RPI guy then you would have Connecticut in. If you're a record guy you'd pick USF to get the bid, and if you are an all-around guy then you'd pick Seton Hall. Not to mention they also have zero bad losses, something none of the other bubble team's can boast.

Putting this test aside, the team most worthy to get that ninth selection is Seton Hall, who also hold the best player of the bunch, Jeremy Hazell. Because of Hazell, not only would the Seton Hall Pirates have the best shot at making a run in the tournament, but they have also played the Big East beasts the toughest.

Seton Hall has a 0-4 record in overtime games, losing to West Virginia, Marquette, Virginia Tech, and USF. They have been competitive in all their losses, and don't have any bad losses all year, in and out of conference.

Hazell is averaging 21.3 points per game, third in the Big East. He also has the right pieces around him with Center Herb Pope who averages a double-double and is coming off a game in which he had 21 points and 18 rebounds at Rutgers, Memphis transfer Jeff Robinson (averaging 11.8 points and 5.9 rebounds per game), and point guard Eugene Harvey who average 4.7 assists per game (fourth in the Big East).

How much is the eye test hurting Seton Hall's chances? Their head coach Bobby Gonzalez believes that if one of their overtime losses ended up the other way—for instance their 84-83 OT loss to Marquette this past Sunday—they would be in the field as of right now.

Saturday is a pivotal day for these Big East Bubble teams. Connecticut faces off at USF, while Seton Hall closes out the season at Providence.

Regardless of who wins in Tampa, if Seton Hall can beat Providence, the eye test may finally be beaming Hazell, and not green or blue anymore.

Even though Seton Hall lost another heartbreaker today—84-83 to Marquette in OT—there is still a chance they are going to give the NCAA seeding Committee headaches when it comes time to chose the 65 teams for this years tournament.

It's going to come down to the last three, and possibly four or five, games of their season.

With an overall record of 16-11, and 7-9 in Big East play, one would say the chances of the Pirates of making the NCAA tournament are probably not good at all—that may not be true.  If they win their last two games, and win at least one Big East tournament game, they could be sitting right on the bubble on selection Sunday.

The Hall's last two games are very winable, and winning one game in the Big East tournament is a good possibility also.

Rutgers and Providence, two Big East cellar dwellers, are Seton Hall's final two regular season opponents.  Even though both games are on the road, they're games that   Seton Hall should win.

If they win their final two, they will finish the regular season on a 6-2 run—the seeding committee likes to see teams finish strong.

This would bring their final regular season record to 18-11, but what would be more impressive would be a .500 record (9-9) in the Big East—It's not the ACC we're talking about!

They are going to get another cellar dweller in the first round of the Big East tournament.  They should win this game, and if they can win one more games in the Big East tournament—which would not be that hard to do—then they could end up firmly on the bubble, or in the tournament.

It's about what they've done throughout the season:  Unlike most teams from the other major conferences, Seton Hall doesn't have a "bad loss."

They have no bad losses and they have enough solid wins for the committee to take notice.  They have good wins over Cornell, Louisville, Cincinnati, Pitt, and Notre Dame—all these teams are headed to the tournament or are currently on the bubble.

What could make Seton Hall's case valid,  is not just the wins, but the close loses to good teams. 

Seton Hall might have played more overtime games than any other team in the country.  It's not good that they lost all of them, but they go down as what the seeding committee calls, "good losses."

Overtime losses to No. 7 West Virginia, Virginia Tech (21-7), Marquette (19-9, 10-6 in Big East), and South Florida (17-11, 7-9 in Big East) are all going to impress the seeding committee when their whole body of work is taken into consideration.

They also lost a close one to No. 14 Temple 71-65.

Two regular season wins and two conference tournament wins would bring the Pirates to that all important 20 win level (21-12), and a winning record in the Big East.

With so many Big East teams making a case to become tournament eligible, it's highly doubtful the committee will give consideration to another border-line team from this conference, but stranger things have happened on selection Sunday.

With all the craziness of the Big East come March, there is always a lot of talk, predictions, controversy, and shocking upsets. All one can assume is that it will not be different this year. However, if you’re looking for a team to root for that might have a shot at Madison Square Garden for their conference tournament, look no farther than Newark, New Jersey. 

The Seton Hall Pirates are a high tempo team that has a lot of good shooters and takes teams out of their offensive rhythm. They are one of the most underrated teams in the Big East and may have the most potential out of the teams in the bottom of the standings. 

They are a lot of fun to watch and they score a lot of points. They are in the top part of the Big East in scoring with an average of 81.5 points per game, with 22.6 of those come from junior leader Jeremy Hazell. 

They started off their season red hot, getting a buzzer beater win over Saint Peters on opening night, and a week later beat #22 ranked Cornell on the road. Their first loss came at home to #21 ranked Temple. 

Some other highlights to their season so far have been a 134 point outburst vs. Virginia Military and a comeback from a 10 point deficit with 50 seconds remaining to send #6 ranked West Virginia to overtime, only to come up short in the extra session. 

Head coach Bobby Gonzalez has done a great job with them after being promoted from his coaching position with Manhattan College in Riverdale. He has landed four transfers, including Keon Lawrence from Missouri, Herb Pope from New Mexico St., former A-10 rookie of the year Robert Mitchell from Duquense, and Jeff Robinson from Memphis; combined those players average 36.1 points per game, 23.2 rebounds per game, and 5.7 assists per game.

Although their conference record may look bad, six out of their seven conference losses have come to teams ranked at the time. Their other loss came to a red hot South Florida team in overtime. They have beaten Notre Dame and Pittsburgh at home, and the rest of their schedule is fairly easy with the exception of an away date with West Virginia—they have DePaul, Rutgers twice, St. John's, Marquette, and Providence.

So don't count the Pirates out yet. It should be a fun run at the Garden and maybe even in the big dance.

Villanova refuses to allow a Big East upset at the Pavillion, winning 81-71 over Seton Hall.

The first half ended with Villanova up 41-34. In the second half, it was much more competitive with the two top Big East players Scotty Reynolds of Villanova and Jeremy Hazell of Seton Hall scoring back and forth, making it a very close game.

Seton Hall started to lose it with fouls and turnovers late in the second half as the Wildcat's went on to win it 81-71. Seton hall has now lost seven straight to Villanova and ten straight at the Pavillion.

The No. 2 Villanova Wildcats are now 20-1 (9-0), and with a Kansas loss tomorrow against Colorado, will give Villanova there first time ever being ranked No.1.

Seton Hall is now fighting for their lives in the tournament, now having their sixth Big East loss and second consecutive.

Seton Hall 12-8 (3-6) Twelfth Big East

Villanova 20-1 (9-0) First Big East

 

Team’s MVP’s

Seton Hall
Seton Hall's Jeremy Hazell, who has averaged 16 points per game against Villanova through his career, scored 32 points tonight making it his highest scoring against Villanova.

Villanova
Antonio Pena had also played a very well game, scoring 16 points and getting eight rebounds for the Wildcat's.