Monday Morning Rebound: Pirates go 2-0 to Start Season

A weekly look at the Seton Hall Pirates Men’s Basketball team

The Seton Hall University men’s basketball team got off to a fast start this weekend defeating both Fairleigh Dickinson and Central Connecticut State University by double-digits while raising two banners in the process.

Seton Hall 82, CCSU 58

On Sunday afternoon, the Pirates saw their 2016 BIG EAST Tournament Championship banner raised to the Prudential Center rafters before defeating CCSU 82-58.

In the victory, Junior Angel Delgado tallied his second-straight double-double, the 25^th of his career, with 14 points and 16 boards. He was 6-for-8 from the field. Fellow junior, Khadeen Carrington tallied a game-high 18 points to go along with four assists and was 4-for-4 from behind the three-point line.

The Pirates jumped out to a 17-2 lead and dominated the Blue Devils on the glass 16-1 early on. Holding CCSU to just 1-of-13 to begin the game, the Pirates took a 44-25 lead into the break and never trailed in the victory.

Sharp-shooting freshman Myles Powell tallied 13 points and was 5-of-10 from the field.

Seton Hall 91, Fairleigh Dickinson 70

Two days earlier, in Walsh Gymnasium, the Pirates raised their 2016 BIG EAST Tournament championship banner in one of the most historic gyms in the state of New Jersey.  In front of a capacity crowd, the Pirates jumped all over the Knights shooting 61.4 percent from the field including 50 percent from beyond the arc.

Angel Delgado tallied a career-high 22 points and grabbed 14 boards for his first double-double of the season. Delgado shot 11-of-15 on the night while Khadeen Carrington matched a career-high 27 points.

Junior Desi Rodriguez picked up his fourth career double-double with 12 points to go with 10 rebounds. He also added a career-high five assist in the victory.

In his debut, senior Madison Jones tallied a career-high 10 assists while turning the ball over just once.

 Madison Jones Calm Demeanor Impresses

 Graduate transfer Madison Jones turned the ball over just three times combined this weekend while dishing out 13 total assists. A senior from Wake Forest, Jones’ calm demeanor and experience has been evident early on.

“I think he passed his first test,” coach Kevin Willard said following Jones’ 10-assist performance.

“For a guy not playing last year and coming in like that and getting everyone involved, he did a great job,” Carrington added. “We’re going to need that all year.”

Jones continues to praise his teammates for his early success.

“It’s amazing to be able to play with all these great players,” Jones said. “The assists come easy for me.”

 Inside The Paint

• The Pirates have now started a season 2-0 for the sixth-straight season under Kevin Willard.
• Seton Hall has won it’s last 17-staright non-conference games at home.
• Seton Hall has improved to 21-4 when Delgado produces a double-double.

Quotes of the Week

  “I got chills. Last night we watched a bunch of clips from last season and it gave me chills. We came out to prove last season wasn’t a fluke and start the season off right.” – Carrington on seeing the 2016 BIG EAST Championship banner raised to the rafters.

The Pirates and their fans saw two banners raised to the rafters this weekend. On Sunday, if you were one of the first 4,000 fans in the arena, you took a mini one home yourself.

 “It’s time to make people respect us. We’ve got to show them that we deserve it.” – Angel Delgado.

The Pirates will certainly have a chance to prove they deserve recognition as they will play one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the nation this season including matchups against Iowa, Florida, Hawaii, California and a possible 2016 NCAA Tournament rematch against Gonzaga.

“I’m trying to get rid of him, he’s up in my office more than he was before. We went through a very tough decision in the summer, me and his mom were trying to get him to go, he was trying to stay. He loves it here; these are his guys. He comes up here, these are his friends. When you win a championship the way we did, you have a bond that lasts forever. You never forget those moments. These guys love being around him, they love hearing the NBA stories. We’ve always been a tight-knit group, for the last three years honestly, it’s great having him around to let the recruits know ‘look what happens when you play here’, not only do you get drafted, but you play pretty darn good.” – Kevin Willard on former Seton Hall basketball star Isaiah Whitehead.

Whitehead was drafted by the Utah Jazz in the 2016 NBA Draft. He was then traded to the Brooklyn Nets that night. Being he is a Brooklyn native playing in Brooklyn, Whitehead is only about 30 minutes – barring traffic away from South Orange. He may have moved on to play professionally, but he has not forgotten about Seton Hall and he is not forgotten either.

The Week Ahead

 The Pirates will head to Iowa to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes in a Gavitt Games matchup on Thursday night, November 17. Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. This will be Seton Hall’s first appearance in The Gavitt Tipoff Games, which is an annual early-season series played between the BIG EAST and Big 10 and is named in honor of Dave Gavitt, founder of the BIG EAST and basketball visionary.