Coming off an 89-68 win against Wagner University, the #23 AP poll ranked Seton Hall Pirates improved their overall record to 10-2, which is very impressive for a small school in the Big East conference to accomplish.
The Pirates have earned a good reputation for starting their seasons out at full sail, with victories against highly ranked teams and obtaining impressive winning records early in the season on a consistent basis. However, the Pirates have always struggled to bring the boat into port to celebrate after their rough times sailing the NCAA Sea.
This year might seem like deja vu for some Seton Hall fans as for the second year in a row, the Pirates are once again starting out the season with a record of 10-2. They have already taken down highly ranked teams early in the season, just like last season when they earned a cold December victory over #16 South Carolina.
Seton Hall has it rough enough with being a small contender inside the Big East conference already, which has some of the biggest basketball programs in the country (Georgetown, Depaul, Marquette, Providence College, St. John’s University, and Villanova). This hasn’t stopped the Pirates from building a bigger ship to overcome the rough waves of this legendary conference. Seton Hall even won the conference championship during the 2015-2016 season, with a 69-67 win over Villanova. This win would showcase that even a small school out of South Orange, New Jersey, can be as competitive as any other school around the country.
This underdog image has forced this program to have a killer mentality in order to survive and succeed. The captain of this ship is coach Kevin Willard. Since being hired as the head coach in 2010, Willard has produced squads that have brought the university to multiple NCAA tournament appearances (2). This year isn’t going to be any different.
Willard has already geared up his players for another tournament appearance. Ballers like forward Desi Rodriguez, who is averaging 18 PPG, is starting to show that he can sail the ship in the right direction. Including Rodriguez, there are four players on this year’s team who have 10+ PPG. For a program that doesn’t have much room for scholarship athletes and has a harder time recruiting, compared to teams like the Duke’s of the world, is something very impressive and worth watching.
So, will the Seton Hall Pirates survive the murky waters of the Big East this year? Will they plunder the islands of their conference and take home the gold and silver trophy?
Who knows!? I certainly don’t, and neither does the program in question.
But for now, let us break out the binoculars and see where the Seton Hall Pirates’ ship sails.