Seton Hall is firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble, needing to stockpile wins to reach the field for the second straight season.
The roster is different from last year’s, but the stakes are similar.
“Last year, we kind of sat in the same place,” junior guard Khadeen Carrington said in a phone interview Tuesday. “It’s all about getting hot at the end. This team has the capability to do it.”
The Pirates (14-8, 4-6 Big East) have experience on their side. Junior starters Carrington, Desi Rodriguez, Angel Delgado and Ismael Sanogo — who will not face Providence at Prudential Center on Wednesday night because of an ankle injury, coach Kevin Willard said — were part of the group that closed the regular season with nine wins in 11 games and won the Big East Tournament to reach March Madness for the first time in a decade. They know what is possible this time of year, and understand the importance of every game.
“I definitely think we’re a tournament team,” Carrington, Seton Hall’s leading scorer at 16.6 points per game, said.
The Pirates hope Saturday’s gritty overtime win at Georgetown will start a similar streak. After coughing up a big lead, the Pirates rallied to force overtime, and snapped a string of five losses in six games.
“I think that win is going to get us rolling,” said Carrington, who snapped out of his own funk with 16 points and three assists. “It was a tough road win against a good team.”
Because of a strong non-conference slate, highlighted by neutral-site victories over No. 19 South Carolina and California, Seton Hall is in a better position now than it was a year ago at this point. Most bracket projections have the Pirates in the tournament, and their remaining schedule is favorable.
Of their final eight games, five are at home. Seton Hall will be a decided underdog in only two of those games, home for No. 2 Villanova and at No. 22 Butler.
Of course, it won’t matter if Seton Hall can’t win at least five of its eight remaining contests. And while the 4-6 league mark isn’t where the Pirates envisioned they would be through 10 games, only two of the losses — at Villanova and at No. 23 Creighton — were lopsided. The other four, by a combined 16 points, could have gone either way.
“We could easily be [7-3],” Carrington said. “It’s just a certain play. It’s moments in the game we have to hold on to, we have to grasp, make the right plays.
“That definitely happened at Georgetown. We played with a lot more edge. Those critical plays we needed to make down the stretch, we made all of them.”
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