Second-ranked Villanova is in town, more than 16,000 tickets already have been sold, and Seton Hall basically can lock up a second straight NCAA Tournament berth with a second consecutive upset.
Saturday afternoon in Newark figures to be an event, a rematch of last March’s Big East Tournament championship game in front of a potential sellout crowd at the Prudential Center. For the second time since the Pirates began playing there a decade ago, the second deck will be open.
“It’s going to be real noisy — that’s what we want, though,” said Seton Hall junior guard Khadeen Carrington, who is coming off a career-high 41-point effort in Wednesday’s upset of No. 20 Creighton. “Those are my type of games.”
The only other time the Prudential Center opened the second deck for a Seton Hall home game was against Syracuse on Feb. 16, 2013. It drew a crowd of 13,569 that day, and the Orange rolled to an easy victory against an overmatched Seton Hall team.
The circumstances are different now. The on-the-bubble Pirates (16-9, 6-7 Big East), coming off the upset of Creighton, are hoping to make back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time since 1991-94, and a victory Saturday basically would seal it.
Of course, that’s easier said than done. The defending national champion Wildcats and National Player of the Year candidate Josh Hart could clinch a fourth consecutive Big East regular-season title with a win. They hammered Seton Hall, 76-46, on Jan. 16 in Philadelphia.
“I think they out-toughed us last time in their home,” Carrington said. “They definitely played harder than us.”
That lopsided result came at the end of a brutal six-day, three-game road trip. Seton Hall feels it is more equipped to handle Villanova now. Defensive stopper Ismael Sanogo recently returned from an ankle injury. The Pirates have won three of their past four games and are 10-1 at home, the only loss coming to No. 24 Butler.
“It’s payback time,” Sanogo said. “We’re in our house this time.”
“A win Saturday,” Carrington added, “would definitely shock a lot of people.”
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