Seven days in Newark will determine Seton Hall’s NCAA Tournament fate. Three tournament teams will visit Prudential Center in the next week, each offering coach Kevin Willard’s team an opportunity to enhance its résumé, while also presenting significant challenges that could sink the Pirates’ high hopes for March.
The all-or-nothing homestand starts Wednesday with No. 20 Creighton, continues Saturday against defending national champion Villanova and wraps up Feb. 22 against Xavier. Anything less than two victories could doom Seton Hall, which still has to visit No. 24 Butler.
“We have three great teams at home,” Willard said. “We have to step up to the challenge.”
The Pirates (15-9, 5-7 Big East) remain on the tournament bubble because of a challenging non-conference schedule and quality neutral-site wins over No. 21 South Carolina and California. But they have yet to post any marquee conference victories, with the best wins over bubble teams Marquette, Georgetown and Providence. As a result, the Pirates’ numbers are iffy. They are ranked 49th in RPI and 55th by the analytics-based website, KenPom.com.
Seton Hall hasn’t fared well against the cream of the conference, going 0-4 against Villanova, Creighton, Xavier and Butler, teams it will have to beat to return to the tournament. It seemed as if Willard’s team had righted the ship following overtime wins over Georgetown and Providence, but the Pirates no-showed a Garden matinee against St. John’s on Saturday, and thoroughly were outplayed in a 78-70 defeat that wasn’t as close as the final score.
But their belief didn’t seem any less after the loss.
“Every time they’ve had a tough challenge, they’ve bounced back,” Willard said. “That’s why I have a lot of confidence in them.”
The return of junior forward Ismael Sanogo, who is a game-time decision according to Willard after missing the past two games with an ankle injury, would be a major bonus, particularly to help Angel Delgado deal with Creighton freshman dynamo Justin Patton.
The Pirates have played well at home, losing just once, to Butler, but outside of the Bulldogs, the opponents have not been overly strong. That will change over the next seven days, and by the night of Feb. 22, the Pirates likely will know where they stand.
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