Seton Hall Up-Down (Beware Digger Phelps)

I was not going to post on SHU until after the NCAA releases their RPI tomorrow, but I also thought the Hall would beat St. John's. I'm sure that is exactly what Digger Phelps thought Monday night when he proclaimed that "Seton Hall is IN" the NCAA tournament during the Syracuse-West Virginia half time show. I like Digger, especially the way he coordinates his useless highlighter with his tie. But when he made that statement, I thought to myself that this is not a good thing. When two national media figures (Len Elmore also jumped on the Seton Hall bandwagon Monday) cited SHU as a near certainty for the NCAA tournament, AFTER losing to Notre Dame, I feared the worst. On Tuesday night, those fears were confirmed. SJU 58-SHU 47.

This was a disappointing week for the Hall. Coming off the big win against West Virginia, the Pirates lost to Notre Dame and St. John's. Both Notre Dame and St. John's are decent teams in their own right, but both are teams the Hall should beat. A team that goes to Raleigh and beats N.C. State, a team that goes to Syracuse and beats the Orangemen in their dome should win these games. In both instances, the Hall played their opponents game. They tried to run and gun with Notre Dame, and lost. Running and gunning is not the Pirates game. For all my sour grapes and sniping about officials, that is the biggest reason for the blow out loss to UConn. The St. John's game is more bothersome, due to the fact that they became as sloppy as the Red Storm. If, in either game, they had controlled the tempo and worked for the open basket, they probably could have won. Instead, they lost to Notre Dame in one of their highest scoring efforts of the year, and lost to St. John's in one of their sloppiest efforts of the year.

If the Pirates can win at DePaul and beat Cincinatti at home, they are probably on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. If they add a win at Pitt in the season finale they are (as Digger would say) "IN." Regardless of the ultimate outcome, I think this Pirate team has had a fantastic year. It wasn't always pretty, but this team has done a great job against a very tough schedule. They have done this Seton Hall alumnus (twice over, mind you) proud.

HAZARD ZET FORWARD