Seton Hall’s future is lined with promise, with a top 10 recruiting class, and a diamond in Lincoln High’s Isaiah Whitehead — the Pirates’ first McDonald’s All American recruit since 2000. Their present, though, is lined with warning signs, and they may just have crashed.
The Pirates lost a must-win game to lowly Butler, 64-57, Wednesday night at the Prudential Center, then looked at one another to blame.
“Certain people’s minutes need to go down, and certain people need to step up,” said Brandon Mobley, who controlled the paint for much of the night, with 10 points and 10 rebounds. “It could be four people on the court playing hard, and one person’s not. … I think somehow, some way, we need to find five guys who can make a fist for 40 minutes.”
That lack of cohesion extended off the court after the game. Though no one would name names, several suggested fixing the broken Pirates with a hammer, not a screwdriver.
“Absolutely,” Mobley said, when asked if some players were playing for themselves. “Some people, if they see [Fuquan Edwin] scoring 20 in the first half, then they get upset because they haven’t shot the ball, and they kind of get selfish, and it shows on the offensive end.”
A group coach Kevin Willard called “perplexing” multiple times first imploded on the court, letting a 55-51 lead with 4:38 left in the game disintegrate, managing just two points the rest of the way. Sterling Gibbs and Patrik Auda, who came in averaging 15.1 and 9.9 points respectively, finished a combined 3-for-15 from the field.
Butler (12-9, 2-7 Big East), a balanced group whose leading scorer, Kyhle Marshall, scored just 13 points, earned its second league victory in the teams’ first-ever matchup.
Willard cited his Pirates’ first six possessions of the second half, five of which didn’t see a pass.
Next, Seton Hall imploded publicly when Mobley and fellow big man Gene Teague called for the Pirates (12-9, 3-5) to cut down the rotation.
“We’re not all on the same page as a team,” Teague said. “Some guys are looking for individual efforts.”
When asked how the team could be fixed, Teague said: “If guys don’t want to be a part of the team, you just can’t play them, no matter who they are. That’s how you fix something like that.”
Lost in all of the postgame jabbering was the effort Edwin put forth, shooting 8-of-18 from the field, including 4-of-7 from 3-point, to nearly remove the nails from the Pirates’ coffin.
But for a team that’s looking at a two-game stretch at Xavier and Villanova, that coffin is looking more and more completed.
Wednesday was a night about hope for Seton Hall’s future. Hope that it comes soon.