Every college basketball team in the country is thinking big this time of year, from Kentucky to Kennesaw State.
Seton Hall isn’t any different, but the Pirates believe it’s not just day-dreaming.
It can’t be any worse than last year, when injuries ate away at coach Kevin Willard’s roster like a bunch of termites, leading to a dismal 3-15 Big East mark. By the end of the season, he had a rotation of six players, many of whom were beaten down by the heavy workload.
“You had to be tough to get through a year like that,” senior forward Fuquan Edwin, selected to the all-Big East second team, said Wednesday at the conference’s media day at Chelsea Piers.
A lot has changed in the last six months, from Willard’s coaching staff — a 50 percent turnover — to his current roster and the program’s future, the brightest in recent memory in South Orange.
Willard has compiled the fourth-ranked recruiting class in the country for next year, according to ESPN, a four-player group led by Lincoln High School star Isaiah Whitehead, a probable McDonald’s All-American.
Seton Hall, picked to finish eighth by the league’s coaches, isn’t just waiting for next season. The addition of New Jersey guards Jaren Sina and Sterling Gibbs likely will fortify the backcourt, forwards Patrick Auda and Brandon Mobley are healthy and last year’s leading scorer Fuquan Edwin is primed for a big season, now that the talented small forward won’t have to do virtually everything on his own.
Willard said he will use 12 players, a group that includes junior college transfers Stephane Manga and Hakeem Harris.
“I’m more excited about this team than any I have been about in a long time,” the coach said.
Sina, a top freshman recruit from Gill St. Bernard’s (N.J.) and a shooter big-time range, and Gibbs, who sat out last season after transferring from Texas, already have impressed Willard. The potent duo is interchangeable, able to rotate between each guard spot.
“I think our guard situation has improved 100 percent,” Willard said. “Sterling and Jaren have been tremendous, not only from a basketball standpoint, but leadership standpoint. We’re a much better team already with those two guys on the floor. They’ve made everybody else better around them.”
The fourth-year coach said he thinks this group can be better than the one two years ago, which won 21 games but was snubbed by the NCAA Tournament committee, because of experience and depth.
There is a buzz about the program, fueled by the big recruiting class, but also the higher hopes for this season.
“A lot of people have faith is us this year, and we have to live up to it,” Edwin said. “In our minds, it’s very realistic [to make the NCAA Tournament]. We’re pretty confident and sure with the team we have this year and the roster, we can make it.”