Game Preview: Seton Hall

The Wildcats defeated the Pirates 73-67 on January 1. Seton Hall enters Saturday’s matchup with a 15-7 record and a 6-6 mark in the Big East. The Pirates have won three in a row, earning victories over Georgetown, Creighton and Xavier.

“They’re looking now like a team that’s gotten to practice together,” Jay Wright said. “Kevin’s been able to spend time with them, they got chemistry again. They’re playing great now.”

A lot of the statistics and analytics are similar to where they were ahead of the last meeting between the teams. We see that Seton Hall as struggled to put the ball in the basket efficiently, hitting 46.8% of its 2-point attempts and 32.4% of its 3-point attempts. However, the Pirates have made up for those struggles with volume, getting a good number of shots up by taking care of the ball and with strong offensive rebounding. They pull down 33% of their offensive rebound opportunities, the 41st best rate in the country. They’ve also been good getting to the line and are effective converting their free throw opportunities.

Defensively, Seton Hall has been good. Specifically, the Pirates have been elite defending near the basket, where Haslametrics has them ranked No. 1 in the country in near-proximity defense. That strong performance has led to opponents hitting 45.2% of their 2-point attempts overall, the 22nd best number in the country. The Pirates have also been strong defending the 3-point line, holding opponents to 31.2%. They have been vulnerable in the mid-range but do a good job filtering teams away from that area.

There was one clear defining factor in the first meeting between the teams, a game that was pretty evenly played overall, and that is the free throw line. Villanova managed nine more trips to the line than the Pirates and converted that into a nine-point advantage. Seton Hall was +3 from the 3-point line and the teams were even in points from 2-pointers.

The Wildcats were able to establish an advantage inside last time out against Seton Hall, winning the rebounding battle 42-28 and building a 12-10 edge in second-chance points (13-9 lead in offensive rebounds). The ‘Cats had a 28-24 edge in points in the paint and shot an even 50% on 2-point attempts. However, the Pirates were a bit shorthanded in the frontcourt in that game, missing Ike Obiagu and Tyrese Samuel. It will be interesting to see if the ‘Cats can replicate that performance on Saturday.

Both Obiagu and Samuel played Wednesday against Xavier, combining for nine offensive rebounds. The Pirates pulled down 17 offensive rebounds overall in that game and won the rebounding battle 41-28.

Turnovers were a major issue for the ‘Cats in the first meeting between the teams, with ‘Nova committing 17. The Pirates turned those 17 turnovers into 17 points and had a 17-5 advantage in points off turnovers. Clearly, ‘Nova needs to clean that up on Saturday.

We’ll be focusing on those turnover numbers on Saturday. We’ll also be watching the rebounding battle, particularly Villanova’s ability to keep the Pirates off the offensive glass.

The Pirates suffered through a tough stretch in January that saw them lose four out of five games, falling from 11-3 to 12-7 and putting their NCAA tournament hopes in jeopardy. They would like nothing more than to bolster those hopes with a win over Villanova. They have three top 25 KenPom games left (‘Nova, UConn, Xavier) and if they can steal at least one of those games and handle business as expected in their other four remaining games, they’ll feel a bit better come Selection Sunday. All that is to say that the Wildcats will be facing a highly motivated Seton Hall team on Saturday.

The first game between the teams was a battle, and there’s no reason to expect anything different on Saturday. The ‘Cats will have to match the Pirates in both intensity and physicality. A win for the ‘Cats would be a solid addition to the resume and keep them within striking distance of Providence for a Big East regular season title.

The game is scheduled for a 1 p.m. tip and will air on FOX.