4 Thoughts: Seton Hall takes down Providence for 9th straight win

Romaro Gill matched career-high 17 points, highlighted by this dunk, as Seton Hall defeated Providence for ninth straight win Wednesday. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, N.J. — At 6-0 in the Big East and already with four conference road wins under their belt, the 10th-ranked Seton Hall Pirates had their best offensive option taken away by the Providence Friars, but saw others step up with big performances in a 73-64 victory at Prudential Center. The team's ninth-straight win moved them to 15-4 on the season, and extended their program-record start to conference play to 7-0.

Here are four thoughts from the Rock:

1. Powell Bottled

Give Ed Cooley credit: He came out with as good of a defensive game plan on Myles Powell as we've seen. It involved sticking the 6'5" David Duke on him to essentially be his shadow, and when Powell did get the ball in his hands, the superstar guard saw more than one black jersey in his face.

Head coach Kevin Willard remarked that although his best player was held to just six shot attempts from the field, it didn't faze him in the least.

"I thought it showed a lot of maturity by Myles that he didn’t get frustrated," he said. "In years past, he would have gotten a little frustrated with getting face-guarded, with getting grabbed, and I thought he really kind of sacrificed, he made a great screen coming out of a timeout for a layup (for example), and I think the rest of the guys kind of understand that when he’s getting taken away, they’ve got to step up and make some plays.”

Powell, by the way, still ended up with 14 points, sinking all eight of his foul shots.

"He was (my) head coach at the Pan-Am Games (this summer), so he knew how I liked to score, when I was going into attack mode, and things like that," Powell added. "So he was just throwing different defenses at me, but I'm proud of my guys that they picked up the slack that I couldn't pick up today."  

Boy, did they ever. And once again, there was a Big Man On Campus that spearheaded the attack...

2. Gill-ing Me Softly With His Song

Romaro Gill's evolution from a shot-blocking reserve into arguably the best center in the Big East took another step forward Wednesday night. After posting a huge double-double at St. John's, the 7'2" center posted his sixth straight game with double figures in scoring, pouring in 17 points (the third time in that span he's had exactly that many) while adding a career-high eight blocks and six rebounds. 

He shot 8-for-10 from the floor, including a rim-rocking dunk in the second half for which he took off from outside the lane that widened everyone's eyes and brought them out of their seats. That was on a pick-and-roll play, the likes of which Providence had no answer for all game long.

"In practice, we work on it a lot," Gill said. "In practice, I have Ike (Obiagu) on me, and sometimes he can't stop it, so I'm not worried about opposing teams stopping it."

But what of the monster jam?

"Yeah, that was crazy," the big man quipped. "I didn't even think it was going to go in. I thought it was going to get rim-stuck."

Gill's averaging 14.3 points per game over his recent scoring binge along with nearly seven rebounds and over four blocks per contest, shooting 66 percent (31-for-47) from the floor. But Willard wouldn't call him a second option behind Powell offensively, even though he's been that guy statistically and certainly was tonight.

"He doesn't get any plays run for him," Willard clarified. "What we try to do is kind of use different guys in pick-and-rolls and disguise coverages so it (doesn't look) the same way. But I think the biggest thing you’re seeing (is) that guys are very confident in throwing it up to him, and even if he misses it or drops it, the guards are very confident that he’s going to catch it and do something good with it."

3. Old Town Rhoden

It was Quincy McKnight who orchestrated the Gill-centered offense tonight, with a bunch of his eight assists going straight to the big man. He added 11 points for good measure as an outside compliment to Gill's inside dominance. But the Pirates needed something extra in the second half, especially as the Friars tried a zone defense.

Enter Jared Rhoden, who yet again had a solid shooting night en route to 15 points, and yet again stuck his nose into everything on the glass, finishing with a team-best eight rebounds. It was his eighth double-figure scoring game this year, and ninth game with eight or more rebounds.

He also got right into the center of that zone defense at the high post area, which further added to the Friars' frustrations on a night where nothing they tried really worked save for a bunch of offensive rebounds (19, leading to 21 second-chance points).

It was yet another example of this Seton Hall team being special: The Pirates have one of the best players in the country, who can score 30 points with his eyes closed, but they have so many more ways to get it done offensively.

"I feel like we're showing everybody across the country that we're not just the Myles Powell show," Powell commented. "I had three points at halftime, but we were still winning, and I felt like we had control of the game the whole time."  

4. Rarefied Air

With the victory tonight, Seton Hall made its current win streak the longest in the Kevin Willard era (2010-present). It is the Pirates’ longest win streak since 2003, and just their fifth nine-game win streak in the Big East era. Not only that, but Willard also tied the great P.J. Carlesimo with his 78th Big East win at Seton Hall, the most all-time in program history.

Willard was asked about it after the game, and he delivered one of his great, Willard-style answers.

“I’ve had a lot more chances," Willard quipped. "Gary (Cohen) just told me that P.J. only got 16 games a year. I’m getting 18, so I think there’s got to be an asterisk until I get at least a lot more to even out. I can’t divide, but I know the ratio of wins and games played, so I’m a little skewed because I’m sure I have a lot more losses than him, too."

Willard continued when asked how it feels to be mentioned in the same sentence as Carlesimo.

"I don’t deserve to be anywhere near Coach Carlesimo," he said. "He is the gold standard, and will always be the gold standard- he’s the one that put this program on the map. I’m just an asterisk below him until I get the ratio. I’ll go home tonight and have a club sandwich and see if the ratio (is up there) - Tom (Chen) is good for that. Tom’s the best SID in America, so Tom will probably come up and tell me that I have a conference call tomorrow at 11:40, and my ratio is not even close to Carlesimo.”  

I won't even get into the math, but the bottom line is that the feeling around this team is something that hasn't been there in a long time. The fans feel it, the old alumni feel it, and the longtime scribes who cover the team can feel it as well. If the Hall continues on the path they seem to be on, we may be talking a lot more about Mr. Carlesimo and his legendary squads of the early 1990s in reference to the 2019-20 Seton Hall Pirates.