4 Thoughts: Villanova spoils Seton Hall’s senior night

Myles Powell and Kevin Willard share emotional hug during senior night ceremony prior to Seton Hall hosting Villanova. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, N.J. — Whenever Seton Hall and Villanova have played each other since the reformatting of the Big East, it is more often than not one of the games of the year. Wednesday at Prudential Center was no different, albeit a little unique in terms of how it played out, as the Wildcats survived a bout of missed free throws to edge the Pirates, 79-77, denying the Hall a chance to clinch the Big East regular season title outright on its home floor.

On a night where the Pirates honored a four-man senior class, here are my four thoughts from Newark:

1. You've Got Me Feeling Emotions

A record 16,863 fans packed into the Rock to witness this game for themselves, and the majority of those fans were in their places when the Pirates honored Asiah Avent, Quincy McKnight, Romaro Gill, and Myles Powell. The Pirate faithful were full-throated in its cheers for each and every one of them.

The loudest cheers, of course, were reserved for Powell, the All-American scoring machine. As he made his way onto the court and embraced head coach Kevin Willard, he teared up in the arms of the man who is like a second father to him. The emotions of the moment were palpable.

"Coach just said a few things to me," Powell said of the embrace at center court. "Basically, he told me that he loved me, and I just heard the crowd start cheering, and it just caught up to me. I love this building, I love my fans, I love the university. It was an emotional night for me. I just wish it could have turned out a little better."

It's been said before, but it seems like this year I've heard it more. The emotions of a senior night game at home are something that more often than not actually make it tougher to win, particularly in the early part of the game.

"I personally hate senior night, I really do," Villanova head coach Jay Wright said after the game. "It's emotional, there's so much going on, there's so much in the kids' heads. I saw Myles Powell just crying. That’s how much this program means to him. I'm watching that and thinking to myself, 'if this kid comes out and busts our butt after being that emotional, he's an absolute killer.' It's hard. Senior  nights are hard. It's much more taxing on the home team."

Kevin Willard's gone through a number of such nights the last few years, and knows the feeling all too well.

"Our senior nights have turned into something very special for these kids," Willard said. "We've had guys come into the program for four years, we've had guys stay for a long time. They become like (your) children. We've built something really good here. Kids love coming back, they love playing here, love being in the program, and when you see them for the last time on your home court, it's emotional. It's hard."

The comments are not sour grapes by any means. Willard is spot-on. When you build programs the right way like Willard and Wright have done, with good kids and good support around them, and they have those final moments in front of the fans that cheered for them the whole way, it's going to be hard. But you also wouldn't have it any other way. It's the very definition of a good problem to have.

2. Into The Great Wide Open

For a large chunk of this game, the stats were essentially even. Both teams got off to good shooting starts, they were just about even on the glass and in terms of turnovers, they both even cooled off in the later stages of the second half.

But the end, what decided the game was the amount of wide-open shots that Villanova was able to take, and make. The Wildcats are a program and a team that thrives off open shots, particularly threes. They finished with just 22 points in the paint of 79 total in this game, but boy, did they have some phenomenal looks at the basket on jumpers. This problem most notably materialized when they were able to get offensive rebounds (16 second-chance points off only seven opportunities), but the Wildcats got open looks anyway, and even canned a few that were contested.

It's hard to do, but giving that good of a team such good looks is never a recipe for success. Villanova ended up shooting 41 percent from deep (13-for-32) in the contest, and many of its biggest makes of the game were from the outside. Give especially huge credit in this regard to...

3. Moore Money, Moore Problems

Justin Moore could have fooled me tonight. He may be listed as a freshman, but every single time the Pirate crowd got really loud on defense, it was Moore who had the answer like a seasoned veteran. He finished with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including 5-of-8 from downtown, showing uncommon poise for a player that young.

"He's getting better every game," Wright said. "He's starting to grow into not playing like a freshman. He’s just learned how hard you have to play at this level, how important every possession is, how physical you have to be."

They needed every single one of those shots tonight, as it turned out, because Villanova kept the door propped open for much, much longer than it should have been thanks to poor free throw shooting in the game's waning moments. The Wildcats hit just 4-of-11 shots at the charity stripe down the stretch, and if not for a couple off-target moments on the other end for the Hall, this game would be quite a different one now. Give credit to the Pirates for not backing down and continuing to play on.

4. Running Against The Wind

Stop me if you've heard this before: The Pirates now have to go on the road and take on a hostile environment in a big game with a lot on the line.

You obviously should have stopped me in the middle of that sentence. This team has proven what their level of toughness is time and time again. It's the reason that their road record going into Saturday's contest at Creighton is 7-1 in Big East play. If there's a team that can pull off a win in Omaha with the outright Big East regular season crown on the line, it's Seton Hall.

“Emotionally, it’s going to take us a long time to get over this one just because of senior night, but absolutely," Willard said when asked whether he has confidence that the Pirates will put the loss behind them quickly. "No matter what happens on Saturday, we’re still (Big East) co-champions... This will hurt tomorrow, but I have a lot of confidence in this team to kind of bounce back, and I think that’s the biggest thing."

How will the Pirates re-focus to take on a Bluejays squad that, aside from a loss to St. John's earlier this week, has played brilliant basketball over the last few weeks?

"The same way we've been re-focusing after we've taken a loss and bounced back," McKnight said. "We've done that all year- we've taken a loss, and bounced back the next game. Fortunately for us, it's on the road, and we love playing on the road."

"I feel we play better with our backs against the wall anyway," Powell said. "We always tend to make it harder for ourselves, but we're going to come back, do what we have to do, and look forward."

The stakes are even larger. With their win tonight, the Wildcats also crept within a game of the Pirates in the Big East standings, and play Georgetown in their final game of the regular season. A Wildcats win over the Hoyas, coupled with a Seton Hall loss at Creighton would forge a three-way tie for first place, and because of head-to-head tiebreakers, would drop the Pirates down to the No. 3 seed in the Big East Tournament.

A win, however, would get the Pirates the title outright, and the No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament that comes with it, along with a noontime tipoff at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. 

It all comes down to one game. Buckle up, everyone. March is officially here.