Al-Amir Dawes muscles past Saint Peter’s on a day where Clemson transfer led Pirates with 13 points and 10 rebounds in 80-44 rout. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)
A showdown with a potent Iowa team is up next on Wednesday, but for now, here are the Saturday afternoon Thoughts:
1. Second Verse, Same As The First
I think it's safe to say that the Pirates are going to be a fun team to watch when they have it clicking as they did today for long stretches of the game. The Pirates just smothered Saint Peter's defensively for most of the afternoon, holding them to just 28 percent shooting overall while also forcing seven shot clock violations as part of their 20 total turnovers, turning those into 23 points. Seton Hall also must have taken four or five charges in the contest.
“That's just us taking pride in our defense,” KC Ndefo, perhaps the Pirates' best individual defender, said after the game. “We get going from defensive stops, charges, blocks, shot clock violations. It gets our blood flowing, gets us pumped, so we try to do that as much as possible.”
It's also clear after two games that Shaheen Holloway is a perfectionist when it comes to his team, and after clearing a few things up at halftime, the Pirates surged ahead and put the game away.
“To be totally honest, I don’t want to come off sounding crazy, but I don’t think we played that well,” Holloway said. “I think that we had some spurts where we played really well and I think some other times, we’ve got stuff we’ve got to work on. Like I said before, this is going to be a work in progress throughout the whole year, and we’re pretty much going to get a lot of stuff done during the game because we didn’t have a lot of time to practice more. But I’m proud of the guys, they came out and executed. Offensively, we’ve still got work to do, but I thought our defense and our intensity was great tonight, a lot better than Wednesday.”
“He didn't like how we played in the first half,” Ndefo added. “He felt like we weren't giving it our all, so coming into the second half, we had to really dial down on getting stops and executing our plays.”
While it may seem a tad weird to hear from a coach who is 2-0 with a pair of blowouts, the exacting nature of Holloway's expectations is a good thing in the long run. One of my favorite quotes is by Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi, and it speaks to these expectations: “Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”
Holloway chases perfection, and as a result, so will his team.
2. A Dawes-ome Performance
Clemson transfer Al-Amir Dawes is one of the notable newcomers for Seton Hall this year who has a long relationship with Holloway going back to his high school days. After Wednesday's win over Monmouth, the Pirates' head coach said he needed to see more from Dawes rather than just a capable 3-point shooter.
Message received, loud and clear. Dawes hit a three on his first shot, and then keyed a run in the first half that put the Pirates comfortably ahead for good with his play overall. But it didn't stop there, he also finished with 13 points and led the Pirates with 10 rebounds to go along with two assists and a steal. For good measure, he also drew six fouls from the Peacocks' defenders, the most of any Pirate in the game, and was a plus-22 in just 22 minutes.
“I'm getting back into that,” Dawes said. “I just have to take it step by step. Where I was for the past three years I was able to just shoot it, but now, I can be more of a facilitator, get my guys going, and get the team rolling.”
“He’s getting better, he’s getting there,” Holloway said. “Like I said, he was out for a while and he’s starting to get his rhythm back. Al is somebody we’re going to depend on to do some things for us. I’m happy that he got near the rebounds, because the last game, he only had one or two.”
As is the case with a lot of players, even if they are all about team success, there are certain things you keep in mind.
“This is my first double-double,” Dawes also quipped after the game. “Being able to grab the rebounds gives me more energy, I don't know. But it was a good win tonight. I appreciate the fellas backing off and letting me get them.”
3. Rivalry Renewed
While the Pirates dominated tonight and also have lost just twice to Saint Peter's in the last 35 years, making it less of a true rivalry and more of a family affair (heck, former Seton Hall women's basketball player Victoria Cardaci's younger brother Kyle suited up for the Peacocks today, let alone all of the other notable connections), it was good to see the schools play each other once more. You can forgive Kevin Willard for not wanting to have to face his longtime assistant when Holloway took the Peacocks job in 2018, and the schools who had played each other almost every year hadn't squared off since 2017 as a result.
But it's back on now, and Holloway would like to keep it that way.
“It’s not going to be on me,” Holloway said. “I would love to play them, I would love to play a lot of the local teams. It’s up to the local teams to want to play us. If we don’t play, it won’t be on me. I’ll play them, I’ll play any local team. I have no problem with that.”
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