4 Thoughts: Seton Hall blasts Monmouth in Holloway’s debut on bench

In Seton Hall debut, Dre Davis’ second half helped Pirates’ balanced attack power past Monmouth. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, N.J. — The Shaheen Holloway era began in earnest on Wednesday night, as the Pirates' new skipper welcomed in former MAAC foe King Rice and the Monmouth Hawks to Prudential Center. And it was the Hall remaining unbeaten against Monmouth all-time at 14-0, thanks to a 79-52 blowout victory over their opponents from down the shore.

Here are the first thoughts of the season, hot off the presses:

1. Pedal To The Metal

The game started out a bit even, with both teams looking to push the pace and get their wind. But in the middle of the first half, Seton Hall just turned up the intensity on defense to an 11, smothering anything that Monmouth tried to accomplish on the offensive end. What resulted was Monmouth shooting 5-for-30 overall (0-for-12 from deep) and committing 17 turnovers. The Pirates scored 16 points off those 17 Hawks giveaways, many of them thanks to swarming, active hands. In fact, they ended up with 12 steals overall in the game.

"The last 10 minutes of the first half (defensively), I thought were solid," Holloway said, adding that he did not like the first four minutes or so on that end. But it was the same habits the team had been working on in practice that led to the good stretch.

"I think it was practice," Tyrese Samuel said. "Everything (in practice) is always, 'defense, defense, defense.' That point in the game, I don't think we even realized they weren't scoring. We were just out there playing."

It wasn't just defense that turned up for Seton Hall, either. The Pirates seemed to use those possessions they created offensively and then just carried over the intensity level, getting to the free throw line a whopping 22 times, though they only hit 13 of their attempts at the stripe. If this is what the games will be like, I can only imagine how hard they plan to get after it in practice.

2. Dishing and Swishing

If the first half was all about defense, the second half featured some really great offense from the Pirates to start. Monmouth opened in a zone and Femi Odukale responded to that by promptly draining a 3-pointer. The Hawks abandoned the zone after that, but the Pirates kept on hitting shots from outside. Overall, Seton Hall canned five triples in the first 10 minutes of the half, and eventually more than doubled its first-half assist total of four, with nine helpers in the final stanza.

There was one possession in particular that really encapsulated the night for the Hall, during which Seton Hall got three great looks at the basket. The Pirates missed the first two, but KC Ndefo hustled his way into offensive rebounds, which led to a Monmouth defense caught in rotation, and eventually, an Odukale dish and a Tray Jackson slam dunk. The Hawks never had any chance whatsoever to claw back into the game as a result of the Pirates' free-flowing offense generating good looks at the hoop.

3. No Day But Two Davis

Seton Hall has two pairs of brothers on its roster now, but only one of those pairs got to play together tonight: Dre and Tae Davis. Both brothers played very well in their Seton Hall debuts.

Dre helped set the tone in the first half, and seemed to be in good rotation defensively while contributing eight points, six rebounds, and two assists. He also ended up with a plus-20 on the night, the second-highest on the team by only one to Jackson.

But by the end of the game, the crowd of 8,626 really got to see what the younger Tae Davis was capable of on the floor. After being saddled with two early fouls in the first half, the freshman contributed 11 points and eight rebounds in the second half (including five offensive boards), showing off a varied skill set in the process. 

Both Holloway and the players were really happy for Tae Davis after his performance, with his older brother in particular saying that the player everyone saw is the player he can be for the Pirates. 

4. Everybody In

What was clear by halftime is that these are not your older brother's Pirates anymore. The high-octane level of play was not like anything that Seton Hall fans had been used to under Kevin Willard, and I think that is a positive.

Holloway went 10-deep with his team tonight, something that is essentially a goal of his despite currently working with a roster that is a little bit banged up, missing starting forward Alexis Yetna among others.

“I was scared to death," Holloway said. "I didn’t practice at all yesterday. I just wanted to have ten guys on the court. It felt good, I’m happy for these guys. Some of these guys are kind of working through their rust in the game, there’s going to be some games where they’re high, some games they’re going to be low. That’s why I kind of wanted to just defend and worry about defending, because when you defend, you give yourself a chance to be in games and not worry about your offense so much.”

The players also took a liking to the up-and-down pace.

"I think it helps us be able to stay fresh," Dre Davis said. "Being able to play that deep, we can press up a lot, speed the game up, and play faster than some teams that are not that deep."

"When we get stops, we're really pushing the ball, trying to get into our offense quicker," Samuel said. "I feel like our team likes it a lot. We have a lot of athletes, a lot of guys who can get out and go."

"I think it will make us harder to scout," Samuel added. "Any game, anyone could catch fire. I feel like everyone touching the ball, everyone having a chance to score and do what they can do definitely helps our team."

As a result, Seton Hall ended up with eight players who scored between six and 12 points, and six that had between four and eight rebounds. It was a true team performance to get the Pirates' favorite son his first victory as head coach.