5 Thoughts: Seton Hall tops Wagner to go to 4-0

Dre Davis led Seton Hall with 17 points as Pirates overpowered Wagner Saturday. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, N.J. — Seeking to stay unbeaten on the young season, the Seton Hall Pirates welcomed old friend Donald Copeland and Wagner back to the Prudential Center Saturday afternoon. What resulted was a pretty good all-around performance, as the Pirates turned up the juice after a slow start and blew out the visiting Seahawks, 72-51, improving their record to 4-0.

Here are the 5 thoughts:

1. Press The Advantage

In games against mid and low-majors, what you hope happens is that the high-major team uses the advantages it has on paper, namely in size and skill. That's exactly what happened in the first half, with Dre Davis outmuscling the Seahawks on several occasions to get things flowing while the rest of the Hall's offense caught up. He scored six straight points in one stretch while ending the half with 10 points and four rebounds, finishing the game overall with 17 points and six boards.

After Davis served as the opener, Kadary Richmond served as the closer. Seton Hall posted him up on both wings as well as the foul line, and the senior from Brooklyn made plays, fading away for a Kobe-esque bucket, sweeping through to draw a foul, and driving through defenders with a quick first step to score as well. He also cleaned the glass well, with seven boards in the opening 20 minutes, That spurt was the fuel for a 9-0 Seton Hall run that opened up a good-sized lead before halftime, and sent Richmond en route to an 11-point, 10-rebound, 5-assist performance that really spoke to the level he's raised his game to this year.

That's not to discount Bediako, either. He had a solid game with 11 points and seven boards, using his size advantage to be efficient inside the paint.

Mission accomplished, essentially, for the Pirates. They did what they needed to do after a slow start that Shaheen Holloway didn't like at all.

2. Shredding The Seahawks

Neither side shot the ball well from deep in the first half, but that changed in the second half, as Seton Hall canned its first three shots from outside the arc, including a pair by Al-Amir Dawes, building its lead up to 17 points with an 8-0 run in the first five minutes out of the break. The Pirates hit 11 of their first 18 attempts from the field overall in the second half. Wagner tried to go zone when the Hall was hot from three, and even that didn't slow the Pirates down, as they efficiently got the ball to the soft areas at the high post and short corner.

According to Holloway, he tried a different lineup combination in the first half that didn't quite click, leading to a correction afterwards that absolutely did.

“It's tough when you play the lineups I'm playing,” the head coach said. “(We) can't run anything because guys are out of position, they don't know the plays from that spot. They went small, so I tried to go small, which was a bad idea. I should have just stuck with my team. The second half, we did that, we shared the ball, and that was the difference. We also got stops. We have a thing where we want to get three stops in a row. Today we got six stops in a row, and that's what changed the game.”

3. Bench Mob?

With the Pirates taking a 20-plus point lead in the second half, Holloway played an all-reserve lineup down the stretch. It was a rarity to see, as the Pirates' bench has generally struggled this season, and today, there was some good and some bad. Isaiah Coleman and Jaquan Sanders, guys who the skipper has said they need to play well, combined for 11 points and seven rebounds. 

The bad? Well, the other end of the floor.

“We didn't rebound the basketball,” Holloway said of the late game all-reserve time on the floor. “There was a point where they got five straight offensive rebounds, so I was super disappointed in that. I'm trying to get guys comfortable. I think we're going to need Sada (NgaNga), so I'm trying to get him some confidence. He's more of a wing than a big, but I need him to rebound the ball for us.”

That's not to say that it was totally bad. There were some moments where the reserves got a chance to create shots and score inside, and they never let the margin drop too far as a result.

“Other than that, I was trying to rest my guys,” Holloway added. “We've got a big, long trip coming up. I thought I had a good enough lead where I could put guys in, and they still sustained it.”

Hopefully the Pirates' bench unit can continue to improve, as they'll need the reserves to be effective once they get into the meat of their schedule.

4. Outside Looking In

As I mentioned above, Seton Hall alum Donald Copeland now coaches Wagner's program, and he was asked about the Pirates in the postgame press conference, giving a take on his alma mater after preparing for them, then coaching against them this afternoon.

“I think they're deeper (than last year),” Copeland said. “I think they're still trying to figure it out, which is what these non-conference games are (for). But I think they'll go as far as Kadary, Al, and Dre Davis take them. That's what I see, and those are three really good players to play around that gives you a good sense of balance. Kadary can do a lot of things and create. I told my team about Al Dawes. He has big shot ability, Dre Davis (is) playing with something to prove. Those are good pieces to have in the Big East, then everybody else, as you go through it, will find their roles. They're doing a good job defensively early on against teams like us, so I hope they can continue to gel.”

5. Moving Forward

Next up on the Pirates' schedule is an undoubted step up in competition in San Diego over the holiday against the likes of USC and either Oklahoma or Iowa. Holloway was asked whether the Pirates' early-season schedule prepared them for what's ahead.

“I'm hoping that it's set us up pretty well, to get a feel for each other,” he said. “With this group, to be honest with you, it's been tough. Before our first game, the starting five only played with each other for a week. I had other guys on different teams, trying to mix and match, make practice more competitive, trying to get other guys involved. I put that (unit) together a couple days before our first game, so they're kind of still learning each other.” 

“I think a game like the two we're playing out there is going to really show who we are right now, but it's still early. That’s the thing that I'm hopeful for. I want to win, I hope we win, but there's a lot of learning and a lot of basketball still to be played.”