5 Thoughts: Seton Hall turns up heat after halftime, blows out Iona

 

Jared Rhoden carved up Iona for 26 points and 10 rebounds as Seton Hall routed Gaels Monday night. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

Seton Hall came home to the Prudential Center to play its first home game of the 2020-21 season Monday night against an interesting opponent: The Iona Gaels, coached by Kevin Willard’s longtime mentor, Rick Pitino.

And thanks to one whale of a second half, the former Pitino protege got his first-ever win in seven tries over the elder coach, as Seton Hall ended up running the Gaels back up the Turnpike with an 86-64 blowout. It was the Pirates' first victory of the season after a near-miss at Louisville.

Here is the first COVID-19 edition of the 5 Thoughts, composed from a safe distance in Jersey City:

1. Some Things Never Change

Rick Pitino hasn't coached a college team in a while, but one thing has been true every single place he's coached at this level: His teams always play hard, manifesting themselves on the defensive end. And in the first half tonight, that was key as the Gaels jumped out to a lead that was as high as nine points. They got in the Pirates' collective faces on D, forcing 11 turnovers and turning those into a chunk of points on the other end. They also knocked down seven 3-pointers as a team.

Indeed, it was when the Pirates matched the intensity that the Gaels played with in the first 20 minutes that they were able to make their runs, including a big 7-0 spurt that cut their deficit to two points at halftime. When they didn't, they got run over, thanks to Iona shooting over 60 percent overall. It was clear that the Hall had the edge in the skill department, but they were beaten overall in the will department for the first 20 minutes.

2. Cooking with Gas

That was not the case in the second half, though. The Pirates turned up the effort on defense big-time, holding the Gaels to just 29 percent shooting in the second half, and continued to dominate off of those stops to the tune of a 51-27 margin. At one point, they held Iona without a field goal for almost seven minutes, and continued to show out in transition like they did in the first half when Iona turned it over. All in all, Seton Hall finished this game with 23 fast-break points, 34 points off of 22 Iona turnovers (13 of which were steals), and 48 points in the paint.

Kevin Willard mentioned after the game that with Bryce Aiken out (sprained ankle), his second unit is not able to push his top unit in practice just yet (more on that in a second). His mantra at halftime? Treat it like practice.

"We watched film at halftime to kind of reinforce things that we haven't gotten to work on," Willard said. "Work on our close-outs, work on our rotations, being a little more aggressive with our pick-and-roll defense, being a little smarter with our personnel, getting on (Isaiah) Ross and making sure he didn't get open looks like he did in the first half. I really wanted to see the emphasis on the defensive end."

Willard went on to mention that because it was Iona's first game of the season, he thought they would struggle in the second half in terms of having their legs under them because the Pirates went through the same thing in Louisville in their first game. They did, and the Pirates' ratcheting up their defense amplified that down the stretch.

All of that made things miserable for the Gaels down the stretch. Pitino put it in a classic Rick Pitino way after the game.

"I'm not pissed off that I lost, because I love Kevin," Pitino quipped. "If Kevin wasn't the coach, I'd probably want to go out and drink a quart of scotch."

3. Rhod Show

Time and again, Willard and his staff have raved about Jared Rhoden and what kind of potential he possessed. He was an important factor for the Pirates as a reserve last season, often asked to take on players bigger than he was and hold his own. 

Tonight, the junior had the entire bag of tricks working for him, pouring in a career-high 26 points and adding 10 rebounds on 7-of-14 shooting (3-of-6 from deep) with a hyper-efficient 9-of-10 mark at the free throw line. It's also worth mentioning that Rhoden scored five of those points in the Pirates' 7-0 run that made it just a two-point game at the break. 

"That's a little bit more like what I was expecting against Louisville," Willard said of his rising star's game. "Jared got back to what makes him special, which is that he didn't just try to score. He rebounded, he got out on the break. That’s what makes Jared really tough to scout. He's not just a shooter, not just a guy that does one thing. His energy and emotion was phenomenal, and we really fed off that."

Come to mention it, Seton Hall's "Big Three" tonight all showed off their versatility...

4. Jacks of all Trades

After a bit of a quiet first half, Sandro Mamukelashvili joined his team in putting together quite a second half, ending up with 18 points and seven rebounds after his 22-point, 10-rebound performance against Louisville. If not for an off night from deep (1-for-6), he'd have another 20-point performance in the bag. Mamu at this point has his confidence to the point where he shows off his versatility on a regular basis on the floor and in the box score.

But Myles Cale did the same on both ends tonight as well. The senior poured in 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting with five rebounds and a couple steals. He's been a rangy defender on the wing for a while now, and he played a part in the Pirates shutting down the Gaels' offense in the second half, but his own offense was also versatile. He hit a couple of nice step-back jumpers in the big run, and was able to score on the offensive glass and in transition as well.

Tonight showed exactly how impactful all three (Rhoden, Cale, Mamukelashvili) can be on a nightly basis for the Pirates. Last season, it was Myles Powell that everyone had to worry about before anyone else. This season, especially when Aiken returns, it could be any number of guys.

5. Enter The Gauntlet

This game kicked off a brutal stretch for the Pirates. Starting with this game, Seton Hall is going to be playing every other day for the next week (at Rhode Island on Wednesday, vs. Oregon in Omaha on Friday, at Penn State on Sunday, vs. Wagner at home on Tuesday). Five games in eight days in four different cities isn't ideal by any means, though the pandemic has understandably altered everyone's plans. 

But the bottom line is the Pirates need it.

"We need to play against competition," Willard said of this hellish stretch. "My second unit guys are not in good enough shape in practice to push my top six. So we're not getting better in practice right now. My guys need game reps, and my goal out of this week after we get done playing Wagner is that we're ready for the first five games of the Big East, and I don't think that we would be ready for the Big East if we only played two more games. We need to see what we need to get better at."

If the Pirates are able to bring the kind of effort on defense they brought tonight in the second half, they should do well in this stretch, though it will be tough on everyone. Welcome to college basketball in a pandemic, where nothing is easy.