3 Thoughts: Seton Hall stumbles early in loss to Villanova

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

The scoreboard will say it was a loss by single digits, but it was not that close.

If the Seton Hall Pirates had maybe five more minutes, they might have come all the way back and beat Villanova on Saturday at the Prudential Center, but coming off a collapse against Creighton earlier in the week, they fell behind by double digits early and were never able to really recover in losing to the third-ranked Wildcats, 80-72.

Normally, there are five of these, but to me, there are three big things to go over from this game. Here are the thoughts:

1. Turnovers? More Like Burn-overs

Beating a team the caliber of the Wildcats is never going to be easy, but the Pirates dug themselves a big early hole today that they ultimately could not come back from. Turning the ball over against said caliber of opponent is never advisable, but against Villanova, it's downright catastrophic. Seton Hall turned the ball over six times in the game's first 12 minutes, and Villanova promptly turned those turnovers into 11 points on the other end to hold a 25-12 lead.

Until the Pirates made a late push, there were only a couple of possessions the rest of the way where the lead for Villanova wasn't 10 points or greater. What makes it a shame is that the Pirates did clean it up, and did a much, much better job at taking care of the ball, turning it over just five more times the rest of the way. But the damage was done.

2. Micromanaging

Another reason Villanova is so tough besides making other teams pay for their mistakes is that Jay Wright's crew is never, ever lax on its fundamentals, especially on the offensive end, but really on both ends. 

That puts pressure on Villanova’s opponents to also be sound, and for Seton Hall, the Pirates were not able to execute on a bunch of those little things that can sometimes make the difference in the ballgame. For example, there were some closeouts on shooters that were late, which resulted in either open shots or fouls drawn by Villanova (something they are excellent at, by the way).

It would take too long to rehash all of the game film, but two plays stick out to me regarding the little things. In the second half, Tyrese Samuel grabbed a nice offensive board, but then put the ball on the floor before attempting a putback. He never got the putback off because once he dribbled, the defense swarmed him and forced a jump ball, which is why post players are taught to keep the ball high.

Then, when Jared Rhoden came towards Sandro Mamukelashvili for a handoff later in the half, he didn't cut with enough gusto and it resulted in the Villanova defender knocking the ball away and forcing a tie-up, which gave the ball back to the Wildcats.

Shavar Reynolds put it nicely afterwards.

"We're playing hard, we're doing the right things, but it's the details," the senior guard said. "We're playing defense for 22-25 seconds, and then a back cut happens, or we close out and we don't contest. It's the details that we have to clean up."

3. The Big Three (Point Line)

For those just looking for a simple answer to the question of why Seton Hall lost back-to-back games at home, the last two games couldn't be more clear on paper. Seton Hall has surrendered 27 three-pointers in losses to Creighton and Villanova this week, 17 of which came in the meltdown against the Bluejays on Wednesday. Again, in this way, the early part of the game hurt the Pirates, as Villanova nailed five of its first seven attempts from deep to make the Hall pay for its mistakes and build that aforementioned double-figure lead. They actually went 5-for-15 the rest of the way, a much more acceptable 33 percent clip.

When asked about the perimeter defense, head coach Kevin Willard put it in a very Willard-like manner. 

"I would call it terrible, and that's an improvement from horrific the other night," Willard said. "It's mind-boggling. We're working really hard on the defensive end, and we're in position, but we're having little breakdowns at really bad times with the wrong guys. That kills you against good teams. 

"So I'm frustrated a little bit," he continued. "It's like having a little hole in the boat that's causing it to flood. We have to somehow get better at it, because otherwise, we're going to continue to struggle."

Those last two thoughts echo each other. The failing at certain little things on the perimeter, according to the coaches, is leading to a deluge of points from the outside, and that really is the entirety of Seton Hall's struggles on defense right now. In the two losses this week to Creighton and Villanova, the Pirates have allowed less than 40 percent shooting from two-point range, but 47 percent from the great beyond. Now, of course, some of that is just shots falling — Villanova had a couple of 3-pointers in this game that were well-contested — but the point is well-taken.

Perhaps those little things can plug the hole in the Pirates' ship, because they head into more treacherous waters next, with always-tough conference road tilts at Providence (who just lost to Georgetown) and UConn.