5 Thoughts: Seton Hall outlasts Butler to reach .500 in Big East play

Tyrese Samuel ignited Seton Hall’s second-half run to push Pirates past Butler. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, N.J. — Another day, another tough game in the Big East Conference. 

Needing to once again hold serve at the Rock, the Seton Hall Pirates used a 20-2 run in the second half to vault in front, and then held off a late comeback by Butler to win, 66-60, and get back to .500 in conference play.

Here are the thoughts from a late night in Newark:

- Hard Hats

Seton Hall and Butler have both been programs that pride themselves on toughness. It really is an ingrained part of the culture of both teams, and after a quick 7-0 Seton Hall run to begin the game, Butler answered with an 8-0 run of its own by upping the toughness on both ends.

Down the stretch in the first half, and certainly at the start of the second half, neither team could get a real good run going as both teams dug their heels in. Seton Hall then followed, however, by tightening the screws even further on defense, and finally getting some shots to go down on offense, leading to a 20-2 run that put the Pirates ahead for good. 

"We had a good defensive unit out there with Jamir, Jared and Myles," head coach Kevin Willard said. "But I thought Lex and Tyrese did a really good job. We got lost in the first half, we lost (Bo) Hodges twice and they made some threes, and I thought we did a really good job of just staying home. We just kind of made everything difficult for them, and then capitalized on the break."

- Get To The Point

Seton Hall again was shorthanded at the point guard position tonight. So much so that, even though Kadary Richmond started the game, he only played 16 minutes due to still not having recovered from a triple-digit fever he had been dealing with for the last few days. 

Enter Jamir Harris, the 3-point sniper who was forced to expand his game tonight and held his own well, finishing with 10 points, but also four assists and some tough defense. Only Jared Rhoden (39) and Myles Cale (36) played more minutes than the graduate transfer from American (29).

"He was phenomenal," Willard said. "We worked two days with Jamir running the show, and I thought he did a great job of getting us to that 16-point lead. The next evolution for him will be to manage that 16-point lead a little better, but I was proud of him not only the way he played offensively, but the way he played defensively."

Willard went on to say that Richmond feels better now, but because he hadn't practiced in four days that he wasn't back to being his normal self on the floor, hence the need for Harris to step up, which he did.

- Tyrese Throwdown

The other player who stood out tonight was Tyrese Samuel, who was outstanding on both ends of the floor. He had two memorable baskets in the second half after scoring eight points in the first half: A posterizing, full-extension slam dunk on the baseline that ignited the aforementioned 20-2 run, and a 3-pointer in that same run. 

"The prior games I wasn't in my zone," Samuel said. "Today was one of those days that I felt like I was back to where I was pre-COVID. I'm just going to take it one game at a time and see how I progress forward from here."

But he also played fantastic defense, staying with smaller players and staying tough against bigger ones. Before the dunk, he had two rebounds and a blocked shot, adding a steal later in the big offensive wave for the Hall.

"He looks like he's back to what he was in December," Willard said. "It's taken big guys a little bit longer to come back (from COVID), but he looks like he's got great bounce. Defensively, he's playing much more physical than he was, he's hit the weight room hard, which helps. He looks much, much better than he did just two weeks ago."

- No Ref Show Redux

I can't have been the only one who looked at the referees before tonight’s game and rolled their eyes. James Breeding, Ron Groover, and Nathan Farrell all worked the intense, controversial game the previous night between Villanova and UConn, during which Breeding ejected Dan Hurley for pumping up his own fans and a couple late borderline calls went against Villanova to allow UConn to prevail.

Tonight, though, aside from a lot of monitor reviews late, there wasn't a lot to be said either way about the officiating. It helps when there were only eight total fouls called in the first half, allowing two physical teams to get into the flow of the game and not have it become a parade to the free throw line.

- Cohesion At Mealtime

A theme of tonight's game was cohesion among the Pirates. It was brought up after the game, as every player who saw the floor tonight contributed in some way to the win, and helped them stay locked in when things got hairy down the stretch.

"They've played well this year," Willard said. "They've been together, they've had some huge wins, they work hard, it's a great group to be around. And they've overcome some really tough obstacles, to be honest with you."

All those obstacles (COVID, losing Bryce Aiken with a concussion, starting off 0-2 in conference play) have bonded this Pirates team. But there was something else that also helped: Sharing meals with each other. Willard said that during the team's COVID pause, he changed a lot of what the team did, and happened to mention "the way they ate." Asked for more details, Willard went into a great story.

"I moved everyone up into my offices," Willard said. "I made them come up to my offices, and we got all our meals catered up there up until last month, I think, because I was getting tired of having lasagna all over my carpet. I'm the first one in the office, and I would be cleaning up from the meal the night before. I finally lost my mind."

Willard went on.

"We don't really have a place to eat, we make due with what we have, and I said, ‘it's a new team, let's all get together, bring them up into the office so they can eat together, eat with the staff.’ In the past, for meals, I just let them eat, but we all had COVID, so it was like, 'let's all just eat together, what does it matter at this point?' The guys liked it, so we just kept doing it, and sometimes meals are the best way to talk."

Food brings people together, even if those people happen to play Big East basketball.