5 Thoughts: Seton Hall roars back, stuns DePaul in OT

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, N.J. — It was a battle of winless teams in the Big East on Wednesday night at Prudential Center.

Seton Hall came in on a five-game losing skid for the first time in a long time, and 0-3 in the Big East as part of a difficult season, while DePaul was 9-6 overall, but 0-4 in conference play, having struggled defensively in its last three Big East contests.

What we got ended up being one of the better games of the new year, as Seton Hall—down 19 points after being shredded in the first half—nearly came all the way back in about seven minutes, then fell behind by seven with three minutes left before they came all the way back again to force overtime on an Isaiah Coleman three with 4.5 seconds left. The Pirates then dominated most of the extra session in what became a remarkable 85-80 victory.

Here are the thoughts from frigid Newark:

1. Identity Crisis

Seton Hall’s defense is supposed to be its calling card under Shaheen Holloway. For most of the early part of the season, it was, as the Pirates held six of their first seven opponents to under 40 percent shooting, and entered their game against Oklahoma State in December having accomplished that feat in seven of their first nine games.

Over the course of what came into tonight as a five-game losing skid, however, each and every one of Seton Hall’s opponents have shot greater than 53 percent from the field. Only once in that span had the Pirates allowed the opposition to shoot less than 38 percent from the three-point line as well.

DePaul’s identity this season under new head coach Chris Holtmann is shooting the three. Greater than 45 percent of its shots have been outside shots, and the Blue Demons came in making 37 percent of their triples as a team, ranking near the top of the Big East in both makes and percentage. Four players came in at 40 percent or better individually, so it was the biggest key to the game on paper for Seton Hall to focus on.

But in the first half, it was more of the same. DePaul made seven of 18 attempts from three-point range in the first 20 minutes, and when the Pirates hit a six-plus minute field goal drought, they were unable to stop the Blue Demons from going on a 15-2 run after Seton Hall had actually cut an 11-point lead down to just two with under eight minutes to play in the stanza.

The Pirates were down 15 when all was said and done after 20 minutes, then fell behind by 19 points after NJ Benson got to the basket and DePaul made two free throws on a technical foul on Holloway.

And then, everything changed.

2. Seton Small Ball?

Seton Hall began the second half with a small lineup, swapping out Godswill Erheriene and David Tubek for Jahseem Felton and Prince Aligbe. Aligbe, essentially, acted as a de facto center, and alongside Isaiah Coleman, Dylan Addae-Wusu, and Chaunce Jenkins, the adjustment got Seton Hall back into the contest completely.

First, on offense, it opened up the floor for drives from the four guards. Seton Hall has some guys who can space the floor, but the Pirates are at their best when their guards can put the ball on the floor and make the defense react to them, and by putting that lineup out there, Holloway created those opportunities, which resulted in scores, including a few notable dump-offs to Aligbe close to the basket when his man rotated to stop the driver.

Those made baskets allowed the Pirates to set up a full-court press, which because of the lineup on the floor became a true press—they got up in the faces of the DePaul guards in the backcourt, and forced turnovers. That, in turn, led to more made baskets, and all of a sudden, Seton Hall was on a 14-5 run to get right back in the contest. Of course, there was another ingredient to the run that transcended the X’s and O’s.

“We found grit, inner grit (from) the five players that came out there,” Aligbe said after the game. “It was a total team effort with the energy. Obviously, we had ups and downs—we still had a slow start, and we have to keep working at that—but it's about how you fight, and we’ve got a lot of fighters. Once we found their weaknesses, we attacked (them).”

“I’m just trying to find guys to play with some energy,” Holloway added of his small-ball lineup. “I’m trying to find guys that play with passion and want to be out there, and that’s what I’ve been preaching for the last week and a half since the Xavier game. This is big-time basketball. Everybody don’t have to play if you ain’t playing the way I want you to play. I’m okay now playing five or six guys.”

"I just want to play hard,” he added. “And we haven’t been playing hard, and that’s not my team, so it was good to see guys play hard in the second half. We got back in the game, and it’s contagious.”

Now, will this type of lineup be sustainable? Most likely, not for a full game, as Holloway mentioned that those players were wiped out physically by the heavy, high-intensity minutes they had to expend to make the win possible. But tonight showed that it can work for this team, without a doubt. It’s certainly something to monitor going forward.

3. Cole-Blooded

Isaiah Coleman was having a rough game. A really rough game. Though he had nine points and a few assists, he also had turned the ball over four times, and made just one of his first seven shot attempts from the floor as late as 35 minutes into the contest.

And the reason wasn’t entirely basketball-related, either. According to the head coach, the super sophomore came down with food poisoning in Cincinnati when the Pirates played Xavier, and was bedridden for four days while recovering.

“He literally just got out of bed Sunday,” Holloway said. “I knew he was gonna be sluggish, being in bed for four straight days with food poisoning—but I thought he gutted it out. The first half, he was awful—not from an offense standpoint, but from a defense standpoint and timing, so at halftime, we kind of had some talks with a couple guys. And like I said, we came out and just played hard, and played with energy and passion.”

But while it was Addae-Wusu (24 points, seven assists, 5-of-9 from deep) and Aligbe (16 points, six rebounds, three steals) who had done the heavy lifting throughout most of the comeback, when Seton Hall was down seven points with inside three minutes to play, Coleman found his legs and his game. He hit a three to cut DePaul’s lead to four points with a little over two minutes to go, and then a layup off an offensive rebound to make it a two-point game with 1:01 to play.

The last minute was a bit wild, but the Blue Demons’ leading scorer, Jacob Meyer, had a chance to ice it at the free throw line. He made just one of two shots to leave the door open, and Coleman busted it down by cutting to the ball off a great screen by Aligbe, receiving the pass from Addae-Wusu, and canning a left-wing three-pointer that forced the extra session.

“It’s one of my plays,” Holloway said of the set they ran. “We didn’t run it 100 percent right, but we ran it right enough and Zay stepped up and made a good shot, Prince had a good screen. But the whole thing was designed right. Dylan did his job by taking his man down, the five man who was guarding Prince kind of helped out a little bit, Prince set the screen and Zay took him right off. He made a big shot, and that’s something that we needed.”

Coleman then opened up overtime with another three to put the Pirates ahead for good, and when all was said and done, he ended up tying Addae-Wusu with 24 points, a whopping 15 of which had come in the last seven-plus minutes of the game. Take a bow, young man.

4. Have Addae

I can’t in good conscience leave Dylan Addae-Wusu out of this piece. When Seton Hall struggled in the first half, he was one of the few notable Pirates, scoring nine points to lead the Hall. He added seven points in the second half, and then eight more in overtime to come within one point of his career-high. He also had seven assists against just two turnovers, and his five made three-pointers represented a new career-best.

He was the most consistent presence all night for the Pirates, and has been putting in the work to have a game like tonight. Without him, they don’t win this one.

“Yeah, he needed that and we needed it, and it’s work,” Holloway said. “Him and I, we’ve been working this whole break with him and his game to get it better. It’s work, and I keep telling these guys, there’s no magic wand. What you put in is what you get out. You put work into the game, he’s been working for the last five days, this is what happens.”

5. Tubthumping

The classic hit ’90s song by Chumbawumba called "Tubthumping" has a chorus that goes, “I get knocked down, but I get up again...you're never gonna keep me down.” That was Seton Hall tonight. The Pirates most definitely got knocked down tonight, both in the first half, when they fell behind big, and then again in the second half when the Blue Demons took that last sizable lead.

But they found their fight back, and just in the nick of time, too.

“They still didn’t play the way I wanted to play in the first half,” Holloway said. "We were down 20, right? But to be honest, I’m happy for them because we needed this game for a lot of different reasons. They needed it to feel that. We haven’t won in a minute, and hopefully—winning is contagious like losing is contagious—so now you win this game, and the way we won it, I think it gives them confidence for us to move forward.”

This is one of those games that when you win, you might look back on as proof of a turning around. This is by no means a guarantee, of course, as even in a down year for the Big East overall, the Pirates still have formidable foes coming up on their schedule. But a win like this gives you hope if you're a Pirate fan.