5 Thoughts: Drought continues for Pirates on Main Line

Budd Clark led Seton Hall with 18 points, but Pirates were unable to end long losing streak at Villanova Wednesday. (Photo by Seton Hall Athletics)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

VILLANOVA, Pa. — February of 1994.

Bill Clinton was in his first term in office as President, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was in theaters, yours truly was three months away from turning four years old, and P.J. Carlesimo’s Seton Hall Pirates earned a 71-59 victory against the Villanova Wildcats at then-DuPont Pavilion.

The Pirates have not won a game on Villanova’s campus since, a drought that continued on Wednesday night following a 72-60 loss at the now-Finneran Pavilion, a missed opportunity for a big resume win for Seton Hall.

Here are the 5 Thoughts from the Main Line:

1. Slow Finish

Poor starts to games have been a major problem for The Hall this season. Head Coach Shaheen Holloway joked (somewhat) after the Pirates beat Marquette on Saturday that it’s not good for his health. Time and again, Seton Hall spots teams a decent lead in the first 10 or so minutes, then has to battle its way back.

The ironic thing about the first half tonight was that Seton Hall got off to a decent start, though it still trailed nearly the entire way. It was how the first half finished that put The Hall behind the 8-ball at the half once again, as Villanova outpaced them, 16-4, in the final five minutes after a Najai Hines layup made it a 24-21 game, taking a 40-25 lead into the break.

“I know it’s a big thing about us, starting games slow,” Holloway said. “I thought we started off (okay), then we came back, and then we were right in it. Then our hands were down, guys start hitting threes, and the next thing you know, they’re up 15. That's the difference when you make shots. They make their threes, we don’t, and that’s what happened tonight.”

The spurt to end the half turned the game on its head, and though the Pirates put together a 9-0 run in the early stages of the second half, and battled throughout the final stanza, it did not make a lasting difference on the scoreboard. The cold spell from deep continued despite some good looks, and the Pirates could not whittle the deficit down inside 10 points.

2. Shredded Three-f

Villanova shoots a lot of threes, and makes about 10 per game on an excellent percentage (36.7) as a team, led by Bryce Lindsay (38 percent on 146 attempts), Devin Askew (46 percent on 87 tries) and Tyler Perkins (36 percent on 105 attempts). 

In the first half, the Pirates got taken to church from beyond the arc, as the Wildcats went 7-for-19 from the outside while making none of their eight attempts as a team. That already eclipsed Seton Hall’s average of a little over six threes allowed per game in conference play.

Many of those were of the catch-and-shoot variety, as Villanova had 12 assists on its 14 total baskets in the first 20 minutes. And they came from many sources. Five different players hit at least one in the first half, including an unexpected hero in Malachi Palmer, who averages 3.2 points per game. He hit a trio of three-pointers off the bench and shot 5-for-7 overall in the game, with his 15 points second only to Perkins’ 18 by the end of the night for the Wildcats.

Seton Hall did a much better job in the second half, holding Villanova to 2-for-10 from deep, one of which was a heavily contested triple by Askew that just happened to go in. But by then, the damage was done.

Inside, naturally, it was the Pirates doing the shredding, nearly doubling up the Wildcats, 38-22, inside the paint. But three-point shots by their very nature are worth more than two-point shots, and the math just doesn't add up there in Seton Hall’s favor. 

It nearly became just the fourth game this year where Seton Hall gave up 10 or more threes. One of the previous three? Against Villanova in Newark in December.

3. Budd’s Back

It was the first time for Seton Hall point guard Budd Clark playing back in his native Philadelphia area, and he did not disappoint the fans in the stands, leading the Pirates with 18 points on 8-for-13 shooting. 

He displayed some of the Philadelphia wiggle to his game, with a reverse-pivot fadeaway in the first half, and a head-fake on a drive in the second that juked a defender out of his shoes and led to a layup. To Clark’s credit, he also didn’t get himself into the kind of foul trouble that has sunk the Pirates in a lot of first halves this year. 

But one of the things Kevin Willard said after the first meeting between the two teams in February is that Villanova wanted Clark to have that kind of a game, and wanted him to be more of a scorer rather than a distributor.

“The biggest thing for us is, the way we play pick-and-roll coverage, we’re okay with Budd shooting jumpers,” Willard said after the game tonight. “Our whole gameplan was pretty much to take away A.J. (Staton-McCray) and (Tajuan) Simpkins. I thought (Simpkins) has been a difference maker for them over the last two games. So for us, you have to take away something, and we’re okay with Budd shooting twos.”

As a result, the Pirates had just nine assists as a team versus 10 turnovers, with three and four of those, respectively, coming from Clark. He was the lone Pirate in double figures, as aside from a couple bursts from A.J. Staton-McCray (eight points, eight rebounds), there weren’t really any other Pirates to get involved.

“Tonight, I thought he was dribbling too much,” Holloway said. “He scored for us — somebody had to score for us — but I thought he dribbled a little too much. But that comes from trying to make things happen because nobody else was really doing anything, so that’s part of it.”

4. Back in Black

Seton Hall came out in black uniforms tonight for its first trip to Villanova with Kevin Willard as the head coach of the Wildcats, which has some historical significance to it. Willard’s first-ever game as Seton Hall head coach also was in the Philadelphia area at Temple in 2010, and the Pirates wore black uniforms for the first time in a couple years for that game. 

Since then, Seton Hall has toyed with the uniforms in several different player eras, but the thing is, they’ve never been successful in them. I don’t have the stat in front of me, but the Pirates just don’t play well in black, and it’s probably time to leave it by the wayside. Black isn’t part of the official color scheme like grey is, and The Hall looks darn good when it wears those "The Hall" alternates. 

Plus, I’m always partial to teams wearing their primary dark color on the road and white at home. In this scribe’s humble opinion, that’s what the Pirates should do.

5. Missed Opportunity

Bracketology-wise, this isn’t a backbreaking loss for the Pirates, certainly not when you consider the historical drought and how badly The Hall has lost here pretty consistently over the years. This wasn’t a true outclassing-style blowout, as even when they were down 20, the Pirates battled back and made it a ballgame again.

But the remaining schedule only contains two more opportunities against slam-dunk NCAA Tournament teams, and one of those is at UConn, which is a tall task indeed. The other is at home against a resurgent St. John’s team, which isn’t much easier. 

At the moment, Seton Hall’s resume by most prognosticators is squarely on the bubble, and that’s assuming the Pirates don’t suffer a bad loss. Their next game is Saturday in Omaha against Creighton, a team they beat in Newark by two points on January 4. They’ll have a quick turnaround to prep for the Bluejays, who historically shoot the three-ball well also.

Just like when the halftime buzzer sounded tonight, Seton Hall has more work to do to be where it wants to be. For now, the long winless streak outside the City of Brotherly Love continues.