NEWARK – Four games, four wins.
The Seton Hall basketball team cruised through the warm-up portion of the schedule with a 72-51 romp of Wagner Saturday. And the Pirates didn’t break much of a sweat, with senior wing Dre Davis (17 points, 6 rebounds) and senior guard Kadary Richmond (11 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists) leading the way.
The defense also did its part, holding Wagner to 32 percent shooting.
And postgrad center Jaden Bediako continued to look reliable, notching 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting and grabbing 7 boards.
But the question remains: Just how good are these Pirates?
We’ll know soon. The big tests are coming.
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
1-Good ball movement
For the third straight game, the Pirates shared the rock well – spacing and moving without the ball, finding the open man, making the extra pass. They tallied 15 assists and that number could have been much higher (see next takeaway). Richmond was a traffic cop, directing teammates even when he didn’t have the ball in his hands.
By giving Al-Amir Dawes and Dylan Addae-Wusu time at the point, it’s clear that Shaheen Holloway is trying to prepare the squad for when better teams throw the kitchen sink at Richmond. So far, they’ve handled that well.
2. Outside shooting a question
All that passing led to a ton of open 3-pointers, but the Hall converted just 6-of-19 (31 percent) from deep. The Pirates came into the game shooting 31 percent from that range. A perimeter-oriented squad has to convert those at a higher clip to succeed.
3-Rotation notes
Center Elijah Hutchins-Everett (concussion), forward David Tubek (undisclosed) and guard JaQuan Harris (knee) continued to sit out.
Without Hutchins-Everett backing up Bediako, Holloway has given minutes to 6-foot-10 sophomore Sada NgaNga, with mixed results. The Boise State transfer still seems to be learning where to position himself defensively. Offensively, he missed two wide-open 3-pointers Saturday – his natural position is power forward and Holloway is giving him some latitude to stretch things out.
One interesting development: After freshman guard Malachi Brown scored 10 points against FDU last week, Holloway said he’d earned his way into the rotation. Sure enough, Brown checked in against Wagner in the first half, with the Hall up two.
4-Donald Copeland returns
He was wearing green and black, but Wagner head coach Donald Wagner will always be blue at heart. The Jersey City native, who as a scrappy, clutch-shooting guard helped the Hall reach the 2004 and 2006 NCAA Tournaments and earned All-Big East honors as a senior, is in his second season at the Seahawks’ helm.
They went 15-13 overall last year, including 8-8 in the Northeast Conference, and are 1-3 so far this season.
Having played for legendary coach Bob Hurley at St. Anthony High School, Copeland knows a thing or two about defense, and his Seahawks guarded the Hall pretty well with a mix of full-court pressure and half-court doubles and triples on Richmond.
As he left the court at halftime, members of the student section yelled at him, “Seton Hall legend!”
Totally appropriate.
5-Big tests coming
The coming two-game Rady Children’s Invitational looms large as a resume-building opportunity for the Pirates.
Thursday, while much of the country is eating Thanksgiving dinner, the Pirates face 16th-ranked USC (5:30 p.m., Fox Sports 1). The Trojans are 2-1 so far, with a win over Kansas State and a loss to UC-Irvine. In the latter, starters Boogie Ellis (ankle sprain) and Kobe Johnson (knee discomfort) sat out. LeBron James’ son Bronny, a freshman guard, remains sidelined by a heart condition.
On the other side of the four-team bracket are Iowa (3-1), which just dropped an eight-point decision at eighth-ranked Creighton, and an untested Oklahoma squad (4-0).
Come out of there 1-1, and the Pirates will be in solid shape heading into December.
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at [email protected].