Maybe Seton Hall has watched the Knicks too much this season, because its performance Wednesday night reminded the Garden fans of their wretched professional team.
The No. 8 Pirates absolutely no-showed Wednesday night, getting humiliated by ninth-seeded Marquette, 78-56, a game so lopsided and noncompetitive it felt like a Knicks game.
The young Pirates (16-15) season is likely over, after closing the year with 12 losses in 15 games and nine of 10. It was about two months ago the freshmen-heavy team was ranked 19th in the country, though it must feel like another lifetime to Seton Hall fans.
“I knew the second half was going to be brutal,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said. “We became very fragile the second half of the year.”
There were a variety of reasons for the major slide. There were off-the-court issues, reports of a fractured locker room. Sophomore guard Jaren Sina left the program on Feb. 11 and is in the midst of finding a new school. Junior guard Sterling Gibbs — the team’s leading scorer — was suspended two games for a flagrant forearm he used to impale Villanova’s Ryan Arcidiacono in a loss Feb. 16.
Isaiah Whitehead, the crown jewel of the best freshmen class in 13 years in South Orange, missed five weeks with a stress fracture in his foot and struggled upon his return while fellow freshmen Khadeen Carrington and Desi Rodriguez hit a wall over the last month.
“We got to change the attitude, we got to change how we play, we got to play together,” said Seton Hall freshman Angel Delgado, the Big East Rookie of the Year. “It’s playing hard. People have to come focused more.”
“We just lost focus at one point in time and everything went sideways,” Whitehead said. “We took success for granted. We were succeeding. I guess we got ahead of ourselves, started feeling ourselves a little bit. We just have to focus in, have a good summer and come back next year.”
The Golden Eagles (13-18) scored the game’s first seven points, led by 18 late in the first half and absolutely cruised into the quarterfinals where they will meet No. 1 Villanova Thursday at noon. The lead was 26 at one point, a stunning rout considering Marquette won just four Big East games and entered with six losses in its previous seven games. The Golden Eagles’ widest margin of victory over a Big East foe was a 10-point win over DePaul.
Marquette torched Seton Hall from beyond the arc, sinking 13 3-pointers, seven from Matt Carlino, who scored 26 points. Luke Fischer dominated the paint, notching 14 points, seven rebounds and four blocks as Marquette shot a scorching 56 percent from the field.
“They made every shot,” Delgado said, shaking his head.
Whitehead led the Pirates with 12 points and Gibbs had just six points on 1-of-8 shooting. Whitehead expects everybody to return next year and Gibbs believes the Pirates will be able to use this season of adversity to their advantage.
“The fact that they have this season underneath their belts, I think it will help us a lot moving forward,” Gibbs said.
Creighton 78, DePaul 63
James Milliken scored 22 points and Creighton took charge of a tight game in the second half for a victory over DePaul in the first round of the Big East Tournament.
Devin Brooks added 12 points and senior guard Austin Chatman had 11, surpassing 1,000 for his career. Will Artino provided energy down low, finishing with nine points and eight rebounds to help the 10th-seeded Bluejays (14-18) advance to the quarterfinals Thursday night against No. 23 Georgetown, the tournament’s second seed.
Jamee Crockett scored 15 points to pace seventh-seeded DePaul (12-20), which lost its final eight games of the season and 11 of the last 12. Billy Garrett Jr. had 10 points and eight assists.
— With AP
