Bill Raftery has an easy explanation for Seton Hall’s return to Big East prominence.
“They looked up my old practice schedules, stole all my theories,” jokes Raftery, who coached the Pirates from 1970-81 before moving over to the broadcast booth.
Seton Hall’s comeback, which it hopes continues at next week’s Big East Tournament, is far more complex and painful. The team, which last went to the NCAA Tournament in 2006, has dealt with high expectations through much of the Kevin Willard era. No more than last season when the Rick Pitino disciple brought in a highly touted recruiting class, led by point guard Isaiah Whitehead, but the team stumbled to a 6-12 Big East season amid well-chronicled locker-room dissension.
“I think part of last year — and this is me talking from a distance — when you bring in a new a cast of kids and you have older guys it’s not easy to mesh,” said Raftery, who is calling the Big East Tournament for FOX Sports 1 this year.
“There are petty things that can happen, and I guess they did there. Whose turf is it? Who’s going to subjugate, willing to sacrifice, be a leader? Those are phrases we all hear, but if you can’t get it organized, it’s very hard for a coach to force the kids to get along with one another or like one another. When it happens naturally, you really have something.”
That seems to be the case now with sophomores Whitehead, Desi Rodriguez and Angel Delgado leading the Pirates to a 21-8 (11-6 in Big East) record heading into their season finale at DePaul. What follows is a trip to Madison Square Garden, where they’ll be the No. 3 seed, and most believe they are firmly entrenched in the NCAA Tournament.
“When Whitehead plays totally under control, takes good shots, they are just a tough team to play,” Raftery said. “When you come in with a great reputation out of high school, it’s not as easy as some kids think. Not that he wasn’t good at times, but they’ve gotten better around him too and I think he understands that.”
Above Seton Hall in the Big East standings are Villanova and Xavier, two of many teams considered national-title contenders. Raftery calls this season as “unusual as any” he’s witnessed because of just how wide open it is. Raftery, who will be calling his second straight Final Four this season for CBS, said that puts an extra layer of importance on the conference tournaments.
“It kept changing as the year went on. Carolina, Kansas, Michigan State have had moments where they’ve looked clearly ahead, but it shifts. That’s why I think the conference tournament is huge, you start building confidence, everything sort of culminates from this week,” Raftery said. “It’s not the end of the world if you lose the conference tourney, but it’s all about what are you building toward.”
