The Seton Hall Pirates (21-9) enter the Big East Conference Tournament ranked No. 15 in the USA TODAY Sports Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll, making them a lock to be invited to the Big Dance. This will be Seton Hall’s fifth straight season in the NCAA Tournament under head coach Kevin Willard, which is the longest streak in the school’s history, but they haven’t advanced past the second round.
Below are a few good reasons why the Seton Hall Pirates will finally have its One Shining Moment and win the 2020 NCAA Tournament.
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Battle-tested
Seton Hall played the 20th-most difficult strength of schedule in the country, and despite not getting the hype it did back in its glory days, the Big East Conference is still a conference of champions. Four of the National Champions the last decade were Big East teams—the Connecticut Huskies and Villanova Wildcats each claimed two titles—which was second behind the Atlantic Coast Conference’s five National Championship teams.
The Pirates went just 4-5 against their nine ranked opponents, and aside from the 17-point dusting they took at the hands of the No. 9 Creighton Bluejays in their last regular-season game, Seton Hall played all of them tough. The Pirates didn’t have a bad loss—four of them were by one possession and the other was a five-point loss to Creighton. Their season highlights included a 52-48 home win over then-No. 7 Maryland Terrapins on Dec. 19 and splitting the season series with perennial powerhouse No. 8 Villanova Wildcats.
Interior presence
Seton Hall is a low-key big team as they are one of the few ranked teams with a legit seven-footer in their starting lineup. Starting C Romaro Gill—who leads the Big East in blocks per game—is listed at 7-foot-2, and starting PF Sandro Mamukelashvili is 6-foot-11. Their size could create headaches for opposing offenses in a win-or-go-home game. The novelty alone of going against bigs like the Pirates have could cause teams to force up ill-timed threes, dissuade foes from attack the basket and, in turn, opponents getting to less foul shots.
Experience
All five of Seton Hall’s starters are upperclassmen, including three seniors and four starters from last year’s NCAA Tournament team. Their two leading scorers are PG Quincy McKnight and SG Myles Powell, who is second in the Big East in points per game (21 PPG). One of the key attributes of the recent title-winning programs is to have upperclassmen guards to run the offense. Five of the previous seven national title winners had two upperclassmen guards in their starting lineup, with the previous two champions trotting out a three-guard starting lineup. Powell will start in his third consecutive NCAA Tournament, and McKnight his second, so their veteran leadership will be relied upon in the big moments of the tournament. Powell and Co. will have to play their best six games of their lives if they want to be this year’s Cinderella story.
These factors make it plausible the 2020 Seton Hall Pirates win the program’s first-ever national championship.
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