Seton Hall’s streak of NCAA Tournament appearances likely is over. Weeks ago, that was unthinkable. After Friday night, it’s hard to envision the Pirates getting selected.
Georgetown and coach Patrick Ewing are the reason, after they beat the Pirates for the second time in three weeks, 66-58, in the Big East Tournament semifinals at the Garden.
“Every team goes through their bad times,” said junior Jared Rhoden, who led Seton Hall with 22 points and was the Pirates’ only player to reach double figures. “I felt like we hit our bad time at the wrong point in the season.”
The eighth-seeded Hoyas (12-12) were the better team. Better at the start. Better at the finish. Smarter and sharper in big moments. And, for the first time since 2010, they will play for the conference title Saturday night, against No. 2 Creighton.
Fifth-seeded Seton Hall’s run of four straight trips to the NCAA Tournament began five years ago with a Big East Tournament title. COVID-19 ended the season prematurely for last year’s high-ceiling team.
Three weeks ago, the Pirates (14-13) appeared primed to return to the Big Dance. The rest of the season seemed to be about seeding. But four straight losses followed, starting with a loss at Georgetown. An overtime win over St. John’s on Thursday offered coach Kevin Willard’s team hope it had turned a corner. It only delayed the inevitable.
The same issues — subpar point-guard play, inconsistent defense, slow starts — reappeared. The continued absence of Harvard grad transfer Bryce Aiken, who was brought in to provide experience scoring punch in the backcourt, loomed large. Aiken played in just 14 games this season due to a variety of injuries, and he was unavailable this week. It put too much responsibility on one-time walk-on Shavar Reynolds, who committed five turnovers Friday.
“Obviously, not having him technically the last half of the season, it really hurt us in the fact it just put so much on Shavar’s plate, not only offensively but defensively,” Willard said. “I feel bad for him. It’s a tough way to end your career not being able to play all year long.”
In the final minutes, Georgetown made the right plays, as it had against Villanova the day before. Chudier Bile’s 3-point play with 1:36 left gave the Hoyas the lead for good. Seton Hall scored just one point the rest of the way.
Reynolds was blocked on the other end, then fouled Dante Harris on a 3-point attempt with 21.4 seconds left. Harris, who finished with 15 points, hit all three free throws to ice it.
Missed free throws — the Pirates were 2-for-6 from the line over the final 5:51 — didn’t help. Neither did senior star Sandro Mamukelashvili’s nightmarish shooting performance. Hounded by Jamorko Pickett (who led the Hoyas with 19 points), Mamukelashvili went 3-for-16 to finish with just eight points, the third game all season in which he failed to reach double digits.
On Thursday, Ewing made headlines for telling reporters that Garden security was frequently stopping him during this tournament. He spoke to Knicks owner James Dolan and was ready to move past it, focusing instead on his team’s stunning run to the final.
“It’s great to be here,” Ewing said. “It’s been my home for a lot of years.”
Seton Hall’s season, meanwhile, might be over, barring a surprise NCAA invite. When asked about his interest in playing in the NIT, Rhoden declined to comment. Willard said he would have to talk to his seniors, but he seemed to indicate it was unlikely. He wouldn’t want Mamukelasvhili to play and risk injury.
Willard afterward focused on his own shortcomings, instead of what went wrong against Georgetown. He faulted himself for an aggressive non-conference schedule following his team’s COVID-19 shutdown that set the Pirates back early.
“I just think it probably wasn’t the best decision,” Willard said.
With all that said, Seton Hall still was right there for a fifth straight NCAA Tournament bid. On Feb. 20, the Pirates took a trip to Georgetown that started this swoon from which they never really recovered.
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