The Blue Demons host the Team from New Jersey, Not the Residence Hall on Sheffield and Montana
The Setup
DePaul plays the Seton Hall Pirates on Sunday, 1/28/2018 at 3:00 pm Central at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago’s South Loop, in front of thousands of blue seats. It will be carried on CBSSports (Channel 232 on Comcast) and on the Score (Radio 670).
The Pirates come into the game with 15 wins and 5 losses overall, with a 4-3 record in Big East games after losing at home to Xavier.
Lead by a rejuvenated Eli Cain, DePaul is coming off of a glorious win against Georgetown , their 2nd Big East Victory.
You know what? Let’s revisit Eli’s excellence from Wednesday.
Gambling Corner
Seton Hall is favored by 5. Kenpom.com favors Seton Hall by 4.
Recent History
The Pirates swept DePaul last season. Since the forming of the new Big East in 2014, the Jersey Boys hold a 5-3 series lead. Last time DePaul beat the Pirates was when they swept them during the 2015 season. On February, 3, 2015, Jamee Crockett and Billy Garrett combined to score 41 points in a 13 point victory in Rosemont. Crockett had an amazing alley-oop dunk, which I had a cool Vine of, but of course, all Vines have been destroyed. Instead, I found a crap video of it, and recorded it in the following tweet:
Fun Facts about Seton Hall
Religious affiliation: None Specifically. Catholic. Diocesan University.
One of the oldest diocesan universities in the US, under the Archdiocese of Newark.
Founded in 1856 by Bishop Bayley, who was a cousin of Theodore Roosevelt, and the nephew of Elizabeth Ann Seton. What do you know?
Named After 1st American-born Saint
Elizabeth Ann Seton. Evidently cured a girl’s cancer as her ticket to sainthood.
Other Fun Stuff
Won 1953 NIT
1989 National Runner-Up (Should have been Champs.)
Lost in 1989 NCAA Tournament Finals to Michigan in overtime on a foul that shouldn’t have been called. Seriously, was this a freaking foul? Garbage. Of course, the Michigan guy who made the free-throws, Rumeal Robinson, decades later commits many acts of Bank Fraud. But at least he had a tainted National Championship.
Just Imagine How Different Things Would Have Been if Seton Hall Had won the National Championship?
- PJ Carlesimo doesn’t have this happen to him, because he sticks around another year at Seton Hall, instead of cashing in on his new found success:
2. Latrell Sprewell Doesn’t have to Miss a million games (68 games) for choking Carlesimo.
3. The New York Knicks Do Not Make it to the 1999 NBA Finals, which they lost anyway.
4. Fab Five does not happen, as Michigan tires of loser assistant coach turned head coach, Steve Fisher.
5. DePaul picks up Juwon Howard and Chris Webber to pair with Tom Kleinschmidt.
6. DePaul wins 1993 National Championship on Kleinschmidt 4-point play.
Check out these Sweet Uniforms
The Current Flavor of Pirates
Kenpom.com has them rated as the 36th best team in the nation with victories over top 35 teams Texas Tech, Louisville, Creighton, and Butler. They also have losses to Rutgers (127th), Marquette, Creighton, Rhode Island (26th), and Xavier. These guys crash the offensive boards, 18th best in the nation, but 2nd best in Big East play behind your DePaul Blue Demons! They turn the ball over above the national average. The are a terrible free-throw shooting team (66.7%) which is 305th in the nation and worst in the Big East.
You remember all of that stuff I said about how Georgetown was the worst Offensive team in the Big East, and your DePaul Blue Demons were 2nd worst? Well, guess who is 4th worst? South Orange, New Jersey’s own Seton Hall Pirates!
Defensively, The Hall is rated 6th in conference games and the Demons are rated 7th. The Hall has NOT played Villanova yet, so we all know that our Blue Boys are better.
Who should Scare the Blue out of Us? Angel Delgado
This is an extremely balanced team. The players with the highest usage do not blow me away with their offense efficiencies.
However, Angel Delgado, 6’10” Senior Center, is a rebounding machine. 8th best in the nation at offensive rebound percentage and 17th best at defensive rebound percentage.
Who Else? Myles Powell
Eli Cain’s 6’2″ “little brother” has the highest offensive rating on the team with 116.9. He shoots the 3 point shot at 41.1%, the only elite shooter on the Pirates.
Cain and Powell played together at Medford Tech in New Jersey for a Season.
High Usage Guys
Desi Rodriguez is a 6’6″ Small Forward who plays both inside and outside. He takes 29% of all shots for the Hall. He is going to be a handful.
Khadeen Carrington, a 6’4″ point guard, who takes 23% of the shots. He is the team’s best free-throw shooter at 82.8%
How does DePaul Matchup? Surprisingly well, thank you!
Let’s go to the tail of the tape.
Offense
If you break it down to just Big East games, these are 2 of the worst offensive teams. Whatever DePaul is 2nd worst, Seton Hall is slightly better. Both these team rebound on both ends real well.
Slight/Tiny Advantage: Seton Hall
Defense
Seton Hall plays mostly man defense. In Conference play, the Jersey Boys are actually less effective on the defensive glass then the Chicago guys.
In conference play, the Pirates are as bad against 3 pointers as the Demons are. The Hall does a better job at stopping 2 point shots, and they also block more shots.
The big difference is that the Pirates do not foul their opponents as much as DePaul does. This means that less free-throws are shot against Seton Hall.
Advantage: Basically a Push, but you could slightly give it to Seton Hall unless DePaul keeps their hands to themselves like good boys.
In Conclusion
DePaul will hope for another dynamic game from Eli Cain. The big men need to be at their best against Angel Delgado and Desi Rodriguez. Hopefully Jaylen Butz is back, but if he is not, we need big games by Maric, McCallum and Paul Reed.
Can Paul Reed Have Another Game Like Wednesday?
Who is going to shut down Powell? Is this a Cyrus assignment?
If Strus plays like Max Strus, Cain plays more like Georgetown Part II and not like the rest of the Big East games, Maric, McCallum, Reed, and/or Butz contain Delgado, DePaul could pull this off.
It should be a close game. The lost to Rutgers! We haven’t lost to a team as bad as Rutgers! We’re playing the freakin’ Jersey Boys for goodness sake!
Winnable game for the Demons. Let’s do this!
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