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Posted: Tuesday October 22, 2002 10:43 PM Updated: Tuesday October 29, 2002 10:42 PM Seton Hall Pirates
The following preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the most thorough preview available of the upcoming season, order the 2002-03 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518. Team Preview | Blue Ribbon Analysis
Last season, Seton Hall endured seven losses by four points or fewer and two other setbacks by five points. Consequently, the Pirates say they were only a whisker away from being better than .500 last year. Seven players are back, including three starters, from a 12-18 club and that has second-year coach Louis Orr excited that this could be the season to lay the foundation for years to come. "Personally, I think our chemistry, our patience on offense and execution on a consistent basis, all of that has to improve," said Orr, the first ex-Big East player to become head coach at one of the league’s schools. "From a basketball standpoint, where we came up short was that we weren’t a very good rebounding team." Well, that will happen when you lose two big men -- 6-foot-10 forward Eddie Griffin and 7-foot center Samuel Dalembert -- who became first-round NBA draft picks. When Griffin (17.8 ppg, 10.8 rpg, 4.4 bpg) went for the NBA cash after just one season, he broke up what was one of the country’s most heralded recruiting classes, along with point guard Andre Barrett and swingman Marcus Tony-El.
Left behind were two post players without much experience in 6-foot-10 center Charles Manga and 6-foot-7 forward Greg Morton. They didn’t give the Pirates much inside. Manga grabbed a team-high 6.8 rebounds per game and averaged 6.8 points and Morton averaged just 3.7 points and 3.9 rebounds. The Pirates wound up 11th out of 14 teams in rebounding after being fourth the year before. Morton is back but coming off an injury, and now Manga is gone. The top returning board man is 6-foot-5 sophomore John Allen (11.4 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 1.9 apg), who was chosen to the Big East All-Rookie team. So we wish the Pirates the best of luck on the glass, but they'd better have a Plan B. Unless a freshman class of frontcourt players is better than expected, what could happen is something similar to last year. Seton Hall should be perimeter-oriented again. Allen, Morton (3.7 ppg) and Barrett are the returning starters. There are no other experienced returnees or newcomers who look like they can shoulder the rebounding or low-post load on offense and defense. The good news is, only a couple of Big East teams have dominating centers. "We’ve mainly got forwards, but I think right now in this league you can get away with it," said Orr, who left Siena after one year to take the Seton Hall job, which Tommy Amaker vacated for Michigan. "A lot of teams in college basketball don’t have a true, dominant center. The good ones don’t go to college anymore or they stay one year." The offense came from Barrett, a junior and still lightning-quick off the dribble. He averaged a team-high 16.9 points and ranked seventh in the conference in assists (5.1). His shooting percentages went up only slightly, though, to .343 from 3-point range and .396 overall. He is also a terrific defender. With the departure of veteran guards Ty Shine (7.0 ppg, 1.6 apg) and Darius Lane (12.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.5 apg), he is unquestionably the leader of this team. "I want Andre to lead, and he’s going to because he has the ball and he’s the guy who runs the offense," Orr said. "Andre has the ability to create opportunities for himself and for others. I think he wants to get other people involved. The ability to score is a positive thing from your point guard, but Andre is a playmaker and wants to be able to make plays for other people as well as himself." Orr didn’t care to discuss the derisive presence Shine and Lane may have represented in the locker room, but it wasn’t a huge secret. Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said the Pirates "probably will have a more peaceful locker room." Lane and Shine, who rarely met a shot they didn’t like, contributed to the Hall’s next-to-last league ranking in field-goal percentage (.387). "We have to take better shots, execute better and be a little more patient," Orr said. "That doesn’t mean we still don’t want some transition baskets." Orr did admit that he had to deal with a lot more than just Xs and Os after Amaker’s abrupt departure. "There was just a lot going on," he said. Allen had it going on after becoming a starter in the eighth game of the season and scored in double figures 18 times. Orr had recruited the Coatesville, Pa., native when the coach was still an assistant at Syracuse. He possesses a solid mid-range jump shot and has worked to improve his accuracy from 3-point range (.282 last year). Allen battles on the boards, but Orr said might he be used more in the backcourt this year. He loves tooting the horn of a player nicknamed "Tootie." "He’s a warrior," the coach said. "He’s kind of old-school because he can hurt you in a lot of different ways. He can shoot; he can finish on the break." Morton underwent surgery on his right shoulder last March 14 to repair a tear in the anterior labrum. Orr said the senior from the Bronx is expected to be ready by the start of the season. The layoff won’t help the development of his strength or offensive game, something the Hall needed. "He gives us great energy," Orr said. "But he’s got to help us more on the boards." Another returnee who underachieved last season was the 6-foot-6 Tony-El, a Parade All-American out of Seton Hall Prep. He averaged 6.7 points and 4.0 rebounds as a freshman while starting 20 times but saw those numbers dip to 4.0 and 3.4 while starting just 10 times last year. "He’s had a good summer in the weight room," Orr said. "I think he’s realized in order to be good in this league around the basket he had to get stronger." The other backcourt returnees are seniors -- little-used Raheem Carter (0.7 ppg) and 6-foot-4 Desmond Herod (3.7 ppg, 11.4 minutes). Another returnee whom Orr calls the Pirates’ "X-factor" is 6-foot-7 forward Damion Fray (3.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg, .492 FG). The junior is athletic and quick. He averaged 10 minutes last year and could move into a starting role. "He has just hit the tip of the iceberg," Orr said. "He showed us flashes last year. He has a huge amount of potential, but we need it to be realized now. He could be a difference-maker for us." So could Andre Sweet, a 6-foot-6 sophomore swingman who sat out last year after transferring from Duke. He was Barrett’s teammate in high school at Rice High, posting 18.3 points and 12.1 rebounds per game as a senior. He averaged 4.1 points and 2.6 rebounds at Duke and practiced with Seton Hall last year. "He’s an inside-outside guy and can finish in transition," Orr said. "He brings a mental and physical toughness, and that’s something I think we were missing last year." The major backcourt addition is Donald Copeland, a 5-foot-10 freshman from New Jersey power St. Anthony. An all-state selection, he averaged 14.3 points, 5.0 assists and 4.0 steals. Copeland is a tough, on-the-ball defender, a good 3-pointer shooter and can play either guard spot. That should help free up Barrett more to get to the basket. "He’s a winner; he just needs to get a bit stronger," Orr said. The other freshmen additions are all frontcourt players. J.R. Morris is a slashing, 6-foot-6 wing from Milwaukee, Wisc. Eric Davis is a 6-foot-9, 220-pound forward from Camden (N.J.) High who played last year at Milford (Conn.) Academy. At Camden, he was the No. 2 scorer behind Cleveland Cavaliers guard Dajaun Wagner, the one-year Memphis star. Kelly Whitney, a 6-foot-8 forward and all-state selection from Chicago, was a teammate of Morris at prep school in North Carolina. He enrolled at Seton Hall last January and practiced with the team. Also in the mix is 7-foot, 245-pound center Alex Gambino, who red-shirted last year. The Pirates will play hard for Orr, just as they did last year, and they have one more year of experience. But unless there is a frontcourt player who emerges to grab all those missed shots bouncing off the rim, rebounding could be their major undoing, because without consistent outside shooting, there might be lots of misses. "Between Eric, Kelly, Damion, Alex and Morton, they have to give us some inside toughness and rebounding," Orr said. "We think we can do it because they’re good athletes and are used to playing bigger than their size." There are lots of candidates to make an impact in the post, but how capable they really are is the question. Even though there are plenty of teams in the conference that lack a dominant center, most have more proven commodities in the post. The backcourt will be good enough to keep the Pirates competitive on most nights. In fact, Barrett and Allen could blossom this winter and become one of the conference’s best tandems. Will Seton Hall win a few more of those close games this year? Probably. But challenging for a division title and an NCAA tournament berth might be a year away. "You always want to have success in terms of record and postseason," Orr said. "But it’s a process, and I want this to be a season we can build on." Sounds like a realistic plan.
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