Gameday: Seton Hall
North Carolina was a huge test for Hawaii. After the Tar Heels, Seton Hall in the Pearl Harbor Invitational could be the next-best thing on the schedule.
The Hall (5-2) has a balanced attack, and plays inside-out. Khadeen Carrington paces the Pirates with 21 points a game, but others like Desi Rodriguez (15.0) and Angel Delgado (12.9 ppg, 10.3 rpg) are plenty capable of filling it up. The Pirates have scored in the 90s four times in their seven games.
The Pirates’ two losses were to Florida and Stanford. They’re coming off a 95-71 win over Columbia.
Attendance at Bloch Arena is reserved for military personnel and veterans, plus some special invitees. You can catch the game on Fox Sports 1 (Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery on the call) or 1420-AM. Tipoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. but it might be running a little late for the finish of the Cal/Princeton game here.
The place is pretty well filled up with all branches of the military. Bloch holds a couple thousand people.
Pearl Harbor Invitational Game 1 underway between Princeton and California. Yup, that California. pic.twitter.com/tQmmt9mo50
— Brian McInnis (@Brian_McInnis) December 7, 2016
UH (4-3) hasn’t played since the 64-44 rock fight against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Nov. 27. The Rainbow Warriors have been focused on getting off to quicker starts and cutting down on turnovers.
Look for Noah Allen to have a bounce-back game today after two rough performances. He was arguably the best player on the court against UNC, so tough competition doesn’t necessarily faze him.
Freshman Matt Owies appears to be the likely starter in the backcourt next to Sheriff Drammeh as co-point guard. However, Leland Green and Brocke Stepteau are still possibilities. Look for Larry Lewis Jr. to have an expanded role off the bench.
UPDATE: Sounds like Green is back in the first five.
A few guys were banged up in the last couple days. Allen and Gibson Johnson dealt with rolled ankles, while Jack Purchase had an undisclosed ailment. All are considered probable to play.
Seton Hall is favored by 11.5 points.
In the first game of today’s doubleheader, Cal and Princeton are locked in a low-scoring, back-and-forth battle. There’s already been more air balls in Bloch than I remember seeing all season so far in the Stan Sheriff Center. It might have something to do with the dim lighting. It’s also pretty stuffy in here.
Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. We had 18 last night! We have absolutely no ball-handlers. Brock had 3 turnovers (2 in less than 3 minutes). Drammeh had 6 turnovers. This is embarrassing, especially on national tv. Seton Hall’s backcourt looked like Gary Payton and MJ harassing our guards. The team knows that they can’t turn the ball over if they wanna have a chance to win the game but did we have a game yet against a Division 1 school in which we had single digit turnovers? “C’mon Maaaaaan!”