Seton Hall is about to enter an unprecedented week in program history -- and Jared Rhoden has a message for Pirates fans.
When the No. 25 Pirates face No. 7 Texas Thursday night in the Big East-Big 12 Battle at Prudential Center in (6:30, FS1), he wants to see and hear a raucous, capacity crowd supporting the home team.
The same goes for Sunday’s tilt with rival Rutgers in the Garden State Hardwood Classic. Neither game was sold out as of Saturday but the Rutgers game is close to being sold out.
“We need every single person we can get, we need the Pru rockin, man,” Rhoden said following Saturday’s blowout of Nyack College. “I feel like, me personally, we haven’t had it where the atmosphere is extremely high yet this year and I think that if everyone comes out and shows support, it’s going to be an amazing environment and that’s what I’m looking forward to. I’m looking forward to looking up and just seeing people everywhere and that’s what I want to see.”
Seton Hall (7-1) already owns one of the most impressive victories in college basketball this season -- on the road at then-No. 4 Michigan. Now they have a chance for a second Top-10 victory in front of their home fans.
“We have to show everybody what we’re capable of,” Rhoden said of the upcoming trio of games against Texas, Rutgers and Rick Pitino’s Iona club Dec. 18 at Madison Square Garden.
“We have to have it like a catapult, just steam-rolling right into conference play. We go crack these three games out and prove to everybody that we can be dominant and hopefully we use the momentum to push us forward.”
Myles Cale made his return from a groin injury on Saturday after missing three games, and said he needed the warmup game to prepare for what’s ahead. He returned to Seton Hall for a fifth year in part to play in games of this magnitude.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for all of us,” Cale said. “It’s probably [going to be] a lot of people watching that [Texas] game, national-televised, two ranked teams going against each other so it’s going to be a lot of people watching.
“Everybody’s going to be on 10 trying to do what they have to do for their teams to win so it’s a great opportunity.”
Coming off a 22-point, 12-rebound performance Saturday, junior forward Tyrese Samuel wants to keep his personal momentum going against Texas.
“It gives me a lot of confidence, shows that I’ve been putting in some work, shows that I’ve been playing late nights and stuff like that,” he said. “This can’t be the only game that I be doing things like this. I gotta start doing these games against big teams and along the stretch in the Big East and then so on an so forth and all the way until March Madness so it’s a good confidence-booster but I can’t settle for this so I just gotta keep on working , keep on pushing.”
Pirates coach Kevin Willard has long said that tough non-conference games against opponents like Texas, Rutgers and Iona will prepare his team for Big East play -- which begins Dec. 20 at home against St. John’s.
Heading into Thursday against Chris Beard’s Texas club, he, too, says the fans can make a difference.
“They always do,” he said. “I hate to say it, in this building [Walsh Gym] we average a 42-point victory in this building. There’s a different energy. So Thursday and Sunday are going to be huge for us, our fans are going to be huge.”
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media.
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