Bill Self isn’t taking Seton Hall lightly.
Heading into a showdown with the Pirates on Thursday night in the Big East-Big 12 Battle (9 p.m., ESPN), the head coach of the reigning national champions is saying all the right things.
“I think that team and Shaheen [Holloway] has brought their personality to Seton Hall,” Self said Wednesday. “I think they play with a chip, I think they play extremely hard. Other schools have told us, coaches that we’ve talked to, have said don’t underestimate how hard they play. And I’m sure that’s a reflection of him in many ways.
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“[Holloway] has got a transfer with him [K.C. Ndefo] that obviously has that same type of mindset, I’m sure. They’re good, they’re record isn’t as good as what you’d think, they lost a couple of close games, but they’re capable of really giving us a lot of problems because they post their guards, they do some things that we really haven’t been great at guarding yet, i.e. Tennessee and Wisconsin, and they’re length can give us a lot of problems defensively. He’s got a good team and he’ll play 10 or 11 guys.”
Under Holloway, Saint Peter’s beat Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue before losing to North Carolina during a Cinderella run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Kansas ended up beating North Carolina in the championship game in New Orleans after trailing by 15 points.
Asked if they were Saint Peter’s from last year with [Shaheen] Holloway there, Self said of Seton Hall, “I didn’t study Saint Peter’s last year, I would’ve if they were in our bracket but obviously a storybook run, one of the most talked about runs ever as far as an unexpected team doing so well.
Seton Hall (4-3) is coming off back-to-back losses to Oklahoma and Siena in the ESPN Events Invitational that followed an exciting win over Memphis on Thanksgiving night. The Pirates have fallen to No. 57 on KenPom.com and now face the reigning national champion Jayhawks (7-1), ranked No. 17.
When last we heard from Holloway, he was ripping into his team in his post-game radio interview following a 60-55 loss to Siena of the MAAC.
“We came out flat, no energy never been a part of something where guys don’t want to play basketball,” he said.
“Seen it this morning walk-through, we had nothing ... Tried to jump on them, tried everything but I don’t know, man, you gotta give Siena a lot of credit. The sad thing is the two best players on the court tonight was from Siena, and that’s the sad thing. We got out-played, out-coached, out-everything, man.”
He also lit into two of his injured players, leading scorer Dre Davis, who missed the game with a knee ailment, and Tray Jackson, who he said was bothered by an ankle injury but ended up playing. It’s unclear if Davis will play Thursday.
“You find out things before the game starts,” Holloway said. “I didn’t know [Davis] wasn’t going to play. And then also Tray had an ankle problem and he wasn’t going to play, but [trainer] Tony [Testa] taped him up. But you got two guys before the game telling me that they’re not playing.”
Kansas is dealing with its own set of injuries to redshirt senior guard Kevin McCullar Jr., whom Self listed as day-to-day with a groin injury, and sophomore guard Bobby Pettiford Jr., who is “more than likely” out until this weekend or early next week. Kansas is also without freshman guard Kyle Cuffe Jr., who played at Blair Academy and is still recovering after tearing his MCL and PCL ligaments during a non-contact situation in a mid-November practice. Super senior forward Cam Martin (shoulder) also remains out.
Seton Hall will still enter as an underdog but if the Pirates could somehow pull off the upset it would serve as a massive feather in their cap for the rest of the season and bolster their NCAA Tournament resume.
“I still believe in us, there’s a lot of basketball to be played, a lot of basketball,” Holloway said Sunday. “We just gotta get back to the basics, get a couple guys healthy.”
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his Website at ZAGSBLOG.com.
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