Preview: Seton Hall

The Golden Eagles look to extend their winning streak to seven.

The No. 15 ranked Marquette Golden Eagles take on the struggling Seton Hall Pirates Tuesday night at the Bradley Center.

Marquette hopes to extend their Big East winning streak to seven games while the Pirates will be fighting to avoid their fifth consecutive Big East loss.

Seton Hall’s woes started on January 13th, as they lost a hard fought battle to USF 56-55. The Pirates blew a 10 point lead in the final six minutes against the Bulls and the Pirates star guard Jordan Theodore (16.1 points per game, 7 assists per game) missed a critical free throw that would have tied the game up with three seconds remaining in regulation.

The Pirates then traveled to Villanova where they failed to prevent Maalik Wayns (25 points), Jayvaughn Pinkston (23 points), and James Bell (18 points) from scoring 66 of the Wildcats 84 points. Theodore finished with 13 points but went 2-16 from the field as the Pirates looked for additional offensive help from their starting swing man Fequan Edwin and back-up forward Brandon Mobley. Edwin finished with 14 points and nine rebounds and Mobley scored 12 points off the bench (3-3 from behind the arc), but to no avail, as the Hall fell to Villinova 84-76.

Then came Notre Dame at home. The Pirates shot 26 percent from the field and went 2-14 from behind the arc as Notre Dame went on to win 55-42. Seton Hall’s big man Herb Pope, who leads the Big East in rebounding (10.3 rpg) and was averaging just under 17 points per game at the time, shot 2-16 from the field and fouled out with five minutes left in regulation.

The Pirates 42 points against Notre Dame is the lowest point total a Seton Hall team has scored since November 16, 2005, when the Pirates lost 93-40 to Duke.

Seton Hall’s fourth straight loss came Saturday night against Louisville. The shooting woes continued for Kevin Willard’s squad as the Pirates shot a mere 28 percent from the field and went 3-of-18 behind the arc as they fell to Rick Pitino’s Cardinals 60-51.

The Unlikely Hero

Junior Cadougan.

The Pirates forced Louisville to commit 24 turnovers Saturday, seven of which came from Louisville’s point guard Peyton Siva. The Cardinal’s turnovers let the Pirates hang around, luckily for Louisville, Seton Hall couldn’t hit a shot. At one point, Seton Hall went seven straight possessions facing a nine point deficit and went 7:03 minutes without a field goal during the second half.

Cadougan had had turnovers and three assist against Villanova Saturday afternoon. Expect the Pirates to try to force Cadougan to make the same mistakes Siva did against them. It will be up to Cadougan to run the offense against a quick, but impatient, Seton Hall defense.

If Cadougan can keep his composure and run the offense, he can have a career day against this antsy Pirate defense, but if he gravitates to Seton Hall’s traps, look for a flustered Cadougan getting comfortable next to Coach Williams during the second half.

Make no mistake about it, Junior Cadougan will play a major role for the Golden Eagles Tuesday night.