BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Seton Hall @ DePaul

February 25, 2006


It is a homecoming game for Seton Hall senior Kelly Whitney as Whitney and the Pirates look to solidify their footing in terms of a NCAA Tournament bid. After losing three of their last four, including a devastating 58-47 loss to a very short-handed St. John's team, the Pirates have some work to do.

DePaul might have had the final nail in their coffin pounded in by Louisville on Wednesday night as the Blue Demons fell to 3-10 in conference play and two games out of the mix for the final conference tournament spot. It has been a disappointing season for Jerry Wainwright's crew, it will show a lot about the character of their team and the handle the coaching staff has on them with their effort on Saturday.


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DePaul certainly has talent. The trio of Sammy Mejia, Karron Clarke and Wilson Chandler has the potential to be a dangerous group in the Big East. However, finding all three of them on top of their games at the same time has been a very rare occurrence in Big East play. Draelon Burns, Jabari Currie and Marlon Brumfield are also solid contributors and Burns has had a solid season. The inconsistent availability of wesley Green has not helped the cause for DePaul, either.

At 6-3 and with a non-conference road win against North Carolina St, the Seton Hall Pirates and embattled coach Louis Orr was the talk of the country. They moved to 7-4 in the conference after knocking off West Virginia, but a pair of 11-pt losses to Notre Dame and St John's has brough the Pirates back to earth with a rather large thud. They will need to beat DePaul to put them back in the NCAA Tournament focus, any road win is tough, but the Pirates really need this one. Donald Copeland and Kelly Whitney need to have good offensive games and defensive-ace Stanley Gaines must do the job on DePaul's Mejia.

Seton Hall definitely has something left to play for. DePaul, other than being a spoiler, does not. It is a tough call as to which DePaul team will show up, but the one thing is for certain, Seton Hall needs to bring their defensive effort and not go into a scoring drought.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

Seton Hall 60 DePaul 59