Big East Basketball: Ranking best homecourt advantages for 2020-21 season
By Max Marmitt
8. Seton Hall Pirates Home Court: Prudential Center
Winning at the Prudential Center is never an easy task, especially considering Seton Hall has been right there with Villanova as a top tier Big East team the past couple of years. The Pirates have been in the top half of the Big East every year since 2016 and have had some really dangerous teams for March. It definitely helps to have a very spirited student section, one that has some students dress up in funny, yet distracting costumes and scouts the opposing teams very well with creative signs and chants.
If we’re solely basing the home court advantages off the last few years, Seton Hall advances past a couple teams in these rankings. The star power of this team has been some of the best the conference has had to offer. Isaiah Whitehead led Seton Hall to a Big East Tournament championship in 2016, beating NCAA Tournament champions Villanova in the final match. Seton Hall fans still have unconditional support for an all-time Big East senior class of Angel Delgado, Desi Rodriguez, Khadeen Carrington, and Ismael Sanogo.
How could any college basketball fans not know Wooden Award candidate Myles Powell, winning last year’s Jerry West National SG of the year award? Third in program history with 2,252 points, he will go down as an all-time Big East great. Don’t forget about Sandro Mamukelashvilli and Qunicy McKnight, guys who represent what Seton Hall is all about with grit and talented play on the floor.
Sharing a stadium with an NHL team (New Jersey Devils), the Prudential Center has a capacity of 19,500 fans. Seton Hall ranked 7th in attendance in 2019 and didn’t average 8,000 fans per game until 2018. Still, Seton Hall has vastly improved from their mark of 6,336 fans per game in 2014, and if their trend of increasing their attendance continues, they will become an even tougher place to play.
With an impressive record of 81-29 at home the past seven years in the New Big East, picking up a road win at Seton Hall is a huge resumé booster. Seton Hall fans are also very present at the Big East Tournament, usually giving them an advantage at a neutral site. With the Seton Hall program becoming one of the nation’s bests (a Final Four caliber team last year), they will probably have a better home-court advantage ranking in the next couple years as they will continue to be one of the best Big East teams.