Seton Hall Basketball: 3 takeaways from blowout loss to Creighton Bluejays

Three-Point Shooting

Seton Hall’s struggles regarding the three-point line against Creighton was a two-fold issue. The easy answer is that Seton Hall shooting 17% from deep while Creighton shot 54% made it almost impossible for the Pirates to gain any real traction after starting off the game shooting so poorly from the field.

While this is true, Seton Hall has generally been an above-average three-point shooting team this season and seemed to have an off night. Contributing to this off night was Creighton’s ability to get into perimeter passing lanes and contest a majority of their shots from behind the arc.

Why Seton Hall really struggled to defend outside was because they couldn’t match up with Creighton long enough to gain any real traction. Creighton is known to be a three-point shooting team and regularly swings the ball from one side of the court to the other in an attempt to get the best look possible. As they run their offense, constant movement with the ball causes matchups to switch making it harder for teams to keep up with their movement and provides Creighton with open looks.

Tonight, it felt like even though Seton Hall was contesting some of their three-point shots they were still a half step too slow on their rotation and unable to keep up with Creighton’s ability to move the ball from one side of the floor to the other.

The best example of this inability to keep up, on the Seton Hall side, is by looking at the play of starting center Ike Obiagu. Obiagu started the night on the bench for good reason his cement feet, lack of lateral quickness and inability to defend anywhere outside of the interior made him a major liability against the perimeter centric Bluejays.

When Obiagu was on the floor it felt like there was always an open man around the perimeter. In his twenty-three minutes of only being able to play in the paint, Obiagu contributed four points, three rebounds and two blocks to the Pirates cause. If Seton Hall wants any chance to be able to compete they will need to defend the perimeter much better than they did tonight.

Now while these takeaways are concerning they do not mean it is time to hit the panic button in South Orange. Over the last few weeks, the Pirates have gone from a team that had no chance of making the tournament to being projected as an at-large bid. Creighton has a chance to sweep the series two weeks from now but in that time the Seton Hall has a chance to “show what they’re made of” and come better prepared when they meet at the Prudential Center.

If Aiken’s injury is only minor and the Pirates can find their three-point shooting stroke again, while working on their perimeter defense, they should at least put up a fight the next time around.