Seton Hall Basketball: Seton Hall 94, St. John's 64; Pirates give St. John's no Love on Valentine's Day

St. Johns is red,

The Pirates are blue,

This was a bloody blowout,

(awkward silence).

St. John's left the Prudential Center tonight more heartbroken than a 12 year old boy getting dumped for the first time... on his birthday; but I mustn't make this about me. The Pirates absolutely drubbed the Red Storm 94 - 64 on Marvin Gaye's favorite holiday. The outcome of this game was purely academic by halftime, as the Pirates were up a dozen and had more momentum than a grammar school kid sprinting down the street with an over sized backpack.

Seton Hall began the game doing, well, essentially everything right. Just like a successful relationship (for which I have absolutely no frame of reference) the Pirates displayed tremendous balance and couldn't have possibly been less selfish with the ball. Seton Hall occupied the stat sheet (good God, I've been waiting to use "occupy the..." forever), as their scoring distribution was stellar. They shot 63% from the field and from beyond the arc (I'll wait a moment for you to marinate in that). In limited minutes, due to said blowout, Herb Pope had another double-double (yawn). Jordan Theodore again went to work and had 16 points and 10 assists, again, in limited minutes. Brandon Mobley continues to improve, as the talented freshman scored 14 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Freshman Haralds Karlis continues to develop into a legitimate threat as he shot 5 for 6, tallying 13 points. But finally, lets get to Patrik Auda, mmk? No two ways about it, Auda's taken his lumps from the media for not developing into the player everyone had expected; after all, he had just excelled in the World Games this past summer. Tonight, however, was a different story. Auda's stat line doesn't accurately portray how good he was tonight, but lets just say he messed around and had himself a double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 boards.

Tonight was one of those rare occasions where I could literally speak, at length, about every player on the roster. I won't, but it's critical that I note how impressive the Seton Hall freshman were. With 11 minutes left in the first half, Kevin Willard put four freshman and one sophomore on the floor. I Tweeted during the game that if you think Willard didn't challenge them by talking about the highly touted St. John's freshman for motivation, you need to go to motivation school. The inverse proportion can be said about the Seton Hall freshman class in terms of recruiting-rank prowess; however, tonight they played with poise, tenacity and within the game plan. Tremendous job by the coaching staff and players alike.

The Pirates have now won three games in a row, pushing their win total to 18 (7-7 in conference) with 4 games to play prior to the Big East Tournament. Translation: Seton Hall is very much alive, Pirate Nation.

Finally, with blowout in full effect, chants of "Pe-ter Dill!" began...with 10:00 left in the second half. Dill checked in with 1:57 left, and sweet mother of mercy, he had 2 assists within seconds of each other. Great moment. I've gotten to know Peter fairly well and I can say that he is, unequivocally, one of the nicest guys I've ever met. The guy you see doing "The Hammer" on ESPN is the real Dill - that's who Pete is. I can only imagine that tonight, in particular, his cup will runneth-over with unobjectionable college girls (a resounding high-five, buddy).

As always, Hazard Zet Forward, my friends!