South Orange Juice - All Posts

Seton Hall needs to tie several loose ends before the July evaluation periods

2013-05-25T13:00:02Z

As the chasm between the dog days of summer and Seton Hall Basketball rapidly shrinks, there are several loose ends that need to be tied before diving into the recruiting madness that are the July evaluation periods.

The most head-scratching-yet-most-overlooked issue that needs to be addressed is junior college signee Hakeem Harris. It has been over 3 weeks since Hakeem signed his NLI with Seton Hall, yet there has been no public acknowledgement from the University. Harris committed to Seton Hall several days prior to signing. The announcement of Hakeem's commitment is expected to be coupled with that of another commitment in the near future.

Tom Maayan's current departure from the program is another issue that must be closed sometime before the start of next season. I personally thought that Seton Hall would release a statement immediately after finals week and graduation, despite Tommy being engaged in military related activities in Israel for several months now.

Maayan's vacated scholarship is the only one of thirteen that still needs filling. The most likely candidate to receive Maayan's 'ship is anything but a replacement for him on the court. 6-foot-11 Southern Methodist transfer Blaise Mbargorba has been pegged as very likely to transfer to Seton Hall for several weeks now. Blaise would be the 7th scholarship player on Seton Hall from New Jersey if he opts to play for Kevin Willard. Mbargorba will have three years of eligibility left unless he receives a waiver from the NCAA to play during the 2013-14 season.

Boston University is also honing in on Blaise, who strongly values academics. He is expected to make a decision after his mentor returns from a trip to Nigeria in a week or two.

Lastly, but perhaps the most critical knot to be tied of all, Seton Hall has yet to hire a replacement for assistant Dan McHale, who accepted a similar position on Richard Pitino's staff at Minnesota. Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard and director of athletics Pat Lyons swiftly found a like-for-like replacement for departing recruiting guru Chris Pompey in Fred Hill, but have yet to conclude their second search.

Former two-time Seton Hall captain Marcus Toney-El is thought to have strong interest in returning to his Alma mater. MTE spent three seasons coaching at Fairleigh Dickinson, most recently holding the position of associate head coach under Greg Vetrone, whose contract was not renewed this March. Among other connections, Marcus has strong ties to the NJ Playaz AAU program, for which he played for and coached.

There has also been much debate about whether or not Seton Hall's current director of basketball operations, Steve Sauers, should be promoted to an assistant coach position. As a DoBO, he cannot actively engage in certain recruiting activities that a head coach and his assistants may. Here is a detailed description of the activities that a DoBO performs. Here is a story about what a DoBO cannot do.

Moving forward, Linden (N.J.) center Quadri Moore has been one of the more frequented names of late when discussing Seton Hall recruiting behind doors. The interest between Seton Hall and Moore has also been documented by Jerry Carino, who was told by Linden head coach Phil Colicchio that "Seton Hall has done as good a job with him as anybody. I would say right now Seton Hall and Cincinnati are 1 and 1A. Sha (Holloway) and Kevin Willard have done a fantastic job not only seeing him, but (saying) how much they want him and how important he is to their program. They're going after him with the (stay in) Jersey stuff. They've done more than they have to do."

Standing at 6-foot-9 and sporting a newly transformed body, Quadri is expected to make his college decision before his senior season at Linden this winter.

Carino: Seton Hall - Rutgers rivalry still on

2013-05-07T01:57:46Z

Seton Hall will travel to Rutgers next season to continue the Jersey college hoops rivalry following the collapse of the 'old' Big East.

Head coach Kevin Willard told Jerry Carino that the game will take place on either December 6th or December 8th (Rutgers football plays South Florida at home on December 7th.) After traveling to the RAC to face a depleted Rutgers squad this coming season, RU will return the favor by traveling to Prudential Center in 2014. A long term deal is expected to be agreed upon once Rutgers finds a new athletic director. The Scarlet Knights move to the Big Ten starting with the 2014-15 season.

Rutgers head coach Eddie Jordan will receive a bonus of $5,000 for every win he records over rival Seton Hall. Talk about an incentive.

Here is what Seton Hall's 2013 non-conference schedule may look like:

CVC campus game
CVC campus game
CVC (Brooklyn) Mich. St/Oklahoma/Va. Tech
CVC (Brooklyn) Mich. St/Oklahoma/Va. Tech
@ Rutgers
St. Peters
N.J.I.T.
@ Stony Brook ??
NC A&T (2 for 1??)
Maine (2 for 1??)
@ High Major
OPEN

Hakeem Harris commits to Seton Hall

2013-04-30T19:50:33Z

Seton Hall added a third member to their 2013 recruiting class today by nabbing a commitment from 6-foot-1 junior college guard Hakeem Harris of Connors State College, Oklahoma. Harris is expected to sign with Seton Hall sometime next week.

Hakeem's path to Seton Hall is an interesting one. He committed to Columbia before decommitting and pledging to Brown in the spring of 2010 while playing at Blair Academy (N.J.). However, Hakeem left Brown mid-season after failing to play due to injury. Harris then played at Broward CC (Fla.) before finally ending up at Connors State College (Okla.) for the 2012-13 season. Hakeem averaged 12.4 ppg, 4 rpg, 3.4 apg and shot 54-145 (37.2%) from 3pt last campaign, fitting the Willard mold nicely. He was not in JucoRecruiting.com's 2013 Top 100 Player Rankings.

Harris had interest from Georgia Tech, Washington State, UCLA and Arkansas.

What SOJ thinks: Although he is not a highly rated player, Hakeem Harris will fill an important role for Seton Hall. He will bring maturity to a young backcourt tandem of Sterling Gibbs and Jaren Sina. He also adds depth at both guard positions, something Seton Hall desperately needs right now.

Harris will be additional Jersey flavor to a Seton Hall roster that already includes 6 scholarship players originally from New Jersey. Hakeem's CSC athletics profile lists his hometown as Bergenfield, New Jersey. He joins Jaren Sina and junior college wing Stephane Manga as part of Seton Hall's 2013 recruiting class.

Harris must also be very intelligent if he was being recruiting by Columbia and enrolled at Brown, so his grades shouldn't be an issue.

Connors State College has also sent Harris' teammates Josh Cameron and Denell Henderson to Coastal Carolina and Oral Roberts, respectively.

An updated scholarship table:

Name	Class (2013-14 season)	Position	Note:
Eugene Teague	SR	C	Transfer from SIU
Brian Oliver	SR	SG	Transfer from Georgia Tech
Aaron Geramipoor	SR	C
Fuquan Edwin	SR	SF
Patrik Auda	JR(RS)	PF	Expected to receive medical redshirt for '12-'13 season
Brandon Mobley	JR	PF
Haralds Karlis	JR	SF
Sterling Gibbs	SO	PG	Transfer from Texas
Kevin Johnson	SO	C
Tom Maayan	SO	PG	Expected to return to Israel
Jaren Sina	FR	SG/PG
Stephane Manga	JR	SF	JuCo
Hakeem Harris	JR	SG/PG	JuCo

Coach Dan McHale: Thank You to Seton Hall Community

2013-04-26T18:21:35Z

The 3 years I spent at SHU were the best of my coaching career. Getting a chance to coach at the school that I grew up loving was a special experience.

I am eternally grateful to Coach Willard for all he has ever done for me and I am going to miss working for him dearly, he is a great Coach and an even better person!

I am going to miss working along side Shaheen, my partner in crime...there is not a better person in the coaching profession, and he will be a tremendous Head Coach very soon.

It is an exciting time to be a Pirates fan, as next years team will be fun to watch, and a strong nucleus has been built with a great coaching staff leading the way...

And finally, to the best college basketball fans in the tri-state area, I will miss the passion that you have for the Pirates. Thanks again for 3 great years.

Dan McHale

Seton Hall offers JuCo guard Chad Frazier

2013-04-26T13:38:19Z

Seton Hall has added another guard to their list of 2013 recruiting targets.

The Pirates are the most recent school to offer 6-foot-4 JuCo guard Chad Frazier of Gulf Coast State College, Florida. Frazier previously committed to Texas A&M over South Carolina and UCLA on March 4th, but then decommitted from the Aggies on April 15th. Since opening his recruitment, Frazier has picked up offers from Pittsburgh, Seton Hall, Minnesota, UCF, UAB, and others.

Chad Frazier averaged 15.6 PPG, 4.7 APG & 3.9 RPG at Gulf Coast State College this past season. Frazier is ranked 18th in the 2013 Top 100 players by JucoRecruiting.com. Out of high school, Frazier only received offers from low majors, explaining the JuCo route.

Prior to offering Frazier, Seton Hall had been linked to 2013 Randy Onwuasor of Inglewood HS, California. The 6-foot-3 point guard is set to officially visit Miami (OH) today and then visit Seton Hall before the end of the spring signing period. Miami is recruiting Randy hard, head coach John Cooper flew out to California to watch him play on Wednesday. Onwuasor visited St. Louis on April 11th.

Seton Hall offered 2015 guards Desure Buie and Mohamed Touray of Wings Academy (N.Y.) and NY Lightning (AAU) on their unofficial visit to Seton Hall yesterday. The offer is Touray's first, and Buie's second -- he recently received an offer from Fordham.

A Conversation with Seton Hall Athletic Director, Pat Lyons - Q&A

2013-04-25T18:51:48Z

Seton Hall Athletic Director, Pat Lyons, had no easy task when he took over the AD position some three years ago. In that time, he has focused on increasing the academic success of his student athletes, restoring the image of the Seton Hall brand and ensuring he puts coaches in place who will field fiercely competitive teams. While Lyons will be the first to tell you that there is a lot of work to be done, he offered measurable ways in which to show that Seton Hall is on the rise; so, let’s get right to it:

How do you feel about the additions of Xavier, Butler and Creighton to the (new) Big East and should fans anticipate further realignment or additions to the conference?

This new league is a home run. We (Big East AD's) are really excited about adding Xavier, Butler and Creighton. Any time you're able to add three teams who have recently spent significant time in the top 25 to your conference, you should be pleased. Two more teams will be added to the Big East, we are certain of that, but right now those two teams haven't been decided - but it will be a 12 team conference. We'll have home and home games, and that's really going to create great rivalries - renewed rivalries. The AD's and Presidents of each school are excited about the direction of the new Big East and the continuation of having the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. We're all aware of how tenuous things were for a while last year, but it really couldn't have worked out better.

It's no secret that the men's basketball team was plagued with injuries last year. Is the team finally healthy, and how have Brandon Mobley, Patrik Auda, Haralds Karlis, Gene Teague and Kevin Johnson responded to surgery?

Last year was difficult with injuries, no question. Everyone is doing great now. Karlis is taking a while to recover, but everyone else is ready to go. Brandon is doing a ton of physical therapy and is working unbelievably hard. Everyone will be ready next year barring any unforeseen setbacks.

As AD, what do you look for when recruiting / interviewing coaches, and what aspects of Seton Hall do you sell them on?

Seton Hall has a great tradition, as you're aware. I require my coaches to have three primary principles which I call P.H.D.: be passionate, be hungry, and be driven. Clearly there has to be a baseline of ability, intelligence and experience but I look for the most passionate and driven coaches in the business who are relentless workers. That doesn't stop with the coaches - that includes all my administration and everyone associated with the athletic department. In fact, you won't walk in to the athletic department and find any closed doors - you'll find people with energy and people who love being at Seton Hall.

In light the Mike Rice incident, has the landscape of administrative and coaching policies changed on campus in terms of oversight and accountability?

I'd prefer to not comment specifically on that right now, but I can tell you that I bring every one of my coaches in at the end of each year and have a discussion with them. I'm highly involved and really hands-on to ensure they have what they need to be successful, but that also enables me to be as well informed about everything as possible. I don't think anything in our athletic department needs to change in terms of oversight, as I assume complete accountability; but yes, this incident should give every coach and AD pause to ensure the focus is always on positive instruction of our student athletes.

It's possible that four of Kevin Willard's starting five could all be New Jersey guys (Gibbs, Sina, Edwin and Teague). What does this say to local talent who, in years past, may have opted to not stay home?

It's big. New Jersey has a tremendous amount of talent, so having a core group of student athletes from New Jersey is important for Seton Hall. These players want to play in front of their families and friends and in a great arena like the Prudential Center. Recruits are seeing all that's being done with our facilities and they walk away knowing that this program is committed to success. We'll have Sterling for the next three years and Sina for four years. We have Fuquan and Gene coming back for their senior years. It's important to reestablish the ties to New Jersey, no question. Dan McHale is no longer with us and he was a great assistant coach and recruiter, but we have Fred Hill back whose recruiting history speaks for itself. He also knows Seton Hall very well from being a coach under Tommy Amaker and is very familiar with New Jersey high school coaches - we're thrilled to have him back.

What does it mean to the program to add a player like Jaren Sina - a player who chose Seton Hall over Indiana among others?

Jaren is one of those kids that, if you told him to run through a wall would do it. He's a really tough kid and such a smart player who works really hard. He's a kid of high character and he's a great addition to the Seton Hall family. Jaren is also one of those kids who has already become an ambassador for Seton Hall and for keeping New Jersey talent in New Jersey.

As AD, what accomplishments are you most proud of over the last three years?

We've improved everything about the athletic department from the bottom up. We have a renewed commitment to excellence. I wanted to set a culture, from day one, where we were driven by academic excellence, competitive excellence, and also to be sure we are representing ourselves and our alumni in a positive way. Make no mistake, there is a lot of accountability now too which wasn't necessarily always the case before my time here. From a quantitative and tangible perspective, if you were an athlete at Seton hall three years ago, and you're graduating next year, you will see marked change and improvement in the athletic department from our facilities to the leadership and development programs for our student athletes. We have a new fitness center, training room, academic center, weight room, locker rooms and more. We will continue to pour resources in to our programs with the expectation of high return. Every player on every team has to do community service, that's very important. Academic success of our athletes is extremely important and something that needs to be at the forefront of our mission.

Seton Hall hosting sophomores Mohamed Touray and Desure Buie

2013-04-25T01:57:47Z

Despite landing commitments from junior college wing Stephane Manga and Jersey guard Jaren Sina last week, Seton Hall still has one more scholarship to give - two if point guard Tom Maayan is obligated to return to Israel in order to fulfill military service for the IDF.

With point guard Nigel Johnson committing to Kansas State and power forward Darryl Reynolds choosing Villanova over Utah, South Carolina and Seton Hall, the staff is running out of targets. However, one surfaced in the form of 2013 point guard Randy Onwuasor of Inglewood (Calif.) A 6-foot-3 guard, Randy visited St. Louis on April 11th and is scheduled to visit Miami (OH) tomorrow. He is then planning on visiting Seton Hall, but a date has not yet been set. Onwuasor averaged 16.1 PPG and 6.6 APG for Inglewood as a senior this season. Here is a highlight tape.

Looking to the future, Seton Hall will host 2015 guards Mohamed Touray and Desure Buie of Wings Academy (N.Y.) and the NY Lightning (AAU) on unofficial visits tomorrow. Touray has strong interest from Boston University, interest from a long list of high/mid-majors, has visited Hofstra, and attended St. John's Midnight Madness last fall. Desure has a lone offer from Fordham, which he picked up yesterday, and, like his teammate, he has also visited Hofstra.

Among other players, Seton Hall was watching 2014s PG Kaison Randolph (Pennington School, N.J.), PF Quadri Moore (Linden, N.J.) and PF Ben Bentil (Middletown, Del.) at the Hoop Group Pitt Jam Fest during this weekend's live AAU period. The staff was also spotted watching Team Final vs. King James at the NJ Playaz Spring Fling.

Rutgers' transfer Eli Carter has announced that he is considering six schools. Seton Hall and Rutgers are not on his list.

Seton Hall assistant Dan McHale headed to Minnesota

2013-04-23T21:42:07Z

Days after adding a talented recruiter to its staff in Fred Hill, Seton Hall lost one in Dan McHale. Jeff Goodman of CBSSports broke the news today that McHale is going to join Richard Pitino's staff at Minnesota. South Orange Juice later confirmed that while the move isn't finalized yet, it will be announced in the coming days.

McHale was instrumental in bringing in some of head coach Kevin Willard's best recruits in Aaron Cosby, Brandon Mobley, and most recently, Jaren Sina (twice). In addition, the six-year assistant under Willard was also responsible for securing the postgrad rotation player (2010-11), Eniel Polynice, from Ole Miss.

While Seton Hall fans would have loved to experience both McHale and Fred Hill on the recruiting trails together, his decision to move on to Minnesota is undeniably an upgrade, despite his close relationship with Kevin Willard and a career move that finds him leaving his native New Jersey.

The early names being floated around as candidates to become McHale's replacement are Stephen Sauers and Marcus Toney-El. Sauers is currently Seton Hall's Director of Basketball Operations while Toney-El served the last two seasons as Fairleigh Dickinson's associate head coach. "MTE" played four seasons at Seton Hall from 2000-04 and was named team captain twice. Toney-El was recruited to Seton Hall by Fred Hill and played his freshman season under him.