After a rousing comeback bid against UConn fell short, No. 25 Seton Hall looks to take another step forward when it hosts Butler on Saturday at noon in Newark, N.J.
The Pirates have emerged as one of the surprise teams in the country. They are ranked for the first time since 2022 and Huskies coach Dan Hurley made headlines after his team’s 69-64 escape that he hoped not to see Seton Hall on a line near his team in the NCAA Tournament.
The Pirates (14-3, 4-2 in Big East) have been able to win after rallying from deficits against Big East rivals Marquette (trailed by 10), Georgetown (trailed by 11) and Creighton (trailed by 16), but coach Shaheen Holloway knows that’s not a formula that can work consistently.
“It’s exhausting, to tell you the truth, for me coaching and I know for them as players, to try to fight back all the time and get back in games,” Holloway said after the UConn loss. “It’s disappointing because opportunities like this don’t come around too often at home — you’ve got a really good team in your house and you’ve got some good momentum going and to play like that in the first half is really, really disappointing.”
Butler (10-7, 1-5) enters the Prudential Center having lost four games in a row, and the last three have all been by 14 points or more.
Contrary to Seton Hall, who leads the Big East in points allowed, Butler ranks ninth in the league, giving up 76.2 a game.
Transition defense hurt the Bulldogs in Wednesday’s 89-75 loss to Xavier. The Musketeers outscored Butler 29-16 in fast break points.
“We did not do our job in transition and that’s been drilled for seven straight days, relentlessly,” said Butler coach Thad Matta, noting his team had had a full week to prepare. “For whatever reason we wanted to shortcut it, and you see what that did for us.”
Butler forward Michael Ajayi is third in the Big East in scoring at 16.5 points a game and leads the conference with 12.1 boards. Finley Bizjack is scoring 16.1 for Butler, but the Bulldogs have yet to look like a team that can make the NCAA Tournament.
“We’ve got to keep hitting the rock and hopefully embrace that everyone on this team can play some really, really good basketball,” Matta said. “Somehow, some way we’ve got to get more collectively together both offensively and defensively and get guys doing their jobs.”
The Pirates’ powerful combo inside of Stephon Payne III and Najai Hines should be a good battle with Ajayi.
Seton Hall leading scorer AJ Staton-McCray was held to two points by UConn and is in a shooting slump, with only 14 points in his last three games. Seton Hall was just 1-16 from three-point range against UConn and 15-25 at the free throw line.
“Here’s the craziest thing: In our gym, our new, great, beautiful practice facility, we don’t miss free throws, we don’t miss three-pointers,” Holloway said. “In games, we can’t seem to make them, so I don’t know how or what.”
