BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: SETON HALL @ GEORGETOWN

February 2, 2008



After losing their first three conference games, Seton Hall has ran off five straight wins and the snowball that Bobby Gonzalez is building is gaining in size and it begins to roll downhill.

Georgetown is also on a roll, winning their last four games, some in dramatic fashion, others, like Wednesday night's destruction of St. John's, with ease. The Hoyas have been the favorite in the conference from the beginning and take everyone's best shot. Only Pittsburgh was able to connect their shot and take down the Hoyas. Now, Seton Hall takes aim and will bring the effort as well.

The Pirates do have a quick backcourt that will look to pressure the Hoyas early and often. With Paul Gause back in the line-up, the Pirates can unleash Bobby Gonzalez's preferred style of attack with full court pressure from end to end. With Chris Wright out with a foot injury, the Georgetown backcourt is a little short on depth and this sort of game, if SHU can control the tempo, does not favor the Hoyas.

However, gaining control of that tempo is not easily down. The Hoyas are a model of offensive effeciency with Roy Hubbert in the paint and four other players on the floor capable of scoring in a variety of ways. Georgetown has an injury concern of their own as sophomore DaJuan Summers missed the game with St. John's with a foot injury. Against the Redstorm it did not matter and with Austin Freeman and Patrick Ewing available to step-up, the Hoyas should be ok if Summers is going to miss additional time. It is a blow, but Georgetown has an impressive stable of players.

Seton Hall will have to create offense off of their defense. They will need to score themselves and stop Georgetown to get into their tempo. That has been the difficult thing to do for Georgetown opponents. SHU is undersized with Brian Laing playing the position of power forward at 6'5 and in extreme mesaures, like OT agianst Rutgers, he finds himself as the tallest Pirate on the court on occassions. Freshman Jeremy Hazell has become the long-distance mad bomber and if he starts lighting it up, the Pirates feed off that energy.

Although I see leaps and bounds of improvement from the Pirates, this might be too tall of an order on the road at this stage. At the very least, this will be a tremendous learning opportunity and if the Pirates go in with that goal, they could steal a win, but more importantly, take a valuable experience into future games down the road.

NBE Blogger Prediction: Georgetown 75 Seton Hall 66