Pirates Ready for Gavitt Games Visit from Indiana

2017 Gavitt Tipoff Games No. 22 Seton Hall Pirates (2-0, 0-0 BIG EAST) vs. Indiana Hoosiers (1-1, 0-0 Big Ten)
Date/Time/Location	Wednesday, November 15 \| 6:30 p.m. \| Prudential Center (Newark, N.J.)
Tickets	Ticketmaster.com \| Seton Hall Athletics Ticket Office
Television Broadcast	FS1 \| FOX Sports GO
Radio Broadcast	AM970 The Answer \| Pirate Sports Network
Game Notes	Seton Hall \| Indiana
Links	Live Stats \| Twitter \| Facebook

BIG EAST or B1G? Blue or Red?

The choice is easy, but this is what we're in store for at Prudential Center Wednesday night as the nationally ranked Seton Hall Pirates defend their conference and their colors against the Indiana Hoosiers as part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games, which is in its third season and annually pits members of the BIG EAST against members of the Big Ten.

Through two years, the series has been deadlocked at 8-8. The Big Ten pulled ahead with a win in the series opener, a Minnesota road win at Providence Monday night. The remaining matchups:

Purdue at Marquette, Tuesday
Butler at Maryland, Wednesday
Creighton at Northwestern, Wednesday
Nebraska at St. John's, Thursday
Xavier at Wisconsin, Thursday
DePaul at Illinois, Friday

The Pirates are unbeaten in the Gavitt Games, having gone on the road last year at Iowa and beating the Hawkeyes, 91-83.

Game time is 6:30 p.m., and Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery will have the national television broadcast call on FS1, which is also live streamed on FOX Sports GO. The dynamic duo of Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin will deliver the radio call on AM970 The Answer.

Things to Know

The No. 22 ranked Seton Hall men's basketball team welcomes Indiana to Prudential Center on Wednesday night for a 6:30 Gavitt Tip-Off Games matchup in downtown Newark. It is the fourth all-time meeting between the programs, and the third of four home contests in eight days to ignite the highly anticipated season for the Pirates.
Sophomore Myles Powell led four Pirates in double-figures on Sunday afternoon with a game-high 18 points inluding four triples, while Angel Delgado picked up his NCAA-leading 52nd career double-double with 17 points and 11 boards.
In Seton Hall's first Gavitt Tip-Off Games, last year Powell went off for a career-high 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting in a 91-83 victory at Iowa.
The Pirates return 90 percent of their scoring and rebounding from a team that won 21 games in 2016- 17, advanced to the BIG EAST Tournament semifinal, and reached the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season.
Led by eighth-year head coach Kevin Willard, the Pirates welcome back an incredible senior class that has the only active trio of 1,000 point scorers in Division I - Khadeen Carrington, Angel Delgado and Desi Rodriguez.
Delgado was a unanimous All-BIG EAST First Team pick after leading the nation in rebounding in 2016- 17, pulling down an astonishing 13.1 boards per game.

Off the Bat
SHU squares off with Indiana for the first time since Nov. 7, 1998 when the teams opened the regular season at the NABC Classic held at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. The Hoosiers came away with an 83-69 victory, and lead the all-time series, 2-1. The lone win for SHU in the series came when the No. 3 seeded Pirates upended No. 2 seed Indiana, 78-65, in the NCAA Regional Semifinal on March 23, 1989. In that season, the Pirates advanced to the Final Four and the NCAA National Championship game.
The 2017-18 non-conference slate for the Pirates includes potential matchups against four teams currently in the KenPom Top-75. The Hall will square off with four teams that made the NCAA Tournament last season, including Rhode Island, either Vanderbilt or Virginia, Louisville and VCU.
Delgado and Carrington were named to the Preseason All-BIG EAST first team, and Rodriguez earned an honorable mention nod. The Pirates were picked second behind Villanova in the league's preseason poll.
Seton Hall was ranked in the AP Top-25 Poll entering the season for the first time since 2000-01 when it came in at No. 10, and was picked to win the BIG EAST.
This past weekend marked the 10-year anniversary of Seton Hall's first game at Prudential Center.

Nice Little Run
The No. 22 Pirates have flourished the past two seasons to the likes of which the program has not seen in over 20 years
The program has gone to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments for the first time since reeling off four straight appearances from 1991-94.
Last year's campaign secured the program back-to-back 20- win seasons for the first time since 1992-93, and first back-to-back BIG EAST Conference winning seasons since 2003-04.

In the Polls
The Pirates enter Wednesday as the AP No. 22 ranked team and is 31st in the KenPom ranking.
Seton Hall has been in the weekly national rankings 102 times in program history, and now twice this season after previously finishing the 2015-16 campaign at No. 20.
This year marked the fourth time Seton Hall was ranked in the preseason top 25
2000-01: No. 10
1992-93: No. 6
1991-92: No. 9

Of the 102 all-time rankings, this is the fourth time Seton Hall has been ranked No. 22, and the first since the 2000-01 season.
Seton Hall's all-time record as an AP nationally ranked team is 144-48 (.750).

Early Opportunities
The Pirates open 2017-18 with a challenging non-conference slate that features matchups against four teams currently in the KenPom Top-75: Rhode Island - 57
Virginia - 10 or Vanderbilt - 40
Texas Tech - 32
Louisville - 18

A total of four potential non-conference opponents reached the NCAA Tournament in 2016-17 including Louisville, Vanderbilt, Rhode Island, Virginia and VCU.
The Pirates have gone 10-2 during non-conference play in each of the past three years.

Unmatched Senior Scorers
Between Delgado, Rodriguez, Carrington and Sanogo, the Pirates entered 2017-18 with the most senior points returning in the country: Seton Hall - 3,816 points - four players
Idaho - 3,736 points - six players
Purdue - 3,392 points - four players
Xavier - 3,088 points - three players
Bucknell - 3,026 points - three players
Drake - 2,988 points - six players

Off on the Right Foot
With last Friday's win over FDU, Willard improved to 8-0 at Seton Hall in home openers, with an average margin of victory of 19.3 points.
The Pirates have won 18 straight non-conference games at Prudential Center and are 61-8 all-time in non-league contests at The Rock.

A Helping Hand
The Pirates assisted on 22 of their 33 made field goals in the season opener last Friday, which is the most in a game since Jan. 28, 2015 when the Pirates registered 23 at Marquette
The mainstays in the back court this season, Carrington, Powell and Cale have combined for 20 assists and just three turnovers.
Carrington's transition to point guard this season has been a success thus far, as he leads the team with 10 assists and five steals, and has furthermore committed only three fouls while playing lockdown defense.

Scoop n' Score
The Pirates have scored 43 points off 38 turnovers through the first two games of the season and have won the turnover battle in each game.
SHU has been particularly effective at creating havoc while taking care of the ball on its offensive end, culminating in positive assist-to-turnover ratios in each of the first two games.
The Pirates have won seven consecutive games when they register a positive assist-to-turnover ratio including 12 of the last 13.

Dazzling Debuts
Freshmen Myles Cale, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Jordan Walker each played 18 or more minutes in their collegiate debut on last week, and put on an efficient and effective display.
Cale led the rookies in scoring with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, while filling the box score with five rebounds, four assists without a turnover, two steals and a block.
Walker was a perfect 2-for-2 from distance and finished with seven points, while Mamukelashvili totaled eight points and six rebounds (five offensive).
Additionally, all three freshman knocked down a three-pointer, and shot a combined 5-for-7 from downtown.

Desi Does it All
The most versatile player on the roster, Rodriguez has the ability to fill up the box score.
Last season, he averaged 5.1 rebounds per game, and connected on a three pointer in all 18 BIG EAST regular season games.
A Preseason All-BIG EAST selection, the Bronx native led the Pirates and was fourth overall in scoring (17.3 ppg) during conference play last season.

Big Man, Big Expectations
By now, it is no secret that Angel Delgado is one of the best players in the country. His on-court dominance has garnered national attention, and his play has earned him preseason All- America honors from multiple outlets including the Associated Press.
The Dominican native led the country with 13.1 rebounds per game last season, and was a unanimous First Team BIG EAST selection and AP All-America honorable mention
Currently, Delgado is the NCAA's active career leader in rebounds (1,074) and double-doubles (52).
In 2016-17, he recorded over 200 more rebounds than any other player in the BIG EAST, and set the conference's single-season rebounding record (253).

Owning the Glass
It helps to have the best rebounder in the country, but rebounding is truly a team effort, and the Pirates have proven the ability to dominate.
The Pirates have out-rebounded opponents 84-49 this season, and have had a positive margin in each of their last seven games dating back to last season.
In 2016-17, The Hall out-rebounded its opponent in 26 of 33 games and went 17-9 in said contests.
In 13 games last year, the Pirates registered a double-digit rebounding advantage.
The Pirates have out-scored opponents in the paint this season 86-40.

Deeno Doing Deeno
Whether it is dribble-drive and slash to the hoop, or filling it up from long range, Khadeen Carrington has a natural scoring ability that ranks him among the all-time greats at The Hall.
Currently, Carrington is 26th on the all-time scoring leaderboard with 1,337 career points
The Brooklyn native has scored 20 or more points 18 times in his career, and led the Pirates with 17.1 points per game last season
He put on one of the best individual performances in program history with a career-high 41 points, capped by a last-second steal and breakaway slam, in an 87-81 home win over No. 20 Creighton last year

Say Cheese!
The man called "Cheese" - Myles Powell, led the Pirates with 18 points in Sunday's win over Monmouth, and connected on four shots from long range
The Trenton native had himself an impressive debut campaign in 2016-17, finishing with 10.7 points per game while leading the team in free throw percentage (81.7)
In perhaps his biggest moment of the 2016-17 season, Cheese drilled a dagger three with 35 seconds to go at No. 10 Butler to ultimately seal the upset win for The Hall

Do Not Pass Sanogo
Largely considered one of the top defenders in the BIG EAST, Ismael Sanogo throughout his career has played a crucial role in shutting down top opponent scorers and limiting teams to below their scoring average
Last season, he held the BIG EAST's fifth leading scorer, Shamorie Ponds (17.3 ppg), to just nine points on 3-of-11 shooting. He also helped limit Villanova to 55 points in the conference semifinal, over 20 points below its average

1,000 Point Club
Desi Rodriguez, Angel Delgado and Khadeen Carrington entered the season as the only trio of returners with 1,000 or more career points
In fact, all three reached the milestone in 2016-17, becoming only the program's second trio of 1,000-point scorers to be active in the same season, joining John Morton, Daryll Walker and Ramon Ramos of the program's historical 1988-89 national runner-up season
Delgado is the NCAA's active leader in career rebounds (1,074) and double-doubles (52), and is the only active 1,000-point, 1,000-rebound player in the country