November 5th, 2016: Philadelphia at Seton Hall

Just the Facts, Ma'am: JaQuan Jackson scorched the nets with 31 points, 25 in the first half, as Seton Hall dispatched the Rams of Philadelphia University 80-54. LaTecia Smith added a well-rounded eight points, five boards, six assists, and five steals. Alexandra Warren led Philadelphia with 15 points, with Rachel Day adding 14.

For lots of traveling, a new perspective, unnecessary shots, multiple chances, and lots of steals, join your intrepid and mystic blogger after the jump.


Good morning. Let's basketball.

(With apologies to the folks over at SB Nation.)

It's a new season, and here at Walsh Gymnasium, it's a new point of view. For reasons I won't go into here, we've swapped sides of the arena, sitting across from the bench and next to the band, instead of behind the bench where we once were. It seems more appropriate, anyway. I prefer being across from the bench in order to see all the interpersonal interactions, and being next to the band is good for inducing maximum noise.

We're getting ready for the Hall's exhibition game against annual visitors Philadelphia University. There are a lot of Pirates. I had to make the font smaller on the homemade roster card.

Not gonna lie, it's weird seeing the #1 jersey with Hilaire on it instead of Richardson-Smith, and it's going to be weird seeing Janee Johnson's #44 on someone else. Numbers are always more transient in college than in the pros, but that's a hard thing to remember when you come in through the pro game.

Oh, dear. That appears to be Martha Kuderer in a boot on the bench. And we're not talking the fashionable kind of boot here. That's totally not ominous at all.

I'm not sure this seating arrangement is going to be compatible with this speaker arrangement. More of the speakers appear to be pointed this way than toward the benches.

At halftime, Seton Hall is up 43-31. For a ten-minute stretch starting in the early first and extending deep into the second, JaQuan Jackson was keeping pace with Philadelphia all by herself; she has 25 points to lead everyone. Philadelphia came on stronger in the late second quarter behind three-point shooting from Rachel Day and Alexandra Warren. There was a fair amount of sloppiness early, but it seems to have been worked out.

I'm worried about how easily our zone is being shredded. I'm worried about how much of the offensive load JaQuan is carrying. We'll see how those change in the second half.

A bit of awkwardness in the pregame- the starting lineup was changed in the minutes shortly before announcement, so the announcer was working off old information. I certainly don't expect Kaity Healy to get the place of honor as last starter announced next time out.

Someone will eventually show Jayla Jones-Pack how to channel her pregame dance moves into traditional channels. Today is so far not that day.

Kat Egan's sitting with the Bozzellas in the VIP folding chairs. I guess that makes the retirement thing official. :( I liked Kat.

Trying to work on GNoD on the train is going to be more complicated than I thought unless I bite the bullet and get a new computer. Jocelyn's hinge has been wonky for quite some time, but now the casing has come apart enough that if the computer wobbles too much, the connection between the screen and the computer stops working. And then she goes to sleep. This is not conducive to writing game notes.

My worries for Seton Hall now extend to the rebounding. The rebounding was not good. Philadelphia had way too many second, third, and even fourth chances. We have posts, and not short ones, either; it's a refreshing change from most of my teams. But that means we have fewer excuses for giving up rebounds to smaller players.

The Rams went deep into their bench in the final four minutes. I was surprised Regan Marriner was so far back in the rotation; I thought I remembered her being significant for them last year, or maybe it was the year before. I shouldn't know a quasi-random D-II team that well. Ayoola Oguntuase is big for them in the middle- physical and slightly annoyed about it (she didn't seem to take kindly to holding). I was actually surprised she stayed in as long as she did; there was a sequence where it looked like she got hit in the face, and she kept reaching for her left eye area like it was bothering her. I was starting to think she should have come out.

Valez Jackson is feisty, but tangling with post players is not a wise move for a guard. The adage about picking on someone your own size is applicable to mismatches in both directions. (Also, her name is really cool.) I do not like Jessica Kaminski. I don't like players who undercut. I don't like players who manage to not get called for fouls while inducing fouls from other players, and she did that with Shadeen. Alicia Lister entered fairly late in the game and made some noise with a three and a nifty little shot in the lane. Nothing stands out about Carly Kovin.

Alexandra Warren is really good. I kind of figured that she had to be if she was a true freshman starting on a team with more redshirts than a Target store, but she looked really good. I like her stroke, and I like her work on the glass. Jackie McCarron, on the other end of the seniority scale as a redshirt senior, was also solid. She never gave up on the boards- that could be said of most of the Rams, but she was especially tenacious.

Rachel Day (whose last name I keep wanting to render as Daly because of the Johnnie soccer legend) has a really quick release on her jumper. If replay had been available for this game, she would have ended with one fewer three and one fewer point- she had a long two that was called behind the arc and really wasn't. (I'm not surprised- refs were a little slow on the call today, and besides, given how many threes Philadelphia took, I might have assumed it was long too.) Kelsey Jones was scrappy early, and she did a nice job finding the open shooter when the zone was slow to rotate. Alynna Williams has potential, but I can't put my finger on what it is. It might be her speed.

Philadelphia seemed to have two offensive modes: bombing threes, and flipping up wild shots in the lane. They were getting a lot of offensive rebounds, but they weren't always converting them. That had something to do with the Seton Hall defense- which is going to be so much fun to watch- and something to do with their own shooting ineptitude inside.

So many Pirate reserves, so little time, and really so little patience, I'm sure. Let's see how much of an impression I can leave of the bench.

It looked a lot like the team was trying to force-feed Ali Fitzgerald in the last couple of minutes to get her on the board, and she certainly had a lot of the crowd behind her. Lots of people dig the long ball. I like Kaela Hilaire's hustle, but she's got to learn to corral it a little better. Some of those fouls were very silly. She had one heady play I liked in the second half to save a possession that would have otherwise been an over and back violation. I really like what I saw out of Deja Winters, especially in the fourth quarter- a lot of great hustle plays, a lot of tough rebounds to end the endless chances of Philadelphia. The only thing I'm not sure about with her is how to pronounce her first name- is it Dee-jah or Day-ja as in déjà vu? I get the sense we're going to hear it enough to be sure. Skyler Snider (say that three times fast) looks ready to fill Coach's favorite niche of "oddly-shaped forward who likes to take threes and play surprisingly tenacious defense". She's not quite a three, and she's not quite a guard, and I'm not sure if she has a position, but I like her.

Jayla Jones-Pack needs to stop bringing the ball down to where the smaller people are. She's the tallest player we have, and there's no reason for her to be pulling the ball down on the boards. I'm loving what she brings down low on defense, though. Coach Bozzella's had a couple of centers like this- not just Chizoba Ekedigwe at Seton Hall, but Sabrina Jeridore at Iona. Jayla's more offensive-minded than either of them, though. Shadeen Samuels's knee brace worries me- it seems like she's on a minute count for injury concerns. If she can stay healthy, she'll be brilliant. Also, she has excellent tackling form and should consider trying out for the Giants after she's done with Seton Hall, since Seton Hall doesn't sponsor football. I feel like I've been saying a lot about the freshmen's hustle, but this is a scrappy, athletic group that plays the passing lanes really well. Lubirdia Gordon's lost a few steps since last season, but since she spent most of the game riding the Bike to Nowhere, I'm pretty sure there's a health-related reason why she wasn't playing a lot. She did a good job as the last line of defense down low. Poor Chanel Jemmott- so new that her name's spelled wrong on Seton Hall's website and she doesn't even have her name on her jersey. She scrapped for a loose ball at the end of the game, and I like that kind of passion from deep reserves in decided games.

I'm going to be honest with y'all here: I have no idea what Kaity Healy brings to the table, except maybe some shooting. Maybe she just had a bad game, but I wasn't impressed. LaTecia Smith is a great defensive point guard- she jumps the passing lanes, she bodies up as close as you can get without getting called (and one of these days she's going to get the wrong crew and foul out in three quarters). The problem is that she's not good at setting up the offense. Her clock management skills still need a lot of work, and if she's going to run the offense, she's going to need to improve that in a hurry. Look at the clock, TT. That's all I'm asking.

JaQuan Jackson found a can of whoop-ass in the first quarter and opened it up in a hurry. Unfortunately, she didn't ration out her whoop-ass, so it all got used up in the first half. You've got to nurse them and make them last for an entire game. It was very clear that she wanted the ball, no matter which team had it. This is fun when the other team has the ball and she steals it away. It's somewhat less fun when she's taking all the shots, especially if she's missing them like she did in the second half. (Though upon further review, I might have to give her a little bit of a pass on some of the second half misses; she had a big bag of ice on her ankle after the game.) This is going to be one of those love-hate relationships, isn't it? Only, I would hope, without the hate turning quite as personal as it did with SHU's last big scorer. And for all of Quanny's shots taken, the player whose shot selection I was actually most disappointed in was Claire Lundberg. Is it really necessary to take threes when you're up 20 in the last minute or two of a 20-point game? Especially when they come fairly early in the clock? I get that she might have needed to find some confidence in her shot after last year, but you've got to know time and score. I like her interior defense, though. Jordan Molyneaux has got to finish those little shots on the inside. There was a play set up with a neat behind the back pass where she missed the shot, and come on, if your teammates are doing things that awesome you gotta finish.

This Seton Hall team is going to be very fun to watch- fast-paced and intense in transition. There are going to be days when the officiating is tighter and everyone fouls out; there are going to be days when the zone gets busted and the turnovers aren't coming. You survive those days for the days when the opponent can't get a pass off to save their lives. I'm pretty sure this is going to be a down year compared to last year... but the next two or three years should be fun, if everything holds together. (Don't tempt fate.)

Officiating seemed a step slow- there was a play where I'm pretty sure Claire got called for a travel that TT committed. The only play I thought was really egregious was one where Kaminski was holding Shadeen, and Shadeen got called for the retaliation shove. Not that I don't think Shadeen should have been called for shoving someone, but she wouldn't have been in that situation if the play had been blown dead on Kaminski's hold.

I'm looking forward to Opening Day... except for the whole leaving the house earlier than I would for work thing. Are you ready for some basketball?