November 4th, 2017: Thomas Jefferson at Seton Hall

Just the Facts, Ma’am: Seton Hall took over in the third quarter to beat the Rams 89-61. Donnaizha Fountain had game-highs of 22 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Hall’s balanced attack. Rachel Day and Jessica Kaminski each had 14 points to lead the Rams.

For lots of players, exciting freshmen, dubious seniors, some communication issues, and height differences, join your intrepid and exhausted blogger after the jump.

I’m starting to wonder if PATH trains have some kind of signal blocker built into them. Wi-fi was fine in the station, and as soon as I got on the train I started having issues. Guys, I just want to post yesterday’s notes and finish using my complimentary wi-fi session.

Yes, it’s off to Seton Hall, or at least it will be once this train starts moving. It’s time for their annual exhibition against Philadelphia (though apparently the school merged with another school and is now going by Jefferson). As always, going the long way around is cheaper, though fraught with peril and delays. At least that means they’re actually doing work on it? Yay?

For I have no wi-fi and I must scream: the trials and travails of going without a hotspot. (Fell out of my pocket on a bus. I don’t think I’m getting it back.)

Oh. Okay. Single-track service through Harrison. I think they might actually be moving the station a little to the east.

At halftime, Seton Hall is up 41-36 on the Rams. Donnaizha Fountain has made a very good first impression with 12 points, some strong rebounding, and a knack for fixing broken plays. Shadeen Samuels also looks good, with 10 on a lot of breakaways.

Kaela Hilaire and Nicole Jimenez make up on the smallest backcourts I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure if it’s more travel size or fun size, but I’m afraid KK would kick my ass either way.

Average-height Lauren DeFalco trying to simultaneously huddle with 5-3 Kaela Hilaire and 6-4 Jayla Jones-Pack looks awkward for all parties concerned.

Look, Pirate, you want to dance with the coach’s daughter, that’s fine, but be ready for the consequences. We might be talking finding Bronc’s head in your bed in the morning.

The defense is a little too aggressive at times, but I’d rather that than not aggressive enough. Seton Hall definitely has depth in their favor; Tony’s played more players in the first half than St. John’s is carrying, period. (Yes. This annoys me. You’re probably going to hear about it all season.)

The conundrum: it’s under 30 seconds to go in the half and Coach has clearly called for one shot to run out the clock. But you’ve got a player wide open under the basket with 15 seconds left. Do you pass around to run down the clock and risk not getting a good look, or do you set up that shot and then gamble on defense? Seton Hall took door number 2 with Nicole Jimenez passing to Selena Philoxy. We held on defense, but I’m still not sure it was the right play by Nicole. (I’m not saying Selena shouldn’t have taken the shot. We’ve had enough trouble with her getting shots at the basket already.)

I’m pretty sure one of these refs worked the Fordham game yesterday. He looks as tired as I feel.

Ohmahgawd, Shakena Richardson and a medium-small child is too full of adorable.

We’re under two minutes to go in the half and Seton Hall still hasn’t come out. Tony must be giving them multiple circles of hell.

Well, it looks like Seton Hall will be the most fun of my teams to watch this year. High-octane offense and a lot of depth, combined with energetic defense- sounds good to me.

The disadvantage of games where everyone goes deep into the bench is that there are a lot of players to write about, and Sidearm only gives first initials to start my memory up. Carly Kovin and Caroline Duffy only got into the game very late- I didn’t even realize until Duffy scored and I started comparing numbers on the floor with numbers on the roster. Do better with substitutions for the opposing team, PA man. Sabria Lytes is decently tall, and I get the feeling they might use her more in the regular season. I think I missed Valez Jackson’s initial arrival into the game, so I don’t know that I can adequately speak to her minutes.

Kelsey Jones ended up on the floor a lot, especially later in the game. Some of it was charge-taking, some of it was getting all up into people’s personal space, and one time was Kaela shoving her. No matter how annoying the opponent is, you shouldn’t shove them. Caitlyn Cunningham came on stronger nearer the end of the game. I think that was when she got most of her minutes; I know her initial entry into the game was postponed when the coach pulled back the sub. Alexandra Warren threw up an airball that we all gave her the socially acceptable amount of grief for. Ayoola Oguntuase was physical down low- a big body who gave a lot of hard contact, and had the fouls to prove it. She started the second half in place of Beverly Kum.

Kum and Oguntuase provide very different looks. While Oguntuase is a more traditionally physical wide-body center, Kum is a little bit taller and a lot slimmer and springier. But her shooting right at the rim was a disaster, which might be why her minutes got cut. She had opportunities and missed them badly. She did, however, whoop the hell out of JaQuan Jackson on a block. Erin Maher was mostly quiet, though she had a nice three set up by a hard Jones screen (which goes to show that guards are perfectly capable of setting screens for forwards, it doesn’t always have to be the other way around).

Rachel Day was killing us from outside- she had the threes, and the two she hit was so long I thought it was also a three. I like her toughness. Jessica Kaminski got the scoring started early for the Rams- for much of the first quarter, she had all their points until Day got loose for a three. We were able to reorient our defense on her, even though that left other players open for threes. Alynna Williams ran the show, and was a pest on defense- she hassled the ballhandler coming upcourt, and most of our guards were extremely uncomfortable with the pressure. That’s going to be a problem unless someone other than Kaela can handle pressure.

The Rams’ upperclassmen give them the confidence to be sure that they’re never out of a game- they kept the game closer than it had any right to be until the fourth quarter. I don’t know where they’re predicted to finish in their conference, but I think they’ll surprise people.

So many reserves! This is a luxury to which I am not accustomed! I don’t know if I can deal! Who am I kidding, of course I can deal. Kaity Healy and Tyeisha Smith didn’t play until very close to the end of the game- Tony put them in right around the times we were thinking about getting the band to start the appropriate chant. I don’t think Tye wanted to dodge the billion by getting a foul, but at least Kaity had a rebound. I don’t know if Kimi Evans’s mobility is an issue or if she’s just not used to the three-second rule. (Apparently some states don’t have that in high school.) I need her to finish better at the rim, but it’s only the first game, so I guess I can deal with that. Deja Winters was mostly a three-point specialist from the corners. I like her three-point shot, but I don’t like when it’s the only thing she does.

The most worrisome takeaway from this game was JaQuan Jackson’s shooting. I don’t know if we need Quanny to be the offensive workhorse the way we did last year, but that’s not the problem. The problem is that Quanny’s defense is predicated on being in the flow of her offense; when her head’s not in the game offensively, she’s not mentally there as much on defense either. That’s a problem. If that’s the approach she took to this game, it’s no wonder Tony brought her off the bench. I love Selena Philoxy’s rebounding. Dare I say, her moxie? I get the feeling that’s going to be a very common piece of wordplay during her Seton Hall career. She needs to work on her free throw shooting, and her shot needs to be stronger (whether that’s upper body conditioning or work with a shooting coach, I don’t know). But it’s going to be fun to watch her versus Maya Singleton during the Awkward Bowl. Shadeen Samuels had herself a day. The jumper isn’t necessarily there, but she did work on the breakaway. I love watching her at the basket. I don’t know how to say it, other than I just really enjoy watching Shadeen play. Inja Butina was a good defensive floor general. She wasn’t looking for her shot until late in the game, but that might just be okay. I really enjoyed watching her on defense, though- she’s caught up to the team pretty quickly and taken a strong leadership role.

I’m concerned about Jayla Jones-Pack and her propensity to commit stupid fouls. Tony had to juggle the lineups a lot in the first half because she picked up two early ones, and this is not of the good. While we have a lot of players who can do work in the middle, she’s the only true center we’re carrying right now, and that’s important. Her rebounding is inconsistent- she can be strong and ferocious on one play, and let the ball bounce off her hands the next. Taylor Brown did some work on the offensive glass- going up for putbacks with power and doing work down low. If I knew the circumstances behind her transfer from WKU better, I’d know whether waving the rally towel for her baskets would be an appropriate shoutout, or if it would bring back bad memories. I already think it’s a damn shame we’re only getting one year of Donnaizha Fountain. Why did you waste time fiddling around with Georgia Tech and Temple when you could have been doing awesome things at Seton Hall the whole time? Maybe today was a fluke, but from what I saw today, I’m completely in love with her game- her defense, her offense, her ability to fix broken plays, everything. She’s got fantastic energy on the bench (there was a sequence near the end of the game where she was egging the band on to get the “DE-FENSE!” chant going). Worth the price of admission, and not just on days when there’s no tickets.

I don’t think Tony and Nicole Jimenez are on the same page yet. I do think they’re at least in the same book, but she still seems to be trying to reconcile the “go-go-go” attitude Tony usually has to offense with the need to slow it down at the ends of quarters. I like her passing, and I like her three-point shot, but there were a couple of moments where it was clear she didn’t want to shoot into taller defenders, or that she couldn’t see an opportunity over the defender. Kaela Hilaire has made it abundantly clear that she doesn’t believe offensive players are entitled to personal space. I lke this philosophy. I’m not so sure about her driving late in the game when Kaity and Tyeisha were boht open on the wing and might have wanted baskets, though. Didn’t help that she missed the lay-up, either. I like Kaela, but sometimes I have to wonder about her judgment. And it weirds me out that she can go from 0 to 60 on defense in the space of a couple of possessions; yes, on one hand, she doesn’t believe the opponent has any right to personal space, but sometimes she’ll back off way too early on drives. I don’t get it.

Not to say I got into the game or anything, but I banged my clipboard against the bleachers so hard one of the pens in there was pulverized, almost literally in the sense of being reduced to dust.

Traveling seems to be a point of emphasis, at least in the preseason. Lots of calls that weren’t being made in previous years. I don’t think I like this.

Note to self: find out where Seton Hall gets their pizza and make sure never to order from there. Postgame meal was in the Walsh lobby, and the pizza looked burned and cheap.

This looks like it could be a fun and interesting year. I’m okay with this.

Also, the vodka sauce at Stony’s is amaaaaaaazing, and the burgers are always good.