January 21st, 2018: St. John's at Seton Hall

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Seton Hall came out energized and scrappy, and defended home court against St. John's, 62-57. Inja Butina had a team-high 15 points for the Pirates, while JaQuan Jackson added 14 points and eight rebounds. Alisha Kebbe had 15 to lead St. John's.

For the return of the awkward (you know what it is, what it does, what it is, what it isn't), parenthetical asides, hugging, not listening, oblique references to foul language, SERIOUSLY JUST LISTEN ALREADY, and showing the colors, join your intrepid and somewhat frustrated blogger after the jump.


And here we go. It's the most awkward time of the year, the one that happens twice a year: the Awkward Bowl, where I sit behind the St. John's bench and make as much noise as Joe will let me, and my husband sits across from the Seton Hall bench and makes as much noise as is humanly possible.

Why, yes, this is around the time of year when I really don't like Tony Bozzella all that much. He's gotten us into some fine messes indeed.

Looking at schedules, I've finally figured out why the trip to Seton Hall is so complicated- the MTA doesn't play nice with PATH, and PATH doesn't play nice with the 31 bus. None of them interact properly!

Well, we are here. Seton Hall is either hiding half the team or they're short-handed. I've heard rumors but I'll wait for the game to start before attempting to confirm them. But Taylor Brown is in a t-shirt and sweatpants, and I've heard that she's injured. And I don't think Donnaizha Fountain is available.

The dreadlocks really work for Kaela Hilaire when they're down. I'm so used to seeing them tied up.

I don't care who you're with or who you know, you lose the moral high ground on sartorial choices when you show up to a Seton Hall-St. John's game in a Rutgers shirt.

Seton Hall certainly seems to have turned out the youth teams.

Seton Hall's band is better than the one at St. John's. I'm willing to admit that. Now I have to go find a marching band version of "Confident" to add to my music collection.

Alumnae everywhere. Seton Hall did a ceremony for theirs, though the only ones I recognized were Chizoba Ekedigwe and Shakena Richardson (and welcoming Kena is a bit disingenuous, since she works for the team). Lubirdia Gordon's in the stands as well, though I don't know why she didn't want to be acknowledged as an alumna. Maybe it was a classwork thing? Kendyl Nunn and Danaejah Grant are behind the bench for the Johnnnies. I didn't recognize Danaejah with the new do.

Alisha Kebbe's family is also in the house, and I'm pretty certain Q and Machi's family turned out. Staten Island's not that far, after all.

I would love to give you juicy tidbits from behind the bench, but Joe swears more than I do. I recognize this is a statement of dubious value to the average GNoD reader, as I make a point of not using foul language here, but if you know me on Twitter, or on Reb's, or have heard me talk in real life, you know I swear like a sailor. The prevailing theme of his commentary is that the team needs to run plays instead of doing their own thing. I'm not quite sure why he's emphasizing this so thoroughly to Sox, but I understand his frustration. Seton Hall likes to live in your head, and if you're taking stupid shots, they've done their job.

All right, fine, the halftime score is 24-21 Seton Hall, are you happy now? Because I'm not. We're taking stupid shots and not capitalizing on Seton Hall's mistakes.

Well, that was also a thing that happened. Having freshmen guards in key positions can come back to bite you sometimes. We were not ready and we were not up, and Seton Hall played like a weight had been lifted from their shoulders. I don't think we were expecting them to be quite so carefree and loose, especially without an offensively dominant player like Fountain. Their freshmen shone, and ours didn't. Emphatically.

Kayla Charles came in, dropped a monster block, made a mistake, crushed a player, and that was the last we saw of her. I might have gone with her more in the second half; at least she'd have an excuse to make the mistakes we were getting out of the post. It's not like anything much worse could have happened. Akina Wellere was full of boneheaded mistakes, whether they were stupid fouls or not knowing the position of her feet relative to the endline (yes, we had a fabulous rebounding chance lost because her heel was on the line, and I just slapped a metal pillar at rage in the memory, and now my palm stings as much as my pride). She was hesitant at the wrong times and rushing headlong at the wrong times, and I expect better from her in the second semester of junior year. Andrayah Adams hit some nice shots in the lane, and I like how tight her defense has become, but she's got to exercise better judgment. Recognize how the game is being called, especially when you're the player being fouled; when KK is getting called for reaching on you, you're going to get called for reaching on her.

(It's postgame. Shadeen Samuels is rocking a Pirate blue tie like the Sorting Hat just put her in Ravenclaw. She makes the expensive preppy look work.)

Imani Littleton does not have the excuses of youth that Kayla Charles would have had. You've got to hit those open lay-ups, and you've got to be more cautious with the ball if you're a four-year senior. She had trouble hanging on to the ball, especially against Seton Hall's quick hands. Maya Singleton tried to force too much in double and triple-teams. I think she came in expecting one defense, got another one, and was ready neither for the size of Kimi Evans or the quick hands of Selena Philoxy. And once those first couple of shots didn't fall, she was trying way, way too hard to make something happen. You've got to go with the flow sometimes, and chucking the first shot that comes to mind is not always a good plan.

Coach was extremely unhappy with the guards today. Tiana England was especially good at drawing f-bombs out of him, because she was pretty much doing whatever she felt was appropriate out there, instead of following the plays that were being called (there was at least one possession where Joe muttered something along the lines of "I was trying to call a play," only with a colorful adjective inserted in front of "play"). I think Seton Hall got into her head early and she had no way to play her way out of it, and she fell into old habits to try and get out of it. Qadashah Hoppie drew the first shot at the unenviable task of guarding JaQuan Jackson. It went about as well as you would expect the match-up of a crafty redshirt senior and an erratic freshman to go. We tried a lot of different looks on Quanny. Most of them were less than effective. I think Q showed better awareness of time and score than T did, but both of them have got to learn to listen and run the play instead of freelancing. Alisha Kebbe was up and down- she hit big threes in the second half to keep us in the game (and I still think the shot they called a two was a three, don't @-me) and made a lot of hustle plays, but was occasionally careless with the ball. That being said, she probably had the best game for any St. John's player out there. That's not saying much.

Sometimes improvising is the right move. But you should at least try to run the play instead of chucking the first shot that comes available. Qadashah, Tiana, and Maya all fell into that trap. You have to know time and score, and most of the team had a problem with that (except Q, to some degree). Stop, collaborate, and listen!

(Why do I always end up in the same train car as the jerk who can't figure out what the little "no smoking" pictogram means?)

Kaity Healy was used to give someone a breather near the end of the quarter, not for any meaningful strategic purpose. Nicole Jimenez was one of the few gun-shy Pirates in this one, and I think her hesitation cost her. Given what they were getting from KK and Lena, I'm not surprised that neither 'Cole nor Jayla Jones-Pack got a lot of playing time. Jayla brought height, but not much else, and getting caught on a moving screen sealed her fate for the rest of the day, which sounds ominous when I put it like that. Let me rephrase it this way, then: both teams felt it was advantageous to go smaller, and for those times when they didn't, Seton Hall got what they needed from Kimi Evans.

Kaela Hilaire was up in everyone's business, as she does. I think I've discussed her distaste for the concept of the opponent having personal space before. The officials were calling it pretty tight on touch fouls, much to her dismay. I'm pretty sure KK believes she's never committed a foul in her life. She was full speed ahead at all times, and that led to both a lot of steals and a lot of turnovers when she lost control of the ball. Sometimes these happened in the same sequence. She took the ball to the rack and got free throws or put up floaters. She had a beautiful no-look pass to Jayla that Jayla blew the lay-up on, and I mean, come on, even I wanted that to go down, because you can't waste a pass like that. Selena Philoxy was one of the biggest keys to Seton Hall's victory. She's faster than her build makes her look, and her hands were everywhere. She forced steals out on the perimeter, where I don't think St. John's was expecting her to be, and went after every loose ball. She jolted rebounds loose and took them herself. This was probably the best game I've seen her have so far in her career, and even though I was rooting for St. John's today, I'm still so happy for her. Queens girls gotta stick together, you know? And so do public school kids.

(This is probably why I also have a soft spot for KK.)

Kimi Evans was big defensively, and I don't mean that just because of her build. She slapped down shots and protected the rim. She kept Maya from doing the things Maya wanted to do on offense, and that did wonders for stymieing the Red Storm's attack. She needs to work on her screen setting, because she got caught moving once or twice. But having an active, reasonably mobile, center who's wiling to do the little things to facilitate an offense does wonders for the rest of the team. Spaces open up and second chance opportunities appear. Shadeen Samuels attacked the basket aggressively- a little too aggressively for stretches, as she got called for multiple charges. When she did get the shot off at the basket, it went in. But I think Tony was questioning the three-point attempt almost as much as I was. When she's on, she's so much fun to watch.

All non-conference season, Inja Butina didn't want to shoot the ball. Of course today is the day she decides that she's going to be a three-point assassin and have a big offensive outing. I think the original defensive plan for St. John's was to sag off her and double on other people, and we stuck to that plan even when she got hot. Sure, that's when y'all want to stick to the game plan. She was extremely careless with the ball, which negated a surprising amount of the good she did on offense; the slightest bit of pressure was almost always enough to make her cough it up, which is probably part of why Joe was so irate we weren't doing even that consistently. She was more than willing to return the favor on Tiana, though. Deja Winters had a rough shooting day. Having Qadashah Hoppie rotated onto her after trying and failing to contain JaQuan Jackson didn't help her case. She stayed active on defense, though, with one especially beautiful steal off Qadashah as she came up behind her to help. I think Quanny was the defender Q had her hands full with at the time, but don't hold me to it. JaQuan Jackson looked like her old self from last year, dominant and assertive on offense, and that renewed confidence flowed into the rest of her game. One of the biggest knocks I've always had on Quanny is that if her offense isn't working, nothing else about her game is working- but when she's confident in her slashing ability, and she's able to create space with the dribble, then she becomes more active in the passing lanes and more of an effective defender. Her energy was through the roof.

Some really egregious non-calls in this one. Akina, I respect the hustle, but you don't play for the Blackhawks, please stop trying to check people into the boards. There was a lot of gross contact being ignored while hand-checks were being called. One of the refs seemed to have a rather large chip on her shoulder, like she didn't want to be doing this game. I don't know what her deal was, but she needs to get over it.

The Seton Hall crowd got into it. I should be happy about that, as a fan who wants the game to grow, but I would have been happier if the St. John's contingent had at least made some attempt to answer. I miss the Jersey girls.

Has anyone else noticed more hugging in women's basketball? I'm a little weirded out by the hugging thing. I'm not the world's biggest hug person, but I'm not exactly going to turn down the companionable "thanks for supporting the squad" hug, no matter how "um, okay, I guess?" I am on the inside.

Brooklyn needs to not claim people who are Queens. Queens is Queens. (And we're also queens, but that's neither here nor there.)

We'll see how things go on the road for these two squads, but it looks like Seton Hall just demonstrated how the addition by subtraction thing works, and St. John's has got to straighten out the communication issues.