I. Pros for Seton Hall
A. Isaiah Whitehead - The kid is playing off the charts right now. This the the kind of player that can take you to an Elite Eight and even a Final Four. The comparisons to Kemba Walker and the UConn championship team are legitimate.
He is going to go for at least 20 and probably 25. You can write that down. He was the Big East's most outstanding player and the Zags guards will not be able to stop him. It was because of him that the Pirates won the Big East Championship.
Now, what counters can we offer against Whitehead? Clearly, he must be neutralized somewhat. The Zags have 4 days to prepare for him. I trust, that with the Zags tournament experience (18th straight) and their coach can find ways to at a minimum, contain Whitehead enough to sneak by with a victory.
Con #1 for Whitehead - You can't gameplan against a player like this in the conference tournament which plays every night. This, a first round game, provides the maximum amount of time to strategize for Whitehead.
Con #2 for Whitehead - Sometimes he takes too many shots and worse, they are low percentage shots. When they fall for him, he's the king of the court. And they've been falling of late.
But these aren't the cozy confines of Madison Square Garden. This is in Denver in the thin air out west in the biggest of all professional tournaments. That's a ton of pressure. Worse it's against a very seasoned Zags team that will have a defense to slow him down.
He is going to have to perform at optimal levels to help Seton Hall win and that is a tall order in this spot. If his shots are not falling early, SH will be in trouble. Plus, he's never driven inside on the type of size Gonzaga has, remitting him more to an outside game where, for the season, he has shot 38%.
B. Kadeem Carrington/Angel Delgado/Ismael Sanogo - The other three gems for SH. Carrington is a childhood friend of Whitehead so the familiarity they have with each other is invaluable. Delgado is a center and a double double machine. Sanogo is allegedly going to stop the Zags' bigs.
Con #1 - Delgado and Sanogo have never had to handle giants like Sabonis and Wiltjer of Gonzaga.
When Sabonis touches the ball, he scores. He takes 55.8% of his shots at the rim and hits 72.5% of them. He is one of the most skilled players on the team and by far the most efficient.
These guys are giants. I keep hearing the Seton Hall frontcourt has the ability to contain the Zags frontcourt but what is this based on? Wishful thinking?
The Big East is a guard heavy league and the performance of the SH frontcourt has been buffered by the fact their competition has been so inadequate there. I believe the only way they could possibly contain the Zags frontcourt is to get them in foul trouble. Otherwise, they will take you apart down low like they have virtually everyone else.
C. Seton Hall plays great perimeter defense.
It's true. But I will provide a con later on their three point defense (a key factor in this game).
D. Seton Halls guards will dominate the Zags guards.
In terms of talent, the Zags guards are far behind what Seton Hall has. But, and this is key, the Zags just got through St. Mary's for the conference championship, a guard heavy team so they have a blueprint for success against SH. You absolutely need conditioning in prior games to win a game like this and the Zags just got that.
I can assure you, the same is not true for Seton Hall as the Big East just doesn't have the frontcourts to replicate what Gonzaga will present.
In addition (and this is for those betting on Seton Hall solely because of the guard mismatch): Gonzaga's backcourt has heated up from the outside in the tournament:
Josh Perkins hit 46.3% of his threes in the tournament.
Kyle Dranginis shot 42.4% from 3. And Eric McClellan shot 7-13 from 3 in three games.
If the Zags pound it down low and kick it out for threes away from double teams, and hit those threes, they will be extremely hard to beat even with all the talent Seton Hall's backcourt has.
Excellent write up.
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