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Following Thursday night’s 22-point victory over Columbia, the Seton Hall Pirates jumped on a plane early Friday morning for Hawaii. The Pirates will be participating in the Fox Sports Pearl Harbor Invitational at Bloch Arena in Honolulu. The Hall will be joined by three other teams: Hawaii, California and Princeton, and will be playing two games out on the island.
The first coming against Hawaii on Tuesday night, and the second game coming Wednesday night against Cal.
After a successful season which included an upset over 4th-seed California in last year’s NCAA Tournament, Hawaii enters a rebuilding year. The Warriors are currently 4-3 with their best win coming against Florida Atlantic, who is ranked 239th in the nation according to KenPom.com.
California is led by one of the nation’s premier power forwards in Ivan Rabb. The Golden Bears are currently 6-1, with their lone loss coming at the hands of San Diego State. Coming into the season, Cal was expected to be a top team in the Pac-12. However this squad has not been at 100 percent for much of the early part of the season due to injuries to key players Jabari Bird and Kameron Rooks.
How to Watch, Listen, Stream
(Game 1 vs. Hawaii)
Game Time: 9:30 p.m. ET
TV: Fox Sports 1 (Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery)
Streaming: Fox Sports Go (where available)
Radio: WMCA 570, Sirius Ch. 132
KenPom Prediction
KenPom predicts the Pirates to defeat Hawaii 76-66.
Game 2 vs. California
Game Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: Fox Sports 1 (Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery)
Radio: WMCA 570, Sirius channel 132
Streaming: Fox Sports Go (where available)
KenPom Prediction
KenPom says the Pirates defeat California in a close one, 70-69.
What to Watch For
How the Pirates Play on the Road
So far this season it has been difficult to get a good read on the Pirates’ ability to play on the road. The first road game of the season was a success as the Pirates defeated Iowa, but the Hawkeyes are a struggling team right now and that does not appear to be a big win to this point.
Down in the AdvoCare Invitational in Florida, the Pirates’ performance was rather concerning as they seemed unfocused and unprepared for their game, mainly against Stanford.
What will we see? Will we see a team who learned their lesson from Florida and is ready to play focused basketball? Or will we see the unfocused Pirate team we saw against Stanford?
Continued Ball Movement and Scoring
Clearly Seton Hall, is a difficult opponent to stop when these two things are going. Last game demonstrated that even though it was against a much lesser opponent, the ability to move the ball and have multiple players score is how the Pirates will receive productive offense.
Containing Cal’s Bigs
Regardless of if 7-foot-2 center Kameron Rooks is ready for action Wednesday night, 6-foot-11 power forward Ivan Rabb will force The Hall’s bigs to have their hands full. Rabb was a potential lottery pick as a freshman last year but decided to return for his sophomore year. He has been putting up great numbers so far, averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds per game.
One would think the Pirates will put Ish Sanogo on Rabb with Angel Delgado and Michael Nzei getting him as an assignment throughout the game. This will be a very important matchup to take care of since Cal has some injuries. The battle in the paint may very well decide the outcome of this game.