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The Seton Hall Pirates and the Marquette Golden Eagles will face off on Sunday afternoon for a New Year’s Day meeting at the Prudential Center in Newark. For both squads, this will be their second game of Big East play.
The Hall will look to bounce back after losing their first Big East game to Creighton 89-75, while MU was victorious in defeating Georgetown on the road in D.C. 76-66.
How to Watch, Listen and Stream
Time: 4:30 p.m. ET
TV: Fox Sports 1
Radio: WSOU 89.5, AM 970, 540 ESPN
Stream: Fox Sports Go (where available)
All Time Series
These two teams have played one another dating all the way back to 1956, Marquette leads the series 15-5.
Gamblin’ Info
(via OddsShark)
Spread: Seton Hall opened as a 1-point favorite. The line bumped to 3 in their favor.
Records ATS: Marquette 7-6 | Seton Hall 5-7
O/U: 156
Three Things to Watch
Seton Hall’s Offense
In the Pirates’ first conference game against Creighton, they were able to keep up offensively early on. But as the game progressed and Creighton adjusted, Seton Hall’s offense became stagnant. Many possessions (especially in the second half) were wasted as CU was able to neutralize offensive threat Angel Delgado in the paint, and cut off dribble-drive penetration which is a major key to their weave offense.
Desi Rodriguez was able to hit off balance shots and long range 3-point jumpers late in the shot clock to bail the Pirates out of difficult situations. In order for the team to have offensive production there will need to be multiple scorers and the Pirates cannot rely on an isolation offense.
Marquette’s Shooting
According to KenPom, Marquette is the 10th best team in the nation in effective field goal percentage, shooting 57.3 percent per game. It will be crucial for the Pirates defense to force turnovers and difficult shots. Seton Hall quite simply may not have the offensive consistency to keep up with Marquette's scoring if the defense cannot make consistent stops.
Free Throws
I sound like a broken record. I feel as though in every game preview for Seton Hall, free throws comes up. That is because they will be very important in deciding the outcome of any close Seton Hall game. MU is the second best team in the nation from the line shooting 81 percent. The Pirates meanwhile shoot an embarrassing 61.5 percent, which ranks them 331st in the nation. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out if the game comes down to the charity stripe, Marquette will win.