The Seton Hall basketball television schedule has been announced, with the Pirates playing 10 games in front of a national audience.
The first nationally-televised game will be against LSU in the SEC/Big East challenge. The Tigers have been improving year by year and may be a tough early test for the Hall.
Conference games that will be televised nationally include Louisville on Jan. 9, Rutgers on Feb. 12, USF on Jan. 23, Cincinnati on Feb. 2, Pittsburgh on Feb. 4, and Villanova on Feb. 25. These games will be shown on ESPN2 and ESPNU.
These games will mostly be big-time tests for the Pirates. Louisville is a national title contender and will come out firing. The rivalry with Rutgers always get ugly, so no matter the quality of the teams, Seton Hall is in for a battle. South Florida has become a defensive powerhouse and a team that nicked the Pirates by one point last season. The Hall should be looking for vengeance. Cincinnati is going to be very good this year with the Bearcats returning most of their starters. Pitt has freshman Steven Adams, the seven-foot sensation from New Zealand. It will be fun to watch him and Gene Teague fight under the boards. Finally, although Villanova is not as good as most years, the Wildcats should prove a tough test.
Head coach Kevin Willard needs to take these games very seriously. They’re chances to show the nation just how good the Pirates really are. Last year, the committee snubbed them from the NCAA tournament. If they want in this year, the Hall needs to make some serious noise.
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