Seton Hall men’s basketball put the college basketball world on notice earlier this season by winning 10 of their 11 nonconference games, with two of those wins coming over Quad 1 opponents.
And now, after going 4-1 through their first five games of conference play, the Pirates (14-2, 4-1 BIG EAST) are finally getting the recognition from the Associated Press (AP) that they deserve.
On Monday, SHU debuted at No. 25 in the Week 10 AP Top 25 Men’s College Basketball Poll. This marks the program’s first national ranking since the 2021-22 season, when the Pirates, in Kevin Willard’s last year as head coach, were included in seven straight AP Polls, peaking as high as No. 15 in Week 8. They were last ranked in the week of Jan. 10, 2022, at No. 20.
Prior to Monday, The Hall had spent the past five weeks of polling from the outside looking in. SHU first received six votes in Week 5, which rose to 31 in Week 6, then 46 in Week 7, with them having jumped from effectively No. 38 to No. 28 in that three-week span. The Pirates have moved one position since then, spending both Weeks 8 and 9 as effectively No. 27.
What helped SHU finally crack the Top 25 was their win at Georgetown on Saturday night, which was the Pirates’ third-straight second half double-digit comeback. Trailing by as much as 11 points with 14 minutes left, The Hall came back to win the contest, 76-67, through the second-half play of starting guard Adam “Budd” Clark and six-man Tajuan Simpkins, with support coming from the rest of the bench as well.
The junior guard duo combined for 28 of SHU’s 47 second half points, with Simpkins scoring 15 of his 17 total points in the second half alone. After Georgetown gained their largest lead, the Elon transfer went on a 8-0 scoring run of his own to cut the deficit to three points with 12 minutes left, setting up the Pirates to take their first lead of the game since its opening seconds just a few minutes later.
Clark likewise scored 13 total points in the second half, finishing the game with a game- and season-high 22 points on 6-for-12 (50%) shooting from the field and 10-for-12 (83%) from the line. He contributed six points and one assist during a 13-0 run for the Pirates a few minutes after Simpkins’ 8-0 run that gave them a lead that they held on to until the final buzzer.
Selected to the All-MAAC First Team with Merrimack College last season, Clark’s performance was good enough to earn him his second BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll award of the season.
Clark and the Pirates also benefited from what was a chaotic week in college basketball, which saw nearly every team ranked No. 18 or worse in last week’s poll suffer a loss. Conference rival Villanova, who was one spot ahead of the Pirates in Week 9 at effectively No. 26, suffered a tough loss to Creighton on Wednesday, then almost fell to a struggling Marquette team on Saturday (both teams that SHU had beaten week prior). No. 25 UCF likewise fell, then survived a close one in their first two games of BIG 12 play, while No. 24 SMU went 0-2 on the week in the ACC after having beat No. 12 North Carolina the week prior. Other teams like No. 22 Kansas, No. 21 Tennessee and No. 20 Louisville also suffered losses this week, allowing for SHU, who has yet to lose in the new year, to crack the Top 25.
In addition to their spot in this week’s AP Poll, The Hall also improved from No. 39 to No. 38 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, or “NET.” The NET is a far more complicated ranking-system that takes into account game results, strength of schedule and the quality of wins and losses, among other things, rather than an aggregate of votes from sportswriters and journalists, and is important for NCAA Tournament selection and seeding come March.
The Hall’s ranking marks an incredible turnaround for a program that just last year would have been lucky to receive even a single vote to the AP Poll, with them winning a program-low seven of 32 total games. This year’s team surpassed last season’s win total through just nine games, then doubled it with their win over Georgetown on Saturday through 16 games.
The No. 25 Pirates will have a chance to defend their national ranking on Tuesday at the Prudential Center, when they host the UConn Huskies (16-1, 6-0 BIG EAST), who moved to No. 3 in the poll after spending the last two weeks at No. 4.
On the surface, the game seems like a bigger challenge for The Hall—but in reality it's the Huskies who have their work cut out for them. For all of the success they’ve had in the last five years, UConn has lost to SHU in their last four trips to Newark, having not won at the Prudential Center since 2021. SHU will look to make it five-straight visits where UConn leaves the Garden State empty-handed on Tuesday in a battle between the only teams in the BIG EAST to be ranked this season.
Zachary Mawby is the head editor of The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at zachary.mawby@student.shu.edu.
