Butler faces another ranked team in Seton Hall (Jan 06, 2018)
Seton Hall senior center Angel Delgado draws a lot of attention in the paint. After all, he is the NCAA active leader with 61 double-doubles, including 11 this season.
The 6-foot-10 Delgado averages 13.7 points and 11.5 rebounds. But his passing is key to the team's success as well.
In the team's last outing, the Pirates hit 13 3-pointers against St. John's in a 75-70 victory.
"It was crazy because every time I looked I saw seven people on me," Delgado told the Asbury Park Press. "It was kind of tough because every double-team, triple-team, you've just go to burn it and that's what I did. There were so many guys focused on me there was a lot of 3s going in. When you've got those type of shooters, and I'm a good passer, that's just burning teams."
Heading into Saturday's game against Butler (12-4, 2-1 Big East) in Indianapolis, senior forward Desi Rodriguez leads the balanced attack of the No. 21 Pirates (13-2, 2-0) with an 18.6 average. Sophomore guard Myles Powell averages 14.7 points and senior guard Khadeen Carrington is right behind at 14.1 points per game.
The Pirates have won nine of their last 10 games, including four in a row. Seton Hall is looking to move to 3-0 in Big East play for the first time since the 1998-99 season.
Butler will face its third Top 25 opponent in a row. After host Butler upset then-No. 1 Villanova 101-93 last Saturday, the Bulldogs lost at No. 5 Xavier 86-79 on Tuesday night.
"We've got a lot of toughness to us, a lot of grit to us," Butler coach LaVall Jordan said after the hard-fought loss to Xavier.
However, he would like to see his players work harder on getting to the free-throw line.
In its four losses, opponents have made more free throws than Butler attempted. That was a huge issue in Butler's loss to Xavier. The Musketeers were 24 of 37 from the foul line while the Bulldogs were 6 of 8.
"We want to get in the paint more because we're a good foul-shooting team," Bulldogs senior forward Kelan Martin told the Indianapolis Star. "Once we get in the paint, sometimes defenses collapse and we can kick it out. But sometimes we just try to make a play, try to get them up in the air, pump fake, do what we have to do just to get a foul and get to the free-throw line more."
Martin, who was named the Big East Player of the Week for last week's showing, when he averaged a team-high 19.3 points.
Jordan said having an aggressive mindset will help the Bulldogs get to the foul line more.
"We've got to go to the glass a little harder and I think we can look to drive the ball to the rim in transition," Jordan said. "That should help us get a few more easy shots or foul shots. We have a good free-throw shooting team (74.7 percent)."
The Bulldogs, who are 9-0 at home this season, lead the series with the Pirates 7-2. Each team won on the other's home floor last season. The Pirates rallied to top Butler 70-64 in last season's regular season finale
Seton Hall's bench features sophomore guard Eron Gordon, from Cathedral High School in Indianapolis. Gordon's older brother, Eric, plays for the Houston Rockets.
