Stress fractures

Sporting News, The, Feb 19, 2001 by Steve Politi

Seton Hall's season is coming apart because its blue-chip freshmen aren't with the veterans who fueled last season's breakthrough

It was August 9, 1999. Eddie Griffin sat in the library at Roman Catholic High, a row of TV cameras awaiting his announcement. The Philadelphia star was about to shock college basketball, picking Seton Hall--not favored North Carolina.

Back in South Orange, N.J., Pirates coach Tommy Amaker uncorked a bottle of champagne. And why not celebrate? Griffin, a 6-9 potential NBA lottery pick, was joining 5-8 point guard Andre Barrett and 6-6 small forward Marcus Toney-El, giving Amaker one of the best recruiting classes in the nation. It was a Duke-quality class at an unlikely place. Seton Hall was back on the map.

"I expect a national championship during our four years," Toney-El said that day as he watched his future teammate pull on a Seton Hall cap. "I expect an NCAA bid our freshman year, the Sweet 16 our sophomore year. And junior and senior year ... heck, we may win back-to-back national titles."

The Pirates landed on the covers of national magazines last fall and started the season ranked in the top 10. Now, people are wondering if these freshmen, just 21 games into their first season at Seton Hall, deserved all the hype.

All three struggled as Seton Hall lost four straight games, three of them to the bottom-feeders of the Big East (including an inexcusable 70-64 home loss to rival Rutgers, which hadn't won a league game in eight previous tries). Instead of reaching new heights, the Pirates, who have dropped seven of 10 conference games and are 12-9 overall, are one of the most disappointing teams in college basketball and an NCAA Tournament bubble team at best

"We don't share the ball, we don't play defense, we don't have any camaraderie," Toney-El says. "I question our heart fight now."

It seemed Seton Hall would complete a remarkable turnaround this season.

Amaker inherited a 10-18 team when he took over four years ago, and last March, the Pirates shocked fifth-ranked Temple in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16. It looked like the beginning of a great run. When the media picked them to win their division in the Big East, Amaker embraced the challenge. The Pirates seemed bulletproof, and no one expected that to change.

It did. It started in December, when the young Pirates opened a 21-point lead at Illinois. But the Illini stormed back. The 87-79 overtime loss seemed to sap the confidence from the Pirates. They nearly lost to a winless Penn team at home, struggled in nonconferenee victories against the likes of Hartford and Central Connecticut State. Then, in their first Big East road game, the Pirates split in half.

During a timeout in a sloppy, awful effort against Georgetown, Griffin angrily stared at backup guard Ty Shine for failing to pass him the ball. Later, behind dosed doors, Griffin slugged Shine as he changed at his locker stall. Toney-El tried to break up the fight. But a little-used reserve, senior forward Kevin Wilkins, hit Toney-El when he thought the incident was turning into a two-against-one brawl.

"That's just something you'll never, ever forget," says Shine, who considered quitting the team. "But hopefully we can move on from it and learn from it."

It became more than just teammate against teammate. It became freshmen against upper-classmen. The players deny this but admit to a big-time chemistry problem. "We don't trust each other," Barrett says.

Amaker met with all the players and told them to write their names on a dry-erase board if they believed in the team. Everyone signed. But after beating Notre Dame in their next game, the Pirates lost six of their next seven, and nothing seemed to have changed.

Shine was unhappy long before Griffin's fist met his cheek. He was the star of the team's nm to the Sweet 16, scoring 26 points to lead the Pirates to that tournament upset against Temple. Three preseason magazines put Shine on the cover, and the junior guard thought a starting job was his to lose. Instead, it was Barrett's from the start. Shine wasn't the only player displaced when the big-time recruiting class arrived. Greg Morton, a sophomore forward who started 28 games the previous season, lost his job to Griffin. Samuel Dalembert is still a starter, but the sophomore center isn't the defensive force he was as a freshman.

Charles Manga, a junior center who started 11 games last season and 30 as a freshman, saw his minutes vanish with the new frontcourt depth. Few observers would question that Amaker is starting the right players, but that doesn't mean there weren't hard feelings.

"Off the court, to be honest, I don't think there's a problem," junior guard Darius Lane says. "Off the floor, we're real good friends. But when we get on the floor, things change."

On the court, the Pirates often are selfish and make bad decisions. After a loss at West Virginia, Amaker called his offense "frenetic" and said those quick shots put pressure on the defense. The Pirates gave up more than 70 points in seven of their first eight Big East games. In contrast, they gave up that total just four times in 18 Big East games last season.