NEW YORK — The comments of a former New York City college basketball coach motivated young players from the Big Apple to step up on the big stage of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.
That’s how it went down Thursday night according to Seton Hall star Isaiah Whitehead.
“I heard that Steve Lavin said we wasn’t mature enough, but if you watch us down those last four minutes that looked like a mature team to me,” Whitehead said after going for 24 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 turnovers and 1 block in a thrilling 81-73 victory over Creighton that propelled No. 3 Seton Hall (22-8) into the semifinals on Friday night against No. 2 Xavier (27-4).
No. 1 Villanova (28-4) will meet Kris Dunn and No. 4 Providence (23-9) in the first semifinal at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. It marked the first time since 2007 that the top four seeds advanced to the semifinals.
“The coaches were telling us that Steve Lavin said that Creighton was going to win, that we’re not mature enough,” Whitehead added.
Lavin, the former St. John’s coach and current Fox Sports 1 analyst for the Big East, had said on air that Creighton’s changing defenses might present some challenges for a younger Pirates team.
In defense of Lavin, he has been supportive of coach Kevin Willard and the Pirates throughout the year. Ironically, Lavin recruited Whitehead to St. John’s before the Abraham Lincoln star ultimately chose Seton Hall in a perceived package deal with Lincoln coach Tiny Morton.
At any rate, the Pirates surely didn’t need Lavin’s comments as their only form of motivation.
They have been one of the hottest teams in the Big East in recent weeks, and were playing in front of a charged up crowd that saw Whitehead and fellow Brooklyn native Khadeen Carrington combine for 51 points, 15 rebounds and 7 assists.
“It felt a lot like home,” said Carrington, who went off for a career-best 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting, including 5-of-9 from deep to go with 3 steals. “We’re right over the bridge. Right next to New Jersey. A lot of us are from New York. So there was a lot of Pirates fans here. A lot of friends and a lot of family.”
From his time at Bishop Loughlin High School, Carrington has always been known more as a slasher and scorer and less as a pure shooter.
But he was stroking it pretty good against Creighton, which got a career-high 35 points and 9 rebounds from junior forward Cole Huff.
With the game tied at 73, Carrington scored the biggest bucket of the game when he knifed through the lane, jump-stopped and scooped in a lefty layup that put Seton Hall up for good, 75-73.
“They were taking away Zeke [Whitehead] the whole game basically,” Carrington said. “So I just tried to get in the lane. Tried to jump-stop. I jump-stopped a couple of times the first half, they called it traveling. I tried to jump-stop get set and go to my left hand, strong hand.”
Said Whitehead: “When he’s rolling like that, you just gotta keep feeding him the ball, feeding him the ball and that’s what we did.”
“He’s done this all year,” Pirates coach Kevin Willard said of Carrington. “He was the 12th-leading scorer in conference play this year. So nothing he does surprises me. This is what he’s done all year long. This is who he’s been. We’ve just been working with him a little bit just to be a little bit more aggressive without being too fancy. Sometimes he likes to get a little loose with the basketball. I thought tonight he was great. I thought he was aggressive. I thought he was efficient. And he made some big shots for us.”
While Willard was named Big East co-Coach of the Year and Whitehead was named to the All-Big East First Team, such honors have eluded the softspoken Carrington.
But he let his play do the talking on this night.
“I don’t really care about the overlooking part,” he said. “We were having a great season. Everybody has been doing well. Once everybody is doing well, the team gets accolades. Coach got an accolade. Isaiah got an accolade. Angel. As long as everybody wins that’s all that matters to me.”
Meantime, Whitehead continued the hard-nosed inspired play that has lifted his NBA Draft stock and propelled Seton Hall into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006.
Down the stretch, Whitehead made a series of critical plays that won the game.
He skied for a rebound on the offensive end but was fouled by Creighton big man Geoffrey Groselle, sending Whitehead crashing to the ground on the small of his back. He got up, grimaced, ran out near center court and then made two foul shots to give his team a 77-73 lead.
“I mean, my back is killing me right now,” Whitehead said with a smile in the locker room.
“It hurt but when I realized I had two free throws, I mean I just tried to zone it out as much as possible and step to the line and make free throws.”
Despite the pain in his lower back, Whitehead then elevated for a block of Creighton’s Maurice Watson and later leaped as high as he could to grab a defensive rebound that sealed the win.
Asked if he had ever skied higher for a rebound, he said, “I don’t think so. I just wanted more it than Creighton did and I just went and got it.”
Whitehead, Carrington and fellow sophomores Angel Delgado, Desi Rodriguez and Ismael Sanogo were part of a recruiting class that got Seton Hall where it is now, into the Big East semifinals and headed toward the NCAA Tournament next week.
“It’s exactly what I pictured,” Whitehead said. “Everybody really doubted us last year and we just really wanted to make a statement coming back this year and playing at a high level and I think we accomplished that a lot.”
He added: “I was feeling it, I think we all were. We just fed off of the crowd and we really made some big-time plays.”
Now all they need is some more bulletin board material from Steve Lavin.
