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BY MIKE VORKUNOV
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
NOTEBOOK
QUEENS, NY — All along the only thing that prevented Seton Hall from winning on the road in the Big East was a mental block. Something in their minds that prevented them from concentrating for a full 40 minutes. Whatever that was, it wasn't there last night.
"This is probably the best we focused for 40 minutes which is probably why we pulled out a road win for the first time," said Bobby Gonzalez of his teams' 59-50 win at St. John's.
All season long Gonzalez had noted that his team only played well in stretches, never for a whole game. Last night they changed that and it changed the outcome. Whether that could be attributed to a mental block that had gotten the best of them, well Jordan Theodore certainly thought so.
"I would say yeah because even though we had new guys to mix in and chemistry and all that but I would say this was the best game we played mentally," he said. "The bench was into it, we bought into what our coaching staff wanted us to do, it really felt good to go out there and get things done."Now that they got the first one out of the way, perhaps it can lead to more. Of course the next road game is Saturday at No. 8 West Virginia. But just having a win on the road is a freeing experience for the Pirates.
"It's definitely huge because just to get this one and now we have confidence going into West Virginia," said Theodore. "Since we got this one, we feel we can get the next one. This win was big for us because it carries us into our next one."
Theodore played the game with a turf toe that has been bothering him lately, but with fellow point guard Eugene Harvey unable to play due to a wrist injury, there was no chance he was missing the game.
As for the rest of the season, well the only medicine for the injury is the one he can least afford.
"It'll never be 100 percent because the only thing that's going to help my injury is time," said Theodore. "And we don't have that right now."
Coming into Wednesday night Bobby Gonzalez had drawn some headlines for what he said in 2008 that he wanted to play St. John's at Madison Square Garden and not Carnesecca Arena, where last night's game was played.
The New York Post's Lenn Robbins even invented a term to describe his feelings "Carnephobia".
But after coming away with a win last night, after two defeats in the past two years, Gonzalez explained why he spoke out about wanting to play in the Garden.
"We're Seton Hall, we're in the metropolitan area. Seton Hall and St. John's are charter members, they've been in the league playing each other in the Garden for 30 years," said the coach. "I think that's a special game. If we can't get 6-7,000 in the Garden for that game, that's tough. I know Cincinnati played them in the Garden this year, some other teams in the league played them in the Garden. And I just feel like, and I know Cincinnati has Lance Stephenson, but we're Seton Hall, we beat Cincinnati so we should get in the Garden. To just to be on the big stage. To be on Broadway. It's nothing against St. John's."
