newjerseynewsroom.com

BY MATT SUGAM

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

NEWARK – It’s almost time to punch the “In Case of an Emergency Break Glass” on Seton Hall’s season and hit the panic button.

Two and a half weeks after being ranked No. 24 in the country, the Pirates now found themselves getting booed off their home floor.

“To hear the boos and see the fans leaving the arena, it was embarrassing for me,” Jordan Theodore said. “That hasn’t happened in my four years here.”

In the midst of a three game losing streak, Seton Hall looks far from the team that started the season 15-2.

And the worst performance in the three game span came last night when Notre Dame defeated Seton Hall 55-42.

“It was not the team at all that was 15-2,” Theodore said.

No, it wasn’t. That’s mainly due to the play of Theodore and fellow senior Herb Pope. In Seton Hall’s 15-2 start, the dynamic duo were playing like first team All-Big East players. The last three games, both have been a nonfactor.

“I’ve said this all year long, we’re only going to be as good as those two guys play,” head coach Kevin Willard said. “They’ve been playing for most of the year very well and they haven’t played very well these last couple games, and that’s why we’ve struggled.”

Theodore’s been one of the top assist men in the country but would notch only a single helper against Notre Dame. Pope would go 2-of-16 from the field, missing a bunch of easy layups and put backs.

“I can’t have any more bad games. I’ve had three in a row,” Theodore said. “As a team, this team is going to go as far as me and Herb takes us and we’re going to have to pick it up cause we’re playing like [expletive] right now.”

The rest of the Hall’s offense was atrocious and the defense wasn’t much better. Seton Hall shot 26.3 percent from the field. They didn’t break the 20 point barrier until 4:45 in to the second half. The 42 points is the lowest scoring output since losing at Duke 90-43 on November 16, 2005.

“We missed a lot of shots early and had opportunities in front of the rim and we just didn’t make them,” Willard said. “We played a little bit flat on the offensive end.”

The Pirates (15-4, 4-4 Big East) loss to a streaky Fighting Irish (12-8, 5-3 Big East) squad comes after losing to two downtrodden teams in USF and Villanova.

“What are we 15-5 now?” Theodore said when asked about the three game skid. “And the crazy thing is, five losses isn’t even that bad. We’re still in position to make the [NCAA] Tournament; we’re still in position to do things in this conference. We just had a bad three game stretch and we’ll be fine coming into Saturday [against Louisville].”

With No. 25 Louisville coming to the Prudential Center, followed by a three game road trip at No. 18 Marquette, No. 19 UConn and archrival Rutgers, righting the ship becomes that much more urgent. And that starts on Saturday.

Theodore called the game vs. Louisville a must-win and he’s right. A fourth straight loss would cue the panic alarm to go off.

For more Seton Hall basketball coverage follow Matt on Twitter @MattSugam and on Facebook.