The Holy Land of Hoops

Per Alex Kline on Twitter, Sterling Gibbs of Seton Hall is on his way out and will be eligible right away. Did Willard's seat just catch a whole lot more heat? I think so.

Just when you think that Kevin Willard can't possibly do anything dumber... he goes ahead and does something like this.

And TOTALLY redeems himself!

I kid, I kid. Terrible for the Hall. Hopefully, they make a change after next season (Dan Hurley, cough, cough).

I'm not surprised. A number of Seton Hall fans posted that it was likely to happen given what was going on behind the scenes.

I think this is good for SHU actually. after all the locker room issue and arch incidence he would've meant more distraction. gibbs, sina, mobley all disappointed. time to start fresh with a new core of players and they have a godd one with IW, carrington and delgado.

Anyone who knew what was REALLY going on inside the Seton Hall program knew he was leaving. He almost left when Sina did. That some gullible folks actually believed him when he said at the end of the season that he was staying was truly hilarious. He was NEVER staying. Never, ever, ever.

I truly hope that once he and Sina get to their new schools and have Seton Hall far in their rear-view mirrors they tell the truth about what really has gone on in Kevin Willard's program. If you only knew...

BEhomer wrote:I think this is good for SHU actually. after all the locker room issue and arch incidence he would've meant more distraction. gibbs, sina, mobley all disappointed. time to start fresh with a new core of players and they have a godd one with IW, carrington and delgado.

Disagree. Gibbs was seton hall's best player.Don't think this helps them.

Rumor I was hearing a couple months back was that Gibbs would end up at UConn (because they've never had a clutch as hell senior guard before or anything). Several reports in the last 24 hours also suggesting the Huskies are favorites to land him.

I guess the positive side is that, unless the freshman (soon to be sophomore) class pulls a miracle and gets this team to the dance, there's no way The Hall can justify keeping Willard around after next year, right? Right?!

It's interesting- we've been talking about how depleted St John's roster is- but what about Seton Hall...

Just looking at Ken Pom- they had 12 players listed on their roster...

of those 12- 5 are gone- Gibbs, Mobley, Manga, Sina, and Karlis...

of the 7 back- 3 are
Rashed Anthony who scored 26 points this year
Ismael Sanoga who scored 9 points this year in 18 games
Chier Ajou who scored 3 points in 10 games...

Sounds pretty thin to me.

Interestingly...Yahoo Sports named Marquette as a possible suitor (just speculation on their part as far as I know). Is there a graduate student exception to the no intra-conference transfer rule? Or does the writer just have no clue what he's talking about?

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/seton-hall-transfer-sterling-gibbs-will-have-a-long-list-of-suitors-201421145.html

hoyahooligan wrote:
Disagree. Gibbs was seton hall's best player.Don't think this helps them.

Disagree with your disagreement.

During the 8 conference games in which Seton Hall did not have Whitehead:
Average offensive rating - 1.05
Average defensive rating - 1.07
Sterling Gibbs' average offensive rating - 1.17

During the 11 conference games after Whitehead's return:
Average offensive rating - 0.98
Average defensive rating - 1.14
Sterling Gibbs' average offensive rating - 1.02

part of Seton Hall's drop in offensive efficiency was Whitehead simply returning because he was not efficient offensively this year. However, the precipitous drop in their defensive efficiency paired with Gibbs' drop-off in offensive production and issues that he suddenly started having both on the court and in the locker room, it appeared to me to be a pretty toxic situation. Based on Williard's decision to bring on Tiny Morton in order to get Whitehead, as well as to help get Delgado, Rodriguez and Carrington, it's kind of a no brainer on Gibbs being the guy to leave. It should improve the environment in the locker room, but how much that helps the Pirates on-court performance remains to be seen.