NEWARK — Every year, it seems, Jordan Theodore watches his friends and former teammates play in the NCAA Tournament.
A year ago, he watched on TV as his former Gauchos teammates Darryl “Truck” Bryant of West Virginia and Kemba Walker of UConn both went dancing.
Bryant lost in the second round to Kentucky, while Walker led the Huskies all the way past a national semifinal semifinal with Kentucky and to the NCAA championship.
“It hurts every year being knocked out and then I’m watching my best friends play, you know what I mean?” Theodore said last week.
“It’s not a good feeling, especially when I’m in the gym and I got the TV on and I’m watching Kemba and I’m watching Truck to make sure they’re doing the right thing. It wasn’t easy but this year we got a chance to do it, man. Trust me, I’m going to do whatever it takes to get there.”
Whatever it takes starts Tuesday night when Seton Hall (18-9, 7-8 Big East) hosts No. 10 Georgetown (20-5, 10-4) in a virtual elimination game for the Pirates.
If Seton Hall wins they would add an impressive victory to their NCAA resume and improve to 8-8 in the league with two games remaining — home for Rutgers (Feb. 25) and at DePaul (March 3).
If they lose, the would need to win the remaining two games to get to 9-9 in the conference, and hope their resume is good enough.
“They have to avoid bad losses and try to pick up some good wins along the way,” Jerry Palm of CollegeRPI.com told SNY.tv.
This is the closest Seton Hall has been to the Big Dance in Theodore’s four years, and he can taste it.
“I want that so bad, man, so bad,” he said. “I tell you, I dream about the tournament….I dream about hitting the shot. I dream about just walking onto whatever court I’m on. I don’t even know where the Final Four is this year, I don’t know where the first tournament game will be.
“It don’t matter. I just want to play. I just want to walk across the court and see the ‘NCAA’ with the blue and the white NCAA letters on it. Y’all know what I’m talking about. I think it’s going to be a blessing, man. I might even tear, just to see it, man. But trust me, I’m going to be ready for the spotlight.”
Now, they just have to get there.
