After putting up 19 points and 13 rebounds in a dominant performance for Seton Hall Saturday night, Angel Delgado danced with a bunch of lobsters.
NEWARK — After notching his fourth straight double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds in a dominant performance for Seton Hall Saturday night, Angel Delgado put on a red hat and danced with a bunch of lobsters.
And if the Pirates make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006, they may have the lobsters to thank for it.
With its 69-61 victory over Georgetown, Seton Hall improved to 17-6 overall, 7-4 in the Big East and 4-1 when the lobsters — a group of students from the Zeta Psi fraternity who started wearing the outfits as their Halloween costumes — are present.
“I just laugh and have fun,” the 6-foot-9 Delgado said of dancing with the 15 red-clad lobsters. “Everybody gets happy. Everybody get like, ‘Let’s go, we gotta get this done.'”
Angel Delgado, the newest lobster #HALLin #shbb pic.twitter.com/jLMnC9cetO
– Jeremy Schneider (@J_Schneider) February 7, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
“I’ll tell you what, the lobsters are awesome, man,” Pirates coach Kevin Willard added. “Those guys come to every game. They’re into it.”
Dennis Chambers, a junior who lives in the Zeta Psi frat and works as the sports digital editor for The Setonian, said the students first bought the lobster costumes for Halloween, but then just opted to keep wearing them to games.
“Their thought was, ‘Let’s spend $35 on the costumes,'” he said. “We might as well wear them more than once.”
Seton Hall has lacked anything as colorful as the lobsters in recent years, but their emergence this year could coincide with an NCAA Tournament berth.
Seton Hall, which has won four straight, entered the game as an 11th seed facing a play-in game against California in Joe Lunardi’s latest mock NCAA Tournament bracket.
But if they keep winning, they could get out of a play-in game and enter the bracket via an easier path.
“That’s what we want, we want to play in the NCAA Tournament,” Delgado said. “We’ve been wanting this for a long time and I’m telling you, we going to be there.”
On a night when Isaiah Whitehead shot 3-for-15 for 16 points and Khadeen Carrington 2-for-10 for 9, Delgado was dominant down low.
“He was a man amongst boys, he really dominated the paint,” Whitehead said. “I mean, that’s what I expect of him.”
The reigning Big East Rookie of the Year, Delgado is making a strong case to be named to the All-Big East First Team.
“I thought Angel was huge down low,” Willard said. “For him to play 35 minutes. John [Thompson III] brought in [Jessie] Govan and [Bradley] Hayes to wear him down. Angel didn’t want to come out, he played tremendous. I thought Angel played phenomenal…. If he starts making that 15-footer he’s going to be a dangerous, dangerous guy.”
Seton Hall has seven games left in the regular season and if they go 2-5, they would still finish 9-9 in the league, which might be good enough to make the Big Dance. If they go 3-4, they would be 10-8, which should certainly do it.
“Of course we all want to get there,” Whitehead said. “But it’s just about the next game and not looking too far ahead.”
And if they get there, the lobsters will be there to celebrate.
JEVON THOMAS UPDATE
Willard declined to comment on the incident this past week where redshirt guard Jevon Thomas reportedly choked Kevin Matthews, a graduate assistant working in the campus’ recreation center as an intramural basketball referee.
The news was reported by The Setonian.
“Jevon’s best friend was killed last Monday, that’s why he’s not here,” Willard said. “As far as the other thing,that’s a University policy.”
