Seton Hall forward Herb Pope was a shadow of himself a year ago.
He looked lethargic and out of shape for most of the season.
And that was completely understandable considering what he had gone through.
Pope collapsed at Walsh Gym in April 2010 and later underwent heart surgery to deal with a birth defect — an anomalous right coronary artery — that Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard said they “usually only find in an autopsy.”
Yet after spending seven weeks this summer training in Houston with John Lucas to get down to 240 pounds, Pope looks like a completely different player.
After putting up yet another double-double of 26 points and 14 rebounds in Seton Hall’s 68-54 victory over Wake Forest Saturday night at the Prudential Center, Pope now has seven double-doubles on the year, tied for tops in the nation.
The 6-8 forward leads the Big East in scoring (21.9 ppg) and trails only West Virginia’s Kevin Jones in rebounding (11.3 rpg).
“He’s going full-bore, getting after it,” Willard old reporters, according to Jerry Carino of MyCentralJersey.com. “He’s a beast right now.”
Seton Hall point guard Jordan Theodore, who had 14 points and 4 assists, said Pope’s play has made his own job much easier.
“I don’t have to do too much,” Theodore told Carino. “All I have to do is throw it into Herb and he’ll get it done. Especially when he’s drawing doubles and kicking out, we’re getting open 3s. He’s just doing whatever we need him to do.”
The Pirates have three more non-conference games — beginning with Mercer Dec. 18 — before opening Big East play at likely new No. 1 Syracuse Dec. 28. After that comes two tough home games against West Virginia (Dec. 30) and defending national champ UConn (Jan. 3).
If Pope can keep this level of play up through the rugged Big East season, he certainly deserves consideration for Big East honors — perhaps even Player of the Year — even though he wasn’t picked on any preseason teams.
More importantly, he could help the Pirates (8-1) make a surprising run for a postseason bid.
Photo: AP
