PISCATAWAY, N.J. — It’s been quite a week for Herb Pope.
In the span of of nine days, the Seton Hall forward bruised his ribs, sat out a game against UConn, appeared to head butt Eli Carter down the stretch of a hotly contested rivalry game and then hit a huge 3-pointer in the Pirates’ 59-54 victory at the Rutgers Athletic Center that came in front of Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz.
“They’re a great team, it’s just that we needed that win,” Pope said after going for 12 points and 12 rebounds to help snap a six-game losing streak for Seton Hall (16-8, 5-7 Big East).
With 3:26 left in the game and Seton Hall ahead 48-44, the video replay showed Pope appearing to head butt Carter and Carter then pushing back.
“He definitely did, but it’s no hard feelings,” Carter (13 points) said when asked if Pope head-butted him.
Pope’s version was, of course, a little different.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I just leaned over to tell him something. I guess he must have felt some type of way and pushed me, and it was like that.”
He added: “I was saying something to his face, like, ‘Yeah, you know.’…It happens.”
Referee Jim Burr spent about five minutes after the play talking at midcourt to Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard and Rutgers coach Mike Rice.
Rice said he asked why Pope wasn’t ejected, and was told, “You’re guy pushed him.”
“There were two contact technicals, neither one of them were flagrant,” Burr said later. “They are offsetting, I didn’t see anything that was worse than the other.
“One kid pushed the [other] kid in the chest and one kid head-butted the [other] guy. It wasn’t a great headbutt, it was just a little tap so they’re offsetting, unsporting-like technical fouls and they offset each other….We did everything by the rule.”
Three technical fouls were given on the play — to Brandon Mobley of Seton Hall, Pope and Carter.
Rutgers (12-13, 4-8) made 3 of 4 foul shots and then hit Dane Miller drained a 3-pointer to put Rutgers ahead 50-48 and give the home crowd of 6,603 some momentum.
But on a broken play on Seton Hall’s end, Pope drained his own 3 to put Seton Hall ahead for good, 51-50.
“I saw Brandon open and I said, “I can throw it to him, force it..or just shoot the ball,’ and I shot the ball,” Pope said. “Didn’t worry about anything else.”
Jordan Theodore then made 5 of 6 foul shots in the final 2:24 en route to a game-high 24 points. Aaron Cosby also hit a big 3-pointer for the Pirates to make it 56-51.
The wild ending capped a strange, controversy-filled week for Pope, who said he bruised his ribs in a loss at Marquette Jan. 31.
“It turned out I got some X-rays, it was pretty banged up,” Pope said. “So I couldn’t practice, so the rule is you can’t practice, you can’t play.”
Pope watched the UConn loss and said it “painful watching it at home on TV.”
“It was really tough,” Theodore said of playing without their big man. “And tonight, man, he was a presence for us. He hit one of the biggest shots of the game tonight.”
Pope’s career has been filled with twists and turns and two near-death incidents. He has a long scar down his chest, the result of heart surgery in 2010 after he collapsed during a workout.
Now his Seton Hall career is winding down, with only six regular-season games left before the Big East tournament.
“I’m just worried about the next game and take it from there,” Pope said.
Whether the Pirates can make an NCAA Tournament push down the stretch remains to be seen.
But they’ll need Pope to play a major role — and to avoid injury and controversy — the rest of the way.
FREE THROWS
Seton Hall is now 2-0 when Cruz, a Paterson, N.J., native, attends their games. He was at the UConn game last month. “It feels good,” said Seton Hall wing Fuquan Edwin, who had 9 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals. “Right now we’re 2-0 with Victor at the games so I’d like for him to come more.” All told, five players with Paterson connections were in the game… Rutgers hosted recruits Karl Towns, Reggie Cameron, Mike Young, Jaren Sina and DeAndre Noble…Mike Poole led Rutgers with 14 points…Seton Hall has won six of the last eight against Rutgers.
Photo: Star-Ledger
