The Pirates lead by six at halftime but were unable to hold onto the lead. Jeremy Hazell did all that he could, pouring in 27 points.

In the end, Seton Hall had trouble controlling the balanced attack of Rutgers that saw four players finish in double figures.

A win over Rutgers and possibly one in the next round could have allowed Seton Hall to have thoughts of making the NCAA tournament.

They could have been the 12th team from the Big East to make the NCAA’s, but it will be almost impossible now.

The Pirates blew a double-digit lead in the second half and a great opportunity to pick up a signature win.

The loss could be tremendously damaging for the team’s NCAA tournament hopes, likely forcing them to win the Big East tourney to avoid the NIT.

Jeremy Hazell had a monster game, scoring 20 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and recording four steals.

Jeff Robinson also played well, finishing with 15 points and 11 rebounds for Seton Hall.

Gonzalez is suing on the grounds that he was dismissed without proper cause when he still had two years remaining on his current contract.

The school apparently was unhappy with Gonzalez’ actions on the court, which included the most technicals by far of any head coach in the Big East this past season.

Many fans who sat near the Seton Hall bench during games were treated to an unbelievable amount of foul language coming out of the head coach’s mouth.

There were also a couple of arrests of players during the season, and the team had two players punch opponents below the belts in an N.I.T loss.

Weeks after being fired by the university after a four-year tenure that saw too many off-court problems and too few wins, Gonzalez is now suing. His attorney, Gerald Krovatin, alleges that the school owes him two years base salary per the terms of his contract.

Gonzalez never made the NCAA Tournament following his hire from Manhattan, and his players made the news far more often for behavior off the court than anything they accomplished on it. In fact, two of his players were arrested and charged with armed robbery the same week he was terminated.

The notoriety he’s gaining due to his controversial time at Seton Hall could make it extremely difficult for Gonzalez to land another head coaching gig. No wonder he’s trying to get any money he possibly can.

The school hired Iona head coach Kevin Willard to replace him.

Despite trailing by seven at halftime, the Pirates remained unfazed and mounted a second-half charge.

In the end, they simply couldn’t contain Villanova’s guards, particularly Corey Stokes down the stretch.

They surrendered two big three-point shots to Stokes in the final minutes that helped Villanova got on a run to put the game out of reach.

Jeremy Hazell led the Pirates with 32 points, almost single-handedly keeping them in the game.

Herb Pope led the Pirates with 19 points and 9 rebounds to give head coach Bobby Gonzalez the biggest win of his short coaching tenure.

It was the first time since March of 2006 that Seton Hall had managed to knock off a top ten team, and Pittsburgh was the victim once again.

Even more impressive was the fact that Seton Hall was able to overcome a poor performance from leading scorer Jeremy Hazell. Hazell had just nine points and played only 16 minutes because of foul trouble.

Gonzalez believes that the Pirates are becoming a good basketball team and the fact they can win without Hazell is a sign of good things to come.