SHU's busy week, plus a good cause

Just wanted to squeeze in all the Seton Hall men's basketball for this week before returning to all-Favre and Chad, all the time. And there was plenty of news for the Pirates.

First, the school officially announced the transfers of Keon Lawrence and Herb Pope. The transfer of Lawrence, a two guard from Missouri, first became news in early July, but not until this week were all the Is dotted and the Ts crossed. The saga of Pope was a bit more of a roller-coaster ride, as it appeared last week as if he wouldn't leave New Mexico State, where he averaged 11.1 points and 6.8 rebounds last year while playing half the season as a freshman.

But then he and the school decided to part ways, and he already is on campus in South Orange. Here's an interesting story from the Las Cruces Sun-News about Pope's departure, including plenty of quotes from Pope. And here's an interesting piece from Andy Katz with some terrific quotes from Bobby Gonzalez, in which he makes the revelation that he has four years left on his contract.

He admits that he's taking 'a gamble' in recruiting all these transfers. Gonzo is right about that. Blending multiple transfers into a cohesive team is never easy. He talks about trying to get a waiver for Pope to play immediately this fall, but I still don't see that happening. Lawrence has a better chance for a waiver, but once he catches up credit-wise to where he needs to be academically. That would mean second semester. Gonzalez also mentioned Mike Glover, but I still think him winning the court case is a major longshot.

Oh, and on Thursday, SHU announced its 2008-09 schedule, which has one game against an unspecified opponent still to be announced. The first five games are a brutal stretch, and I personally don't like the Big East playing league games in the final week of the calendar year. I prefer for the conference season to start with the new year.

The good cause I mentioned in the headline is the Team Walker Evening of Dreams dinner set for Thu., Sept. 25. The MC will be Bob Ley of ESPN, an SHU alum. More info is available at the Team Walker website.