Over the past seven years, national relevance has returned to Seton Hall.
There have been five NCAA Tournaments, a Big East Tournament title and a Big East regular-season championship. But a March breakthrough — the kind Cinderella Saint Peter’s enjoyed in recent weeks — has been the missing piece.
Seton Hall’s new coach, who led the Peacocks on that remarkable run to the Elite Eight, intends to change that. Shaheen Holloway wants to take what predecessor Kevin Willard did and build on it.
“Continue what he was doing and go bigger and higher,” the 45-year-old Holloway told The Post shortly after his emotionally charged press conference at Walsh Gymnasium. “Just keep winning at every stage.
“This is too important to me. This is home. This is something I dreamed about. I can’t afford to mess it up. I won’t mess it up. I’m going to work, work and work.”
It was a memorable day in South Orange, N.J., as the favorite son — the old point guard and assistant coach — returned to take over the program. A number of notable alumni were in attendance, from Terry Dehere to Marcus Toney-El. So was Pat Hobbs, the Rutgers athletic director and former dean of the Seton Hall law school, as well as Brandin Knight, Holloway’s nephew and the Rutgers’ associate head coach. Several current Seton Hall players showed up, and the entire Saint Peter’s team was there, too.
New Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway waves to the crowd as he holds his son Tyson during his introductory press conference. Bill Kostroun
“It was a movie today, man,” Holloway said. “So many emotions going on. So many people here showing support, showing love. It was unbelievable, man. It was humbling.”
Holloway gave the Peacocks a shout-out during his speech, asking the Seton Hall fans in attendance to give them an ovation. It wasn’t loud enough for the new coach.
“Hold on. Pirate Nation, we can do it better than that,” Holloway told the crowd.
Saint Peter’s got another ovation, this one louder. It wasn’t an easy decision to leave the Jersey City school after what the team had accomplished the past three years. It wasn’t just the run to the Elite Eight. Saint Peter’s put together three straight winning seasons for the first time since 2004-06. When he told his players about his decision, they were supportive during a meeting that lasted three hours. They surprised Holloway by attending the press conference on their own.
But Seton Hall was his home as a player and for nearly a decade as a coach. It was where he met his wife, Kim, where his daughter, Shatanik, went to school, and the place he forged so many key relationships in his life. He couldn’t say no.
Shaheen Holloway Getty Images“It means everything,” Holloway said. “I came to Seton Hall in 1996, as a young guy that didn’t know too much. I came back here to coach in 2011, and now I’m back here right now. I can’t describe the feeling.
“It’s a bittersweet thing. I’m so happy for this opportunity, but I have to bury my grandmother this week and I left a group of guys who believed in me and took a chance on me. It’s all of that into one.”
Seton Hall welcomed back one of its own in this March Madness sensation, a coach who wowed the nation with his in-game coaching adjustments, his team’s defensive tenacity and his ease in the spotlight. Saint Peter’s played so hard and with such precision in those upsets of Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue, the Peacocks giving Holloway everything they had. One former Seton Hall player, Khadeen Carrington, was following intently and understood why Holloway was able to get so much out of these players.
“He comes from the same place a lot of players come from,” said Carrington, a Brooklyn native who Holloway recruited to Seton Hall as part of the blockbuster 2014 class. “It was easy to relate to him. He went through a lot of the same things we went through.”
Everyone Carrington has spoken to with connections to Seton Hall is thrilled Holloway was the choice to replace Willard. There is hope that, though the program has taken major strides forward in recent years, Holloway can elevate the Pirates even further.
“There’s no ceiling,” Carrington said. “He’s a great guy, great coach. You saw it this year, he took the Saint Peter’s team that far. There’s no telling what he can do with a lot more resources.”
