Shaheen Holloway is making good on his Seton Hall promise

Shaheen Holloway shouldn’t have been able to surprise anyone anymore.

It has been less than four years since he took a mid-major team that had never won an NCAA Tournament game, had the MAAC’s lowest basketball budget and an average of 526 fans at Saint Peter’s home games, and made that small commuter school famous, as the Peacocks became the first No. 15 seed in NCAA Tournament history to reach the Elite Eight.

“It’s the team that wants it the most, it’s the team that’s the most connected,” Holloway explained during the 2022 run. “Yes, we’re the underdogs. Yes, we’re the Cinderella team. But at the end of the day, we’re a team ramping up just like anyone else. You take the name on the front of the jersey, it really doesn’t matter.”

It was the springboard for Holloway to chase another storybook ending, returning to his alma mater, Seton Hall, where he led the Pirates to the Sweet 16 in 2000, hit a tournament buzzer-beater and became the school’s all-time assists leader. It is also where he met his wife and worked as an assistant for eight years.

“I can’t mess this up, and I’m not going to mess this up,” Holloway said at his introductory news conference. “When you are home, it’s too important. It’s a difference. It’s a big difference, like you put more time, more effort, more sweat, more tears. This is everything to get an opportunity to coach at my alma mater. I’m not going to mess up this opportunity.”

After reaching the NCAA Tournament in five of the previous six postseasons, Seton Hall fell short in Holloway’s first season, finishing one game over .500. Year 2 found the Pirates on the wrong side of the tournament bubble, but ended with the school’s first NIT title since 1953. Seton Hall followed with a program record for losses (7-25) last season, leading to the Pirates being picked to finish last in this fall’s Big East preseason poll.

“I couldn’t care less about what others think,” Holloway said at Big East Media Day. “I know who I got when it’s game time.”

Few others were familiar with his transfer-heavy squad featuring 11 newcomers, but Seton Hall has improbably become one of this season’s best stories — entering Tuesday’s game against UConn — with twice as many wins as last season, its best start in eight years and its first AP poll ranking (No. 25) in four years.

Despite ranking 201st in points per game (73.8) and 193rd in field goal percentage (44.1), the Pirates are on pace to return to the Big Dance through the strength of the nation’s seventh-best scoring defense (62.7) and a top 20 turnover margin, with 10 players averaging double-digit minutes per game.

“I think they are the most connected team that we will have played so far when you look at them on film,” Georgetown coach Ed Cooley said before losing to Seton Hall on Saturday. “They play with a chip, they play with energy, they play with toughness. I mean they really epitomize their coach. I think if I had the Coach of the Year, National Coach of the Year, not just Big East Coach of the Year, I would vote [Holloway for] National Coach of the Year based on where he was a year ago, where he was preseason picked this year and getting his men to just play at such a connected pace. [It] has been really, really exciting to watch.”