Albeit Indirectly, Bobby Back In NCAA After All

Shown here during his stint at Manhattan, Bobby Gonzalez still has an influence on this year's NCAA Tournament despite not having coached since 2010. (Photo courtesy of the New York Times)

Before the curtain came down on what turned out to be his final season as the head coach at Seton Hall University, Bobby Gonzalez shared his one goal with the media: To bring the Pirates back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006; just weeks before he replaced Louis Orr in South Orange after a successful seven-year run at Manhattan College, where Gonzalez led the Jaspers to four postseason appearances, including a round of 64 victory over Florida in the "Big Dance" back in 2004.

Gonzalez unfortunately did not get the chance to take Seton Hall into the field of 68; but several of his former players and recruits, both in and away from South Orange, represent the coach in the postseason this year, proving that the man once described as the next hot coaching commodity after his 2003-04 season at Manhattan is still as shrewd an evaluator of talent as any coach in the nation.

Bobby insists he would like to coach again as he wraps up his second year off the bench since his acrimonious 2010 departure from Seton Hall, and whomever is inclined enough to take a chance on him will see that he is still just as good an in-game coach and recruiter as he was two decades ago as an assistant to Pete Gillen at Xavier and Providence. Moreover, his contributions to "NBC Sports Talk" on the NBC Sports Network are establishing him as a prominent presence in the college basketball landscape in much the same way Steve Lavin and Mark Gottfried were before their returns to the sidelines at St. John's and North Carolina State; where each took their new team to the NCAA Tournament in their first year with the program, respectively. With the second season starting in just under 48 hours, here is a closer look at each of the players who are making a case for Gonzalez to return to the college coaching ranks through their success on the court.

Steve Masiello (Manhattan): Although not a player, Bobby's former assistant at Manhattan College had a Gonzalez-esque rookie season in Riverdale; taking the Jaspers to the largest turnaround in the nation, winning 20 games this season after Barry Rohrssen had only won six the year before. Manhattan finished fourth in the MAAC, which produced NCAA Tournament teams in Loyola and Iona. Masiello and the Jaspers will play Albany Wednesday night in the opening round of the collegeinsider.com Tournament.

DeAndre Kane and Jamir Hanner (Marshall): Kane and Hanner were both verbal commitments when Gonzalez was still at Seton Hall, but each player backed out once Kevin Willard was hired by the Pirates and ended up at Marshall under coach Tom Herrion. Kane is the Thundering Herd's leading scorer, averaging over sixteen points, five rebounds and three assists per game; and while Hanner only plays sparingly, he is shooting 49 percent from the field and averaging over two rebounds per night while only averaging five minutes. Marshall opens play in the NIT at Middle Tennessee State Tuesday night.

Jordan Theodore, Herb Pope and Fuquan Edwin (Seton Hall): Everyone knows the Pirates' "Big Three" by virtue of their experience in the Big East and their life on the bubble over the past two weeks. The only players left in South Orange from the Gonzalez era, Theodore and Pope have led Seton Hall to their second NIT appearance in the last three years. Theodore; a second team all-Big East point guard who very easily could have made the first team, had the best season of his young career, averaging sixteen points and nearly seven assists per game while having more than twice as many helpers as turnovers in his senior campaign. Pope recovered from open heart surgery to average a double-double this year just as he did under Gonzalez in 2009-10; and Edwin, who committed to Bobby but never got to play for him, led the nation in steals while breaking the Pirates' single season record for thefts in a sophomore year where he could have legitimately earned Big East Defensive Player of the Year honors. Seton Hall opens their NIT slate at Walsh Gym Tuesday night against Stony Brook in a battle of two local programs.

Jesse Morgan (Massachusetts): A high school teammate of Pittsburgh reserve J.J. Moore in his hometown of Philadelphia, Morgan signed with Seton Hall; but after eligibility issues, was scooped up by the Minutemen and is a deceptive scoring option in Derek Kellogg's backcourt alongside Hofstra transfer Chaz Williams. Averaging ten points per game while also shooting 38 percent from three-point range, Morgan's 21-point performance against Temple in the Atlantic 10 tournament quarterfinals helped clear the road for eventual conference champion St. Bonaventure on the other side of the bracket. Morgan and UMass take on Mississippi State on Tuesday in the opening round of the NIT, with the winner to face Seton Hall.

Ferrakohn Hall (Memphis): Aside from Theodore and Pope, the junior is the only remaining player in the nation to have played for Gonzalez. A Seton Hall transfer now playing for Josh Pastner at Memphis, Hall is making the most of his second opportunity with his hometown Tigers. A regular starter; Hall does not burn teams offensively, but his work shows up on film when he sets up for Will Barton and Joe Jackson to lead the Tigers' offensive attack. When Hall's number is called, he shoots 50 percent from the field and is one of Memphis' best options on the defensive glass. Hall and the Tigers face Saint Louis on Friday night in their round of 64 matchup in the NCAA Tournament.

Chris Smith (Louisville): This New Jersey product and brother of Knicks guard J.R. Smith initially signed with Gonzalez and Seton Hall before being declared ineligible, then transferred to Louisville from Manhattan College. Now a starter for Rick Pitino; Smith averages ten points per game and shoots 40 percent from three-point range for the Cardinals, looking all the while like a poor man's Jeremy Hazell, who thrived under Gonzalez during his first three years at Seton Hall. Smith and Louisville open their road to what could be their first national championship since 1986 with a Thursday matchup against Southern Conference champion Davidson in the round of 64.

Mike Glover (Iona): Bobby's first recruit at Seton Hall is a talented forward whose journey to the NCAA Tournament is far unlike that of any other participant in the field of 68. Scooped up by Gonzalez out of American Christian; which also produced Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans, Glover was declared ineligible during his freshman season and paid his own way through Seton Hall. After signing a letter of intent that he was subsequently released from at St. Francis once Brian Nash resigned; Glover's road to New Rochelle included a stop at the College of Eastern Utah, where he played his sophomore campaign. Once he took the court for coach Tim Cluess; Glover unleashed a style that MAAC teams had problems solving, muscling his way to a double-double average and first team all-conference honors last season before following that up with an 18-point, nine-rebound average that helped showcase the abilities of this year's player of the year honoree, Iona point guard Scott Machado. Glover and the Gaels, who are just the second MAAC team to earn an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament in the conference's 31-year history, take on Brigham Young in a First Four play-in game Tuesday night in Dayton, with the winner to meet Marquette in the round of 64 two days later.