Saint Peter’s storybook run captured essence of why we love March Madness

Even as its dream season ended Sunday, Shaheen Holloway and Saint Peter’s illustrated college basketball’s inner beauty in historic Elite 8 run. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

PHILADELPHIA — Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.

When you capture the imaginations and minds of a nation, it is almost impossible not to marvel at the accomplishments and masterpieces created over four months when the canvas was blank just a short while ago, even if it far too often ends in a loss.

Josh Adams, a longtime colleague behind this outlet’s sister site, College Hoops Digest, has another piece of advice that is incredibly apt at this time and place: Buy the ticket, take the ride.

And for those who paid to see Saint Peter’s four months ago, when the Peacocks drew just 434 patrons to the newly-christened Run Baby Run Arena, what a ride it was.

From hungry contender to MAAC champions, to upsets of Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue, anyone who pegged the Peacocks as the first-ever No. 15 seed to reach a regional final may as well head to Las Vegas — or Atlantic City if such a soothsayer resides in close proximity to Saint Peter’s Jersey City home base — because he or she is on the roll of a lifetime.

The clock struck midnight for the Peacocks on Sunday, as North Carolina ended the fairytale and reached yet another Final Four, but for the underdog who made a living off silencing the doubters, nothing but positives can be gleaned from not only dreaming the improbable, but having the gumption to make it a reality.

“What we did was amazing,” KC Ndefo, the lone senior on a gritty, lunchpail team, reflected. “Words can’t describe what we did out there. For us to be the only team that did this is just historical. The sky’s the limit for anybody if you put in the work. Don’t get too high, don’t get too low, just stay in your lane and it’ll work out for you. We caught the attention of everybody who wants to come here. What we did will have an impact on everybody.”

The significance of a moment like this, a season like this, can often get lost in the immediate scenes following its conclusion, but to not have it absent in the minds of the Saint Peter’s players and coaches is a credit to the culture that Shaheen Holloway not only cultivated, but trusted sight unseen, with full buy-in from the young men who reciprocated his desire with a laser focus and iron will.

“Coming in, Coach established the vision that he had and all of us went on board with that, that anything was possible,” said Daryl Banks III. “We came to work day in and day out, and it just paid off for us this year. What we did is something no one’s ever done before, so we’ll walk out of here with our head high.”

Saint Peter’s, as presently constructed, should be forwardly placed in the MAAC next season barring any drastic movement in the transfer portal, as everyone but Ndefo returns from the core group. Banks, Doug Edert, Matthew Lee, and Fousseyni and Hassan Drame will be seniors next season. Oumar Diahame and Marty Silvera enter their junior years, Clarence Rupert and Juju Murray — integral pieces in the stretch run as freshmen — become sophomores, and this season’s experience will only be a boon for a team that prides itself on proving skeptics wrong and punching above its weight class.

“I think the future’s bright,” a proud Holloway declared. “Everybody got a chance to see our brand of basketball, to see us play and what we’re all about. When you get a lot of e-mails and calls about ‘I want my son playing for you, I admire what you guys are doing,’ I think the future’s bright.”

“I thought everybody grew. I thought the team grew, I thought I grew. It was a great experience for all of us. We learned from the good, we learned from the bad, and we kind of moved forward as a program.”

As the curtain descends, the memories remain. And again, anyone who purchased a ticket to the exploits in Jersey City at any point during the year are certainly walking away satisfied after sharing the highs and lows, the thrills and the final heartbreak that is engulfed in the eternal flame of history, ignited by individuals who may not have been number-one choices, but now carry that ordinal designation in the hearts of all tried-and-true basketball junkies.

“Words can’t describe and explain how happy I am for this group,” Holloway reiterated. “A group of guys came in here that no one gave a chance to, no one believed in but the people in our locker room and the people in our program, and they made history. They shocked the world, and you've got guys that are going to be remembered for things that they could tell their kids and grandkids.”

“They came in and they made history. Point blank, period. Saint Peter’s made it to the Elite 8. Great story, you guys should write about it.”

We will. And we will do well to remember it.