Shaheen Holloway’s Seton Hall homecoming a testament to who he is, and has always been

Shaheen Holloway may be changing scenery moving from Saint Peter’s to Seton Hall, but that might be only thing different about Pirates’ new head coach. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — How do you say no to home?

For Shaheen Holloway, the answer — the feeling, appropriately for a man who injects real-life emotions into every fiber of his being — was complex, yet at the same time, simple.

He couldn’t.

“It’s home,” Holloway simply stated as he replaces Kevin Willard, his former mentor. “I was here last night just walking around and remembering everything, when I first came here in 1996 as a little boy who didn’t know anything too much. It’s a surreal feeling right now. I’m blessed, I’m humbled. It’s an unbelievable opportunity I can’t put into words. Dreams do come true.”

“It means everything. My wife went here, I met her here. My daughter went here, my son (Xavier) is named after the dorm that me and my wife met at. It’s full circle, right? It’s a great moment for all of us.”

Perhaps it is also apropos that Holloway notices and embraces the full-circle moment he now gets to live, because the man in charge of bringing him back to South Orange — a second home of sorts for the South Jamaica, Queens native — had a similar epiphany not once, but twice.

“It kept coming back to Shaheen every time I did it,” Seton Hall athletic director Bryan Felt, who pulled the trigger on Holloway four years ago at Saint Peter’s, recalled of his search process, which was his first as a neophyte athletic director. “It validates what I always knew, that he would be a phenomenal head coach.”

“The foundation of Shaheen is a foundation of loyalty, trust, honor, integrity, literally everything that he’s about. “He’s a guy who literally tells you how it is. He wears his heart on his sleeve. That’s who he is. You always get the real Sha. There is no different persona. That’s who he is, and he’s never changed since day one. As we’ve seen with Shaheen Holloway, only good things come from that.”

After winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship three weeks ago, Holloway waxed nostalgic about everyone who advised him against taking the Saint Peter’s job and its perceived pitfalls. But in his customary fashion, his convictions, and the inherent knowledge that he could take what was handed to him, improve it and carve out a masterpiece, won out.

“You kind of believe in yourself, you bet on yourself,” Holloway reiterated. “I knew that going in, there was going to be some challenges, but I knew the work I was going to put in, just like I know there’s challenges here and the work I’m going to put in. Did I think it was gonna happen this quick? I can’t sit here and say yes. You never know. But the opportunity came, and I’ll be honest with you guys, it was hard to leave. If it wasn’t for those guys, I wouldn’t be here right now. The way they’d come to work every day, the way they understood what it took to try to get where we wanted to go, they made it easy for me.”

“We were in there for three hours (Wednesday) just talking about everything. They were making fun of me, the way I talk, the way I coach, the drills and this and that. It was just a great time.”

And as he leaves Jersey City and takes on a stronger task under a larger microscope in South Orange, Holloway remains undaunted. Returning to your alma mater after serving as a conquering hero can be a Waterloo for some, ask Chris Mullin or Clyde Drexler, but there is only one Shaheen Holloway. And as expected, he is heading to the window to place another bet on himself.

“I just want to take it to another level,” he proclaimed. I’m ready to go, I’m ready to get after it. I can’t mess this up, and I’m not going to mess this up. It’s too important.”

“When you’re home and you’re here, it’s a difference. It’s a big difference. You put more time, more effort, more sweat, more tears. This is everything to me. Getting the opportunity to coach at my alma mater? I’m not gonna mess this opportunity up. It’s too important.”

With Holloway's track record already established and prevalent, how can you bet against him? The answer, just as it was for him to accept a new challenge, is complex, yet at the same time, simple.

You can’t.