Shaheen Holloway returns to Seton Hall, replaces Kevin Willard as head coach

Shaheen Holloway’s next stop is Seton Hall as Pirates replace Kevin Willard with native son who guided Saint Peter’s to Elite 8. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

The breakout star of March will once again shine upon his alma mater.

Shaheen Holloway, who became a household name as his Saint Peter’s team went on arguably the most improbable run in NCAA Tournament history, is leaving Jersey City to take the reins at Seton Hall as the next head coach of the Pirates.

Holloway, who made history as Saint Peter’s became the first No. 15 seed to advance to a regional final, replaces his former mentor, Kevin Willard, who was introduced last week as the new head coach at the University of Maryland. Seton Hall will hold a press conference Thursday to reintroduce the former Pirate point guard and assistant coach to the South Orange community.

Athletic director Bryan Felt, who gave Holloway his first head coaching opportunity in 2018 when he hired him at Saint Peter’s to replace John Dunne, did not have to look very far to find a successor to Willard, who openly campaigned for Holloway to be his heir apparent after Seton Hall was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by TCU in its first round. Given his history at the school, Holloway quickly became the logical, and sole, candidate to helm a program in the midst of a resurgence that has seen the Pirates reach five NCAA Tournaments in the past seven seasons, with a sixth that would have come in 2020 if not for the pandemic.

As a player at Seton Hall, Holloway quickly lived up to the reputation that made him a McDonald’s All-American coming out of what is now The Patrick School, solidifying himself as a physically and mentally tough point guard whose hard-nosed defense would later become a calling card for the Saint Peter’s teams he would coach. His game-winning shot lifted the 10th-seeded Pirates past Oregon in the 2000 NCAA Tournament before Seton Hall would go on to defeat Temple en route to the Sweet 16, the last time the program advanced to that round and before this past weekend, the last time a New Jersey team had been to a regional semifinal.

Upon getting into coaching, Holloway’s first break at the collegiate level came at his alma mater, serving as Seton Hall’s video coordinator in 2006-07 during Bobby Gonzalez’s first season as head coach. He turned down an eventual promotion the following year to join Willard at Iona, where the two needed just three years to turn a team that had gone 2-28 the season before their arrival into a 21-win outfit, recruiting future MAAC Player of the Year Scott Machado in the process. When Willard succeeded Gonzalez at Seton Hall in 2010, Holloway was his first hire.

Over the next eight years, Holloway recruited a majority of the Pirates’ roster, responsible for the commitments and signings of players the likes of Fuquan Edwin, Sterling Gibbs, Khadeen Carrington, Desi Rodriguez, Ismael Sanogo, Michael Nzei, Myles Powell, Myles Cale and Jared Rhoden. His work with Seton Hall’s guards turned Edwin and Carrington into all-Big East selections, and Powell into the conference’s Player of the Year in 2019-20.

Long regarded as an effective communicator with an innate ability to relate to almost anyone, Holloway began his tenure at Saint Peter’s by implementing a defense-oriented style mixed with unprecedented depth. A 12-man rotation soon became a trademark for the Peacocks, whose rotation of fresh bodies and vigorous on-ball pressure enhanced their reputation as one of the MAAC’s premier defenses. After a rocky first year, Saint Peter’s emerged to win 14 league games in 2019-20, arriving ahead of schedule and earning Holloway MAAC Coach of the Year merits before the pandemic scrapped a season that had serious championship potential after the Peacocks upset Iona and appeared to have ended the Gaels’ dynasty.

Saint Peter’s maintained its uptick in each of the past two seasons, finishing third in the MAAC last year before a runner-up finish in the 2021-22 regular season. Holloway’s commitment to embracing his unit’s defensive roots took flight in late February and continued through March, as the Peacocks allowed a mere 56.5 points per game in a 10-game win streak that encompassed the MAAC tournament — where Saint Peter’s defeated Monmouth for the program’s first conference championship since 2011 — and the historic upsets of Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue in the NCAA Tournament. Saint Peter’s 85-79 overtime victory over the second-seeded Wildcats was only the tenth for a No. 15 seed over a No. 2 seed since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, and the 70-60 triumph over a Murray State team that had won its previous 21 games marked just the third instance that a No. 15 seed reached the regional semifinals. The Peacocks made history on March 25, as their 67-64 takedown of Purdue was the first instance of a 15-seed reaching the tournament’s final eight.

Holloway leaves Saint Peter’s with a 64-57 record over four seasons, going 44-32 in MAAC play. A search for his replacement is expected to begin immediately, with Ryan Whalen, his lead assistant coach the past four seasons, viewed as the leading candidate.