PHILADELPHIA– St. Peter’s jumped out of the blue and into the headlines this past week.
The tiny Jesuit school with an undergraduate enrollment of 2,100 located in downtown Jersey City, N.J. became the NCAA tournament’s latest Cinderella when the 15th seeded Peacocks stunned might Kentucky, a two seed, in overtime and then broke Murray State’s 21 game winning streak to advance to the East Regional Sweet 16. when they will take on another goliath, Purdue, at the Wells Fargo Center here Friday. The trip down the turnpike is 90 miles.
Suddenly everyone wanted to know everything about the Peacocks, who won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and their coach Shaheen Holloway, their local hero whose ability to adjust on the fly has put him in position to become the new head coach at Seton Hall– his alma mater– after Kevin Willard left for a new head coaching gig at Maryland.
The New York Metro area has caught on. Monday, there were 12 camera crews and a multitude of reporters at the Run Baby Run Arena to film practice and interview the players in this glorified high school gym.
“I just think the last two years with COVID, it’s been a lot of bad times, really, really down, and this has been like a breath of fresh air,” Holloway said. “A team in the area, a Cinderella type team, a small team, small school like us. The whole state is rallying around us and now it has become a national thing. It’s just been a beautiful thing. I think it’s been great for the school.”
To put this accomplishment in perspective, make some quick comparisons to Kentucky where John Calipari makes $8 million dollars, more than the entire athletic budget of St. Peter’s.
Holloway has built this team from undervalued, overlooked players like guard Darryl Banks III from Patrick School in Elizabeth, 6-7 star forward KC Ndefo from Brooklyn Lincoln and 6-3 shooter Doug Edert from Bergen Catholic, whose moustache and swagger have made him a cult hero.
The Peacocks had to survive early season troubles, a 28-day COVID pause and constant rumors about Holloway’s future to get to this point. “I’m not worried about that,” Holloway said. “I’m worried about the job I have right now. I’m worried about the team I right now. I’m worried about what we’re doing right now. Everything else is just hoopla. I don’t get into rumors.”
Neither doesn’t school President Eugene Cornacchia, although he is also a realist. “He knows how important he is to us and how valuable he is to us,” Cornacchia said. “But I’m a realist and i understand he’s going ot have to fend off a lot of offers from a lot of places, not even just Seton Hall. He’s a rock star right now And, after the next game, when we beat Purdue, he’s going to be a bigger rock star.”
Holloway is used to the spotlight. He grew up in Queens and was the MVP of the McDonald’s All- American game before he chose the Hall over offers from Duke, Cal and Georgia Tech and helped lead the Pirates to a Sweet 16 appearance in 2000, his senior year. That was the last time a Jersey team made a dent in the NCAA tournament. St. Peter’s (21-11), which had never won a game in March Madness before his year, has now won two under Holloway, who has been at Peter’s for four years.
The Kentucky upset rocked the basketball world. The win over Murray kept the dream alive. The Peacocks, who have won nine straight games, never trailed and fended over a late Racers’ rally as Edert scored 10 of his 13 points in the game’s final five minutes. Ndefo finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks, putting the Peacocks in position to become the first 15th seed to advance to an Elite Eight if they can knock off Purdue, a physical Big Ten three seed with 7-4 Zach Edey and 6-10, 275-pound Trevion Williams.
“I got guys from New Jersey and New York City,” Holloway said. “You think we’re scared of anything?”
