One by one, desperate bid thieves burst the dizzying March Madness bubble that Shaheen Holloway and his Seton Hall Pirates were blowing.
The bid thieves rose up against all odds last weekend, snatching misery from the mouths of jubilation with no remorse, turning the siren call of a dance into the cruelest teasing possible, and sending their local victims to New Jersey. He was locked up at the Heartbreak Hotel in South Orange, state. , and also in Queens, Jamaica, home of Rick Pitino’s St. John’s.
There was no dance at Seton Hall (20-12, 13-7) after a buzzer-beater from half court resulted in a foul play.
Welcome to Seton Hell.
Back in the day when only three teams in the Big East were dancing and had the right to call themselves the Big Freed.
“A very wise woman told me this a long time ago: If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all,” Holloway said on a Zoom call just before 10 p.m.
But he couldn’t help himself.
“My heart hurts for the team,” Holloway said. “Just seeing their faces was probably one of the worst things. I actually hurt for them.”
He witnessed Seton Hell up close in the campus locker room, watching helplessly as players rejoiced on CBS selection screens everywhere outside South Orange, New Jersey. By the end, when they saw SETON HALL, it was alongside the soul-crushing First Four Out.
“It’s very disappointing and very shocking,” Holloway said. “I can’t believe that a team that should be the second-best in the national conference numerically won 13 games. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a situation like that before. The disrespect that was shown to me… it’s mind-boggling to me. … Hours later, I still can’t believe it. I still can’t believe that only three teams made it to this conference. It’s shameful and disrespectful on every level.”
Holloway was the star of the ball two years ago, applying to the Elite Eight as Cinderella St. Peter’s before the University of North Carolina dashed that impossible dream.
The first team in the Big East’s 45-year history to finish five or more games above .500.
CBS announced that Seton Hall is the second team below the cut line after Oklahoma.
“I’m not going to say anything because I don’t want to say anything very nice,” Holloway said.
Seton Hall, picked ninth in the conference in a preseason coaches poll, wasn’t initially expected to be in the conversation. The Pirates finished in fourth place.
“In any conference in the country, if you win 13 games, you qualify,” Holloway said.
Hall’s 66 NET put them in a dangerous position. The Pirates were 5-8 against Quad 1 opponents. Holloway questioned why his win against Villanova was downgraded.
“Can you go from being in Quad 1 one night to being in Quad 2 the next?” he said. “Did you lose that much weight in less than 24 hours?” I had never heard that before.
“You know how many times this year we’ve really beaten a team and not been able to hold on to the basketball or we’ve had our starters ejected with seven, eight, 19 minutes left in the game? Because I’m old school? But at this point So that seems to be the best way. If you beat the team by It doesn’t seem like it’s enough anymore.”
A loss to St. John’s in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals left them vulnerable.
“Even if we won the St. John’s game, it didn’t seem to matter,” Holloway said. “Have you ever seen a team finish in the top four in the Big East and not make it to the Big Dance? That’s unheard of!”
Dan Hurley, fresh off the Yukon’s defeat of Marquette for the Big East Championship on Saturday night, talks about his lack of respect for the Big East and thinks it would be embarrassing if Seton Hall doesn’t get an invitation to the dance. He said it would be.
On the way back to the college locker room, I asked him why he thought Hall deserved an invitation to the dance.
“They beat us!” Harley said and laughed. “They beat Marquette. They beat the No. 1 seed, they beat the No. 2 seed, they won 13 games in the best or second-best conference in the country.
“Obviously a tournament team.”
Seton Hall defeated the Huskies 75-60 in December.
“They definitely play super hard, play tough and play together,” UW’s Alex Karavan told the Post. “They’re a really put together unit. Coach Shaheen Holloway, he’s done an unbelievable job there. They really used the beginning of the season as a motivational factor. They’re the best in the country. They beat some of the teams, beat us, beat Marquette. Everybody has the utmost respect for their toughness. Cadderly Richmond, he [All-Big East] One army. … We know what they are capable of. ”
Holloway opted to play in the NIT a year ago, his first season at his alma mater. He didn’t make the decision to play at St. Joe’s on Wednesday night at Walsh Gymnasium on Sunday night.
“This year, I put my five seniors in a room and had them weigh in and told them to come upstairs when they were ready to speak,” Holloway said.
They will be the No. 1 seed, so he said he hopes they can try to win the NIT Championship if they want.
“They all want to play,” Holloway said.
In the meantime, welcome to Seton hell.
