Shaheen Holloway departs Saint Peter's for Seton Hall
Fresh off a stunning NCAA tournament run with Saint Peter’s, Shaheen Holloway is returning to his alma mater to coach at Seton Hall.
Holloway, a standout point guard for Seton Hall from 1996 to 2000, was announced by the school Wednesday as its new men’s basketball coach. He received national acclaim this month for helping unheralded Saint Peter’s become the first No. 15 seed to reach the Elite Eight.
The 45-year-old won’t have to travel far within New Jersey to move into his new office, given that the Saint Peter’s campus in Jersey City is less than 20 miles from South Orange, where Seton Hall is located. He also will remain close to New York City, where he grew up in the borough of Queens before playing high school ball in Elizabeth, N.J.
“Life has a way of coming full circle,” Holloway, who started his coaching career at Seton Hall and returned to serve as an assistant to then-coach Kevin Willard from 2010 to 2018, said in a statement. “This is certainly a full circle moment for my family and I. Seton Hall is near and dear to my heart; it’s where I became a man, where I met the love of my life, where I spent countless hours honing my crafts as a basketball player and a basketball coach. To say that I’m excited to get started as the head men’s basketball coach at Seton Hall University would be an understatement. … It is a dream come true.”
Holloway replaces Willard, who left Seton Hall after 12 seasons to become the coach at Maryland. Holloway first worked under Willard at Iona before the latter took the Seton Hall job in 2010 and they both left the Gaels for the Pirates. Wednesday’s announcement from Seton Hall included words of praise from Rick Pitino, who is coaching at Iona after a lengthy career that included successful stops at Kentucky and Louisville.
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“Shaheen is a budding superstar in our business,” Pitino said, “and I could not be happier for him. He has paid his dues as an assistant, and as a head coach he brought Saint Peter’s to the promised land. Without a doubt, Kevin Willard will be a tough guy to replace but Shaheen is up to the task.”
“Shaheen made an unforgettable impact here at Seton Hall first as a student-athlete and then again as an assistant coach, and now we’re ready to watch him take over our men’s basketball program as head coach and lead our Pirates to further greatness,” Athletic Director Bryan Felt said in a statement. “Welcome home, Coach Holloway!”
Still the all-time leader in assists at Seton Hall, Holloway led the Pirates to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 as a player in 2000, and they have not made it that far since. Saint Peter’s had never so much as won a game in the tournament before this year, but the soft-spoken coach was able to oversee victories over Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue that turned him and the Peacocks into national darlings.
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In Holloway’s first season, the Peacocks finished the 2018-19 campaign with a 10-22 record, but their improvement to 18-12 the following year earned him 2020 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference coach of the year honors. This season, Saint Peter’s won its conference tournament and earned a berth in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2011.
Now Holloway will face the challenge of taking on big-time programs in the Big East, both on the court and the recruiting trail, but at least one former teammate said his addition could be a “huge” boon for Seton Hall’s ability to attract talent.
“Local kids are going to want to play for him,” Ty Shine, who backed up Holloway as a Pirates guard for two seasons, told the Asbury Park Press. “He still has that legendary New York City/New Jersey name. I think the recruiting part is going to be pretty easy for him — being from the area is going to be one of his advantages.”
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Seton Hall’s president described Holloway’s arrival as sparking “a day of joy and celebration” for his school.
“Coach Holloway is a dynamic leader and a proud alumnus of our great University with great affinity for our community,” President Joseph E. Nyre said in a statement. “He is the perfect choice to lead Seton Hall men’s basketball and maintain the program’s position as a national power.”
Previous versions of this story incorrectly stated that Seton Hall is located in Newark. The Pirates play their games there at Prudential Center, but the campus is located in South Orange, N.J.
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