The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Holloway followed Hurley at Seton Hall
They’re both Jersey guys. They were both standout point guards at Seton Hall.
That’s where the similarities between Dan Hurley and Shaheen Holloway end, at least for now. On Wednesday night, when UConn hosts Saint Peter’s at XL Center, Hurley and Holloway will line up as opposing head coaches.
It will be the first meeting between the two schools in 32 years, and it came about as a result of the relationship between Hurley and Holloway, who are each in their second season as head men at UConn and Saint Peter’s, respectively.
“I’ve known Dan since Seton Hall was recruiting me back in 1996,” Holloway said. “He was the star point guard when they were recruiting me, and I kind of replaced him. So, yeah, Danny and I go back quite a while.”
Hurley as the Pirates’ standout point guard as a junior and senior, averaging 13.8 points per game in 199495 and 14.3 per game in 199596. After his graduation, Holloway, who had been a star at St. Patrick’s High in Elizabeth, N.J., took over Hurley’s starting point guard role with immediate success. He averaged 17.3 points per game as a freshman and wound up with 1,588 points over his fouryear career.
Holloway helped lead Seton Hall to the 2000 Sweet Sixteen (hitting a gamewinning layup in overtime to beat Oregon in the first round) and was inducted into the school’s athletics hall of fame in 2012.
“It definitely came about from the relationship I have with Danny,” Holloway said of Wednesday’s game. “But every year, I want to play the best teams in nonconference. I want to challenge our guys to get out and play at least two or three bigtime games. I’m very fortunate this year to have UConn, Providence and St. John’s on the schedule. And they’re all local games. I want to play local games. Last year, we played Auburn, NC State
and Clemson. I thought the travel kind of wore us out a little bit, so I wanted to kind of keep it local.”
This season hasn’t come without a bit of adversity for Holloway and the Peacocks. Holloway was forced to sit out the team’s first four games (against New Jersey City University, Bryant, Providence and Wagner) due to his role in transfer tampering allegations against Seton Hall when he was an associate head coach for the Pirates.
Holloway was the lead recruiter for Taurean Thompson, who ultimately chose to go to Syracuse but transferred to Seton Hall in August, 2017. Current Seton Hall head coach Kevin
Willard was forced to sit out two games this season due to the allegations, as well.
UNH’S CONNECTICUT CONNECTION
For the second year in row on Sunday, a pair of Connecticut products will help lead New Hampshire against UConn at XL Center.
Nick Guadarrama of Newington is the Wildcats’ secondleading scorer (14.8 ppg) and thirdleading rebounder (9.4) through the team’s first 10 games. The 6foot5, 225pound sophomore forward poured in a careerhigh 28 points in a Nov. 9 win over Holy Cross.
Mark Carbone, a 62 senior guard from Wethersfield, has played in six of UNH’s 10 games, averaging 6.8 points in 18.2 minutes.
aHe’s missed the last couple of games with an injury, but is expected to be back soon — possibly on Wednesday night. Carbone matched a careerbest with 14 points in a loss to St. John’s on Nov. 12.
THIS WEEK’S AP TOP 25 BALLOT
In an obvious example of the parody in college basketball this season, there will be a fifth new No. 1 atop the AP Top 25 poll on Monday afternoon. It will likely be either Gonzaga or Kansas, and we’ll side with the Zags, who have knocked off Oregon, Washington and Arizona — the latter two on the road — already this season.
1. Gonzaga: Only worry is that all their big wins came against the Pac12.
2. Kansas: Lone loss a
twopoint seasonopener to Duke.
3. Louisville: Didn’t look so great vs. Texas Tech’s tough ‘D’ at MSG Tuesday night.
4. Ohio State: Richard Pitino prevents Buckeyes from taking over No. 1 this week.
5. Memphis: Big (if somewhat ugly) win at crossstate rival Tennessee on Saturday.
6. Maryland: Can’t kill Terps for road loss at Penn State.
7. Duke: DNP this week, which means no losses to Stephen F. Austin.
8. Virgina: Why did so many ACC teams take the week off ?
9. Oregon: Big win at Michigan shows Pac12 might actually have a good team?
10. Kentucky:
Play Ohio
State this Saturday, Louisville following Saturday. Fun.
11. Florida State: Why do I rate the Seminoles higher than everyone else?
12. Baylor: Good win over Butler on Tuesday.
13. Michigan: Wolverines have lost three of four. Did Jim Harbaugh take over as coach?
14. Michigan State: Still feel like I’m favoring my preseason No. 1 a bit too much.
15. Xavier: Losing at Wake Forest isn’t great, but still a P5 road loss.
16. San Diego State: Aztecs didn’t play this past week.
17. Dayton: 31point win over Drake on Saturday. Not fair beating up on just one rapper.
18. Tennessee: Rick Barnes isn’t so sure he
wants to play against Penny & Memphis again.
10. Saint Mary’s: Nice 12point road kill at Cal on Saturday night.
20. Butler: Loss at Baylor was Bulldogs’ first of season.
21. Auburn: Beaten everyone so far, but haven’t really beaten anyone.
22. Florida: Gators lay dormant in the stream this past week.
23. DePaul: Yeah, we’ve got ‘em back. We like road wins.
24. Liberty: Also unbeaten, including a road kill at Vanderbilt Saturday night.
25. Wichita State: Shockers swept Oklahoma teams last week, including at Oklahoma State.
david.borges @hearstmediact.com