No. 1 Huskies still looking up at Seton Hall in Big East
The Uconn men’s basketball team may be No. 1 in the country, but when it comes to the Big East standings, it still finds itself looking up at Seton Hall.
The upstart Pirates, led by the ultimate underdog’s coach in Shaheen Holloway, may not have a number next to their name, but at 6-1 in the conference and already with wins over the Huskies and Marquette, they’ve turned plenty of heads.
Seton Hall (13-5) defeated St.
John’s, 80-65, on Tuesday for its fifth win in a row. If the Pirates make it six with a home win over No. 18 Creighton on Saturday, they’ll be virtually guaranteed to jump into the Top 25 rankings next Monday.
It’s heady stuff for the Hall, which was picked to finish ninth in the Big East preseason poll.
Asked if his team’s approach would start to change now that they’re receiving some national attention, Holloway was adamant it wouldn’t.
“No, no. Stay the same. You gotta know me, big dog. If you know me, you understand who I am,” he told reporters after the St. John’s win on Tuesday. “We ain’t never going to have that mindset. Our mindset is always going to be the underdog. Our mindset is always going to be that we have something to prove.”
Holloway, 47, is in his second year at the helm of his alma mater after engineering one of the greatest Cinderella runs in NCAA Tournament history, guiding 15-seed St. Peter’s to the Elite Eight in 2022. He also ran the point for Seton Hall during its underdog run to the Sweet 16 as a 10-seed in 2000, and it’s clear he thrives in that mindset.
Seton Hall’s recipe for success might just be that underdog mentality mixed with experience. The Pirates are among the most experienced teams in the country, as its top six scorers are all seniors.
Standout guard Kadary Richmond, a Big East Player of the Year candidate, leads the way at 16.7 points per game.
Holloway has gotten his players to buy all the way into his hardnosed approach, and senior guard Al-amir Dawes echoed his coach when asked about changing expectations.
“We’re always going to have the chip on our shoulders. We still want to be kind of (known) as the underdogs, because they didn’t believe we could be here. Us together, we believe that we’ve got a lot. We know we’ve got a talented young group of guys and we know what we can do.”
Despite their recent run of success, the metrics still don’t love the Pirates (which might just serve as more bulletin-board material). Seton Hall checks in at No. 53 in the Kenpom rankings, and 58th in the NCAA’S NET rankings. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi has the team as a No. 9 seed in his latest projections.
There’s a lot of season left, and by the time the real bracket comes out in March, the Hall will have either validated its red-hot Big East start and worked its way up the bracket, or will have fallen back to earth. There will certainly be plenty of opportunities for resume-building wins in the Big East, and plenty of places to slip up.
Holloway insisted the message won’t change.
“We’ve got a chip on our shoulder. Never get greedy, never get satisfied,” he said. “Stay humble, stay low-key.”