With the conclusion of conference tournaments across the country Sunday night, CBS aired its annual “Selection Sunday Show,” where the NCAA Tournament’s 68-team bracket is revealed—with Seton Hall men’s basketball not being included.
Instead, the Pirates (21-12, 10-10 BIG EAST) were listed among the “Next Four Out,” or the teams ranked 73-76 that missed the cut, ultimately landing as the final team left on the bubble.
It’s a tough pill to swallow for The Hall, who likely would have earned the program’s first tournament berth since 2022 had they won just two of the following seven regular season games: either contest against St. John’s (SJU), UConn and or DePaul, as well as their Feb. 7 road trip to Creighton (who the Pirates later beat 76-61 in the quarterfinal round of the BIG EAST Tournament).
With the Johnnies and Huskies splitting their season series, only three of the conference’s 11 teams (Providence, and Creighton and Marquette, respectively) managed to earn a victory over either of them this season, making wins against them quite rare.
Losses to the two other teams, however, are much harder to reconcile for SHU, as the Blue Demons and Bluejays finished the season with a combined conference record of just 17-23, both falling under the Pirates in the standings.
Despite finishing the regular season with 20 wins (winning 10-of-11 games in non-conference play, 10-of-20 conference), it was SHU’s lack of quality wins that left them out of the field. The Pirates were just 1-6 in Quad 1 games and 0-7 against the conference’s top-three in STJ, UConn and Villanova, all of whom made the Big Dance.
The Hall’s last remaining hope to go dancing was making their first BIG EAST Tournament final appearance since 2019, which they failed to do, falling 78-68 in the semifinals to eventual champions SJU instead.
Nevertheless, SHU head coach and unanimous BIG EAST Coach of the Year Shaheen Holloway pleaded his case to the NCAA Tournament committee postgame, saying the Pirates “did enough“ to earn a spot.
“I think if the committee really sits down and has, you know, good minds in there like I know they do, if they look at our resume and look at what we did,” Holloway said. “And our body of work is really good, it’s way better than a lot of people (think).”
“So I think if they look at our body of work, I thought we went out, I thought we challenged ourselves, I thought we did well in our league,” Holloway added.
Other coaches around the league were in agreement with Holloway, including former Pirates guard and current UConn head coach Dan Hurley. Following the Huskies’ semifinal win over Georgetown to advance to the championship game against SJU, Hurley endorsed his alma mater to make the tournament, as he did earlier this season.
“Their non-conference was absolutely NCAA-caliber and then they got to the semifinals of the BIG EAST Tournament,” Hurley said. “If they’re in the NCAA Tournament, they’ll win a game. So hell yeah, Seton Hall has the quality of an NCAA Tournament team.”
But The Hall missing this year’s March Madness should by no means diminish what they achieved this season: from being picked to finish last in the Preseason Coaches Poll to a fourth-place regular season finish; 7-25 to 21-12; from no NCAA Tournament consideration whatsoever to a bubble team is a huge achievement in itself, even though the outcome wasn’t what they hoped for. Not to mention them earning their first AP Top 25 ranking since the 2021-22 season, as well as several conference honors, including Holloway’s unanimous Coach of the Year award.
March Madness aside, SHU will have the opportunity to add a brand new trophy to their collection, this one fit for a king: rather than defend their 2023-24 NIT Championship Title, the Pirates will play in the College Basketball Crown Tournament, a postseason consolation tournament that debuted last year and is held in Las Vegas from April 1-5.
With the Big Ten, Big 12, and BIG EAST obligated to send their top-two teams that didn’t make the tournament, the Pirates will almost certainly be among them, with either Providence or Creighton likely to join them. Fox Sports 1 will unveil The Crown’s 8-team bracket on Monday, although the quarterfinals won’t start for another 16 days.
“We’ve still got some things to solve given the opportunity, so the feeling is high to come back and continue proving ourselves," graduate guard AJ Staton-McCray said postgame about continuing the postseason. "It’s always fun to play basketball games. We’re all basketball players—we love to hoop, NCAA championship or not.”
Zachary Mawby is the head editor of The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at zachary.mawby@student.shu.edu.
