“Last year was last year.”
That was Seton Hall men’s basketball head coach Shaheen Holloway’s knee-jerk response this season whenever reporters asked him questions related to last season, when the Pirates finished just 7-25 (2-18 in conference play) after a first-round defeat to Villanova in the BIG EAST Tournament on March 17, 2025.
Holloway’s response was dismissive, sure—perhaps motivated by frustration or even embarrassment. But it also reflected his determination to return his alma mater to its winning ways in his fourth year at its helm.
And that determination showed by the end of the regular season: twelve months after that first-round defeat, Holloway and a band of 11 newcomers to The Hall finished with a 20-10 record, half of those wins coming in conference play.
The Pirates’ 13-win single-season improvement tied a program-record—also second-best in the nation—along with their fourth-place finish in the conference standings was more than enough for the same coaches who picked SHU to finish dead-last in the Preseason Coaches Poll to unanimously name Holloway the 2025-26 BIG EAST Coach of the Year on Wednesday afternoon.
Holloway, also named the AP's BIG EAST Coach of the Year, becomes just the fourth head coach in program history to win the conference award. The last to so was Kevin Willard, the BIG EAST Co-Coach of the Year a decade ago who was not just Holloway’s boss for 10 seasons (two at Iona University and eight at The Hall) before being succeeded by him, but who also was seemingly in a three-way race with Holloway and DePaul’s Chris Holtmann for the award.
In his first season as Villanova’s head coach, Willard led an entirely new Wildcats roster to 24 wins and a third-place finish despite being picked to finish seventh in the Preseason Coaches Poll (perhaps not as credible as it seems).
With Holloway and The Hall finishing in fourth place, Willard’s Wildcats in third and Dan Hurley and the No. 6 UConn Huskies in second, three of the top-four spots in the conference standings were claimed by former Pirates, whether players, coaches or both—a huge accomplishment for the program and university.
As an award voted on by the conference’s coaches, it's hardly a surprise that Holloway’s award was an unanimous decision: even if it were a three-way race between him, Willard and Holtmann for the award, Holloway was clearly in the lead considering how many of his peers were on record this season saying the SHU skipper deserved it more than anyone else.
Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley was among the earliest to say so: in January, ahead of his Hoyas hosting The Hall, who had a 13-2 overall and 3-1 conference record at the time, Cooley said Holloway was deserving of not just the BIG EAST, but also the Werner Ladder Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year award, Cooley being a one-time recipient himself.
“They play with a chip, they play with energy, they play with toughness—I mean they really epitomize their coach,” Cooley told NJ Advance Media about SHU. “I think Sha, if I had the coach of the year—National Coach of the Year, not just Big East Coach of the Year—I would vote him National Coach of the Year based on where he was a year ago, where he was preseason picked this year and getting his men to just play at such a connected pace, has been really, really exciting to watch.”
Cooley doubled down on his praise of Holloway when Georgetown visited SHU at the Prudential Center the following month, the Pirates coming away with a 51-47 win on Feb. 21 (all while failing to hit a single three-pointer despite 18 attempts in one of the most SHU / Holloway ways of winning).
“You got to give him a lot of credit,” Cooley said. “I think he was picked last, right? Again, I think there’s some coaches doing a great job in our league—arguably he’s doing one of the best jobs, if not the best, given all the transition and turnover that he went through.”
“So you got to give him a lot of credit,” Cooley continued. “He will get my vote for Coach of the Year, for sure.”
Holloway received similar praise from fellow former Pirates point guard and New Jersey native, Dan Hurley, who said SHU’s performance against his Huskies on Feb. 28, despite them falling 56-48 after blowing an 8-point second half, made it difficult for him to consider anyone else for the award.
“I’m just blown away by the quality of what Seton Hall just brought to this arena today, that's where it's gonna be hard for me to go in any other direction with Coach of the Year in this league,” Hurley said. "Obviously Chris Holtmann's had a great year, Kevin Willard's had a great year, but what Shaheen just did…”
Although he refused to say who he voted for when NJ Advance Media asked him following then-No. 18 St. John’s 72-65 win over the Pirates in their regular-season finale on March 6, Naismith Hall of Famer Rick Pitino also said, “Shaheen’s a special, special coach.”
“[Holloway] did a fabulous job this year, and it’s not over, just beginning,” Pitino said. “They're tenacious, they run a good system...every time you play Seton Hall, you're in for a battle.”
Not many anticipated how well SHU would play this season, although they should have considering the proclamation Holloway made when the Pirates suffered their 24th loss to UConn on March 12, 2025.
“I’ve always been a person that was very ‘juiced’ to coach, but after what happened this year I can’t wait to get out on the road and hit the recruiting trail and get our guys here in the summertime,” Holloway told NJ Advance Media. “So [I’m] looking forward to that—because I never want something like this to happen again.”
More signs of future success came just a month before this season: on Oct. 6, 2025, SHU hosted an in-house media day, where Holloway was “super transparent” with the media about how his team would perform.
“I wear my heart on my sleeve—that’s just the way I am,” Holloway said. “So if I didn’t think that we were going to be good [this season], I’d tell you guys.”
“But I think we got a chance to be really good, if we keep improving, and every day we come in [and work],” Holloway added. “We got better since the summertime to now. So I think that we will continue to keep making those jumps, and as long as we stay healthy, and as long as every day keeps buying in, I think we got a chance to be really good.”
And Holloway was right: the No. 4 Pirates were indeed good enough to earn a first-round bye in the BIG EAST Tournament, as the postseason will start for them on Thursday, March 12, when they face fifth-seed Creighton in the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament at MSG.
A win over the Bluejays, then over now-No. 13 St. John’s in the following semifinal round for an appearance in the tournament title game could be enough for both Holloway and SHU to make their long-awaited return to the NCAA Tournament—and that wouldn't be a longshot for The Hall, who have history somewhat on their side.
This year’s tournament marks a decade since SHU last won it, the same season Willard was named Coach of the Year. If history indeed repeats itself, with Holloway winning this season's award, then SHU are poised to emerge victorious once again, a win which would guarantee them an automatic-bid to the Big Dance.
But regardless of how far the Pirates go in the postseason, BIG EAST or beyond, Holloway said following their regular-season finale that he is proud of “the way this team carried itself this year,” and that Pirate Nation should be as well.
“I think all our fans should be encouraged,” Holloway said. “I mean, this team gave them everything they had. Everything, everything. They played their tails off, their butts off, everybody wrote us off and this team just continued to keep battling, battling, and I think that’s a great sign for us.”
Zachary Mawby is the head editor of The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at zachary.mawby@student.shu.edu.
