PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
setonhall.rivals.com
BY JP Pelzman
This is part 2 of my interview with Seton Hall women’s basketball coach Tony Bozzella. In this installment, he discusses how he and his staff have used the transfer portal to their advantage and talks about the 2022-23 roster, the NIL, and the departure of Mya Jackson to Cincinnati.
East Hartford star Shailyn Pinkney, the 2020-2021 Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year, helped lead her team to a state title last season.
But besides that accomplishment and her POY trophy as a junior, here is another distinction for Pinkney as she embarks on her Seton Hall career this fall. She will be the only freshman on the Pirates’ roster.
Tenth-year coach Tony Bozzella and his staff have embraced the transfer portal, which has become a huge factor in both men’s and women’s Division 1 college basketball. In fact, Seton Hall dubbed one week in May Reload Week as the program announced several incoming transfers.
Bozzella credits the painstaking work of associate head coach Lauren DeFalco as being the driving force for this success.
“I challenge anyone in the country to find a better coach in terms of transfers,” he said of DeFalco. “She looks through the transfer portal every day.”
And not only that, he noted, DeFalco turns up relationships and connections that might otherwise go unnoticed. It was DeFalco who spotted the fact that Auburn transfer Jala Jordan, a 6-2 forward who averaged 6.4 points and 3.9 rebounds in 16.4 minutes per game for the Tigers last season, is originally from Philadelphia.
DeFalco “did a little homework,” Bozzella said, and discovered that her father, Gerald Jordan, played at Pittsburgh.
Jordan, a 6-11 forward, transferred from Morgan State to Pittsburgh and played for the Panthers for two seasons, from 1995-97, averaging 8.3 points and 4.7 rebounds.
Bozzella said, “Who else do we know who played at Pitt? Kevin Willard.”
Yes, the former Seton Hall coach, who left for Maryland after the season, played on the same team as Jordan, who remembered fondly his days playing for Ralph Willard and had no problem recommending Seton Hall to his daughter.
“We were the only Big East school that recruited her because no one thought she would come here,” Bozzella said. “She was excited to come back East. She's going to be a special player. She can shoot the ball from 25 feet. She's got a great stroke. Her father has worked with her (for) her whole life. … Her dad’s familiarity with Coach (Kevin) Willard really helped us a lot.
“I can’t tell you how good she is,” Bozzella added. “Coach DeFalco knows who to target in the portal. She does a lot of background on each player.”
The head coach added, “And I think we do a good job as a staff, when the players come on a visit, of explaining the vision we have for them. And I think that’s important. If you don’t have a vision for these kids, it’s not going to work.”
Another transfer is Sha’Lynn Hagans, a 2 guard from Penn State who averaged 6.5 points and had 50 steals last season.
“Sha (pronounced Shay) is a tremendous defender, who really gets downhill and gets to the rim,” Bozzella said. “She gives us a tremendous amount of speed. I really love her game."
Allie Palmieri is a 5-10 mid-year transfer guard from Boston College who had to sit out after transferring. Bozzella expects her to help with three-point shooting.
Victoria Keenan, another guard, sat out last season while rehabbing an undisclosed injury. She averaged 4.0 points in limited playing time in 2020-21.
Bozzella is hoping for these players to take up some of the scoring left by the absence of Mya Jackson, who transferred to Cincinnati. Jackson, an Ohio native, averaged 9.0 points in 32 minutes last season.
“We're disappointed,” about her departure, said Bozzella, who had a one-hour talk with Jackson when she came to him and expressed her desire to transfer.
“Mya was a two-year captain,” he added. “She was a solid player for us. She gave us everything she had. She's a great person, someone I never had an issue with, never had a problem with. A tremendous student.
“I just think she wasn’t comfortable or happy in her role,” he added. “She just wasn’t happy.”
The Bearcats finished 11-17 overall and 4-11 in the American Athletic Conference last season. Thus, Jackson is stepping into a rebuilding situation.
“I think Mya thought with her leadership and her talent,” Bozzella said, “she could better utilize it there because their program probably needs it more. I think she wanted to have--I don’t want to say a bigger role but a different role. I'm sad she’s leaving but, there was only so much of a role she was going to have on our team. It is what it is, with who we have.
“I'm going to miss her,” he added. “I wish her well and I think she’ll be good” there.
As for Seton Hall’s other incoming transfers, one is, as Bozzella said, a “unique story.”
Forward Alexia Allesch played in 40 games for Seton Hall in 2019-20 and 2020-21 before transferring to Appalachian State, where she won Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year honors last season by averaging 13.3 points and 9.6 rebounds. Her numbers were even better in conference games, with 15.7 points and 10.5 boards.
Bozzella recalled, “One of the players said, ‘I think Alexia wants to come back.’ ‘I'm like, what are you talking about?’ ‘Alexia wants to come back.’ ‘Come back where?’ ‘Come back here.’
“I saw her name in the portal,” he added, recalling that Allesch told him, “I was afraid to call because I thought you guys would yell at me. It was great to be away, but I really missed the staff and the environment.”
“Of course, we would take her back,” he said. “She left on great terms. She had a breakthrough year at Appalachian State. She's going to help us.”
