Hope Springs Eternal from the Garden at Big East Basketball Media Day
by JD Walker
October in New York City during the “Sports equinox” of all of the sports leagues playing at the same time is a hopeful, yet still mildly anxious place. The start of a new college basketball season brings hope, and the official kickoff party is at Madison Square Garden for Big East Media Day. It’s easy to have hope and excitement when you arrive in Manhattan from New Jersey coming out from underground tunnels. My photographer Ernesto and I emerged from Jackie Gleason’s sweaty butthole better known as the Port Authority Bus Terminal Wednesday morning and walked a few blocks south to “The Mecca” to see the Seton Hall Pirates and the ten other Big East teams with their coaches and a handful of players to soak in the festivities for the upcoming season.
The first sight right before walking out to the main floor of MSG was sandwich boards with the preseason coaches poll and player honors for the men’s and women’s teams. Pirate fans were immediately slapped in the face, with the men’s coaches poll showing UConn at the top as they should be, and Seton Hall in 10th, one point behind the Georgetown Cooleys and above only the Chicago Bottom Feeders of DePaul. Rodney Dangerfield’s timeless “No respect” rant played in my head for a few minutes, then I moved on. The Pirates prove the polls wrong most years anyway so who cares? With only three returning players from Seton Hall’s 2024 NIT Championship team, only two of whom played significant minutes and only one starter, skepticism is understandable to a degree, but 10th? Oh well, time to prove them wrong again.
Those two returning contributors, Isaiah Coleman and Dylan Addae-Wusu were at the table representing the team along with coach Shaheen Holloway floating around since he rarely sits or stands still for very long. Most of the quotes were typical boilerplate stuff but at least the messaging is consistent and everyone is on the same page.
Question: How does it feel stepping into a leadership position this season?
Dylan (aka “Dills”): “As a competitor, you can’t ask for nothing better than that, to go out and compete so that’s the fun part”
Isaiah (aka “Zay”): “Day in and day out it’s just work. Every game is a game, score is 0-0 at the start, we see who wins after that.
I asked Coleman about the practices and Sha’s intensity with the team:
Zay: “Every day, that pushes us to be 110. We see him at 100 that makes us want to go more.”
Q: How has the team culture evolved or developed despite all the turnover?
Dylan: “As a team culture, the Seton Hall culture is grit, fight, and competitive nature. Coach says Dedication, Discipline, and Determination, that stays within the program. No matter the team, the group of guys, that’s the culture within the school. It’s still the same, it means the same from Coach Sha.”
Zay: “Coaching stays the same but it gets better…like Dills just said, the 3 D’s Determination, Dedication, Discipline, you got to have them to play for Seton Hall.”
The players left it to their coach to talk about the rankings and disrespect when the pack of reporters asked him about it. Sha’s quotes are by way of Jaden Daly of Daly Dose of Hoops, because I couldn’t even get anywhere close enough to the press scrums to ask a question other than saying hello and good luck to him for 30 seconds right before he was whisked away to the FS1 TV set staged perfectly on the MSG court. Here are a few on the polls and his team which are exactly what you would expect from Sha:
On Seton Hall being picked 10th in the Big East:
“I’m intrigued by them. The reason why I’m intrigued by them is that we know where I want to be right now, but I think this team’s got a really good ceiling. I mean, what do you want me to say? It is what it is, brother. I don’t know. People have time to sit around and pick other people’s teams, but I’m not worried about nobody else. I don’t do it, I let my assistant coaches do it, to tell you the truth. It doesn’t matter either way for me. You know me, I don’t really care if we’re first, we’re last, I don’t care.”
On the opportunity to develop his team:
“I mean, I’ll be honest with you, I don’t really care about the rankings or stuff like that. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s preseason. I just care about my team, but if you know me, you know my teams, we get better as the year goes on. So right now, I’m happy where we are, but I think we’re gonna be really good.”
Olympic Champion and former Pro Wrestler Kurt Angle preached about the three I’s of Intelligence, Integrity, and Intensity. We already have Sha’s three D’s of Determination, Dedication, Discipline. Throw in all those letters and these Pirates will easily shrug off that useless #10 ranking this season just like they did the useless #8 preseason ranking and the middle finger from the NCAA Selection Committee to run to a 4th place Big East finish and an NIT Championship. We don’t know yet where these Pirates will finish but I can say with confidence I don’t see any planet where these Pirates finish 10th.
More to come over the next few days:
JD Walker is one of the co-founders of Stream Punk Entertainment and has covered the Philadelphia Union, Big East Basketball, and New Jersey high school basketball since 2022. He has a wide-spanning career with experience in a variety of roles inside and outside the world of sports including basketball operations, gameday entertainment, promotions, broadcasting, and finance. He’s a Jersey Shore native sprung from a cage on Highway 9, and loves to geek out on the business and legal side of the games we all love.
by JD Walker
October in New York City during the “Sports equinox” of all of the sports leagues playing at the same time is a hopeful, yet still mildly anxious place. The start of a new college basketball season brings hope, and the official kickoff party is at Madison Square Garden for Big East Media Day. It’s easy to have hope and excitement when you arrive in Manhattan from New Jersey coming out from underground tunnels. My photographer Ernesto and I emerged from Jackie Gleason’s sweaty butthole better known as the Port Authority Bus Terminal Wednesday morning and walked a few blocks south to “The Mecca” to see the Seton Hall Pirates and the ten other Big East teams with their coaches and a handful of players to soak in the festivities for the upcoming season.
The first sight right before walking out to the main floor of MSG was sandwich boards with the preseason coaches poll and player honors for the men’s and women’s teams. Pirate fans were immediately slapped in the face, with the men’s coaches poll showing UConn at the top as they should be, and Seton Hall in 10th, one point behind the Georgetown Cooleys and above only the Chicago Bottom Feeders of DePaul. Rodney Dangerfield’s timeless “No respect” rant played in my head for a few minutes, then I moved on. The Pirates prove the polls wrong most years anyway so who cares? With only three returning players from Seton Hall’s 2024 NIT Championship team, only two of whom played significant minutes and only one starter, skepticism is understandable to a degree, but 10th? Oh well, time to prove them wrong again.
Those two returning contributors, Isaiah Coleman and Dylan Addae-Wusu were at the table representing the team along with coach Shaheen Holloway floating around since he rarely sits or stands still for very long. Most of the quotes were typical boilerplate stuff but at least the messaging is consistent and everyone is on the same page.
Question: How does it feel stepping into a leadership position this season?
Dylan (aka “Dills”): “As a competitor, you can’t ask for nothing better than that, to go out and compete so that’s the fun part”
Isaiah (aka “Zay”): “Day in and day out it’s just work. Every game is a game, score is 0-0 at the start, we see who wins after that.
I asked Coleman about the practices and Sha’s intensity with the team:
Zay: “Every day, that pushes us to be 110. We see him at 100 that makes us want to go more.”
Q: How has the team culture evolved or developed despite all the turnover?
Dylan: “As a team culture, the Seton Hall culture is grit, fight, and competitive nature. Coach says Dedication, Discipline, and Determination, that stays within the program. No matter the team, the group of guys, that’s the culture within the school. It’s still the same, it means the same from Coach Sha.”
Zay: “Coaching stays the same but it gets better…like Dills just said, the 3 D’s Determination, Dedication, Discipline, you got to have them to play for Seton Hall.”
The players left it to their coach to talk about the rankings and disrespect when the pack of reporters asked him about it. Sha’s quotes are by way of Jaden Daly of Daly Dose of Hoops, because I couldn’t even get anywhere close enough to the press scrums to ask a question other than saying hello and good luck to him for 30 seconds right before he was whisked away to the FS1 TV set staged perfectly on the MSG court. Here are a few on the polls and his team which are exactly what you would expect from Sha:
On Seton Hall being picked 10th in the Big East:
“I’m intrigued by them. The reason why I’m intrigued by them is that we know where I want to be right now, but I think this team’s got a really good ceiling. I mean, what do you want me to say? It is what it is, brother. I don’t know. People have time to sit around and pick other people’s teams, but I’m not worried about nobody else. I don’t do it, I let my assistant coaches do it, to tell you the truth. It doesn’t matter either way for me. You know me, I don’t really care if we’re first, we’re last, I don’t care.”
On the opportunity to develop his team:
“I mean, I’ll be honest with you, I don’t really care about the rankings or stuff like that. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s preseason. I just care about my team, but if you know me, you know my teams, we get better as the year goes on. So right now, I’m happy where we are, but I think we’re gonna be really good.”
Olympic Champion and former Pro Wrestler Kurt Angle preached about the three I’s of Intelligence, Integrity, and Intensity. We already have Sha’s three D’s of Determination, Dedication, Discipline. Throw in all those letters and these Pirates will easily shrug off that useless #10 ranking this season just like they did the useless #8 preseason ranking and the middle finger from the NCAA Selection Committee to run to a 4th place Big East finish and an NIT Championship. We don’t know yet where these Pirates will finish but I can say with confidence I don’t see any planet where these Pirates finish 10th.
More to come over the next few days:
- Videos of additional interviews with Pirates Women’s basketball coach Tony Bozzella and players Faith Masonius and Savannah Catalon.
- Video Interviews with Seton Hall AD Bryan Felt, Broadcasting legend and basketball lifer Bill Raftery, Assorted musings from folks around the Big East, and more!
JD Walker is one of the co-founders of Stream Punk Entertainment and has covered the Philadelphia Union, Big East Basketball, and New Jersey high school basketball since 2022. He has a wide-spanning career with experience in a variety of roles inside and outside the world of sports including basketball operations, gameday entertainment, promotions, broadcasting, and finance. He’s a Jersey Shore native sprung from a cage on Highway 9, and loves to geek out on the business and legal side of the games we all love.
