PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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BY JP Pelzman
Welcome to part 2 of my three-part interview with New York Post college columnist and St. John’s beat writer Zach Braziller. In this installment, he looks back at the tenure of former coach Kevin Willard, now at Maryland, and talks about whether new coach Shaheen Holloway will be able to get a more consistent effort and results from point guard Kadary Richmond this coming season.
J.P. Pelzman: I remember when you asked Kevin (in San Diego) about whether he was going to leave or stay and he was noncommittal, and that was quite a red flag, I thought. Your back-and-forth with him in terms of your questions after games was very interesting and the give-and-takes were often humorous. How much will you miss this and how do you look back on his tenure at Seton Hall?
Zach Braziller: I find kind of funny that a lot of Seton Hall fans, at least the ones on social media, have kind of become anti-Willard, which I find strange. Yeah, they didn’t finish great. But do you remember what he inherited? Yes, he didn’t have great success in the NCAA Tournament. I completely understand that. But he inherited a dumpster fire. He resuscitated your program. He brought in terrific players. He coached guys up. I think it ran its course. I really do. I don’t know how much more upward mobility there was for him at Seton Hall.
You could get on him for certain things. We'll always wonder what that 2020 team could’ve done. They would’ve been a 3 seed, most likely. That was by far his best team. That first NCAA team of his in 2016 got a terrible draw with Gonzaga. The next year they lost a game to Arkansas that they should have won. And that (next) year (2018) when (Khadeen) Carrington and (Angel) Delgado were seniors, they had that typical swoon that killed their seed and they had to play Kansas (in an 8-1 second-round game) in Kansas’ backyard (Wichita). And they lost a great game.
And this year they lost to a really good TCU team. If TCU gets a call they should have gotten in the second round against Arizona, they’re in the Sweet 16. I understand that Seton Hall laid an egg in that game and got bulldozed. But that TCU team reminded me of Jamie Dixon’s best teams at Pitt. TCU was really good and should be a top 15 team (this upcoming season). Obviously, everyone knows Kevin and I always got along well. I value our relationship and I think he’s a really good guy, but I just think he should be more fondly remembered than he is right now. He brought Seton Hall back to relevance. I get it. He only won one NCAA Tournament game and people wanted more than that and maybe Sha will deliver that but I think Kevin should be given more credit than he’s being given right now.
JPP: Just to play devil’s advocate, I think the perception among many people is that Kevin mailed in that week, that he had one foot out the door (to Maryland). I'm not asking you to defend that, I'm not saying it’s true, but that is the perception among many fans. I will say this, in a year or two, when people have a chance to step back, I think they will realize what he did over the 12 years. But I think in the harsh light of that game, that’s why there is so much anger and frustration. That’s my opinion.
ZB: That's fair. Honestly, we’ll never really know.
JPP: Only Kevin knows.
ZB: Right. Only he really knows if that’s the case or not. I just know from what I saw of that TCU team in the Tournament, and I'm not just talking about the Seton Hall game, they were much better.
JPP: And they were much better. They jumped Seton Hall.
ZB: It should have been a better game. Seton Hall was not ready to play that game.
JPP: But that’s on the players too. You can’t just say, ‘Woe is us, our coach might be leaving.’ You have to show up ready to go. Jared Rhoden got a bad whistle but he also didn’t play very well that night.
ZB: And look, I was on record by saying I thought Kevin made a mistake by bringing back Bryce Aiken. He was a guy you just couldn’t trust, not through any fault of his own, but he’s a guy who’s always hurt. That team needed another scorer.
When I heard they were bringing him back, I was like, why would you bring back a guy you just cannot rely on to stay healthy?
JPP: That was a good first guess.
ZB: He was a player who, when he was healthy, he helped them. But when they needed him, he wasn’t there (because of a season-ending concussion and its aftermath). I'm really interested--I know we’re going to get to Sha in a little bit--but I'm really interested to see what Sha does with Kadary Richmond. Kadary Richmond is a guy who’s got all the talent in the world but he’s got to put it all together and we saw that last year. He had games where he looked like an NBA player and he had games where he looked like he was barely a mid-major player.
So I'm really interested to see what Sha can do (with him). That, to me, is the key to next year’s team--what they can get out of him--because he’s got the talent to be an all-league player. But his two years in college have been so inconsistent. The motor isn’t always there. There are some days he’s not even looking at the basket.
But I digress. Kevin turned the program around. St. John’s is still waiting for its first NCAA Tournament win in 22 years and Seton Hall is a much harder job.
JPP: Agreed. It is a tougher job.
ZB: And you Seton Hall fans, you could easily be St. John’s, and I know they’ve been having a good stretch since the season ended (with signings and transfers), but be happy Kevin Willard came and made your program more of an attractive place and made your school one that’s expected to make the NCAA Tournament.
JPP: Getting back to what you said about Richmond, that’s a fair question. Does the motor always run at peak efficiency and capacity, let’s put it that way, and in the preseason, too? Let's face it, Shaheen Holloway has a different personality than Kevin Willard. In some instances, he may get in guys’ faces a bit more than Kevin did. How do you think some of these guys, especially Kadary, will react to that?
ZB: It will be interesting, there’s no doubt. Sha doesn’t mess around. He is tough. I’m not saying Kevin is a players’ coach, but Sha is going to get in guys’ faces. Sha is going to get what he needs out of them. Kadary is a New York City guy, like Sha, and that will help. And obviously Sha did recruit Kadary some when he was at Seton Hall, so they know each other. They've added some decent pieces and I think getting (Alexis) Yetna is very significant. I love (Saint Peter's transfer KC) Ndefo. Some people aren’t as high on Ndefo as I am. I think he’s a great fit, personally. I think he will be able to share his experience with Sha with his new teammates on what makes Sha tick and all that.
But to me, there’s no question, Kadary Richmond is the key to this team. Whether it’s as a scorer, whether it’s as a distributor, whether it’s as a defender, he’s the key. They need him to be an all-league player to be an NCAA Tournament team, in my opinion. Sha's, in the past at Seton Hall and Saint Peter's, he worked wonders with point guards (such as Quincy McKnight) and let’s see what he can do with Kadary, who, if he gets it going, I still think can be an NBA first-round pick. If he can improve his shot and he can up that motor and he can be more consistent, I still think he can be an NBA first-round pick. You saw what he did in that UConn game (27 points in an OT win). He looked like an NBA prospect in that game. He did.
But then there are other games where you’re wondering, why he is he not playing harder? Why is he not more active? Why is he not taking charge? He's a guy for whom the talent doesn’t always equal the production, and Sha is a guy who’s known for getting the most out of what he has. That to me is what I'll most be watching his first year--what does he get out of Kadary Richmond?
JPP: I think you’re absolutely right. And if he doesn’t play the way Sha wants him to play, he’s not going to play because that’s the way Sha rolls.
Part 3 Wednesday
