PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
By JP Pelzman
Welcome to part 1 of my three-interview with Zach Braziller, college sports columnist and writer for the New York Post. In this installment, we discuss the two recent blockbusters in the off-season--the conference upheavals, and the retirement of longtime Villanova coach Jay Wright, for which Zach has a different theory of why Wright stepped down.
J.P. Pelzman: What was your reaction to USC and UCLA moving to the Big Ten, and what does it mean for college sports and the Big East going forward?
Zach Braziller: I was surprised to a certain extent. But with college football, nothing should surprise you. We're clearly headed to two super conferences, but we’re still going to get Alabama and Georgia in the national-championship game every year. I mean, I love college football. I grew up watching the sport--my grandfather and I watched it. I enjoy covering the national championship every year. I really do enjoy it, but it’s true--there shouldn’t even be conferences. Just have one super-league where you have the best teams playing each other, where you actually have more than one or two good games a weekend, and you really find out who the best teams are, and you get the true top four teams (for the College Football Playoff).
There's no parity in the sport. It's the same teams every year. I know Cincinnati made it last year and that was a cool thing but then they obviously got smoked (by Alabama) in the semifinals. College football has this huge parity problem and I don’t know how it gets better.
To me, I've always felt the way to go is to expand the playoff, and if you get more teams in the playoff, that kind of helps recruiting to where maybe the talent starts to get spread out differently. Because right now, it’s the same teams every year. I know Ohio State lost to Michigan last year, but that was obviously a fluke and I'm sure that’s not going to happen again.
You worry about what it’s going to mean for college basketball. To me, the NCAA Tournament is the greatest sporting event we have and there is concern with these conferences what it’s going to do to college basketball (and the Tournament).
JPP: Yeah, like you said, last year was weird with Cincinnati and Michigan knocking off Ohio State, but most years you can pencil in three of the four CFP semifinalists before the year even begins (as opposed to the Final Four). So what effect do you see this conference realignment having on the Big East? What's their answer to this?
ZB: I've been told for about a year or so that they would add (teams) only if it was someone that was really going to move the needle. They're not just going to add to add. Kansas is clearly a team that’s interesting, although they would probably fit better with the Big Ten. Who knows, maybe they decide to create a West Division and take Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s and San Francisco.
They need to be proactive, but there’s a balance. You can’t add teams just to add teams. To me, adding decent A-10 teams isn’t going to make a big difference. The Big East TV contract is coming up. You do want to add but you want to add smart. That to me is very important. Adding a Dayton or a Saint Louis, I don’t know if that helps the league that much. I think Kansas would be a great move. Obviously, adding Gonzaga would bring some major challenges, but I definitely think that’s something worth considering, no question about it, with everything going on right now.
And I'm even hearing now, who knows what’s going to happen with the ACC. And maybe some of those old (Big East) schools want to come back or are forced to come back. It's a very uncertain time in college sports and your fingers are crossed that we’re not going to ruin college basketball because college basketball has a great tournament every year, and the little guy has a legit shot to make a run, to slay the giants. We saw it with Saint Peter’s.
Unlike college football, where it’s the same old teams every year. College football is a huge moneymaker, we all know that, but so is the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA Tournament makes a ton of money and hopefully doesn’t ruin it. That’s something to watch.
JPP: That’s what worries me, too. The NCAA Tournament would still be a moneymaker, but it wouldn’t be the same thing we all grew up with if the Saint Peterses of the world don’t have a chance. If it’s all those (power-conference) teams competing against each other, if it’s the ninth-place team of the Big Ten against the seventh-place team of the SEC, and that’s all it is, it’s not the same. And if the mid-majors have no shot, it’s not as valuable a property, in my opinion.
ZB: I agree. There's a reason to me why the most exciting part of the NCAA Tournament is the first weekend, and to a lesser extent, the beginning of the second weekend because of the Cinderellas and the upsets. A great Final Four matchup is always tremendous. Duke-Carolina was tremendous theater, Coach K’s last game and Carolina kind of coming out of nowhere. That’s great. But to me, nothing beat the Saint Peter’s story. Nothing beats the school that nobody knew about two weeks before that becomes a household name and a national story. That’s the part of the NCAA Tournament that people remember.
The everyman fan who doesn’t necessarily have an allegiance to one team, they care about the underdog. They care about the sleeper. That’s what makes the Tournament great. And if you take that away, the Tournament loses a lot of its allure. It would become, to a lesser extent, a bigger CFP of power school against power school and that, to me, isn’t nearly as interesting.
JPP: That’s exactly how I feel.
Speaking of blockbuster news that was shocking when your heard it, where were you when The Commish, and I don’t mean Val Ackerman, the other Big East Commish, that he was retiring? (Jay Wright is sometimes referred to as The Commish because of favorable calls other Big East coaches feel he gets.)
ZB: It was 1 a.m. I was actually in Italy with my wife. It was our first true vacation since COVID. The numbers were down, so we decided to go. Sometimes late at night, I try to catch up with what’s going on. I was a bit floored, but I remembered thinking back to the Final Four, and I was hanging out with some of the Philly writers, the night after Villanova lost (to Kansas). And they were talking about how down Jay was. And they said that was as down as they could ever remember seeing him. And I was like, how could he be down, his team put up a good fight without his second-best player (Justin Moore), arguably his best player.
I was like why would he be down. And I thought about it more and maybe that’s because he knew that was it. Maybe he didn’t have it in him anymore. I've had this opinion and I've stayed with it. I think losing (Collin) Gillespie the year before and losing Justin Moore this year (to injuries), both times with teams that had legit title aspirations, took a lot out of him. These coaches put so much into their seasons. It’s really a 12-month-a-year, seven-day-a-week, 24-hour-a-day job. That’s really what it’s become with the transfer portal and managing your guys and all that stuff. So to get as far as they did the last two years and lose a key player both times, I think that took a lot out of Jay. Now you could say, NIL, transfer portal, had a role--I'm sure it did, no doubt about it. But to me, going back-to-back years where you lose your shot at a title because of an unlucky injury took a lot out of him.
Now listen, I think Jay’s been great for the league. We like to joke about the calls he gets. He gets an incredible whistle. But look, he saved the Big East. I don’t think there’s any question about it. But I think Jay’s the kind of person if he’s not all the way into it, he has a hard time staying with it.
I think this year they absolutely could have won a national championship. I know Kansas is great, Carolina was good, but I think Villanova could have won the national championship if they had Justin Moore.
JPP: I totally agree with you. I hadn’t heard that before and that’s a very interesting theory. It makes a lot of sense.
Do you feel Kyle Neptune can keep up the high standard at Villanova or will it take some time?
ZB: It will take time, but I think Kyle is really good. Number one, I think he’s a really good person. Look at what he did his first year at Fordham. But it’s going to take time. He's going to do some things differently. I think he might be more willing to play young guys than Jay was. That has its drawbacks too. I'm sure Villanova will be a Tournament team. They should be a top three team in the Big East. But it’s not going to be the same Villanova. You can emulate what Jay does, but you can’t be him. Kyle is going to have to be Kyle.
I like the hire. I think it was smart. Instead of hiring some recycled name, they hired a guy who showed you something in his one year at Fordham. … They won two games in the A-10 tournament for the first time in a really long time. I think Kyle is a really good coach, but you can’t expect him to (match) Jay right away.
Part 2 & 3 will be heavy with Seton Hall news. Part 2 to be posted Monday
