https://setonhall.rivals.com/
By Colin Rajala
Colin: In transitioning to talking about the athletic side of the university and your oversight there, I think it would be best to start with the man that was hired to fill your position as AD, your protégé so to speak, Bryan Felt. What has it been like to see his transition into the role and the final execution of some of your plans with the baseball and soccer fields?
Pat: I think the world of Bryan. I think he is a phenomenal person and he has an incredible family. I also think he is a great AD. When I knew I was stepping down as AD, one of my first calls was to Bryan. Bryan’s dream job has always been to be the athletic director at Seton Hall. When I called him up to give him the heads up that it’s not public yet, but I am taking another position at the university on Dr. Nyre’s leadership team, it was like a 20-minute conversation because he literally thought I was kidding.
I told him, we’re not just giving you this job, you are going to have to go through the process and earn it. Part of me knew that he was going to come out of the process ahead because of what he stands for and his prior work and his passion for the university. Bryan is a Seton Hall guy, his wife went to Seton Hall, he has a Seton Hall family.
We went through the process; he was the unanimous choice of the search committee and I am just thrilled that I get to work alongside him again. He cares so much. He is all Seton Hall all the time. He has done a great job since hitting the ground running and he will continue to do a great job. Athletics are important at every university, but athletics are really important at Seton Hall, especially basketball and the profile it gives the university and its vision. We want to have this campaign going and a large part is a basketball facility and there is no better person to oversee it than Bryan.
Q: When I look at it, if Kevin, the team and program can continue to be consistently in the top three in the Big East, make four/five straight NCAA tournaments, you wonder what the possibilities are when the facilities catch up? It’s exciting to be witnessing the evolution.
A: Think about what you just said, perennial top three in the Big East. Top three in the Big East is a top 20 national program. That is hard to do and Kevin's team has done that. That is certainly not easy.
Q: I think that some fans may be a bit disillusioned in more recent years because the success is becoming expected. It was not too long ago where the program was pretty lean and on rough footing.
A: Kevin's and myself's first few years here were hard. I say it to Kevin all the time, think about the first three or four years here, talk about not sleeping at night and being under a tremendous amount of stress. We always knew, especially Kevin, that if we stayed the course it would work out. I have no doubt that his success and the program’s success will continue. Just think, we’re one of the best basketball teams in the best basketball conference in the country.
Q: I waited a long time for it and couldn’t be happier to see it happening. Now the athletic department has had an incredible run of 10 consecutive years with record high GPAs, which coincides with your hiring as AD. I think it also falls into the trends you mentioned previously of the university’s academic profile being raised. What has it been like to see the profile of the student-athletes raised to a new level and clicking on all cylinders?
A: I have to take zero credit for it because if you saw my GPA at Iona you would know why. The credit goes to the student athletes because they are doing the work, their coaches because they are recruiting great students and of course our academic staff led by Matt Geibel, Amanda DiDonato and Carissa Leoni. They do such an incredible job with our athletes and the academic support services. Anytime you have great student-athletes, coaches bringing in good students and the support staff working hard to help the students, it’s a recipe for success.
Q: I feel like Matt and Amanda have been there for as long as I can remember. How important is having that consistency in staff?
A: The consistency, the institutional familiarity is huge. They know the institution, what works, what doesn’t and more importantly, they’ve been working with student athletes for so long that they know what success looks like. Amanda works with our men’s basketball program and they have something like a 3.3 GPA.
Q: It really is impressive. I can’t imagine there are too many basketball programs, never mind sports programs at the major D1 level, that can say that.
A: Back when I was the AD, I remember how hard Amanda worked with our student-athletes. She worked with them and pushed them and now they are consistently above a 3.0. They all do a great job; they go above and beyond and I always thought that we have the best academic support in the country.
Q: And speaking of student-athletes, I would be remiss not to bring up Myles Powell and get your thoughts on the conclusion of his career at Seton Hall. His legacy may have been robbed of some March heroics, but at the same time I think the open-end conclusion may lead to some lore about how great he was across the board as a person, student and player. What was it like to see him over the last four years up close and personal?
A: I have been very blessed to see a lot of great player during my time at Iona and Seton Hall. I do not rate players, but I am not sure that I have seen a player like Myles Powell. Myles Powell as a person is even more impressive than him as a player and I think that says it all. Anytime you talk to Kevin about Myles, you see Kevin get really emotional about it because he’s just a genuine, caring, supportive person.
His on the court stuff, when I take people to games, I tell them to just watch #13 and see what he is going to do next. He is a generational player. The way he carried himself, he was such an ambassador for the university. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for him because he is such a determined person.
Q: I am sure Myles had no idea the impact he would have on the university and larger community as a player, never mind as the person and ambassador he became. I think the fan base is itching to know when they will see Myles again. When will the jersey or number be retired and hang in the rafters?
A: [Laughing] That’s the AD’s job now. Let’s give him a call and put him on the spot.
In all seriousness, I will say that Bryan is working on something right now to figure out the proper way to honor Myles as well as other players too. Its ultimately his decision, but stay tuned, I know we have something in the works.
Q: With the season getting cut short for basketball as well as the spring sports, what was it like to see some of these student-athletes, who you have seen grow over the last few years, not be able to have the expected closure with the athletic playing careers?
A: It is awful to see what has happening in the world because of this disease. People are dying, people are very sick, it has been tragic. When you think about it from just an athletic standpoint, it absolutely broke my heart that they could not see through what they started out to do. For the players to not be able to finish out their season and for the coaches who are putting in thousands of hours to get to that point, it’s truly terrible. Not being able to see what could have been and what would have been is painful. It’s heartbreaking, but some things are bigger than sports and this is one of those cases.
Q: You just have to roll with the punches and find a way to use that to build yourself up and come out stronger. While thinking about student-athletes, I am curious to get your perspective on the no sit out transfer and name, image and likeness considerations by the NCAA. How do you think it will impact Seton Hall?
A: I would group the two rules together because I think conceptionally they both make sense. We are in a different time now in college athletics, but I think there is a rush to get answers quickly and get these rules enacted immediately, maybe for the public optics. I think serious time needs to be spent to see that both rules are fully vetted and there are no unintended consequences that arise out of them. I say I support both conceptionally, but let’s figure out the details and how we are going to make it work without them being misused.
Q: Switching gears here as the interview winds down, what are your expectations or hopes for attendance for games and the logistics of playing at Walsh versus the Rock without fans?
A: My hope is that there is a vaccine and we are back playing in the Prudential Center and there are 18,000 people at each game. Everything is changing monthly, weekly, even daily right now it seems, so a prediction is tough to come up with at this point. I’ve always said, even as an AD, you hope for the best and you plan for all scenarios. We just have to keep asking questions and coming up with solutions and then wait to see what info is available and make the best decisions we can. It’s hard to speculate because it’s a moving target.
Colin: Thank you for your time Pat. We at Seton Hall appreciate you reaching out to us in this manner.
Pat: It was my pleasure.
By Colin Rajala
Colin: In transitioning to talking about the athletic side of the university and your oversight there, I think it would be best to start with the man that was hired to fill your position as AD, your protégé so to speak, Bryan Felt. What has it been like to see his transition into the role and the final execution of some of your plans with the baseball and soccer fields?
Pat: I think the world of Bryan. I think he is a phenomenal person and he has an incredible family. I also think he is a great AD. When I knew I was stepping down as AD, one of my first calls was to Bryan. Bryan’s dream job has always been to be the athletic director at Seton Hall. When I called him up to give him the heads up that it’s not public yet, but I am taking another position at the university on Dr. Nyre’s leadership team, it was like a 20-minute conversation because he literally thought I was kidding.
I told him, we’re not just giving you this job, you are going to have to go through the process and earn it. Part of me knew that he was going to come out of the process ahead because of what he stands for and his prior work and his passion for the university. Bryan is a Seton Hall guy, his wife went to Seton Hall, he has a Seton Hall family.
We went through the process; he was the unanimous choice of the search committee and I am just thrilled that I get to work alongside him again. He cares so much. He is all Seton Hall all the time. He has done a great job since hitting the ground running and he will continue to do a great job. Athletics are important at every university, but athletics are really important at Seton Hall, especially basketball and the profile it gives the university and its vision. We want to have this campaign going and a large part is a basketball facility and there is no better person to oversee it than Bryan.
Q: When I look at it, if Kevin, the team and program can continue to be consistently in the top three in the Big East, make four/five straight NCAA tournaments, you wonder what the possibilities are when the facilities catch up? It’s exciting to be witnessing the evolution.
A: Think about what you just said, perennial top three in the Big East. Top three in the Big East is a top 20 national program. That is hard to do and Kevin's team has done that. That is certainly not easy.
Q: I think that some fans may be a bit disillusioned in more recent years because the success is becoming expected. It was not too long ago where the program was pretty lean and on rough footing.
A: Kevin's and myself's first few years here were hard. I say it to Kevin all the time, think about the first three or four years here, talk about not sleeping at night and being under a tremendous amount of stress. We always knew, especially Kevin, that if we stayed the course it would work out. I have no doubt that his success and the program’s success will continue. Just think, we’re one of the best basketball teams in the best basketball conference in the country.
Q: I waited a long time for it and couldn’t be happier to see it happening. Now the athletic department has had an incredible run of 10 consecutive years with record high GPAs, which coincides with your hiring as AD. I think it also falls into the trends you mentioned previously of the university’s academic profile being raised. What has it been like to see the profile of the student-athletes raised to a new level and clicking on all cylinders?
A: I have to take zero credit for it because if you saw my GPA at Iona you would know why. The credit goes to the student athletes because they are doing the work, their coaches because they are recruiting great students and of course our academic staff led by Matt Geibel, Amanda DiDonato and Carissa Leoni. They do such an incredible job with our athletes and the academic support services. Anytime you have great student-athletes, coaches bringing in good students and the support staff working hard to help the students, it’s a recipe for success.
Q: I feel like Matt and Amanda have been there for as long as I can remember. How important is having that consistency in staff?
A: The consistency, the institutional familiarity is huge. They know the institution, what works, what doesn’t and more importantly, they’ve been working with student athletes for so long that they know what success looks like. Amanda works with our men’s basketball program and they have something like a 3.3 GPA.
Q: It really is impressive. I can’t imagine there are too many basketball programs, never mind sports programs at the major D1 level, that can say that.
A: Back when I was the AD, I remember how hard Amanda worked with our student-athletes. She worked with them and pushed them and now they are consistently above a 3.0. They all do a great job; they go above and beyond and I always thought that we have the best academic support in the country.
Q: And speaking of student-athletes, I would be remiss not to bring up Myles Powell and get your thoughts on the conclusion of his career at Seton Hall. His legacy may have been robbed of some March heroics, but at the same time I think the open-end conclusion may lead to some lore about how great he was across the board as a person, student and player. What was it like to see him over the last four years up close and personal?
A: I have been very blessed to see a lot of great player during my time at Iona and Seton Hall. I do not rate players, but I am not sure that I have seen a player like Myles Powell. Myles Powell as a person is even more impressive than him as a player and I think that says it all. Anytime you talk to Kevin about Myles, you see Kevin get really emotional about it because he’s just a genuine, caring, supportive person.
His on the court stuff, when I take people to games, I tell them to just watch #13 and see what he is going to do next. He is a generational player. The way he carried himself, he was such an ambassador for the university. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for him because he is such a determined person.
Q: I am sure Myles had no idea the impact he would have on the university and larger community as a player, never mind as the person and ambassador he became. I think the fan base is itching to know when they will see Myles again. When will the jersey or number be retired and hang in the rafters?
A: [Laughing] That’s the AD’s job now. Let’s give him a call and put him on the spot.
In all seriousness, I will say that Bryan is working on something right now to figure out the proper way to honor Myles as well as other players too. Its ultimately his decision, but stay tuned, I know we have something in the works.
Q: With the season getting cut short for basketball as well as the spring sports, what was it like to see some of these student-athletes, who you have seen grow over the last few years, not be able to have the expected closure with the athletic playing careers?
A: It is awful to see what has happening in the world because of this disease. People are dying, people are very sick, it has been tragic. When you think about it from just an athletic standpoint, it absolutely broke my heart that they could not see through what they started out to do. For the players to not be able to finish out their season and for the coaches who are putting in thousands of hours to get to that point, it’s truly terrible. Not being able to see what could have been and what would have been is painful. It’s heartbreaking, but some things are bigger than sports and this is one of those cases.
Q: You just have to roll with the punches and find a way to use that to build yourself up and come out stronger. While thinking about student-athletes, I am curious to get your perspective on the no sit out transfer and name, image and likeness considerations by the NCAA. How do you think it will impact Seton Hall?
A: I would group the two rules together because I think conceptionally they both make sense. We are in a different time now in college athletics, but I think there is a rush to get answers quickly and get these rules enacted immediately, maybe for the public optics. I think serious time needs to be spent to see that both rules are fully vetted and there are no unintended consequences that arise out of them. I say I support both conceptionally, but let’s figure out the details and how we are going to make it work without them being misused.
Q: Switching gears here as the interview winds down, what are your expectations or hopes for attendance for games and the logistics of playing at Walsh versus the Rock without fans?
A: My hope is that there is a vaccine and we are back playing in the Prudential Center and there are 18,000 people at each game. Everything is changing monthly, weekly, even daily right now it seems, so a prediction is tough to come up with at this point. I’ve always said, even as an AD, you hope for the best and you plan for all scenarios. We just have to keep asking questions and coming up with solutions and then wait to see what info is available and make the best decisions we can. It’s hard to speculate because it’s a moving target.
Colin: Thank you for your time Pat. We at Seton Hall appreciate you reaching out to us in this manner.
Pat: It was my pleasure.
