Shaheen Holloway

[MTOleBlue]

Is there any excuse for Sha’s coaching malpractice at this point? He hasn’t even played Yalden or Okorafor for a second in this disaster of a game against Marquette who has played poorly themselves. For a game where we look slow and not into it, the one player you know who will give super energy (Yalden) sits on the bench all game. Unbelievable.

Instead you’ve got players who let rebounds bounce off of them out of bounds without following and throwing passes off their leg or just dribbling it to the opponent. I’m honestly at the point where I don’t even want to watch the dumpster fire of this season anymore. It’s painfully bad. It’s one thing to deal with the hand you’re given but Sha is squandering what he has on the bench it appears.

 

[nutterforthree]

You don’t understand bro it’s all NIL Sha is a great coach he took St. Peter’s to the elite 8 and he is the best we can get here for 2.5 million.

No other coach would want to come here for 2.5 million and we almost made the tournament last year

 

[shu09]

Yalden is not a Big East talent. But who cares at this point, might as well play him.

 

[Gohall129]

You don’t understand bro it’s all NIL Sha is a great coach he took St. Peter’s to the elite 8 and he is the best we can get here for 2.5 million.

No other coach would want to come here for 2.5 million and we almost made the tournament last year

Can’t tell if this is a joke or if you’re a lunatic

 

[newshu1]

You guys need to get your blood pressures evaluated, no reason to be this stressed over a lost season. Take your lumps and see you in 2026

 

[HALL85]

You guys need to get your blood pressures evaluated, no reason to be this stressed over a lost season. Take your lumps and see you in 2026

One of those years that you go back to the drawing board, self-reflect and challenge everything. Hopefully the BOR, Reilly, Lyons, Felt and Sha wake up.

 

[newshu1]

Every drug addict or alcoholic always has the same line "Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom first" Is opposing team's fans chanting your former star player's name on your home court that moment or an apathetic blowout vs Marquette? How much lower can we go ?

 

[MTOleBlue]

You guys need to get your blood pressures evaluated, no reason to be this stressed over a lost season. Take your lumps and see you in 2026

Look, I get it. Bad seasons happen. But this is beyond that with losses to 0-8 Monmouth and bad Fordham…

 

[Jcordasco1952]

Can’t tell if this is a joke or if you’re a lunatic

Pretty sure he was being sarcastic

 

[Bluebirds_]

We are a MAAC team in a Big East world.

 

[SHUSA]

Every drug addict or alcoholic always has the same line "Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom first" Is opposing team's fans chanting your former star player's name on your home court that moment or an apathetic blowout vs Marquette? How much lower can we go ?

this is not the lowest loss to marquette in the last decade

 

[SHUSA]

We are a MAAC college in a Big East world.

fixed that for you

 

[sami]

We are a MAAC team in a Big East world.

When you have a MAAC coaching staff and AD, you do MAAC things.

 

[nutterforthree]

I have never seen so many coaches come to Shaheens defense as this year.....its very weird.

They are all like, "Yeah Sseton Hall is terrible but that Shaheen Holloway is a great coach." How they look at the product and conclude that I have no idea.

I would do the same thing though if I was in competition against an obviously overmatched coach who has no media savvy and obviously can't generate any NIL.... HE is doing THE BEST JOB possible Seton Hall would be crazy to get rid of him he is such a great coach!!

 

[JTSHU]

Is there any excuse for Sha’s coaching malpractice at this point? He hasn’t even played Yalden or Okorafor for a second in this disaster of a game against Marquette who has played poorly themselves. For a game where we look slow and not into it, the one player you know who will give super energy (Yalden) sits on the bench all game. Unbelievable.

Instead you’ve got players who let rebounds bounce off of them out of bounds without following and throwing passes off their leg or just dribbling it to the opponent. I’m honestly at the point where I don’t even want to watch the dumpster fire of this season anymore. It’s painfully bad. It’s one thing to deal with the hand you’re given but Sha is squandering what he has on the bench it appears.

Omg give it up. Those 2 are not adding 20 30 more points. Seasons over. These guys are painful to watch.

 

[Piratz]

Well it’s his record. I’m sure he didn’t want or anticipate going 3 seasons with 0 NCAAT appearances and having an overall losing BE record given the program he inherited that had 6/7 NCAAT and a streak of winning BE years with 2 tittles. Times also changed it’s not entirely on him but he owns this mess of a team.

And while the NIT was a nice consolation prize, he’s now overseeing our worse season by every measurable since maybe 1983?

This is hitting him for those who think it’s not.

 

[MTOleBlue]

Omg give it up. Those 2 are not adding 20 30 more points. Seasons over. These guys are painful to watch.

If the season’s over, why not just try everything and see what works so you have a better starting point for next year? He’s doing the same thing over and over that is clearly not working at all lol

 

[NittanyPirate]

You don’t understand bro it’s all NIL Sha is a great coach he took St. Peter’s to the elite 8 and he is the best we can get here for 2.5 million.

No other coach would want to come here for 2.5 million and we almost made the tournament last year

Hilarious although I’m not sure who you are mocking. There are nearly one hundred posts each in threads titled “possible Sha replacements”, “Sha screaming getting old” and “Does Sha know what he is doing”

Posters criticizing the coach,
It’s time for you to accept a hard truth: You are, and have been, a part of popular opinion around here. You’ll have to find a new angle if you want to continue playing the “I’m special because I don’t think everything is roses” card.

 

[nutterforthree]

Hilarious although I’m not sure who you are mocking. There are nearly one hundred posts each in threads titled “possible Sha replacements”, “Sha screaming getting old” and “Does Sha know what he is doing”

Posters criticizing the coach,
It’s time for you to accept a hard truth: You are, and have been, a part of popular opinion around here. You’ll have to find a new angle if you want to continue playing the “I’m special because I don’t think everything is roses” card.

Not really. I was calling this out way before most people on this and I was saying that he was burning our program into the ground. And I was all for the hire and thought he was a great coach at one point.

And then when I started mentioning he was not really a good coach these were the responses which i mocked. There were numerous people saying that he is the best we can get even though he is paid 2.5 million.

I don't think you are actually reading the posts in those threads because the responses I mocked are actually some of the responses in those threads.

 

[SHallguy2]

When you have a MAAC coaching staff and AD, you do MAAC things.

If we could go to the final 8 that MAAC conference would work for me.

 

[NYC Pirate]

So, I believe we now have to be patient and wait for the next batch of players. The University has to implement a plan of action to help fund the Program. Personally, I'd like to see the coach reevaluate his philosophy on the importance of offense. The players on opposing teams are too skilled. You can slow them down with tough defense, but not prevent good teams from scoring. Also, even a solid defensive unit will not facilitate good offense. The offense does not magically improve because you played good defense in practice or games in Nov and December. Unfortunately, that's the message I hear when listening to Pre and Post game interviews from members of the of the coaching staff. The bottom line is get better players in the next year or two and then we can all give a fair assessment of the coach. Also, it wasn't all peaches and cream with Richmond and Dre. There were some blowout losses with them. Sha has two years after this one as i see it. If no Tournament trips after 5 years then it should be decision time.

 

[SHallguy2]

Extremely rare to win anything with Freshman and Sophomores. The absolute best Freshman recruits are hard pressed to win anything, look at Rutgers. Throw in the money which further complicates things and you have a mess. I still think we are a couple of players away from being very respectable. Life expectancy of a coaching career is going to be very short in the current environment.

 

[its haLL baLL]

The entire program needs a reset. What Sha wants to do will not work in the current environment. He needs to get over the fact that the players are now getting paid and realize that the market isn't what he thinks the players are worth, it's what the other schools think they're worth.

SHU is always going to be at a disadvantage when it comes to NIL. It is what it is. Sha needs to develop a system that can win without elite talent. Right now, he has no system. He is doing a terrible job coaching this team regardless of talent. There is no consistency, there is no semblance of roles on this team outside of Coleman - it's a mess. He built this roster and he deserves the blame for what we are watching.

You can overcome a gap in talent with a well executed system. Sha needs to develop one. Bring in assistants suited for it and have experience coaching it. You want to play 10 guys a game? Okay, how about you press all game long? Instead you want to play 10 guys who aren't as good as the other team straight up and get blown out. It doesn't make sense. Go to some gimmick zone that teams don't see often and might struggle with. Do something and own it. Otherwise seasons like this will become the norm.

 

[LeftCoastPirates]

If the season’s over, why not just try everything and see what works so you have a better starting point for next year? He’s doing the same thing over and over that is clearly not working at all lol

He has actually used 8 different starting lineups in 8 BE games so far.

There is no magic wand he can waive with this group of players.

If they had found a way to pull out the Georgetown and Butler games, would we really be singing a different song at 3-5?

It would be absolute fools gold, the team is void of BE talent, it sucks but at this point going 1-19 or 4-16 isn’t really much different. They can’t compete at the highest levels of BE competition to have a shot at the NCAA tournament. Anything less than that is not acceptable to the fan base.

So we can come up with all the minor in game tinkering we want. It takes high level talent to win games over a grueling 20 game conference schedule. Reality is you need a combination of coach and $$$ to achieve success.

 

[williaza01]

He has actually used 8 different starting lineups in 8 BE games so far.

There is no magic wand he can waive with this group of players.

If they had found a way to pull out the Georgetown and Butler games, would we really be singing a different song at 3-5?

It would be absolute fools gold, the team is void of BE talent, it sucks but at this point going 1-19 or 4-16 isn’t really much different. They can’t compete at the highest levels of BE competition to have a shot at the NCAA tournament. Anything less than that is not acceptable to the fan base.

So we can come up with all the minor in game tinkering we want. It takes high level talent to win games over a grueling 20 game conference schedule. Reality is you need a combination of coach and $$$ to achieve success.

This is so wrong imo

There is no draft..it DOES matter 1-19 and 4-16

There is a big difference ending this season 3-9 from this point or on a 0-15 skid to end the year

He gets paid to win games, he is judged on his record, to say there is basically no difference at this point between 4-16 and 1-19 is ridiculous

And Shaheen would 1000% agree with me

 

[lloyde dobler]

This is so wrong imo

There is no draft..it DOES matter 1-19 and 4-16

There is a big difference ending this season 3-9 from this point or on a 0-15 skid to end the year

He gets paid to win games, he is judged on his record, to say there is basically no difference at this point between 4-16 and 1-19 is ridiculous

And Shaheen would 1000% agree with me

Not to speak for another poster, but maybe he’s being a bit facetious?

 

[newshu1]

I have never seen so many coaches come to Shaheens defense as this year.....its very weird.

They are all like, "Yeah Sseton Hall is terrible but that Shaheen Holloway is a great coach." How they look at the product and conclude that I have no idea.

I would do the same thing though if I was in competition against an obviously overmatched coach who has no media savvy and obviously can't generate any NIL.... HE is doing THE BEST JOB possible Seton Hall would be crazy to get rid of him he is such a great coach!!

Like when a rival big east coach gave us an endorsement for our 300k 2 point per game point guard?

 

[HallGuy23]

If the season’s over, why not just try everything and see what works so you have a better starting point for next year? He’s doing the same thing over and over that is clearly not working at all lol

Because he knows they’re not coming back next year..

There’s a realistic chance the only player on the this roster next year is Coleman.

 

[HallGuy23]

This is so wrong imo

There is no draft..it DOES matter 1-19 and 4-16

There is a big difference ending this season 3-9 from this point or on a 0-15 skid to end the year

He gets paid to win games, he is judged on his record, to say there is basically no difference at this point between 4-16 and 1-19 is ridiculous

And Shaheen would 1000% agree with me

No, 0-19 or 4-16 makes no difference. There’s no moral victories, no growing from a few meaningless wins

Even if we did manage to win a few more games most of these players will not be here next year so there’s no momentum to gain from it. Next year will have absolutely nothing to do with this year.

 

[HallBall02]

No, 0-19 or 4-16 makes no difference. There’s no moral victories, no growing from a few meaningless wins

Even if we did manage to win a few more games most of these players will not be here next year so there’s no momentum to gain from it. Next year will have absolutely nothing to do with this year.

For fans and brand exposure it matters…we don’t want to be the new DePaul like gtown was for the past few years.

at the end of the day, Sha sucked this season, I think he would admit it too.

What % of blame is our limited NIL fund and what is on the coach and staff? that’s up for debate tho.

My opinion is Sha sucking is at least 35% of the problem….we lost to teams with a fraction of our NIL or similar NILs (Butler). This is year 3 under Sha with zero ncaas, and his first with ALL his own hand picked players.

Its not all on the SHU NIL/admin like the media and big east coaches portray. It’s both.

It doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive, both things can be true.

sha sucked this year - absolutely yes

Sha is a good coach and not on hot seat yet- yes

Our admin sucked the past few years handling NIL - god yes

Our admin had an uphill job with small donor pool and a poorly timed practice faculty initiative -yes

The media and coaches incorrectly blanket statement that SHU sucks bc it’s just NIL funds -yes

The majority of our players didn’t live up to their potential -yes

coaching staff did a horrendous job putting our team in a position to succeed -yes

 

[JTSHU]

If the season’s over, why not just try everything and see what works so you have a better starting point for next year? He’s doing the same thing over and over that is clearly not working at all lol

Hes tried every starting lineup possible. There is no lineup thats going to work. Plus wusu and jenkins hurt. Season is cooked. It.is what it is

 

[JTSHU]

For fans and brand exposure it matters…we don’t want to be the new DePaul like gtown was for the past few years.

at the end of the day, Sha sucked this season, I think he would admit it too.

What % is of blame is our limited NIL fund and what is on the coach and staff? that’s up for debate tho.

My opinion is Sha sucking is at least 35% of the problem….we lost to teams with a fraction of our NIL or similar NILs (Butler). This is year 3 under Sha with zero ncaas, with ALL his own hand picked players.

Its not all on the SHU NIL/admin like the media and big east coaches portray. It’s both.

Last night these.guys couldnt throw a clean pass. They looked a mess. Even i know marquettes MO is deflections. Did sha pick the squad, yes. However i guarantee.moat were not his 1st choice, therefore u get the leftovers. If you cant bag the smoking hot 9 or 10s at the club, and the 7s and 8s wont talk to u, and the 5s and 6s think ur ugly then u get.the 3s and 4s. Just how life works

 

[HallBall02]

Last night these.guys couldnt throw a clean pass. They looked a mess. Even i know marquettes MO is deflections. Did sha pick the squad, yes. However i guarantee.moat were not his 1st choice, therefore u get the leftovers. If you cant bag the smoking hot 9 or 10s at the club, and the 7s and 8s wont talk to u, and the 5s and 6s think ur ugly then u get.the 3s and 4s. Just how life works

While I don’t agree with your assessment -that going after the top players hurt us or that we can’t get players better than Fordum and Monmouth….going after the wrong players to create the snowball you are referring to is the fault of who?

 

[williaza01]

No, 0-19 or 4-16 makes no difference. There’s no moral victories, no growing from a few meaningless wins

Even if we did manage to win a few more games most of these players will not be here next year so there’s no momentum to gain from it. Next year will have absolutely nothing to do with this year.

It’s not moral victories it’s literal victories and they count

There is no dumb draft position to worry about or injury insured guaranteed money involved

I want to see if he can win games..go win games

Ending the year 0-15 matters

 

[MTOleBlue]

The entire program needs a reset. What Sha wants to do will not work in the current environment. He needs to get over the fact that the players are now getting paid and realize that the market isn't what he thinks the players are worth, it's what the other schools think they're worth.

SHU is always going to be at a disadvantage when it comes to NIL. It is what it is. Sha needs to develop a system that can win without elite talent. Right now, he has no system. He is doing a terrible job coaching this team regardless of talent. There is no consistency, there is no semblance of roles on this team outside of Coleman - it's a mess. He built this roster and he deserves the blame for what we are watching.

You can overcome a gap in talent with a well executed system. Sha needs to develop one. Bring in assistants suited for it and have experience coaching it. You want to play 10 guys a game? Okay, how about you press all game long? Instead you want to play 10 guys who aren't as good as the other team straight up and get blown out. It doesn't make sense. Go to some gimmick zone that teams don't see often and might struggle with. Do something and own it. Otherwise seasons like this will become the norm.

Extremely well said. It is a dangerous precipice to be in the position this team is in right now.

Serious question - would Hurley or Wright or Smart keep subbing in a guy who lets rebounds drop out of bounds and doesn’t try to get them, or one air balling every shot, or would they use every player possible to find someone who isn’t absolutely cold? I’m not saying to fire Sha this second but that his decision making leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[Piratz]

The entire program needs a reset. What Sha wants to do will not work in the current environment. He needs to get over the fact that the players are now getting paid and realize that the market isn't what he thinks the players are worth, it's what the other schools think they're worth.

SHU is always going to be at a disadvantage when it comes to NIL. It is what it is. Sha needs to develop a system that can win without elite talent. Right now, he has no system. He is doing a terrible job coaching this team regardless of talent. There is no consistency, there is no semblance of roles on this team outside of Coleman - it's a mess. He built this roster and he deserves the blame for what we are watching.

You can overcome a gap in talent with a well executed system. Sha needs to develop one. Bring in assistants suited for it and have experience coaching it. You want to play 10 guys a game? Okay, how about you press all game long? Instead you want to play 10 guys who aren't as good as the other team straight up and get blown out. It doesn't make sense. Go to some gimmick zone that teams don't see often and might struggle with. Do something and own it. Otherwise seasons like this will become the norm.

He has actually used 8 different starting lineups in 8 BE games so far.

There is no magic wand he can waive with this group of players.

If they had found a way to pull out the Georgetown and Butler games, would we really be singing a different song at 3-5?

It would be absolute fools gold, the team is void of BE talent, it sucks but at this point going 1-19 or 4-16 isn’t really much different. They can’t compete at the highest levels of BE competition to have a shot at the NCAA tournament. Anything less than that is not acceptable to the fan base.

So we can come up with all the minor in game tinkering we want. It takes high level talent to win games over a grueling 20 game conference schedule. Reality is you need a combination of coach and $$$ to achieve success.

This is all related and all on Sha. He tried to build a roster a certain way on a limited budget, and it backfired horribly. He HATED last year’s lack of depth despite us going 13-7 in BE. He has been scrambling since the opening game to find combinations that work and to find players that will do what he wants. It’s not working.

I also think he may have to face reality that he’s in an auction era now and, yeah, you’re going to have to pay and deal with these agents for guys who think they’re NBA stars. He doesn’t like that.

He was banking on having options to work with and thinking he could have the whole being better than the sum of its parts; the parts were not good enough.

 

[chickenbox]

Extremely well said. It is a dangerous precipice to be in the position this team is in right now.

Serious question - would Hurley or Wright or Smart keep subbing in a guy who lets rebounds drop out of bounds and doesn’t try to get them, or one air balling every shot, or would they use every player possible to find someone who isn’t absolutely cold? I’m not saying to fire Sha this second but that his decision making leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm sick of hearing there's no way Sha can win games with this roster. Foolish to believe no other coaching staff couldn't do a better job with the same guys. Would lots of them do just as poorly? Probably. Would lots of them do better. Probably again.

 

[Gritty5837]

The entire program needs a reset. What Sha wants to do will not work in the current environment. He needs to get over the fact that the players are now getting paid and realize that the market isn't what he thinks the players are worth, it's what the other schools think they're worth.

SHU is always going to be at a disadvantage when it comes to NIL. It is what it is. Sha needs to develop a system that can win without elite talent. Right now, he has no system. He is doing a terrible job coaching this team regardless of talent. There is no consistency, there is no semblance of roles on this team outside of Coleman - it's a mess. He built this roster and he deserves the blame for what we are watching.

You can overcome a gap in talent with a well executed system. Sha needs to develop one. Bring in assistants suited for it and have experience coaching it. You want to play 10 guys a game? Okay, how about you press all game long? Instead you want to play 10 guys who aren't as good as the other team straight up and get blown out. It doesn't make sense. Go to some gimmick zone that teams don't see often and might struggle with. Do something and own it. Otherwise seasons like this will become the norm.

Great post. I've said similar things regarding building out a system. Additionally hiring a 2-4 person scouting & personnel department, get insight from AK on some good young names in basketball. Embrace being a stepping stone, it sounds ugly but consistent stepping stone programs attract good coaching talent (like Appalachian State in football). Accept that good coaches and personnel guys will leave but build out a system that isn't overly reliant on one individuals ability.

Small market/budget programs need more creativity and identity, not less. Seton Hall has little to none. If the funding isn't good you either need more money or better solutions for the money on hand.

None of this is easy or a guarantee of success. I'm not alleging that. What Seton Hall's entire program has right now, similar to the Giants, is no big picture. Its a year-year operation, reactive instead of proactive. Any plan may fail, having no plan guarantees failure.

I don't recommend Sha's approach of raw players needing skill development, too much roster volatility year to year. No one will stay long enough to actually be developed. I'd sacrifice a bit on athleticism and prioritize skill, but I like the full court press idea. It fits Sha well. In that case stick with a focus on athleticism.

 

[Piratz]

I'm sick of hearing there's no way Sha can win games with this roster. Foolish to believe no other coaching staff couldn't do a better job with the same guys. Would lots of them do just as poorly? Probably. Would lots of them do better. Probably again.

Feels like splitting hairs but I agree he’s had a bad coaching year. He’s frustrated and it shows in how he’s coaching the team, IMO. I think the team has underperformed at 6-13, 1-7, but what’s the high-water point? 10-9, 3-5 with this group?

 

[SHUHitman]

1. Our administration has needed and continues to need to do a better job. Is it an easy job? No. That said, it is their job. Do it better or be replaced with someone fresh and try again.

2. Our coaching needs to look in the mirror. I love Sha. Always have. He's a good coach. He lost this group, unfortunately. His preferred style of coaching may not be the right fit in this landscape anymore. Reset needs to happen next year. Commit to this coaching style and find players who better fit the profile of the coach. Otherwise, get the best possible players and adapt the coaching style to fit them. Perhaps $$$ situation dictates that decision. One thing is for sure, this current dynamic of a "little of this, a little of that" while riding them like General Patton isn't working.

3. Reconnect to the fanbase. Objectively, this program, at a rapid pace, has become horribly disconnected to the fans again. Since both NIL and Sha have arrived, the team is pretty much shrouded in mystery. Most fans don't know the players, they don't know us, we are always left in the dark. Just because NIL exists doesn't mean players can't spend time with the fans without money being involved. Where are they at Homecoming Weekend? Where's the Holiday Party? On the court, this team stinks. You want me to come to the arena? You want me to donate even more money? Give me a reason to besides hopes and dreams.

Right now, this entire program has become transactional in nature. As someone on the other end of that transaction, I feel completely ripped off at this point. I came to, without fail, every game for over a decade, whether the team was good or not. I enjoyed getting to know Tommy Maayan as much as I did Sandro. Record on the court mattered less when my family got plenty of chances to engage the players, get to know them, get an autograph easily, etc. All of that is out the window now. It's all business, and business isn't good.

In the 3 weeks I had them listed, I couldn't sell my pair of Marquette tickets for $20. I couldn't even give them away for free, actually. I asked colleagues, Seton Hall graduates, basketball fans. That's where the value of our program is right now. Sad.