By JP Pelzman
This is part 1 of my interview with Seton Hall women’s basketball coach Tony Bozzella. He discusses what he believes his team got out of its run to the WNIT title game, why the Pirates missed out on the NCAAs, and what changes need to be made in terms of scheduling to help more Big East teams get into the Big Dance.
Seton Hall didn’t quite get to hoist a trophy when the 2022 women’s basketball season ended. But the Pirates were one of the last four teams left standing when it did come to a close, as the WNIT championship game was held one day before the NCAA final.
And coach Tony Bozzella, who completed his ninth year in South Orange with that memorable run through the WNIT, sees plenty of value in that.
“Can I simulate playing six playoff games? No,” Bozzella said. “Us being this successful in the NIT was better than going in the first round and losing the game in the NCAAs.
“The practices in between the games and having to prepare so quickly meant so much,” he added. “When we play on a Friday-Sunday or a Thursday-Saturday (this upcoming season) and we think we’re tired and we can’t prepare, ‘we’ll say, no, we’ve done it.’
“I can never tell you how important it was, I really can’t,” Bozzella concluded.
The sixth-seeded Pirates edged third-seeded Creighton in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament, but missed out on a possible NCAA at-large bid after losing to second-seeded Villanova in the semifinals. In the NIT, they beat FDU, VCU and Drexel at home before stopping both Columbia and Middle Tennessee on the road.
The journey ended with an 82-50 loss at South Dakota State on CBS Sports Network in a Saturday afternoon game after winning a one-point game Thursday night in Murfreesboro, Tenn, certainly not an ideal travel situation for the visitors. The Pirates finished 24-13.
“We won 24 games,” Bozzella said. “We established two of the best players in the country (point guard Lauren Park-Lane and post player Sidney Cooks). We reached the semifinals of the Big East tournament. We beat a team that reached the (NCAA) Elite Eight (Creighton) to get there.”
He added, “We battled through a lot of tough times. We showed a lot of resiliency,” noting that they played short-handed because of COVID several times early in the season and that Cooks also was battling injuries early in the season.
“We struggled early on and it probably cost us a better seed in the Big East tournament,” he added. “I was proud of the kids. A lot of people pooh-pooh the NIT but that’s not fair. The NIT is really good. You play a lot of good teams and it’s hard to win.”
Bozzella noted Columbia’s small Levien Gym was sold out and that Middle Tennessee hadn’t lost at home in 2021-22 until being beaten by the Pirates.
Still, Bozzella can’t shake the thought his team could have--and should have--been in the NCAAs.
“I felt we got short-shifted,” he said. “You look at the best 68 teams at the end of the year and I felt we clearly were one of them.”
A major problem, Bozzella believes, is the bottom of the Big East on the women’s side. Consider that the three worst teams in Big East women’s basketball, in ascending order, in 2021-22 were Butler (NET 338), Xavier (241) and Georgetown (228).
“Our men’s league doesn’t have that issue,” he said, “and that’s a big difference. Our bottom teams have to get better. Because as bad as Georgetown was (on the men’s side), and they were bad. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. They were 0-20 (against Big East teams). Their NET was still above 200 (194).
“Our last-place team’s NET was 338 and that was a big thing,” he said.
Especially because by finishing sixth in the standings, The Hall had to play Butler a third time in the first round of the Big East tournament. Added to the full round-robin, that meant seven NET-draining games for Bozzella’s team rather than six.
“Those seven games,” he mused. “We need our league to be a lot better in those seven games.”
Bozzella is optimistic that for the 2023-24 Big East season, the women’s side may go from 20 to 18 conference games. That also could pave the way, Bozzella hopes, for a non-conference scheduling alliance akin to what the Big East men have with the Big Ten (the Gavitt Games) and the Big 12 (the Big East-Big 12 battle).
Seton Hall’s men’s team profited handsomely in 2021-22, with a home win over Texas and a victory at Michigan.
“We need those (types of) games. Those games helped our men” get in the NCAAs, Bozzella said. “We got Rutgers back on the schedule (in 2022-23). It's not like we’re not trying to schedule, we are.”
Bozzella said the Pirates will visit the Scarlet Knights on Friday, Nov. 11. This will mark the first meeting of teams since December 2017.
“Obviously, we need to” play, he said. “We’re two of the most well-known programs in the state. Princeton has done a tremendous job and they deserve a lot of credit with what Carla (Berube) has done over there. We should all be playing each other. Our job is to promote women’s basketball. Our job is to get fan interest. What better way to get fan interest than to have Seton Hall playing Rutgers?
“We're hoping all our fans can come down and help fill the RAC,” he added. “There's nothing like going to a Seton Hall-Rutgers men’s game. We need to support (this game) so we can do the same.”
Bozzella made one staff addition this spring, adding Ali Jaques as an assistant. Jaques was the head coach at Siena for nine years and also has been an assistant at several programs. She replaces Marissa Flagg, who left in February to take a position at Overtime Basketball as director of athlete experience.
Flagg had been on Bozzella’s staff for his entire Seton Hall tenure, and Bozzella said, “She got an offer she couldn’t refuse."
As for Jaques, Bozzella called her “one of the best recruiters in the country” and indicated she can bring in not only “high-level talent” but can identify and help develop under-the-radar talent much the way Kevin Willard did in succeeding on the men’s side.
Part 2 to follow
