Saint Peter’s historic March Madness run came to an end on Sunday with a 69–49 defeat to North Carolina. It wasn’t long afterward that the Peacocks’ coach was asked about his next moves.
Head coach Shaheen Holloway has long been connected to the vacancy at Seton Hall, his alma mater and the home of the athletic director who hired him at Saint Peter’s, Bryan Felt. When asked about his future following the loss to the Tar Heels, Holloway refrained from answering, instead pledging his dedication to his current players who still felt the sting of their season coming to a close.
“I’m not worried about that,” Holloway said. “Right now I’m just worried about those 15 young men right now whose heart is broken and really down. It’s my job as their leader to cheer them up and make sure they understand what they did the last two weeks. Like I said, we’re gonna walk out here the same way we walked in: with our head up.”
Holloway guided the Peacocks to a historic run to the Elite Eight, becoming the first No. 15 seed to advance this far in NCAA tournament history. Saint Peter’s defeated No. 2 Kentucky, No. 7 Murray State and No. 3 Purdue before falling to No. 8 North Carolina on Sunday in a game that the Tar Heels controlled from the opening tip. North Carolina opened the game on a 9–0 run and never trailed, at one point leading by as many as 27.
As a player, Holloway starred at Seton Hall for four seasons, helping guide the Pirates to the Sweet 16 in 2000. He was an assistant coach at Seton Hall for eight seasons before taking the Saint Peter’s job.
