“A lot of people gave me a chance when it was so easy to go the other way,” Holloway said. “I want to be the guy who takes a chance on a bunch of kids that people don’t want or push away or got into trouble and need a second chance. That’s what I’m about.”
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“Unthinkable,” said senior striker KC Ndefo. “Unreal.”
With his snarl on the sidelines and his smile on camera, Holloway has become the face of March. He has made offers suitable for billboards and t-shirts. He developed perfect game plans and made crucial adjustments. Shortly after, he asked a CBS interviewer, “Now what are they going to say?” After the Peacocks toppled the mighty Purdue on Friday night, he was besieged by his players on live television.
“He gives us extreme confidence,” said junior point guard Matthew Lee. “You see the fire and the energy he brings.”
Holloway molded Saint Peter’s in his image, relying on underrecruited and overlooked players from New York City and New Jersey, the places where he grew up. Holloway grew up in the South Jamaica borough of Queens and moved to New Jersey to play high school basketball at St. Patrick in Elizabeth. “It was a tough neighborhood,” said Kevin Boyle, his coach at St. Patrick. “It was probably better for him to get away and come to St. Patrick’s.”
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Winston Smith met Holloway when they were in ninth grade. Holloway had joined St. Patrick, and Smith was a rising star at Summit High in New Jersey. “C’mon, man, come over to St. Pat’s,” Holloway said to him. “We could do great things” Holloway, Smith would later realize, was recruiting.
“You knew then that he was going to be a coach,” Smith said, laughing.
Smith came to St. Patrick and the couple developed an enduring bond, with Holloway taking Smith under his wing. Their one-on-one practice matches sharpened them both. Smith made Holloway best man at his wedding. Smith also went into coaching and is now an assistant at Wagner. Before making a career move, he ricochets off Holloway.
“When I make a decision, I call him,” Smith said. “He’s a brother to me. I would do anything for him.”
Holloway was a prototypical New York point guard. He mixed stunning ball handling with muscular defense and water bug speed. At just 5-foot-10, he became one of the top players in the country. When he played in the 1996 McDonald’s All-American Game, his teammates on the East Team included future NBA stars Jermaine O’Neal, Stephen Jackson, Tim Thomas, Richard Hamilton and Kobe Bryant. Amidst all that talent, Holloway scored seven points, made six steals, and was named MVP.
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“He’ll tell you,” Kevin Willard said, laughing. Willard, recently hired as Maryland’s coach, gave Holloway his first job as a full-time college assistant coach, hiring him at Iona in 2007. Holloway succeeded Willard when he took over at Seton Hall.
“We started every staff meeting with him reminding everyone that he got the MVP over Kobe Bryant,” Willard said. “He is a humble man. He’s one of the best people I know. But he has this other side to him where he knows he’s outplayed Kobe Bryant. That way he has an advantage and a confidence.”
Since the beginning of his basketball career, Holloway has taken the harder route and thrived. New York powerhouses, some of the best high school teams in the country, courted him when he was in eighth grade. St. Patrick was perhaps one of the top 20 programs in New Jersey. Holloway chose St. Patrick, and by the time he graduated he had formed three All-State teams.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski recruited Holloway to Duke hard—when Holloway attended a game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, eight Duke students painted his name letter-by-letter on their chests. Holloway stayed at home and played for Seton Hall.
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When his playing days ended, Holloway took a job as an assistant coach at Bloomfield Tech High in New Jersey. He joined his alma mater as an administrative assistant, fulfilling duties such as sharing films with opposing coaches and organizing fall conditioning sessions. When Willard interviewed him for over four hours at an Italian restaurant, he felt no ego and could tell Holloway would be willing to work, really work, because he loved coaching.
“It’s important to learn from the ground up,” Holloway said. “You appreciate it more. You learn every aspect of the job.”
Holloway found a related university in Saint Peter’s. About 70 percent of the 2,134 students are minorities. It prioritizes the education of first-generation college students. When Tommy Amaker coached Holloway at Seton Hall, he sensed just how badly Holloway wanted to graduate in four years to become the first member of his family to graduate from college.
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“Come hell or high tide, he’d do it,” said Amaker, now the coach at Harvard. “He wanted to and was the first in his family to do that. What he was able to direct and orchestrate for the school there, what an incredible story and moment to happen for a very deserving institution. Shaheen being the leader, that’s so powerful. I know he’s the kind of person he really cares about.”
The Peacocks have played with calm and confidence against some of the best and biggest teams in the nation, which Holloway explained with an instantly classic, poster-ready quote: “I got guys from New Jersey and New York City. Do you think we’re scared of anything?” When asked how he could tell the Peacocks were a Holloway-led team, Amaker immediately replied, “Trust,” he said. But St. Peter’s success goes beyond attitude.
“It’s not just a chip-on-the-shoulder,” said St. Peter alum Bob Hurley, a retired coaching legend at St. Anthony in Jersey City. “All they’ve done so far has been a coaching clinic.”
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Holloway coached one step ahead of the game. Hurley said the way he vacillated between lineups of twos and threes allowed Saint Peter to dictate matchups. The Peacocks play crisp, sophisticated offensive sets that Holloway tailors to his staff. With starters on the ground, Daryl Banks III starts pick and rolls. When shooter Doug Edert comes off the bench, he runs through an intricate maze of open shot screens. Willard believes Holloway’s well-designed, quick plays after timeouts made all the difference in tight games. “When he needed to get a bucket,” Willard said, “he was phenomenal.”
Holloway’s defensive tactics were masterful. Against Purdue, Boyle noticed the Peacocks muscle Purdue’s towering mids at the foul line rather than fighting them near the basket, a testament to Holloway’s strategy and ability to train technique. Amaker has seen Holloway confuse opponents by obfuscating defense – Saint Peter’s took control when Holloway zoned in against Kentucky and Purdue in the final minutes.
“If you look at his team, everyone says, ‘They’re tough, they’re rowdy, they’re tough,'” Smith said. “Well, that’s Sha. That’s him. He grew up in Queens. He’s just a tough kid. But just his understanding of the game – this team is playing at a high, high level right now.”
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Amaker said: “You can’t do what he does with his program and the resources, you can’t do what he does without being an outstanding coach. And he needs to be recognized for that.”
Holloway built Saint Peter’s around the recruit class now in its junior season, five players who have become “brothers,” Edert said. Holloway can yell at them on the court and train them with discipline; The peacocks still dutifully practice wearing masks. But Holloway also asks how they’re doing in class and lets them hang out in his office, inviting them over for milkshakes after street wins. Ndefo said Holloway treats him like a son.
“He can climb on them because they see the other side,” Willard said.
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And here’s Holloway becoming the face of America’s number one sporting event, carrying a university on his shoulders without ever breaking stride.
“It’s his time,” Smith said. “He’s ready for this moment. Look, the all-American McDonald’s, it’s MVP. He was MVP at that moment, a 5-10 point guard. You know what I mean? In these moments he shines. He has these kids, they listen to every word he says.”
The Peacocks have at least one game left. If they win, they play in the Final Four. Holloway never reached the Elite Eight as a player or assistant at any major school. He made it here with Saint Peter instead.
“How about that?” said Holloway. “How about that? It’s the American Dream.”