MAAC Coaching Spotlight –Saint Peter’s Shaheen Holloway
Edison, N.J. (April 14, 2020) – Saint Peter’s Men’s Basketball Head Coach Shaheen Holloway sits down with the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) to give insights on his life, the cancelled 2020 MAAC Hercules Tires Basketball Championships, and the Saint Peter’s program. Holloway was named the 2020 “The Rock” MAAC Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year and guided the Peacocks to the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.
Q: Saint Peter’s finished second in the regular season after being voted ninth, what are your thoughts on this year’s regular season?
A: I thought it was a great year. I was very happy with the way my team competed, the way guys came out and focused and gave me everything they got. That's all we ever asked for from day one. Just go out, work and play your hardest. I was really impressed with the young guys, and by young guys I don't mean just the freshmen, I mean the sophomores as well. Those guys came out and competed every night at a high-level. I thought that Quinn Taylor did a great job of leading us and, you know, I thought it was a great year. I think we had more work to do, but unfortunately with the pandemic, we had to shut things down.
Q: What does it mean to you to be named “The Rock” MAAC Coach of the Year?
A: I don't really get into individual achievements, but I thought that this was a team award. I thought if it wasn't for my team, I would never have gotten this award, so that's why I brought the whole team with me to the MAAC Postseason Awards Show, because I wanted to make sure everyone was there who was involved. My coaching staff, the training staff, the administration, the players, anybody who played a part in helping us be successful. It was for them, not just me. But to answer your question, I thought it was a great accomplishment and I'm proud of it and I'm so happy for anybody who played a part in it.
Q: What are the top lessons you learned from Seton Hall that you brought to Saint Peter’s?
A: A never die attitude. Never giving up and just playing everyone hard and out working everyone. When I first got here, I said this in my press conference, and I say it to kids all the time on the phone when we recruit: I’m not the best coach in the world, but the one thing I can guarantee you is that no one will ever out-work me. No one will ever out-work me and my staff. I got that from being at Seton Hall and being with Coach Willard for 11 years. We had to out-work people, and that's the same thing we're doing here at Saint Peter’s.
Q: Although time was cut short, what were your thoughts on the MAAC’s inaugural year in Atlantic City?
A: I was looking forward to it, I wasn't sure how it was going to be for the first year. I was looking forward to it though. We played a 9:30 p.m. game, so we didn't really get the full effect of the whole Atlantic City experience, but that game was pretty exciting just because we were playing the defending champs. Any time you get to play against a team like Iona in the first round, it’s a tremendous experience with the level of the game being so high. I thought everything was good though. I thought that for the first year, it was run very well. It was organized, so I was looking forward to it. I'm still looking forward to it in the future.
Q: What was the locker room like after defeating four-time defending champions Iona?
A: You know, I'm a different kind of coach. I don't let my guys get too high or let my guys get too low. It was business as usual. Our thing was, we went down there to win three games, and that was just the first game. We had more games to get ready for. The motto was to get back to the hotel, my staff and I are going to watch some tape and get ready for the next opponent. That's kind of what the motto was, it wasn't a big celebration in the locker room, because we were down there as a business trip. Our goal was to go down there and win three games and we had the confidence we could play with anybody. That first game, which I knew was going to be tough because it was the first postseason game for some of our young guys, it was a game that came down to the wire and was tough, and I was happy that we were the winners.
Q: What was your initial reaction to the cancellation of the tournament?
A: At first, I was a little disappointed. That's because I thought my team was playing at a high. As a team and as a coach, you want to peak at the right time. I thought we were peaking at the right time. I thought everybody was getting their legs under them and understanding what it took to win postseason games. Obviously, I was disappointed, but then when you start looking at the big picture of things, it was the right thing for the commissioner to do. This disease, it's spreading, and it's scary because it's an unknown. No one really knows about it. It comes at you in unknown types of ways. So again, at first my initial reaction was disappointment because I wanted to play and I thought we had a good chance, just like anybody. But once I rode back home, the next day when everything settled down, I realized it was the right thing to do.
Q: How was this news broken to student-athletes, and what was their reaction?
A: They were fine. It was tough, it was one of those days I'll probably never forget. It was a Thursday afternoon, we played Wednesday night so we had Thursday off. My staff and I were watching film, the team was coming down at 3:00 so we could watch film together and do a walk-through. When we got the news, I had to decompress and gather my thoughts, because I knew these guys were going to be heartbroken. I had Athletic Director Rachelle Paul come over. Her and I talked outside for a little bit, then we both went inside to address the team. I spoke first then she spoke, then after she left, we had a team meeting for a while and we just sat there and tried to make it a celebration. I know my four seniors were heartbroken, so we just sat there and talked and talked about the season and the impact it had on everyone. The crazy thing, I didn't know that would be the last time we would see each other for a while. But it was a good time. We sat there for about two hours to talk, laughing and joking and going down memory lane with the guys. It was good. We got a nice meal and got on the bus to head back up to North Jersey.
Q: Are you keeping in touch with student-athletes?
A: Yeah, yeah. I do a zoom call with them once a week to make sure everybody is on top of their studies. Just talking about everything in life and things with their families, making sure everyone is safe. So, I keep in contact with them at least once a week.
Q: What kind of questions have student-athletes been asking you?
A: You know, the crazy thing is, no one is really asking questions right now. I think everyone can understand where they're at right now and that everything is just unknown. Every time I talk to them, I let them know that right now we just don't know what's going to happen. We have to get better, business as usual, so stay on top of your studies, take classes online the best you can, and the more information we know the more information we will let you know. At first, it was what about this and what about that, and I was sitting there like, I don’t know what's going to happen. There were a lot of disappointed faces in there and that was one of the toughest things I had to face in a long time, because I knew how much work these young guys put in to be in that position. To have it taken away just like that, without even being prepared for it, was kind of tough.
Q: How does this pandemic affect your recruiting?
A: It affects everyone in the country. You can talk to guys on the phone, but with others it's hard to get on the phone. Some people you just have to text, do virtual tours and all that kind of stuff. It's funny because some people weren't prepared for something like this, they just don't have a virtual tour or things like that. They can't do it, so the only thing you can do is get on the phone with kids and sell the program and sell myself and sell what we did the last two years and have kids look at the style of play we have. Things like that. But like I said, there's not much we can do besides FaceTime and other stuff like that.
Q: When you do recruit, what do you look for in a student-athlete?
A: I’m different. I don't look for the best kid, I look for the right kid that fits what we're trying to do. I want a recruit to have a good basketball IQ. I want you to be able to play with one another, I want guys who have a chip on their shoulder, playing on an edge and playing hard. If you don't play with energy, you don't play hard, you can’t play for me.
Q: What have you personally been doing during the pandemic?
A: I've been trying to take care of my family. I have a newborn, so that's taking up a lot of my time. Watching a lot of film and a lot of kids that we are looking at recruiting. Making sure we are watching a lot of games from last year, trying to improve on things that we can fix. Just trying to stay busy, you know. Constant communication with my stuff, those type of things.
Q: What is the first thing you are going to do when allowed back on campus?
A: I think I’ll take a walk around campus and welcome back all the students and student-athletes. Be that person that's in the forefront, to let everybody know that things are back to normal and just get back to business. Let's get back to having a great school year. Just walk around campus and see what everybody's up to, make sure they are safe. The workers, the security guards, the maintenance people, the people who work in the cafeterias, the professors. Just go around and let everybody know that I appreciate them and have been keeping them in my thoughts.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is in its 39
th year of competition during the 2019-20 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena College.