Man, What A WEIRD Season....

Hall-O-Daze · Mar 6, 2026

I'm not even sure how to frame it. Usually I'm not at a loss for words, but trying to describe this team and this season is a ponderous exercise, to say the least!

How do you describe a season that, all things considered, is a major improvement and defies all expectations, yet is still easily among the most disappointing and frustrating in recent memory? All the crazy, emotional comebacks, yet two EPIC, unforgettable(and unforgivable)chokes that essentially doomed the season.

How do you reconcile a team that ends up with a record that, after last season, almost all of us would have taken, with actual on the court play that is so frustrating and displays enough total ineptitude to make you want to pull out what remains of your hair?

Other programs in the conference would probably tell us we did well to end where we did - to be grateful. Maybe. A positive season, perhaps, but I can't wait to kick these guys to the curb and move on to the next squad of incoming bargin bin mercenaries. Bring em' on.....I guess.

SPK145 · Mar 6, 2026

It was an average Big East team at 10-10 in a down Big East.

That’s a huge improvement over last season but seems like it could have been better.

CTF591011 · Mar 6, 2026

The problem is this overrated NIL doesn't give you the safety net or optimism like in the past where you know you can keep your recruiting class for 3-4 years. I wouldn't be that upset, I would arguably be in a better state, if NIL wasn't around and like the past. I wish NCAA puts better restrictions that we can at least keep players for at least 2 years before entering the portal.

I think even with getting frustrated, there was lots of good moments obviously, but it's hard to keep cool and positive with how they have lose. We have had dissapointing seasons with Willard, but he found a way to get those big wins and for me we lose with better effort and fundamentals.

I cannot believe how a pathetic they were giving that open fast break at the end. Also when it was 62-59 and I think Sellers hits that three? it was so badly contested. They just don't seem like they have it, almost all of them outside Hines and respectfully Clark, even with recent frustrations.

I thought Mccray was back the past couple of games, but how do you choke with that shooting. Just really hard seeing this team clearly look decent and have talent, but can't get the simplest and basics done.

The fact we lost to Depaul twice is all you need to know about this team.

Piratz · Mar 6, 2026

Very bipolar team. One of our best defensive teams in recent times, one of our worst offensively.

Painfull close to winning against the top, painfully close to losing to the bottom when you’re so bad on one end so good on the other. Weird.

NCAAsorBust · Mar 6, 2026

SPK145 said:
It was an average Big East team at 10-10 in a down Big East.

That’s a huge improvement over last season but seems like it could have been better.

1-9 vs teams 1-6 in the conference, 9-1 vs team 7-11 in the conference. Good enough to beat the crappy teams not good enough to beat the good or mediocre teams. Good enough to go wire to wire with the top dogs, but not good enough to cruise to easy wins vs bottom feeders. One win vs the top 75 teams in NET.

Piratz · Mar 6, 2026

NCAAsorBust said:
1-9 vs teams 1-6 in the conference, 9-1 vs team 7-11 in the conference. Good enough to beat the crappy teams not good enough to beat the good or mediocre teams. Good enough to go wire to wire with the top dogs, but not good enough to cruise to easy wins vs bottom feeders. One win vs the top 75 teams in NET.

Yeah. The tough part is how close the games were against the top 2. But when you’re .500, it’s usually stuff like what you posted.

jack 1970 · Mar 6, 2026

We are much improved over last year. However, we're 0-6 against the top teams in the conference. Close doesn't count. We don't belong in the NCAA tournament. Lets hope for the best in the BET and get ready for next year.Hopefully,with more NIL we can make the NCAAT next year.

joeyklings · Mar 6, 2026

We’re a hard playing, defensive and competitive team. No shooting, and bad offensive scheme. Add in a pg that doesn’t shoot the three, trouble finishing at the rim, no PF, wings that can’t shoot, and our backup center was probably our best player

Left Coast Pirates · Mar 6, 2026

joeyklings said:
We’re a hard playing, defensive and competitive team. No shooting, and bad offensive scheme. Add in a pg that doesn’t shoot the three, trouble finishing at the rim, no PF, wings that can’t shoot, and our backup center was probably our best player

Accurate….And based on that description I would say 20-11 and 10-10 is pretty damn good then.

One could say a minor miracle.

Hall Berry · Mar 7, 2026

They do play hard. And to their credit, this team played more consistently game in and game out than the 2023-24 team, that got blown out so often. And I can even excuse the Butler and DePaul home losses. Some games you just don’t have it.

But good teams need to finish the job against the big boys once in a while. I’m not saying they should have won any particular game when it came to St John’s, UConn or Villanova but you can’t lose all of them. If you want to be in the tournament discussion, you have to, in at least one or two of those games, dig deep and find a way. They didn’t.

mbraue · Mar 7, 2026

Hall Berry said:
They do play hard. And to their credit, this team played more consistently game in and game out than the 2023-24 team, that got blown out so often. And I can even excuse the Butler and DePaul home losses. Some games you just don’t have it.

But good teams need to finish the job against the big boys once in a while. I’m not saying they should have won any particular game when it came to St John’s, UConn or Villanova but you can’t lose all of them. If you want to be in the tournament discussion, you have to, in at least one or two of those games, dig deep and find a way. They didn’t.

Up by 15 at St. John's at home? I think that is one we should have had. Up 1 with 53 seconds at home vs. UConn? Think that's one we should have had. I'd like to see Sha go to zone more in these late situations when we are leading to confuse teams and take away dribble penetration and sloppy fouls on our part.

But Sha in his presser with Popkin and Cohen said Simpkins and another player (don't recall who) do not do well together in zone at the top of key. Johnnie's took advantage of some breakdown tonight, Sha said.

We need to try and lock down these details before BE tourney because these are the nuances that help close out games.

PhishingPirate088 · Mar 7, 2026

Left Coast Pirates said:
Accurate….And based on that description I would say 20-11 and 10-10 is pretty damn good then.

One could say a minor miracle.

Minor miracle ?! lol

Halldan · Mar 7, 2026

Date	Rk	Opponent	Result			Record	Conf
Mon Nov 3	93	256	Saint Peter's	W, 77-50	60	Home	1-0
Fri Nov 7	82	311	Wagner	W, 68-61	65	Home	2-0
Mon Nov 10	96	259	Fairfield	W, 82-59	69	Home	3-0
Thu Nov 13	89	187	Monmouth	W, 70-58	67	Home	4-0
Tue Nov 18	92	328	New Haven	W, 68-45	62	Home	5-0
Mon Nov 24	87	35	N.C. State	W, 85-74	74	Neutral	6-0
Tue Nov 25	73	70	USC	L, 83-81	69	Neutral	6-1
Wed Nov 26	67	138	Washington St.	W, 75-61	66	Neutral	7-1
Wed Dec 3	65	306	Central Connecticut	W, 77-61	63	Home	8-1
Sat Dec 6	66	100	Kansas St.	W, 78-67	78	Away	9-1
Sat Dec 13	57	133	Rutgers	W, 81-59	68	Home	10-1
Fri Dec 19	48	75	Providence	W, 72-67	70	Away	11-1	1-0
Tue Dec 23	45	32	Villanova	L, 64-56	63	Home	11-2	1-1
Tue Dec 30	47	91	Marquette	W, 79-73	71	Away	12-2	2-1

Halldan · Mar 7, 2026

Sun Jan 4	46	73	Creighton	W, 56-54	63	Home	13-2	3-1
Sat Jan 10	46	84	Georgetown	W, 76-67	70	Away	14-2	4-1
Tue Jan 13	43	9	Connecticut	L, 69-64	65	Home	14-3	4-2
Sat Jan 17	44	88	Butler	L, 77-66	67	Home	14-4	4-3
Tue Jan 20	50	21	St. John's	L, 65-60	64	Away	14-5	4-4
Sat Jan 24	49	95	DePaul	L, 67-60	67	Away	14-6	4-5
Wed Jan 28	51	94	Xavier	W, 86-68	73	Home	15-6	5-5
Sat Jan 31	49	91	Marquette	W, 69-64	62	Home	16-6	6-5
Wed Feb 4	50	32	Villanova	L, 72-60	63	Away	16-7	6-6
Sat Feb 7	51	73	Creighton	L, 69-68	67	Away	16-8	6-7
Wed Feb 11	50	75	Providence	W, 87-80	68	Home	17-8	7-7
Sun Feb 15	48	88	Butler	W, 63-56	67	Away	18-8	8-7
Wed Feb 18	47	95	DePaul	L, 69-57	65	Home	18-9	8-8
Sat Feb 21	49	84	Georgetown	W, 51-47	63	Home	19-9	9-8
Sat Feb 28	53	9	Connecticut	L, 71-67	63	Away	19-10	9-9
Tue Mar 3	53	94	Xavier	W, 77-68	63	Away	20-10	10-9
Fri Mar 6	52	21	St. John's	L, 72-65	64	Home	20-11	10-10

Halldan · Mar 7, 2026

As befits a .500 team, we alternated wins and losses over the last 6 games.

Only 1 double digit loss. Nova 72-60 over SHU.

Holloway squeezed everything out of this team and deserves praise. Same with the players. They never let up and gave everything they had all season long.

Haters can hate if they want. Me? I'm proud about everyone associated with the program this year.

NCAAsorBust · Mar 7, 2026

Left Coast Pirates said:
Accurate….And based on that description I would say 20-11 and 10-10 is pretty damn good then.

One could say a minor miracle.

Let’s be down the middle on this. The miracle is the big east is bad so we benefited

PhishingPirate088 · Mar 7, 2026

Halldan said:
As befits a .500 team, we alternated wins and losses over the last 6 games.

Only 1 double digit loss. Nova 72-60 over SHU.

Holloway squeezed everything out of this team and deserves praise. Same with the players. They never let up and gave everything they had all season long.

Haters can hate if they want. Me? I'm proud about everyone associated with the program this year.

This team did seem to totally buy in to Sha for the whole year.

That’s a huge plus. He identified and found kids that would buy-in to his program which he deserves credit.

I am just afraid. 1. That is hard to do year in and year out 2. The type of player Sha needs has a ceiling and I don’t know how that will work

Budd and Hines should be back, and that would be great.

SHallguy2 · Mar 7, 2026

Hall Berry said:
They do play hard. And to their credit, this team played more consistently game in and game out than the 2023-24 team, that got blown out so often. And I can even excuse the Butler and DePaul home losses. Some games you just don’t have it.

But good teams need to finish the job against the big boys once in a while. I’m not saying they should have won any particular game when it came to St John’s, UConn or Villanova but you can’t lose all of them. If you want to be in the tournament discussion, you have to, in at least one or two of those games, dig deep and find a way. They didn’t.

Still time to take care of business, win the Big East tournament and we will have finished the job. We have a very real chance of doing that in my opinion.

SHallguy2 · Mar 7, 2026

Halldan said:
As befits a .500 team, we alternated wins and losses over the last 6 games.

Only 1 double digit loss. Nova 72-60 over SHU.

Holloway squeezed everything out of this team and deserves praise. Same with the players. They never let up and gave everything they had all season long.

Haters can hate if they want. Me? I'm proud about everyone associated with the program this year.

Loved this team, they played hard most of the season and truly a great defensive team. Most of the season was fun to watch, always felt like they had a chance to win. Cannot ask for more than we got from a team picked for last place. I personally feel we have a legit chance of staying in games and winning the tournament.

NCAAsorBust · Mar 7, 2026

Halldan said:
As befits a .500 team, we alternated wins and losses over the last 6 games.

Only 1 double digit loss. Nova 72-60 over SHU.

Holloway squeezed everything out of this team and deserves praise. Same with the players. They never let up and gave everything they had all season long.

Haters can hate if they want. Me? I'm proud about everyone associated with the program this year.

You are spot on. My fear is even if those 2 return, is we can’t guarantee 5 or 6 big east teams will be under .500 overall for the season. So if teams with money like PC, Georgetown, Marquette and Creighton buy better teams we’ve got to be able to score to keep up. The odds of all 4 teams being this bad in the same year couldn’t have been good. We have to ready for them to buy better teams.

Piratz · Mar 7, 2026

JoePeppitone2012 · Mar 7, 2026

I think seeing Gyrating Joe’s hernia last night on the big screen was the weirdest and worst spectacle of the season

shu09 · Mar 7, 2026

NCAAsorBust said:
Let’s be down the middle on this. The miracle is the big east is bad so we benefited

Yep. This is a 6-14, 7-13 type team in a normal Big East season. The bad Big East was worth 3 or 4 more wins than usual.

shu67 · Mar 7, 2026

Problem is we need to outspend other teams next year to stay the same or get better. Otherwise, we will be in the crapper again and no NCAA tourney. So can we get the money to outspend? If the answer is no then we are in trouble, We finished 4th and can't make the NCAA tourney this year so what is the chance we do better next year if we don't outspend?

The Crows Nest · Mar 7, 2026

SHallguy2 said:
Loved this team, they played hard most of the season and truly a great defensive team. Most of the season was fun to watch, always felt like they had a chance to win. Cannot ask for more than we got from a team picked for last place. I personally feel we have a legit chance of staying in games and winning the tournament.

While I would love to share your optimism, the reality of the situation is that we simply struggle to score, especially shooting 3's. And it is hard....really hard....to beat good teams without the ability to make some 3 pointers.

The other thing that goes against us winning a tournament such as the one we will be in next week is, we are simply not built to win 3 games in 3 days. We play so hard, so physical, that even if we manage to win Wednesday, we will have a tough time recovering to come back the next night...against a MUCH tougher and better opponent (in this case St. John's at home with their fans going nuts) and have the stamina to defend just as aggressively as we will need, to and have the legs to make some shots.

But, lets say we do that; then the odds go even higher to again, ratchet that intensity and energy up to come back again the next night against again, perhaps an even better team in UConn.

Impossible? of course not, nothing is impossible. Improbably? Absolutely at the highest level.

Seton Hall seems to learn things in small bites (our progression into NIL, etc.) lets hope we have finally learned that we NEED a couple of guys that can make baskets and specifically 3 pointers, and do what we have to, and have them on the roster next year.

This year was fun, especially after last season; but the limits on this team are glaring...

shu67 · Mar 7, 2026

I think we might get by the first game but the chances of winning the title are very low to next to impossible. Too many flaws in the offense.

Gritty5837 · Mar 7, 2026

Halldan said:
As befits a .500 team, we alternated wins and losses over the last 6 games.

Only 1 double digit loss. Nova 72-60 over SHU.

Holloway squeezed everything out of this team and deserves praise. Same with the players. They never let up and gave everything they had all season long.

Haters can hate if they want. Me? I'm proud about everyone associated with the program this year.

Everything stated here is true and compared to last year, way better.

In the grand scheme of the NIL era and Sha’s tenure overall however, they’ve had a pretty clear ceiling. It’ll be an interesting portal season to see if they finally punch past it.

To keep the fanbase enthusiastic some player retention is really important. They need to keep Hines at a minimum.

SPK145 · Mar 7, 2026

shu67 said:
Problem is we need to outspend other teams next year to stay the same or get better. Otherwise, we will be in the crapper again and no NCAA tourney. So can we get the money to outspend? If the answer is no then we are in trouble, We finished 4th and can't make the NCAA tourney this year so what is the chance we do better next year if we don't outspend?

Had likely the 7th best NIL in the BE and finished 4th.

Gritty5837 · Mar 7, 2026

The Crows Nest said:
While I would love to share your optimism, the reality of the situation is that we simply struggle to score, especially shooting 3's. And it is hard....really hard....to beat good teams without the ability to make some 3 pointers.

The other thing that goes against us winning a tournament such as the one we will be in next week is, we are simply not built to win 3 games in 3 days. We play so hard, so physical, that even if we manage to win Wednesday, we will have a tough time recovering to come back the next night...against a MUCH tougher and better opponent (in this case St. John's at home with their fans going nuts) and have the stamina to defend just as aggressively as we will need, to and have the legs to make some shots.

But, lets say we do that; then the odds go even higher to again, ratchet that intensity and energy up to come back again the next night against again, perhaps an even better team in UConn.

Impossible? of course not, nothing is impossible. Improbably? Absolutely at the highest level.

Seton Hall seems to learn things in small bites (our progression into NIL, etc.) lets hope we have finally learned that we NEED a couple of guys that can make baskets and specifically 3 pointers, and do what we have to, and have them on the roster next year.

This year was fun, especially after last season; but the limits on this team are glaring...

Great post. Guys who can shoot from three at a high clip and play Sha’s level of defense are very expensive.

Logically you either need more money or to relax your defensive standards, at least on some guys, to see a difference.

NIL BAD · Mar 7, 2026

Problem is we need to outspend other teams next year to stay the same or get better.

We'll never be able to compete with the top spenders & never have been- even before it was legal. I don't think there's another coach in the league that could get more out of our roster than Sha did this year. It looks like he's figured out how to shop for players who fit his defensive scheme. Now he's got to get to the next level. Recruit some scorers & work on improving the offensive scheme. It won't be easy but not impossible.

Piratz · Mar 7, 2026

shu09 said:
Yep. This is a 6-14, 7-13 type team in a normal Big East season. The bad Big East was worth 3 or 4 more wins than usual.

shu67 said:
Problem is we need to outspend other teams next year to stay the same or get better. Otherwise, we will be in the crapper again and no NCAA tourney. So can we get the money to outspend? If the answer is no then we are in trouble, We finished 4th and can't make the NCAA tourney this year so what is the chance we do better next year if we don't outspend?

Perhaps it's becoming a Big East issue too with the money and the natural market gaps between the P4 and even Big East. I know we're all assured Marquette, Georgetown, and Providence are well funded just have bad coaching issues ongoing but who knows. We'll see. Xavier has issues in that department right now and we know the inherent limitations of Seton Hall, Butler, and DePaul.

Thankfully we didn't go 7-13 or 6-14 again, that's miserable sitting through those seasons. And none of it matters year to year anymore, although it would be nice to keep building off this team instead of starting over again.

Halldan · Mar 7, 2026

SPK145 said:
Had likely the 7th best NIL in the BE and finished 4th.

I was told we were in a group slightly ahead of 2 other Big East schools with our NIL.

The schools ahead of us, especially UConn, SJU and Providence, and to a lesser degree Creighton, Georgetown and Nova dwarfed our total.

Another issue is we didn't spend our allotted money until the court preceding was over meaning we were late to the party.

I'm hearing we will have at least $8M this year. Still not enough, but we should be able to compete with most of our peers with that amount.

PhishingPirate088 · Mar 7, 2026

Halldan said:
I was told we were in a group slightly ahead of 2 other Big East schools with our NIL.

The schools ahead of us, especially UConn, SJU and Providence, and to a lesser degree Creighton, Georgetown and Nova dwarfed our total.

Another issue is we didn't spend our allotted money until the court preceding was over meaning we were late to the party.

I'm hearing we will have at least $8M this year. Still not enough, but we should be able to compete with most of our peers with that amount.

I don’t want to start a fight but the last line is extremely similar to what we were told last year on the 6 million number and when this season went sideways we were told we couldn’t compete this year with the majority of the league

EVERY school complains about their nil

Halldan · Mar 7, 2026

Actually it's not. Certainly not from me.

No one believed me when I posted the total until 6 months later when Jerry and Zags found out the same thing.

The problem was despite knowing we were going to spend the money we had to wait on the court settlement and that hurts us. I thought we made a huge mistake waiting on the settlement when others did not. That conservative thinking bit us on the a$$,

That won't happen again this year, but we are still middle of the pack at best with $8KM and not in the same ballpark with the upper tier Big East schools.

PhishingPirate088 · Mar 7, 2026

Halldan said:
Actually it's not. Certainly not from me.

No one believed me when I posted the total until 6 months later when Jerry and Zags found out the same thing.

The problem was despite knowing we were going to spend the money we had to wait on the court settlement and that hurts us. I thought we made a huge mistake waiting on the settlement when others did not. That conservative thinking bit us on the a$$,

That won't happen again this year, but we are still middle of the pack at best with $8KM and not in the same ballpark with the upper tier Big East schools.

So middle of pack is what 5/11?

You didn’t say we’d be middle this year?

JTSHU · Mar 7, 2026

Halldan said:
I was told we were in a group slightly ahead of 2 other Big East schools with our NIL.

The schools ahead of us, especially UConn, SJU and Providence, and to a lesser degree Creighton, Georgetown and Nova dwarfed our total.

Another issue is we didn't spend our allotted money until the court preceding was over meaning we were late to the party.

I'm hearing we will have at least $8M this year. Still not enough, but we should be able to compete with most of our peers with that amount.

Thats where coaching and schemes come into play on offense. Still have to give sha a ton of credit for finishing 4th

radecicco · Mar 7, 2026

Back up the truck for Hines. Have to retain him.

Piratz · Mar 7, 2026

What has been leaking consistently during this NIL age gets a consensus as the season goes on. It usually seems to make sense too regardless of never getting a published payroll. It's also why people in the college basketball universe think Sha does such a good job just getting us to .500 with what he's got. Down BE or not because you see what some of the others have done with more.

IDK what's going on with Marquette and how they're paying those guys so much, but Georgetown and Providence both have very skilled players. Watch them with the ball. They're poorly coached and unorganized (Cooley has lost himself, even publicly) which is why they stink, but they've got guys like Lewis, Mack, Vince I, Sellers, Edwards, Vaks, way more skilled and more expensive than our guys when you watch them play.

And even with us. Clearly our guys were more skilled this year compared to last year. Last year's team could barely dribble and drive the lane.

We probably got Hines because we had a ton of money left and I think there's a connection there with the HS coach.

dehere23 · Mar 7, 2026

Piratz said:
What has been leaking consistently during this NIL age gets a consensus as the season goes on. It usually seems to make sense too regardless of never getting a published payroll. It's also why people in the college basketball universe think Sha does such a good job just getting us to .500 with what he's got. Down BE or not because you see what some of the others have done with more.

IDK what's going on with Marquette and how they're paying those guys so much, but Georgetown and Providence both have very skilled players. Watch them with the ball. They're poorly coached and unorganized (Cooley has lost himself, even publicly) which is why they stink, but they've got guys like Lewis, Mack, Vince I, Sellers, Edwards, Vaks, way more skilled and more expensive than our guys when you watch them play.

We probably got Hines because we had a ton of money left and I think there's a connection there with the HS coach.

It’s also leads to fan and program driven agendas. Don’t win, blame NIL. Lose or miss on a player, blame NIL. Get “insiders” talking about it within the fan base. Get a state run media person like Carino to leak it. Then you can only exceed expectations. And on and on.

SPK145 · Mar 7, 2026

Halldan said:
I was told we were in a group slightly ahead of 2 other Big East schools with our NIL.

The schools ahead of us, especially UConn, SJU and Providence, and to a lesser degree Creighton, Georgetown and Nova dwarfed our total.

Another issue is we didn't spend our allotted money until the court preceding was over meaning we were late to the party.

I'm hearing we will have at least $8M this year. Still not enough, but we should be able to compete with most of our peers with that amount.

From what I know, we had more than DePaul, Butler, Xavier, and Marquette (didnt need more) this past season.

I hate it but $8 million next year probably doesn't move Seton Hall up the BE food chain. Marquette can certainly get a lot more than they spent this year.

Man, What A WEIRD Season....

Freshman

All-Conference

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All-Conference

Junior

All-Conference

Sophomore

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Senior

Freshman

Junior

Sophomore

All-American

All-American

All-American

Junior

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Junior

All-Conference

Freshman

Junior

Senior

Junior

Senior

All-Conference

All-Conference

All-Conference

Junior

All-Conference

All-American

Sophomore

All-American

Sophomore

Senior

All-Conference

All-Conference

All-Conference

All-Conference