Last Year: 17-16; Sixth (10-10) in the Big East Conference, lost in the first round of the NIT
Head Coach: Shaheen Holloway (Second Year)
Projected Starting Lineup
| G Kadary Richmond – 6’6″, 210 – Senior |
| G Al-Amir Dawes – 6’2″, 180 – Senior (5th) |
| W Dylan Addae-Wusu – 6’4″, 230 – Junior |
| W Dre Davis – 6’6″, 212 – Senior |
| C Jaden Bediako – 6’10”, 245 – Senior (5th) |
Projected Starters’ 2022-23 Stats
Kadary Richmond: 10.1 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 4.1 apg, 2.0 spg – 41.7% FG
Al-Amir Dawes: 12.6 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 1.7 apg, 1.1 spg – 38.2% 3FG
Dylan Addae-Wusu: 9.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.4 apg, 1.6 spg – 36.4% 3FG @ St. John’s
Dre Davis: 9.6 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.5 spg – 40.9% 3FG
Jaden Bediako: 6.0 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 1.1 apg, 1.0 bpg – 52.0% FG @ Santa Clara
Experienced Reserves
| C Elijah Hutchins-Everett – Junior – 6’11”, 255 |
| G Jaquan Sanders – 6’4″, 205 – Sophomore |
| F Sadraque NgaNga – 6’10”, 220 – Sophomore |
Experienced Reserve’s 2022-23 Stats
Elijah Hutchins-Everett: 11.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 0.9 apg, 0.6 bpg – 32.3% 3FG @ Austin Peay
Jaquan Sanders: 2.3 ppg, 1.1 rpg, 0.4 apg – 36.2% 3FG
Sadraque NgaNga: 2.0 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 0.3 apg, 0.2 spg – 36.4% 3FG @ Boise State
Freshmen
| JaQuan Harris – 6’3″, 183 – Redshirt Freshman |
| David Tubek – 6’7″, 205 – Freshman |
| W Isaiah Coleman – 6’5″, 180 – Freshman – Consensus Top 150 recruit |
| G Malachi Brown – 6’1″, 175 – Freshman |
| C Arda Özdöğan – 6’10”, 215 – Freshman / Turkey |
It took Shaheen Holloway four years as a player to make the NCAA Tournament. Back then, the Pirates’ second-year head coach had to pay his dues, powering through some painful losing streaks while leading current Harvard coach Tommy Amaker’s rebuild in Orange two decades ago. It all culminated in Holloway being named First Team All-Big East as he led the Pirates to the Big Dance, hit an OT winner that’s been replayed thousands of times, and ended up willing the Hall into the Sweet Sixteen to end his senior season.
So it may take him a minute, but Holloway has the confidence of his program and the Pirate faithful that he’s going to get the job done. To that end, it’s been a spring of change in Orange, as Holloway has seen six players transfer out of the program. It’s not all bad, though, as Holloway has now begun to accumulate a lot more of what he calls “best fit” players to help piece together his rotation. With a roster that more fits the preferences of their legendary point guard-turned head coach, the Pirates are primed to take a genuine step forward this year.
Guard play will largely determine Hall’s fate, and really, ‘Coach Sha’ wouldn’t have it any other way. As he proved during his time at Saint Peter’s, Holloway will play five guards at once if that will bring him success. Leading the way for this Pirate crew are a contrasting pair of veterans who, together, can just about do it all.
Kadary Richmond might become the best perimeter defender in America this season, and Holloway’s top playmaker is looking to cap his career with a resounding statement. There was a time when Richmond was a freshman star for legendary coach Jim Boeheim at Syracuse, and there he gained a reputation as an extraordinary talent whose motor didn’t always run at full speed. When Richmond left and transferred to Seton Hall, Boeheim made sure to let it be heard that “Kadary never worked hard at the game. He never had coming in, didn’t work hard last year and really was not in the condition.” Holloway has ensured that his big point guard’s attitude is focused on transforming a negative reputation into a burning desire to improve. Last year, Richmond began to put it all together under the tutelage of a coach who knows the type of player Richmond wants to become. “We just talk and I just tell him every single day, ‘You have to understand the stigma that was on you before this year. You was lazy. That’s there. People listen to that, people read that, you gotta change that’,” Holloway has explained to Richmond, and related to NJ.com. Now a senior, Richmond is ready to become a star.
At 6’6″ with all sorts of length and quickness, opposing ballhandlers don’t get much space in which to operate or time to collect their thoughts when Richmond is on their case. He is both terrific at pressuring his man and getting his extremities out into passing lanes to disrupt things both in his area and outside of it. Seton Hall blocked the fourth-most opponents’ three-point attempts in the nation last year, per Hoop-Math, and Richmond was a big reason why. With all of the possessions that Richmond takes away from the other team, he’s also great at starting and finishing the break and creating cheap buckets for all of his buddies in transition. In the halfcourt, Richmond is a creative ballhandler who likes to hunt his own shot off the bounce or make things happen headed towards the rim. Richmond isn’t about trying a bunch of fakes or dekes in the paint: his game is about power. He’ll simply run roughshod over smaller defenders whether backing them into a good look or taking them for a ride to the rim.
Each year, Richmond has shown a better sense for getting the ball to his teammates once the defense has followed him to the basket. While Richmond can over-dribble and doesn’t have a prolific outside shot, he’s worked hard to make opponents acknowledge that he’ll drill a wide open three. Though he only hit 16 of them last year, he did so at a 44% rate, his best yet; and for his career, Richmond is now up to 42 made triples at 37.5%. If he could come somewhere near that cumulative level of production from deep as a senior, NBA scouts, Holloway, and Seton Hall fans everywhere will be chuffed indeed. Richmond’s season ended early last year with a back injury in mid-February, eliminating a vital part of the rotation, but he’s gotten healthy this summer. As much as everyone is expecting a big year from Richmond statistically, the veteran knows that he has a huge overall effect on the team’s confidence at both ends of the floor. “My teammates are looking for my energy and leadership,” he says. “And always wanting more, for myself and for my teammates.” If Richmond can find the perfect blend of his considerable talents and combine it with his best effort yet, he can shed all those other labels and leave people remembering only his greatness.
Al-Amir Dawes returns to share the backcourt with Richmond, and though he looks more the part of a point guard, Dawes thrives off the ball as a long range bomber. Dawes is lethal coming off of screens ready to fire, and has knocked down 253 treys across his previous four seasons, including 162 at a 39% clip over the past two years. Opponents know that Dawes can knock them out in just a few quick possessions, and generally commit a considerable amount of effort to knocking Dawes around as he flies among the screeners and on any drives to the rim. His first two years, Dawes cashed in almost 62% of his tries near the basket; his last two, however, Dawes has dropped to about 47% on his attempts in close. If he can be more effective both getting to the rack when defenders close out and converting once he’s there, it will help a lot to avoid the scoring droughts which the Hall endured with some regularity last year. Dawes is also happy to get his teammates involved. His assist rate has fallen slightly each year of his career, though, and bottomed out at 11.5% a year ago. It’s not that he’s selfish; Dawes is simply at his best when he’s setting the nets a-swishing from deep, and his teams have needed him to get buckets. This winter, he will look to take a step up as the team’s go-to scoring ace.
New to the Pirates is a familiar face in former conference foe Dylan Addae-Wusu, and Holloway’s crew are going to be a lot happier seeing big #0 boarding someone else’s ship for a change. Addae-Wusu, who played for St John’s the past three seasons, is an oversized wing with tremendous physical strength, and Holloway is hoping that he will be both an imposing and better-shooting replacement for Femi Odukale, one of those players who transferred away from Orange this spring. Like Odukale, Addae-Wusu can make a big impact on the game whether he’s scoring points or not. A talented passer, Addae-Wusu will help Richmond and Dawes to keep the ball moving and provide some surprisingly creative feeds both within the paint and kicking the ball out of it after penetrating. Addae-Wusu is also the Pirates’ second-best outside shooter immediately upon arrival; while Dawes knocked down 2.4 triples per game last season, no one else on the roster averaged even one. Addae-Wusu has splashed 80 triples at a 37.2% rate over the past two years. And every bit as much as Odukale and then some, Addae-Wusu is a terrific, versatile defender who can guard a variety of different players. At 6’4″ and nearly 240 pounds, Addae-Wusu’s size and strength are simply too much for most guards to overcome. He’s like a linebacker roaming the perimeter, and allows for great lineup flexibility by being able to guard both inside and out. Addae-Wusu doesn’t really play a mid-range game; he’s either shooting three’s or getting to the rim. Last year, he improved from 48% to 56% on his attempts around the rim, per Bart Torvik. This time, Addae-Wusu will look to cash in more and more attempts in close with Dawes as a threat on the outside and Richmond weaving the ball through all levels of the defense.
Holloway’s crew are going to be be a lot happier to see big #0 boarding someone else’s ship for a change
Up front, there has been a full overhaul. Holloway is now going to use his preferred four-out rotations around one true big, no matter which new big man happens to be in the game. Like Dawes and Richmond on the perimeter, Holloway is hoping that the contrasting styles of new post players Jaden Bediako and Elijah Hutchins-Everett will sing a wonderful harmony in the paint. Hutchins-Everett is a wide-body who can step out to the three point arc, and is hoping to take a step forward this year as a complete pivot at both ends of the floor. Once a Penn State commit, Hutchins-Everett went to Austin Peay when the Nittany Lions swapped Micah Shrewsbury in for Pat Chambers as head coach. There, Hutchins-Everett won Ohio Valley Conference Rookie of the Year and knocked down 32 triples combined over his two years. He has a legit face-up game, and knocks down jumpers inside the arc, as well. Hutchins-Everett made 64.8% of his shots at the rim overall as a Governer, per Bart Torvik, and Holloway will want him to do as much damage at the basket as he does pulling defenses away from it. He’s very slick on quick post-up’s, and has quick, soft hands.
For a Pirates team that doesn’t have many outside threats, though, Hutchins-Everett will provide a new wrinkle and potentially, a matchup problem. “We got some guys who can really shoot,” Holloway told NJ.com this fall. “We got a combination of old and young, which I like, so we just gotta put it together.” The former Governor is originally from the Orange, NJ area, and is excited for the opportunity to show what he can do on the big stage of the Big East and in front of the home fans. “I want to test myself playing in one of the best conferences in college basketball,” Hutchins-Everett proclaimed to Adam Zagoria for NJ Advance Media upon committing to the Hall. “It would be a great opportunity to do it back home.” It remains to be seen if Hutchins-Everett can continue to show his diverse offensive game and also defend at a Big East level for 20+ minutes per game, as Austin Peay was not a good team overall and the Ohio Valley ranked 29th out of 32 Division I conferences in the RPI last year. If his game translates, though, Holloway will have found quite a dangerous new weapon at the 5 spot.
| Five Stats Which Tell The Tale (with national ranks) |
| 65.4 – Opponent Points Per Game (39th) |
| 67.9 – Team Points Per Game (247th) |
| 31.6% – Opponent 3FG Percentage (55th) |
| 49.0% – Team Effective FG Percentage (253rd) |
| 47.6% – Opponent Effective FG Percentage (51st) |
The other half of Holloway’s new center equation, Bediako, is a more mobile big who protects the rim and can get end to end for transition opportunities. The brother of fellow Brampton, Ontario native and former Alabama starter Charles Bediako, Jaden Bediako is an excellent pick-setter and should be better than ever rolling to the hoop looking for feeds from Richmond and his fellow guards. Holloway is banking on 20 minutes of stout defense from Bediako each night, and plenty of shot denials when opponents try to bring it inside. Bediako has worked hard to become more than just a guy who can dunk. He has developed good footwork and a reliable hook shot that allows him to score even when there’s not much room to operate, but he’s yet to be featured as much of an offensive option. While he may be more tenured as a college player than Hutchins-Everett, Holloway believes that Bediako has untapped potential yet to be maximized. “What made me pick Seton Hall was coach Sha and coach (Rasheen) Davis and the coaching staff. I feel they can help my game develop,” Bediako told hoops writer Adam Zagoria upon committing to the Pirates. “They talked about me being an unfinished product, and I believe that, because there’s some stuff we did in the workouts that I never did this but I have the skillset but if we just rep it, rep it, then I’ll be better.” If Holloway and his assistants can turn both new bigs into more complete post players who reach their full potential, it may go a very long way towards the Pirates being a better team overall after playing last year without even one true pivot.
The fifth starter’s spot will go to another wing player, and luckily for Holloway, he’s got another veteran who is already familiar with his system. Dre Davis was Holloway’s 6th man last season in his first year after arriving from Louisville. And while he missed ten games due to knee and ankle injuries, Davis showed a lot of positives to expand upon this year. Davis started 40 games at Louisville, averaging 7.4 points and 3.1 rebounds while playing high-quality defense on the wing. In Addae-Wusu and Davis, the Pirates have a couple of guys who will be effective defenders on any player who isn’t a center. And while Davis has never been designated his team’s primary scorer, he’s steadily grown his offensive repertoire – and actually saw SHU’s highest individual usage rate last winter at 25.1%. He only knocked down 18 triples last year, but he did so at a 41% clip. Anybody who can consistently knock down outside jumpers this year is likely to earn a few extra minutes, and Davis may have an angle there. He scored in double figures 11 times, including a 4/4 night from deep in a 24 point performance in Seton Hall’s last regular season game. If there’s more where that came from, Davis will provide a floor-spacing presence and help ease the considerable scoring burden on Dawes and Richmond.
Two of last year’s recruits return to vie with this season’s top incoming freshman for backup minutes in the backcourt. Jaquan Sanders has potential as a deep threat, and knocked down 32.4% of his 37 triple tries in his first year. He only took 47 shots overall, so Sanders really focused on trying to help stretch the floor for his veteran teammates. If he can get that outside percentage up by four or five percentage points, Sanders will likely see significant minutes as Holloway searches for reliable shooting from the perimeter. “You can’t forget about Stack,” Holloway said this fall of Sanders. “I’m looking for him to have a real good year for us. He can really shoot the basketball.” JaQuan Harris is the younger brother of Jamir Harris, who exhausted his eligibility with last year’s Pirate team. He took a redshirt last season to finish rehabbing from knee surgery prior to his final season in high school. While he didn’t play much as a high school senior and has tried to knock the rust off this summer, JaQuan Harris still may not be ready to go when the new season begins. Once he’s able to play, Harris has a reputation as a capable passer and outside shooter who can run the point, and Holloway hopes he can give Richmond a few meaningful rests once the contrasting Harris becomes available.
This year’s highest-rated freshman is scoring guard Isaiah Coleman. Holloway is excited to develop Coleman, who has been described as a tremendous offensive talent – when he’s focused and playing with 100% effort. “While he’s a smooth handler, he tends to play with the ball too much instead of making quick and decisive moves to get to a straight line,” 247 Sports Director of Scouting Adam Finklestein says of Coleman. “Coleman is an excellent perimeter rebounder, but his defensive intensity can fluctuate…Overall, he’s one of the most talented guards in the class, it’s just a matter of how consistently he puts it all together.” Holloway demands that his guys give great effort at both ends, so he may be just the coach to unlock Coleman’s considerable potential. He turned down offers from UConn and Auburn, and nearly pledged to College of Charleston before choosing Coach Sha and the Hall, and has been rated as a fringe Top 100 prospect by some publications. With the ability to score from all three levels, Coleman may have the chance to show off what he can do early and often if he can prove to his coaches that he’s ready to give his all every time he’s on the court. Holloway also added freshman point guard Malachi Brown late in August. Though not much has been said of Brown in recruiting circles up until now, he’s considered a good ballhandler and a pass-first sort who likes to key the offense for others.
| Five Out-of-Conference Games to Keep an Eye on |
| N – USC – November 23 |
| @ Baylor – December 5 |
| vs Rutgers – December 9 |
| N – Iowa / Oklahoma – November 24 |
| N – Missouri – December 17 |
Paint depth and, Holloway hopes, exciting developmental potential will come from three new, young bigs. The only one who has played any NCAA games is Boise State transfer Sadraque NgaNga. He only appeared in parts of 17 games last season as a freshman for the Broncos, and scored just 34 points overall. He’s still working to sand down the edges of his game, but NgaNga has great perimeter talent for his size. Though he’s still becoming confident as a ballhandler, NgaNga can slash to the cup and finish over people or spot up effectively out to the three point arc. He gets off his outside shots rather smoothly, and NgaNga had been a rising prospect before a knee injury sidelined him in high school and affected him last year as well. With no obvious player returning to the 4 spot, NgaNga is expected to make a significant impact off of Holloway’s bench this year, and could force his coach to rethink the rotation. With tremendous length, great positional foot speed, NgaNga shows something like flashes of grace and can demonstrate precise movements on the perimeter, and his overall defensive potential is vast. NgaNga has the tools to be a real mismatch for most forwards, and if he gets the run to start discovering himself this year, could quickly become an important contributor.
David Tubek is not a particularly well-rated prospect, but he’s growing into the frame of a high-impact future contributor. Tubek has only been playing organized basketball since 2019. The expectation is that Tubek is just scratching the surface of what he can become, and Holloway & Co were one of many staffs which wanted in on the ground floor of Tubek’s development. He’s long-armed, mobile and bouncy, and though his offensive repertoire is not yet a finished product, it’s easy to see why Memphis (to whom he was originally committed), Kansas, Xavier and Texas all offered a kid who’s only rated as a 2-star recruit by 247 Sports. Holloway and his staff think that Tubek can eventually help all over the frontcourt and envision him as a disruptive rim protector who can finish around the lane and guard on the wing in the near future. One of the last additions to Hall’s roster is Arda Özdoğan, a Turkish post who has played on the world stage in the past and competed at the top level of Turkish pro ball despite just turning 18 this summer. In addition to being all the lands of Middle Earth, Özdoğan is a bit of a mystery to most Seton Hall fans. What’s known is that he has developing range on his jumper, plenty of length, and the potential to redshirt this year as Coach Sha’s veteran pivots gobble up the overwhelming majority of minutes.
Last year, Seton Hall played hard, guarded fiercely…and lost each of their final two games by a point. Scoring and shooting were consistent issues; the Pirates ranked below 300th nationally in field goals and triples made per game, turnovers committed, and were nearly as bad from the charity stripe. If this team can just play a bit more cleanly and make a couple more buckets, their potential could be vast. Mostly because any offensive improvements will surely be accompanied by even more of that same swarming D and dive-on-the-floor tenacity.
“We’ve got to play like that all the time, like our backs are against the wall, every game in this league,” Holloway says. He knows the Big East, and he’s getting even more familiar. Given that this is now much more his roster, Holloway should be able to get even more out of them this year. NgaNga could provide an unexpected matchup nightmare at times, and Bediako will help to anchor another strong defense. If the veteran guards take better care of the ball, Addae-Wusu and Hutchins-Everett can provide more spacing than last year, and Seton Hall gets buckets, this will be a dangerous team. Not least because they’re increasingly an extension of Holloway. Beware the warrior who comes laughing into battle – these Pirates are ready to board the NCAA Tournament and make a run.
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