Saint Peter's coach Shaheen Holloway pulled his starters off the court as the seconds ticked down and would not let them wallow in defeat. The Peacocks locked arms for one final team huddle—Doug Edert, KC Ndefo, Daryl Banks III and the rest of the bracket-busters who put the tiny commuter college in Jersey City, New Jersey, on the map. Holloway's speech—perhaps the last one he will ever give at Saint Peter’s—was simple: Stay proud of how a team few outside campus had heard of until two weeks ago had shocked the basketball world. “We've got guys that are going to be remembered for things that they could tell their kids and grandkids,” Holloway said. What a story to tell. Just maybe skip the ending.
The Peacocks' joyous, bracket-busting, can-they-top-this ride through the NCAA Tournament ended with a dud in a 69-49 East Region final loss to North Carolina on Sunday, the AP reports. Saint Peter's fans—large in numbers and loud again in Philly—rallied behind America’s new favorite team even as the score steamrolled out of control. “You beat Kentucky! You beat Purdue! You can beat these guys, too,” one man yelled. Not these Tar Heels. The Peacocks, so proud and poised as they became the first No. 15 seed to reach the Elite Eight, were discombobulated from the opening tip. The Tar Heels opened on a 7-0 run and Holloway called a quick timeout to try and steady his team. No dice.
“I didn’t really recognize my team the first 10 minutes of the game,” Holloway said. “I thought we came out a little slow, a little timid.” The Peacocks, who snapped an NCAA-best 10-game winning streak, were done in by Carolina’s D. The final minutes of the game might have been the final minutes of Holloway’s tenure at Saint Peter’s. Holloway is a leading candidate to succeed Kevin Willard as coach at Seton Hall, his alma mater. He deflected questions all tournament about his future. But even the 45-year-old Holloway, in his fourth season at the tiny Jesuit school that has an undergraduate enrollment of 2,134 students, surely must know he has maxed out the potential at Saint Peter’s. He again declined on Sunday to talk about his professional fate. More on the game here.
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