Seton Hall wins the NIT Championship after being denied a spot in the NCAA tournament.
Nearly three weeks ago, Shaheen Holloway was upset that his team had been snubbed from the NCAA Tournament despite a 13-7 Big East record that included victories over defending NCAA champion UConn and Marquette.
“Super disappointed, super shocked,” Holloway stated on Selection Sunday. “I can’t believe a team that won 13 games in what is supposed to be the second-best conference in the country doesn’t make it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or participated in anything like it.”
Holloway asked his senior-laden team if they wanted to compete in the NIT. They huddled for 30 minutes in the basement at Walsh Gym and returned with an answer: Yes.
“Are you sure?” Holloway asked his players. “I don’t want guys playing if we’re not trying to win the whole thing.”
Seventeen days later, the Pirates did win the whole thing.
Propelled by a combined 63 points from its “Big 3″ of Al-Amir Dawes, Kadary Richmond and Dre Davis, Seton Hall (25-12) won its fifth straight NIT game by knocking off Indiana State, 79-77, in the NIT championship game before a huge-pro Sycamores crowd at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The Hall closed the game on a 9-0 run.
Dawes, a Newark native who switched from Clemson to play for his home state school two years ago, scored a game-high 24 points, including a key game-tying 3-pointer with less than a minute left, and was named the NIT’s Most Outstanding Player. Davis, an Indianapolis native, scored 18 points, including the game-winning layup with 16 seconds remaining, while Richmond had 21 points, 13 rebounds, and 5 assists.
“We just gutted it out the whole way,” Dawes added. “We knew there was going to be a fight coming in. Indiana State is a terrific squad, and we just played with a lot of enthusiasm.
“We knew they were going to make runs and we were going to make runs. We wanted it more and we came out on top.”
Said Richmond: “I feel like we left the naysayers with something to remember.”
Added Davis: “I’m blessed beyond measure to do this at the own crib. I’m just proud of my guys and we’re just trying to enjoy this moment.”
Among those supporting The Hall for the school’s first NIT title since 1953 was former Pirates standout and Milwaukee Bucks coach Adrian Griffin.
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At the Final Four in Glendale, Ariz., UConn coach Dan Hurley praised Holloway, saying the Big East was “deserving” of more than three teams in the NCAA Tournament that Holloway was a “awesome” coach.
“You saw what Seton Hall did to us during the regular season,” Hurley remarked after the Pirates’ 15-point victory over UConn on December 20.
The Pirates led by 11 points in the first half until several important players received foul calls, forcing Holloway to go to his bench.
That led to an 11-0 Indiana State run to close the half and tie it at 39-all.
Indiana State used an 8-0 second-half run to go ahead 65-62 before Dawes drained a 3-pointer to tie it at 65.
After an ill-advised 3-point attempt by Dawes with The Hall trailing 74-70, Indiana State hit another 3 to cap an 8-0 run that made it 77-70.
Richmond converted a layup to cut it to 77-72. He then had a great look for a 3-pointer that bounced out.
Dawes was fouled on a drive with 1:27 remaining and hit both to trim it to 77-74, and then drained a game-tying 3-pointer to tie it at 77 with under a minute remaining.
As the shot clock wound down on Seton Hall’s next possession, Davis drove in for a spinning go-ahead layup and made it to put The Hall up 79-77.
“I think it was just a broken play,” Davis said. “Kooks created an angle for me to get downhill and just put me in position to get a good look at the rim.”
Indiana State had three looks to win or tie it but couldn’t.
“Obviously, congratulations to Seton Hall, that’s a really good basketball team,” said Indiana State coach Josh Schertz, who is expected to move on to Saint Louis. “They’re really deserving champions.”
Holloway said his seniors were cramping “the last seven minutes of the game.”
“I’m super proud of them,” Holloway said of his players gutting it out. “I’m just so happy for those guys. If you guys saw the look on these guys’ faces when they didn’t make the Tournament. And as their leader, it was the worst feeling in the world not knowing what to say to them.
“I’m looking like, ‘Fellas I don’t have an answer for you.’ From that and going in to getting drenched by those guys [in the locker room], it’s the best feeling in the world.”
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