On Tuesday, Seton Hall men’s basketball coach Shaheen Holloway was named 2025-2026 Big East Coach of the Year. The Pirate alum oversaw a 13-win improvement overall and an eight-win improvement in conference play as Seton Hall moves into the Big East Tournament with a 20-11 record and a 10-10 record in Big East play.
However, even with such a successful season, Seton Hall’s route to the NCAA Tournament is questionable as Championship Week moves into full swing. Yes, 20 wins always is the marker for teams to make the Big Dance, but the Pirates’ situation is a bit more complicated. Let’s look at the non-conference schedule for Seton Hall.
Seton Hall’s Non-Conference Matchups
A 5-0 start to the season over mid-major Division 1 teams, including in-state school Sait Peter’s and Monmouth, puts Seton Hall in a good spot heading down to Maui for the Maui Invitational. There, the Pirates went 2-1, including a victory over a Top 25-ranked NC State team, which gave them an 8-1 record heading back to South Orange. They ended their non-conference schedule with three more wins, including a win over Rutgers in the Garden State Hardwood Classic, and moved into Big East play 10-1 and seemingly the story of college basketball.
Up-And-Down Big East Schedule
Seton Hall started 4-1 in conference play but suffered losses to former Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard and Villanova before Christmas, which would have been a very good resume win. Four straight losses followed their early success, including losses to Butler and DePaul, two bottom-feeders in the Big East. They were expected to fall to St. John’s and UConn, but those two other losses highlighted the Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of their season in the eyes of pundits.
Two wins followed that tough stretch, and then another loss to Villanova on the road, a game they needed to win to make their bubble standing a bit more tenable. Seton Hall finished the season 4-4 in the Big East, including two tough losses to UConn and St. John’s. After all of that, we now sit on the eve of the Big East Tournament with the Pirates having work to do at The Garden.
Where The Pirates Stand Now
According to Fox Sports’ Mike DeCourcy, Seton Hall is among his First Four Teams Out, while ESPN’s bracket god Joe Lunardi does not have Seton Hall anywhere on his brackets or First Teams Out lists. The Pirates played their way into this position with inconsistent play…they now have to play their way into the NCAA Tournament in NYC.
Their quarterfinal opponent in the Big East Tournament is Creighton, a team they split with during the season, including a heartbreaker, one-point loss in Omaha in February in their second meeting. Suppose they can move past Creighton; the top-seeded St. John’s Red Storm await, and the possibility of gaining revenge after losing both games to them during the regular season. A win over the 13th-ranked team in the country could hold some weight in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament selection committee, but we’re jumping ahead.
Does Seton Hall deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament?
The easy answer is no, given their average conference record and the sheer up-and-down nature of their season. You are looking for the best 68 teams in the nation and some believe that Seton Hall does not match up to teams like Auburn and their nepo-baby coach (16-15), Indiana in a weak Big Ten (18-13) and NC State, who fell to Seton Hall earlier this season in Maui (20-13). But once again, the argument is more complicated.
Just as everyone has hyped up the Big 12 as a knock-down, drag-out conference, the same can be said of the Big East. You have your alpha dogs in UConn, St. John’s, and Villanova, but top to bottom, there isn’t an easy game in the conference, and to finish 10-10 in arguably the toughest conference in the country says a lot for a team that came in with 10 transfers. Picked to finish 11th in the Big East Preseason Poll, a fourth-place finish should be rewarded, and that reward should not be another berth in the NIT.
Just because the Big East is still disrespected year after year does not mean the conference’s teams should be disrespected as well. Seton Hall is an NCAA Tournament team, and its exclusion, if it were to happen, would show that the Power 4 conferences take priority not just in football but also in men’s basketball.
