Seton Hall’s best season in 27 years will be forever marked as incomplete.
The hope of a big March run ended Thursday afternoon, before the Pirates could play a postseason game. First, the Big East Tournament was canceled at halftime of the first of four scheduled quarterfinals games. A few hours later, the NCAA Tournament was called off, too. There is only March sadness in South Orange.
“I don’t think it’s sunk in to be honest with you,” coach Kevin Willard told The Post in a phone interview. “Disbelief is how I feel.”
After earning a share of the Big East regular-season crown with Creighton and Villanova, multiple Pirates were honored by the league’s coaches. Quincy McKnight was an All-Big East honorable-mention selection. Romaro Gill was named Big East Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improved Player of the Year. And Myles Powell was named the league’s Player of the Year, the first Pirate since Terry Dehere in 1993 to win the award. All are seniors, all will never get one last crack at March.
Depending on how Seton Hall fared in the Big East Tournament, it was likely looking at a three-seed in the NCAA Tournament, its fifth straight trip to the dance. It hadn’t received a seed that high since it was a No. 2 back in 1993.
“I’m just like everybody else, disappointed, but I understand something had to be done,” Willard said. “I feel bad for my seniors. I feel bad for all the seniors who put in a lot of time and work to get into this position when you have a real chance of winning a championship.
“You put in a lot of hard work for eight months to get to this point,” he added. “I’m sure they’ll take it hard, but I always try to tell my guys college basketball is about life lessons and learning from them. It’s obviously disappointing, sad, you’re angry, but you got to deal with life, man.”
Willard and his team were following the news Thursday afternoon, watching the St. John’s-Creighton game at their hotel. The Big East Tournament being canceled was almost expected, but there was hope the NCAA Tournament could be salvaged. Willard hoped they could at least play the games in empty arenas, but he feared for the worst as well.
“Once you saw all those dominoes start falling, they were almost forced to do it,” he said. “I wish they would’ve had Selection Sunday and postponed it for a few weeks, see what was going on. But it’s such a big tournament. Can you get arenas? Can you get hotels? Can you get charters?”
It would’ve been very difficult, and who’s to say coronavirus wouldn’t linger? Schools are being shut down, spring sports are being postponed or canceled. There is no telling how long professional sports will be put on hold.
“The hardest thing is all the people that put the work in had no say on the decision or how to make a decision or how we got to this point,” Willard said. “That’s the frustration at this point and they’re in a bit of shock.”