The Seton Hall men's basketball team's regular season came to a close with an 81-50 defeat to the UConn Huskies on Saturday, March 8. They ended with a record of 7–24, making this the worst regular season in Seton Hall basketball history. Despite this, the Pirates entered the first round of the Big East Tournament as underdogs looking to upset the six-seeded Villanova Wildcats on Wednesday, March 12.
Villanova, led by All-Big East First Team senior forward Eric Dixon, who averaged 23.6 points per game this season—the best in the conference and in Division I basketball—entered this game with a conference record of 11–9 and an overall record of 18–13. With the third most points in Villanova history, Dixon is one of three Wildcats with approximately 2,000 or more points and 800 or more rebounds, scoring more than 700 points this season alone.
In their most recent matchup on Wednesday, Feb. 26 at the Prudential Center, Villanova defeated Seton Hall, 59-54, after an unbelievable second-half comeback from the Wildcats. The last time the two teams met in the Big East Tournament was in March 2019, when the top-seeded Wildcats defeated the three-seeded Pirates in the Championship game, despite a 25-point performance from former Seton Hall guard Myles Powell.
Villanova quickly jumped to an early lead, with senior guard Jhamir Brickus hitting a step-back 3-pointer to give the Wildcats a seven-point lead 11-4. After an offensive rebound, Villanova extended their lead to nine, 13-4, shooting 7-11 (64%) from the field through the first five minutes, while Seton Hall went 2-10 (20%).
By the first media timeout, Villanova led 20-6, going on a 12-2 run in the last four minutes and holding Seton Hall to 3-12 (25%) shooting. Sophomore guard Tyler Perkins led the Wildcats with seven early points, making two of his first three attempts.
With nine minutes remaining in the first half, the Wildcats led 25-8 after a transition 3-pointer from All-Big East Second Team senior guard Wooga Poplar. Poplar’s second 3-pointer extended Villanova’s lead to 18, 28-10, putting Seton Hall in an early hole.
After a brief scuffle between Seton Hall sophomore guard Isaiah Coleman and a Villanova player, the Wildcats led 29-14 with four minutes left in the first half. Another step-back 3-pointer from Brickus extended Villanova’s lead 18 going into halftime, as they led 35-17. Poplar led the Wildcats with 10 points and eight rebounds in the first half, while Coleman had nine points for the Pirates.
Notably, Villanova’s leading scorer Dixon had zero points in the first half, the first time this has occurred for him this season. Despite this, Villanova was still able to secure their largest first-half lead this season, by shooting 12-23 (52%) from the field while holding Seton Hall to just 8-26 (30.8%).
Seton Hall opened the second half on a 9-0 scoring run, cutting Villanova’s lead by just eight points with 16 minutes to go, 37-29. The Pirates shot 6-6 in that span while the Wildcats went 1-5 (20%).
With 15 minutes left in the second half, Dixon scored his first basket of the game with a wing 3-pointer to extend Villanova’s lead back to 11, 40-29. After a huge two-handed dunk over two defenders from Poplar, this shifted the momentum of the game back to the Wildcats. Dixon hit his second 3-pointer of the half, as the Pirates called a timeout with just under 13 minutes remaining and Villanova led 50-29. Making five of their last six field goals, Villanova went on a 13-2 run over the last three minutes to gain a 21-point lead—their largest of the game.
A steal in the backcourt and dunk from Perkins gave Villanova a 59-39 lead with seven minutes left. Unable to cut the deficit, the Pirates fell to the Wildcats, 67-55, as Villanova advanced to the second round of the Big East Tournament.
Despite a strong second-half effort mounting to 38 points, Seton Hall dug themselves into a hole too deep to climb out of after their lackluster 17-point first-half performance, which proved to be too much to overcome.
With the loss, the 2024-2025 season marks the worst in Seton Hall basketball history—the Pirates finished with a conference record of 2–18 and an overall record of 7–25. This comes just a year after a 25-win season, during which the team won the NIT title after being snubbed from the NCAA tournament.
Isaiah Coleman led all scorers with 25 points, while Dixon finished with 19 for Villanova, all of which came in the second half. Poplar finished the game with 13 points on 5-10 (50%) shooting in addition to grabbing 10 rebounds.
In his final game as a Pirate, senior guard Dylan Addae-Wusu was given a standing ovation from the New York crowd before sharing an emotional embrace with head coach Shaheen Holloway for the last time in a Seton Hall jersey. Holloway praised Addae-Wusu’s performance this season after the game, saying that Adae-Wusu “gave it his all.”
“[He] was dealing with a lot of injuries this whole year…he couldn’t even really practice, couldn’t really walk [at times], so for him to go out there and give it his all like he did every single night, I’m very appreciative [of],” Holloway said. “He played a big part last year with the team we had and this year as well”
Reflecting on his third season with Seton Hall, Holloway expressed that he believes the team was better than their record suggested. While he refrained from making excuses, he acknowledged injuries as something that prevented the team from reaching its full potential. Senior guard Chaunce Jenkins, who was the team’s leading scorer at one point, missed the last 14 games of the season, including all of February, during which the team went 1-6 without him.
In addition, Coach Holloway mentioned that he plans on taking time to improve as a coach in the offseason: “[I’m] definitely going to look myself in the mirror and make some adjustments, and kind of [just] go from there.”
He also discussed NIL, stressing its importance in today’s NCAA landscape/climate: “If you don’t have [the resources] you can’t be in the game, period. No matter how good of a coach I am…if you don’t have those resources, it’s a [completely] different ball game.”
Looking ahead to next season while addressing the fanbase, Holloway said he was optimistic about the program’s trajectory and was hopeful that a larger NIL budget will benefit the team.
“We’re treading in the right direction, but I think that we have to make sure that we understand, and [that the] fanbase understands, [just] how important [NIL] is,” he said. “No one wants to go through something like this again. I know I don’t, and I know [the fans] don’t either.”
Zachary Mawby is the head editor for The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at zachary.mawby@student.shu.edu.
