The Rise of Seton Hall Began Four Years Ago
When Larry Keating assumed his duties as athletic director at Seton Hall University four years ago, there never seemed to be enough hours in the day.
Some nights, instead of making the commute home to Long Island from the South Orange, N.J., campus, Keating would stay at the apartment of basketball coach P.J. Carlesimo.
“I want you to make up a list,” Keating told Carlesimo one night. “Let’s not talk about it. Just give me a list of everything you think you need to get where you want to go.”
Carlesimo didn’t have any trouble coming up with about 25 priority items. Big-time basketball offices. An improved locker room. Academic counseling for the players. Better salaries for the assistant coaches. Fewer practice conflicts with women’s basketball and volleyball in overloaded Walsh Gymnasium. An on-campus weight room. The list went on.
One by one, Keating and Carlesimo have crossed items off that list. The result has been steady progress in the Pirates’ program, a gradual improvement that has taken Carlesimo to his dream -- and now beyond.
That great beyond is known as the Final Four of the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament, and the Pirates (30-6) arrived here Wednesday night as the closest thing to a surprise entry.
Taken within the context of this season, Seton Hall is not Cinderella at this ball. The Pirates have been ranked in the top 20 since the first week of December.
They finished second in the Big East during the regular season. But go back in time, over the history of the Big East Conference, and it is amazing to think the one-time league doormat has become the sixth team from the Big East to make it to the Final Four.
“There are a number of people who felt that, as a member of the Big East, sooner or later, it would be our turn to march up the ladder and come here,” Keating said. “But now that it has happened, I don’t think you could ever have predicted it.”
Only 14 months ago, the Seton Hall student senate was calling for Carlesimo’s firing. Now he has won two straight awards as Big East Coach of the Year, and The Sporting News has named him national Coach of the Year. It hasn’t changed Carlesimo. He still deflects all the attention to his players, as he has all season.
“I’m just in Seattle with my team,” Carlesimo said. “I’m not being smart. I’m not being humble. ... Everybody tells their kids the same things, but not everybody has our kids.”
And not everybody has endured as much as Carlesimo to get here.
Seton Hall was a charter member of the Big East only because Rutgers turned down an invitation from Big East Commissioner Dave Gavitt.
“When (then-athletic director) Richie Regan told me about (the Big East), I told him it was great for the school but it wasn’t great for me,” said television analyst Bill Raftery, who had a 154-141 record as Seton Hall’s coach from 1970-81. “We weren’t prepared for it. We were going into the heavyweight division and we were operating on a different level. We could get by playing those teams once a year, but not twice. When P.J. walked in there (in 1982), he really had an empty situation.”
When Seton Hall hired Carlesimo away from Wagner College, the Pirates were playing in antiquated Walsh Gym, complete with 3,000 seats and its high school-inspired stage at one end.
“It was like the league had started for everybody but us,” Carlesimo said. “We were happy just getting side baskets in our gym, a secretary and two full-time assistants.”
The Pirates went 6-23 in Carlesimo’s first year, 9-19 in the second.
“That really hurt,” said Central Connecticut Coach Mike Brown, who was an assistant under Carlesimo until this season, “because P.J., the staff, and the players put in so much time and wanted to win. And then there were those who said we shouldn’t even be in the Big East. We had to fight that, too.”
When Seton Hall started playing its home games at Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands, people said the building was too big for the Pirates.
Carlesimo may have gotten his biggest thrill this season when nearly 20,000 people turned out for the Georgetown game in January. They came to see the Pirates -- not Georgetown.
“I remember years ago, doing one of their games and there was nowhere near the enthusiasm there is now,” said television analyst Dick Vitale, a Seton Hall alumnus. “Now it’s a big-time atmosphere and the Meadowlands are rockin’ and rollin’. They used to say, ‘Here’s another game, let’s see how close we can stay.’
“The biggest thing P.J. did was he never panicked under the fear of the heavyweights up at the top (of the Big East).”
As Keating dealt with the problems on that list, Carlesimo could show recruits that changes were being made. When he signed Mark Bryant, who became a first-round NBA draft pick last year, Carlesimo felt things turning. Then, Seton Hall reeled in John Morton, Gerald Greene and Daryll Walker -- three New York City recruits who are seniors on this Final Four team.
“For the first time, we saw that we might be able to go head-to-head with the Johnnies (St. John’s),” Carlesimo said.
For Seton Hall, it was just a matter of time.
“I don’t think anyone fully understood, especially the people at the school, until last year, that it did take six years to do it,” Keating said. “Every time a guy is hired at a program that’s really down, they say, ‘We gave him a five-year contract and it’s going to take that long.’ Then, all of a sudden, after three years, everybody gets antsy.”
Nobody can plan on being a Final Four regular, but Seton Hall wants to make sure it doesn’t fall back to where it used to be.
“The next thing to do is to make a new list,” Keating said. “A list of things we have to do to keep it at this level without getting it out of perspective. ... After Tuesday, we’re back to dreaming again.”