The Holy Land of Hoops

I have had this in the works for a while as a breakdown of each school’s coaching history since 1980, and this Seton Hall one was complete (all the others are still in the works and at various states of completion), so with a light schedule this week I figured it was a good time to post this.

So, I’m looking at different Big East schools and their coaches, looking at how and why they hire certain guys (Purnell, Buzz Williams, Jay Wright, all of them), and looking at the results of each hire, and came up with some information. Tried to figure out which hires gave them the most success, if there was a pattern or something. Of course, I got no real answers, but figured we could chew on the information rather than hyper-analzying the current RPI numbers this week.

For starters I have the line of Seton Hall coaches since 1980. There have been 8 coaches, and the Pirates have hired from local schools with 7 of them, with Amaker being the exception.

Seton Hall had outstanding years under Carlesimo, and good years under Amaker and Orr. Blaney had some struggles, Gonzalez was a loose cannon, and the jury is still out on Willard but the future looks good. Raftery had solid years pre-Big East, and Mahon was only there for 1 year.

Anyway, here’s the Seton Hall coaching list, with a more thorough breakdown of each below... and please, everyone is welcome to fill in the many blanks and I totally would like to get Seton Hall fans' opinions on each of these guys:

Raftery – local guy, La Salle star.
Mahon – local guy, promoted from staff after 10+ as assistant to Raftery.
Carlesimo – local guy, hired from Wagner.
Blaney – local roots, hired from Holy Cross after 20+ years.
Amaker – Duke guy, from Coach K’s tree, hired from Duke bench.
Orr – Syracuse guy, Big East star, hired from Siena.
Gonzalez – local guy, hired from Manhattan.
Willard – local guy, hired from Iona.

BILL RAFTERY, 1971-1981.
From Englewood, NJ.
High school star in New Jersey.
Star player at La Salle, grad in 1964.
Head coach at FDU-Florham, 1965-1970.
Head coach at Seton Hall, 1971-1981.
‘- - -
To be honest, I don’t remember Raftery as coach (he was a Seton Hall 11 years but I was really young). I mean, I remember Seton Hall back then, and Dan Callandrillo being 95% of the offense, but it wasn’t until Raftery got into announcing that he really made a mark. Looking into it more, in the 1979 construction of the Big East, Rutgers (made the Final Four in 1976 at the Spectrum a couple of months after “Rocky Balboa” beat “Creed”) was targeted as the BE team from New Jersey, but they declined the invite. In choosing another New Jersey school, Seton Hall made a ton of sense. They had excellent teams in the 50s, plus Dave Gavitt and PC used to play Seton Hall every year (SHU actually won 1 time!), and Raftery was such a great guy, and Seton Hall was in metro-NY, and Seton Hall had a solid program in the 70s with a couple of NIT bids.

HODDY MAHON, 1982.
From Scranton, PA.
High school coach in metro Newark.
Assistant at Fordham.
Assistant at Seton Hall (12 yrs)
Head coach at Seton Hall, 1982.
Head coach at William Paterson.
Head coach at Upsala.
‘ - - -
Sorry, I don’t remember Hoddy Mahon, the long-time assistant under Bill Raftery. All I know is that the Hall beat Phi Slamma Jamma under Mahon, but from 1980 thru 1987 the Big East was a real struggle for the Pirates (and Mahon fell within these struggling years), who played in a lot of 8 vs 9 games against the Friars!

P.J. CARLESIMO, 1983-1994.
Born Scranton, PA, 1949.
Played at Fordham, grad in 1971.
Assistant at Fordham, 1972-1975.
Head coach at New Hampshire College, 1976.
Head coach at Wagner, 1977-1982 (2 NIT bids).
Head coach at Seton Hall, 1983-1994 (6 NCAAs, 1 NIT).
Head coach of Portland Trail Blazers, 1995-1997.
Head coach of Golden State Warriors, 1998-1999.
Assistant with San Antonio Spurs, 2003-2007.
Head coach of Seattle Supersonics and Okla City Thunder, 2008.
Assistant with Toronto Raptors, 2011.
Assistant with New Jersey and Brooklyn Nets, 2012.
Interim head coach of Brooklyn Nets, 2013.
‘- - -
PJ was a great, personable guy and an excellent coach, and was a great face of the Big East in the early 90’s. He’s one of the few guys that even today if I hear him speaking on TV, I with stop and listen to him. From 1983 thru 1986, though, Seton Hall struggled a ton in the BE. The fans (from what I remember) called for his head, but the Pirates stuck with him and it paid off. The first break was SHU’s NIT bid in 1987 after a 4-12 conference record (they were 10-0 OOC with wins over Fordham, Rutgers and other local Metro-NY schools. In conference in 87, Seton Hall beat Georgetown twice (!).
‘- - -
In 1988, under senior Mark Bryant, the Hall made their first NCAA in 30+ years. In 1989, with Bryant gone and low expectations, the Hall made the National Championship game. On their way, they completely rolled over UNLV and Duke, just completely ran both teams off the floor, all while sourpuss Billy Packer sniffled and whined into his microphone. From ’89 til PJ left after ’94, Seton Hall was a national power, regular Top-20, Top-10, the toast of the Big East, with Terry Dehere and Arturas Karnishavis (sp). Unfortunately, Carlesimo moved to the NBA after 1994.

GEORGE BLANEY, 1995-1997.
Born in Jersey City, 1939.
Played at Holy Cross, grad in 1961.
NBA player with Knicks (62), minor leagues (63-67).
Head coach at Stonehill, 1968.
Head coach at Dartmouth, 1970-1971 (replaced Gavitt at Dartmouth).
Head coach at Holy Cross, 1972-1994 (3 NCAAs).
Head coach at Seton Hall, 1995-1997 (1 NIT).
Assistant at Connecticut (Calhoun), 2000-2013, (interim 11+ games when Calhoun sick).
‘ - - -
George Blaney was an old-school low-key coach who spent 20+ years at Holy Cross prior to joining the Pirates. The Hall had a string of 7 great years thru 1994, but PJ Carlesimo was hired by the NBA’s Trail Blazers. At The Cross in the 70’s, Blaney had the Crusaders in the Top-20 with four 20-win seasons, and they had a huge, intense rivalry with Providence. The Holy Cross president de-emphasized athletics at the worst possible time, and declined an invitation to be one of the original 7 BE schools in 1979 (replaced by Boston College). Blaney then coached for 15+ years behind the 8-ball. He was let go at Holy Cross after the 94 season, and was considered a solid, dependable hire at Seton Hall... kind of like hiring John McNamara but without the swearing. It was a solid hire and it was thought that with Blaney getting the full backing of a great basketball program that he’d have success, but after the NIT in 1995 he had two weak years and was let go.

TOMMY AMAKER, 1998-2001.
Born in Virginia, 1965.
Played at Duke, grad in 1987.
Assistant at Duke, 1988-1997.
Head coach at Seton Hall, 1998-2001 (1 NCAA Sweet 16, 3 NITs).
Head coach at Michigan, 2002-2007.
Head coach at Harvard, 2008-present.
‘ - - -
Seton Hall hired Amaker at 31 years old. I think he was hired to put some youth back into the Seton Hall program. Highly regarded since he was a Coach K assistant for so long. Made 3 NIT’s and 1 NCAA (in 2000). 2000 NCAA, got a 10-seed, and upset 7-Oregon and 2-Temple. Had #2 recruiting class in 2000, with Eddie Griffin among others. From memory (my opinion), after his first year, Amaker was considered for the Michigan job, but the Wolverines hired someone else. Again from memory, I think he was constantly being considered for other jobs while at Seton Hall, and he seemed to be always sniffing around for other jobs, which was a pain for the program and the Big East. Eventually he did go to Michigan.

LOUIE ORR, 2002-2006.
Born in Cincinnati, 1958.
Star player at Syracuse, grad in 1980.
NBA player with Pacers (81-82) and Knicks (83-88).
Assistant at Xavier (Gillen), 1991-1994.
Assistant at Providence (Gillen), 1995-1996.
Assistant at Syracuse (Boeheim), 1997-2000.
Head coach at Siena, 2001.
Head coach at Seton Hall, 2002-2006 (2 NCAAs, 1 NIT).
Head coach at Bowling Green, 2007-present (1 NIT).
‘ - - -
Orr had great assistant coaching experience (like Amaker), under Gillen and Boeheim, and had a great season in his one year as head coach of Siena (20-11). He also was the first BE head coach hire that was a former BE player. From my memory, Orr’s 5 years were good, solid and steady, with 3 of the years being over 500 in BE play, 2 NCAAs and 1 NIT. He was low-key and a gentleman and represented the program well. Orr got a raw deal (my opinion), getting fired because Bobby Gonzalez at Manhattan was a hot commodity and the Pirates felt they needed to jump on him quickly. Orr has been a solid coach at Bowling Green since then.

BOBBY GONZALEZ, 2007-2010.
From Binghamton, NY.
Played at Buffalo State, grad in 1986.
Assistant at Broome College, 1987.
Assistant at Binghamton, 1988.
Assistant at Rice High School, Harlem NY, 1993.
Assistant at Xavier (Gillen), 1994.
Assistant at Providence (Gillen), 1995-1998.
Assistant at Virginia (Gillen), 1999.
Head coach at Manhattan, 2000-2006 (2 NCAAs, 2 NITs).
Head coach at Seton Hall, 2007-2010 (1 NIT).
‘ - - -
Gonzalez was a high energy guy, an assistant under Pete Gillen, and was known as a great recruiter (I think recruited God Shammgod for Gillen at PC). SHU was making steady progress under Gonzalez, but he was considered an outspoken, uncontrollable loose cannon, and some players were out of control on and off the court. For example, in the Hall’s NIT game (Gonzalez’s last game), a Pirate player punched an opponent in the nuts. This unsteadiness under Bobby G led to the hiring of the sensible, soft-spoken, low-key Kevin Willard.

KEVIN WILLARD, 2008-present.
Born in NY, 1975.
Played at Western Kentucky and Pitt, grad in 1997 (father Ralph was coach at each).
Assistant with Celtics (Pitino), 1998-2001.
Assistant at Louisville (Pitino), 2002-2007.
Head coach of Iona, 2008-2010.
Head coach of Seton Hall, 2011-present (1 NIT).
‘- - -
Willard was hired as a sensible replacement to loose cannon Bobby Gonzalez, and his low-key personality and good relationship with the players was what Seton Hall needed when he was hired. Willard is also in the Pitino coaching tree, like his father Ralph was. Ralph’s Western Kentucky Hilltoppers actually upset Seton Hall in the 1993 NCAAs to make the Sweet 16. Anyway, Willard is going to have a Top-5 recruiting class arrive next year, so the near future looks great for the Hall.

1 good coach, 2 mediocre ones, in 3 decades.

Pj was a great one.

Amaker had style and pizazz, but he never really panned out. He had a top 5 recruiting class with eddie jordan and andre barrett, but they were huge busts (note to those who think willard's next class wil be life savers). He had the nice tourney run with ty shine that beat temple, but that was not really the start of something great. (He also flopped at michigan and was fired, although harvard looks perfect for him).

Louis orr was actually solid. He and gary waters had shu and rutgers going in the right direction but both were fired too early for not meeting expectations and replaced by head cases. Louis Orr was many times more successful than their current guy.

Bobby g wasn't a bad head coach, in terms of basketball, but his antics and off court issues were the problem. He had the team coming together before you know what hit the fan.

Their current guy lost to fdu, mercer and st peters this year. Much worse than anything louis orr did. Some reason the expectations that orr was held to do not match what willard is held to.

And looking forward, not sure a trio of top 100 players (one who is top 20) will necvessarily give seton hall a bright future. I think that is puffery on your part. I think it is much more likely that these players take time to gel, lose some early games, and if whitehead leaves early they never make the tournament, but willard keeps his job for a couple more yrs and the rebuilding process is delayed.

Not trying to hate, but that's how I see it.

Raf...was at the end of his run when Big East started, ready to move on to something else. The "something else" turned out OK.
Mahon...only got the job because Raf waited until so late in the offseason to quit so the school would have no choice but to give his buddy the job. Was never going to have the job more than a year.
PJ...his record speaks for itself, got tired of recruiting and left the college game.
Blaney...hired because the AD wanted a golfing buddy. And the program still hasn't recovered. One of the worst hires for any job in the history of humankind. Nice guy though.
Amaker...a total fraud. Came from Duke with the holier-than-thou image. Image did not meet reality. A lying, duplicitous slimeball. And a terrible game coach to boot. Great recruiter, kids bought the pack of lies he was selling. His last season at SHU was the worst coaching job ever seen. Hired straight off that season by Michigan who got the years of failure they so richly deserved. Pushed into Michigan job by SHU alum Dick Vitale, who apparently had no qualms about prying a coach away from his alma mater. Nice guy that Dick.
Orr...hired because he was the new AD's friend. Decent game coach, had no interest in trying to sell the program. And this is a program that desperately needs selling. Boring defensive on-court style but we won which is more than you can say for the next guys.
Gonzo...lunatic, brought bad guys into the program, saw it all go up in flames. Came in with a rep as a shark who'd never stop working. Got married and immediately stopped working. Overrated as a game coach, his whole rep at Manhattan was based on having Luis Flores who was just too good for the MAAC. Without Flores he never won. His teams never won close games. Never, ever, ever. Was no longer a hot commodity by the time SHU hired him, Manhattan was going backwards and he was NOT by any means SHU's first choice but rather who they settled for when they couldn't get anybody better. Disaster.
Willard...hired because Rick Pitino sold the guy running the search a bill of goods about Willard being the best X's and O's coach in the country. Nonsense. Not a good game coach. And an absolutely hideous recruiter who sold his soul (and God knows what else) to get next year's stellar class. Now that he'll finally have some talent the question remains if he'll have any idea what to do with it.