The most accurate Seton Hall Pirates preview written by a staff entrenched in Big East basketball.
Coach: Shaheen Holloway — 4th year here, 49-53. Prev; St. Peter’s 2018-2021 (64-54)
2024-25: 7-25 (2-18), 11th Big East, No postseason
2025-26 Big East Rank: 11
Returning Starters/Players: 0/3
Returning Minutes (Torvik): 15.0%
*This series was inspired by fellow UConn Report writer Cole Stefan*
Shaheen Holloway lost 85% of the minutes and over 90% of the scoring from last year’s rotation. Perhaps that was for the better, considering the Pirates finished with seven wins (the program’s worst win-loss record since the 1982-83 season), the nation’s second-worst scoring offense (61.6 ppg) and ended the season on a woeful 2-23 stretch.
The Hall dropped games to Fordham, Hofstra and Monmouth, owned a ghastly point differential of -285 from December 8 onwards and only scored above 70 points five times – yikes.
Holloway flushed away the season and put the roster up for firesale.
Yet there were still salvageable moments from the wreck. Seton Hall beat two NCAA Tournament teams (punctuated by a home victory over Connecticut), went an undefeated 3-0 in overtime games and sported the typical Holloway-style defense, ranking eighth in the country in turnover percentage on KenPom.
Pairing these fundamental building blocks with the return of two players who saw meaningful minutes last season certainly upgrades the Pirates’ ceiling heading into 2025… right?
Off Season — Additions and Losses
The Pirates lost a dizzying 129 starts from last season to the transfer portal or graduation, including 29 each from leading scorer Isaiah Coleman and wing Prince Aligbe. Coleman is off to Oklahoma State while Aligbe transferred to Southern Illinois.
The Pirates also lost Garwey Dual (22 starts), Dylan Addae-Wusu (20), Chaunce Jenkins (13) and Emmanuel Okorafor (9), leaving zero holdovers from The Hall’s 2023-24 NIT Championship team.
It’ll be a fresh start in South Orange. Holloway brought in ten transfers (second only to Xavier in the Big East) and secured the commitment of On3 four star Najai Hines in late July to round out the roster.
Headlining the transfer class is a trio of experienced bucket-getters in Adam “Budd” Clark (Merrimack), TJ Simpkins (Elon) and Elijah Fisher (Pacific). Fourth year players Stephon Payne III (Jacksonville), Jacob Dar (Rice) and Joshua Rivera (Fordham) form a solid and reliable veteran nucleus off the bench.
Miami transfer A.J. Staton-McCray makes his way up north for his final year of eligibility after a regime change in Coral Gables imploded the roster.
Holloway also brought in a handful of wildcards; Pat Suemnick enters year six at school number four; LSU transfer Mike Williams III played sparingly as a sophomore but started 22 games for the Tigers in 2023-24; shifty Trey Parker couldn’t crack the rotation at NC State but offers extreme athletic upside.
Ball Handlers
The Pirates didn’t get much production from its point guard last season. Dual averaged 5.4 points, 3 assists and 1.6 rebounds per game, leaving scoring duties to Coleman and Jenkins. Holloway opted to change that over the off season, bringing in Adam “Budd” Clark from Merrimack and Trey Parker from NC State to energize the team’s point guard scoring.
Clark started every game of the past two seasons for the Warriors, bumping up his 13.9 points per game average to a blistering 19.8 last season, while also recording an assist percentage of 42.7 and a usage percentage of 34.7, both of which ranked among the top in the country according to CBB Analytics.
Clark immediately becomes the Pirates’ top scoring option and, despite his 28.6% mark from three, will draw the most double-teams as Holloway’s top shot creator.
Parker hasn’t had the opportunity to showcase his skillset as much as Clark. The Wolfpack transfer has better size at 6-foot-1 and is The Hall’s top 3PT shooter at 35.7% but was plagued by inconsistency during his lone season at NC State. Parker had 15 points and shot 75% from three at Duke in January and is brimming with potential.
OTHERS: Mike Williams III – LSU transfer. 22 starts (all in 2023) in 57 career games. Average of 16 minutes, 5.9 points, 45.9 eFG%. Career-high 13 points versus USC in Feb 2025.
Other Guards
Holloway will likely start a three guard lineup with the lack of height at the top of the depth chart. With Clark/Parker squared away as the ball handlers, TJ Simpkins, A.J. Staton-McCray and Jahseem Felton emerge as rotational options at the “two” and “three.”
Simpkins is likely to get the nod at one of the two remaining spots. The Elon transfer started 12 games for the Phoenix last season but reached double-digit points in 26 outings. Simpkins’ exceptional length at 6-foot-4 gives him the tools to be a defensive wizard, as evidenced by his team-leading 45 steals and third-ranked 0.4 blocks per game.
An outstanding driver, Simpkins excels as a downhill, foul-seeking guard. The former JUCO product attempted 8.2 free throws per 40 minutes last year, ranking in the 98th percentile nationally according to CBB Analytics. He shines around the rim, scoring 8.4 paint points per 40 minutes, but struggles from behind the arc, hitting on just 25.9% of his attempts last season.
That’s where Staton-McCray and Felton factor in.
Staton-McCray enters his sixth season of college basketball after spending four of them at Samford and one at Miami. A 32.9% 3PT shooter, Staton-McCray has only upgraded his three-ball throughout his career, jumping from 28% in 2022 to 41% in 2023. Another sizable option on the boundary, Staton-McCray also prefers to dig inside and exploit mismatches against smaller guards but is solid off the catch-and-shoot from deep.
Felton is the best three point shooter out of the three (34.6% on 2.4 attempts per 40) but is by far the rawest as a true sophomore. His eFG% of 35.7 ranks in the fifth percentile nationally, and his woeful 31.4% mark from the field ranked last on the team last season. Felton does have eight starts and 25 appearances under his belt for the Pirates and should see an uptick in minutes this season.
OTHERS: Felipe Patino — (JUCO/Eastern Florida State)
Wings/Forwards
How the Pirates deploy at the “four” will determine which style Holloway opts to play. If Fisher comes out, it’ll be a small-ball, transitional type game. If Payne comes out, the Pirates will be looking to win on the boards. For the sake of this preview, I’ve opted to classify Payne as a post player.
Well-traveled Elijah Fisher (formerly of Texas Tech, DePaul and Pacific) brings a unique skillset to the Pirates’ lineup. As one of the West Coast Conference’s top scorers last year (15.7 ppg), Fisher displayed his former four-star pedigree as a small-ball (6-foot-6) power forward that lives on the inside.
Fisher doesn’t offer much as a shot creator or three point shooter but is an excellent interior passer and finishes at the rim with authority. His 60.7% free throw attempt rate and six fouls drawn per game both rank among the top in the country (CBB Analytics).
Who gets minutes behind him is still a mystery. There’s a collection of three transfers vying for the coveted rotational minutes, including Joshua Rivera (Fordham), Jacob Dar (Rice) and Pat Suemnick (Okla. State).
Dar is the best true shooter of the three (hitting on 37% of his 3.0 3PA/G) and offers extraordinary length at 6-foot-7. The former JUCO star has a nose for the rim and is versatile enough as both a shooter and defensemen that he should see the court for a handful of minutes per game.
Rivera and Suemnick could still see the floor with Holloway’s sometimes large rotation, but the depth of this Pirates team may sever the minutes for one of the two veteran forwards.
Post Players
Up until late July, the Pirate frontcourt seemed set; Godswill Erheriene would assume full-time starting duties down low and Jacksonville transfer Stephon Payne III would come in off the bench or split time evenly with the sophomore.
Then four-star Najai Hines committed to The Hall on July 22. The New Jersey native brings a dominating physical skillset and traditional center energy to the room at 6-foot-10, 250-pounds.
Hines and Erheriene are the undoubted top two centers, with Payne serving more as a situational big man who has power forward flexibility.
Erheriene started 23 games as a true freshman last season but averaged just 14.2 minutes per game, putting up a season-high 12 points and 10 rebounds versus UConn in February. The Nigeria native was one of the team’s top offensive rebounders (OR% of 9.7) and scored over 31% of his 90 points on second chance opportunities, according to CBB Analytics.
Erheriene did not factor in the Pirates’ offense last season (2.8 ppg) and at 6-foot-9, 214 pounds, gave up size to the conference’s bigger centers (Reed, Ejiofor).
That’s where Hines can substitute in. With a near 40-pound advantage and hulking post-game, the four-star recruit will undeniably see the court as a true freshman. Whether or not he splits time with Erheriene, takes up the bulk of the minutes or shares the floor in two big sets remains to be seen.
Payne’s minutes inevitably will take a ding with Hines’ commitment, but the former Jacksonville Dolphin offers two invaluable skills for a center in Holloway’s system: offensive rebounding (14.4% OR rate) and blocking (75th percentile in block rate).
OTHERS: Assane Mbaye (was with program last year, redshirted). Seven-foot-two.
Playstyle
All of Holloway’s teams are built on a defensive bedrock, and this year should be no different. Six of Holloway’s seven seasons as a head coach have ended with his team’s defense ranking inside the top 100 nationally in adjusted efficiency (KenPom).
This squad has the length – and now the size down low – to upgrade from last season’s 89th ranked unit, but size on the perimeter remains a question. The starting lineup will be small (5-foot-10, 6-foot-4, 6-foot-4, 6-foot-6, 6-foot-9) and the depth behind them isn’t enormous.
An under looked part of Holloway’s off season class is its ability to create points in transition, with eight of the 10 transfers scoring at least 11% of their points last season off fast breaks according to CBB Analytics.
Holloway’s offenses have never been quick in tempo, ranking inside the top 200 of adjusted tempo on KenPom once (197th in 2020), but with such a versatile – and perhaps undersized – transfer class, a change in offensive philosophy is not out of the realm of possibility.
2025 Projection
The Pirates have built the foundation needed to compete in the Big East. With Holloway’s penchant for steady, stingy defense and an infusion of transfer portal experience, length and scoring at every position on the floor, Seton Hall will compete at all three levels of the conference in 2025-26.
Will the Pirates win 20+ games and compete for a bid to the NCAA Tournament? Probably not. Will the Pirates give the conference’s top contenders headaches and play in down-to-the-wire games more regularly? Yes.
I expect a major upgrade offensively – although that isn’t saying much considering last season’s 363rd place finish – and another top-notch defense that Hall fans have become accustomed to under Holloway.
