INTRODUCTION

Dear Pirates Nation,

There’s no way around it. The 2019-20 Seton Hall Athletics year will forever be remembered as bittersweet and incomplete. On March 12 as people began to understand how serious the COVID-19 pandemic had become, the NCAA canceled its winter and spring championships, bringing collegiate athletics to a grinding halt.

This was a gut punch. Our men’s basketball team was just days away from receiving a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament and beginning what we all thought could be a special March Madness run. Our women’s basketball team was gearing up to hear its name called for a national postseason bid for the sixth time in seven years. All of our spring sports were just starting to hit their stride.

I was heartbroken for our studentathletes. For many of them, this was their last opportunity to play the sport they love. They not only relish the opportunity to play for championships, but they enjoy the journey that comes along with it: workouts and practices that help them get better, the comradery with their teammates, the travel that takes them to

places they’ve never been before. It’s all a part of the college athletics experience, and it was taken from them.

I said that this past year was bittersweet because despite the unfortunate end to the athletic portion of our season, we still have plenty to be proud of and to celebrate here in this annual report. As you’ll read in the following pages, we continue to boast some of the best and the brightest in the country. Our studentathletes once again combined to deliver a record-high department cumulative grade point average, and that is in spite of having their spring semester upended and moved into remote education for the final nine weeks.

Our men’s basketball team, which reached as high as No. 8 in the country, had won the BIG EAST regular season championship and was in a position to captivate fans in March. Our women’s basketball team finished the BIG EAST regular season in third place and was poised to do some damage in the WNIT. Our men’s swimming & diving team won six races at the BIG EAST Championship to continue its run as one of the best programs in the conference. Women’s golf’s No. 54 national ranking in the fall is a program-best, and the team was a favorite to capture the spring conference championship.

All of our continued success in the classroom and on the field gives us hope for 2020-21. There is still much uncertain about this world right now, but whenever we return to active competition, I am certain that we will be once again celebrating great accomplishments in next year’s annual report.

No matter what happens this upcoming year, please know that your support of our student-athletes and this department is vital to our success. We need every fan, alumnus(a) and donor to remain engaged with us. Our mission as always is to provide the best possible studentathlete experience and maximize their potential in preparation for life after college. We cannot do that without you, Pirates Nation.

GO PIRATES!

Bryan Felt Director of Athletics & Recreation

The 2019-20 Seton Hall men’s basketball team is a champion of the BIG EAST Conference. No one or thing, not even the COVID-19 pandemic, can ever take that away from this group of Pirates.

Yes, Pirates Nation laments what could have been. Led by the incredible Myles Powell, this Seton Hall squad seemed capable of anything. The team was a leading contender to win the BIG EAST Tournament title; it was assured of having a top-three seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in decades and with it a likely firstround date in Albany, N.Y. Dreams of a second weekend and beyond did not seem like dreams anymore; they seemed like reality.

But while the global pandemic may have crushed Seton Hall’s NCAA Tournament run, Pirates fans should not look back at what could have been but what, in fact, was done. This group of Pirates accomplished things no Seton Hall team had done in decades. This team earned a top-10 national ranking for the first time since 2000; it defeated three top-10 teams for only the fourth time in program history; it won seven BIG EAST road games for the first time in its history; its 10-game winning streak from Dec. 19 to Jan. 29 tied for the ninth-longest win streak in school history and was the longest since 1993; and the Pirates won a share of the BIG EAST regular season championship for the first time since 1993.

A lot of people wrote this team off in mid-December at 6-4 with Myles Powell and Sandro Mamukelashvili out with injuries heading into a game against No. 7 Maryland. But behind Quincy McKnight’s inspiring performance on both ends of the floor, the short-handed Pirates toppled the Terrapins, 52-48. That win began the 10-game run that catapulted the team into the conversation for a deep NCAA Tournament run.

And the 10-game run was filled with fun moments. Powell returned from his injury to drop 27 points on a stunned DePaul team to open BIG EAST play. Shavar Reynolds, Jr., locked down All-American Markus Howard on defense, and the Pirates held the potent Marquette offense to only 55 points in a home win. In the same week, Powell helped lead a massive comeback at Hinkle Fieldhouse to defeat No. 5 Butler and then overcome a 13-point deficit at Madison Square Garden to beat St. John’s while scoring his 2,000th career point in the process. Romaro Gill had his coming-out party the entire month of January, punctuated by a

When the calendar turned to February, there were more thrilling days that will live forever. Powell and Mamukelashvili put a 26-year curse to bed when they led the Pirates to a road win at No. 10 Villanova, the program’s first since 1994. Mamukelashvili played hero when he connected on a buzzerbeating tip-in (on a fantastic pass from McKnight) with 0.6 seconds remaining in regulation to push The Hall past No. 21 Butler, with his father at the game visiting from overseas, no less. Then Powell and Mamukelashvili led an offensive explosion at Marquette with a combined 54 points while the Pirates finished with 13 made threes in an 88-79 win, which was Seton Hall’s 13th conference victory. The next day, that 13th victory proved to be enough to clinch Seton Hall a share of its first BIG EAST regular season championship in 27 years.

It’s often said that it’s about the journey, not the destination, and in this case, it rings true. While Pirates Nation will never know how

deep into March/April this 2019- 20 squad could have gone, fans should relish in remembering the emotions, the hard work, the big moments, the epic wins and the 13 student-athletes who made the journey five months of exhilaration.