This year’s March madness has been one of the most surprising and interesting tournaments. There have been many upsets in brackets causing the top teams to be eliminated. In the beginning of the tournament Kentucky played a small school from New Jersey.
The St. Peter’s Peacocks knocked off the best team in college basketball in an overtime thriller. This was one of the biggest upsets this year as Kentucky was projected to be national champions at the end of March. However, the 15th seed St Peters Peacocks advanced to the second round. The Peacocks had a historical run upsetting four of the best teams in the country. They made it all the way to the Elite Eight, being the first team in March madness history to ever make the Elite Eight as the 15th seed. Having an enrollment of 2,000 kids proved to be a challenge, and they had to overcome many obstacles, like the fact that their school did not have enough money to send the cheerleaders to the games to support the men’s basketball team.
Most of the players on this team are from New York and New Jersey, so they were not scared of any team they had to play against. Coach Shaheen Holloway said “this team is something special and they don’t care what big time school we have to play, we will fight until the end. This was a great life lesson for many kids because it shows it doesn’t matter how small your school is if you work hard and play together as a team anything is possible. They ended up losing to UNC, 65-47.
They came up short, but what they accomplished this year will never be forgotten. Holloway is one of the best coaches this year and is a nominee for coach of the year. It’s sad to say but the culture Sheen has built for this school will last forever, but he was offered a new coaching job and took the opportunity. Last night. he became the new coach of Seton Hall. He will no longer be with the Peacocks, but everyone will remember him for taking his team all the way to the Elite Eight.
This is a great opportunity for him and I think he will do great things with his new team. I expect St. Peters to also be back in it right where they left off because they have all their current players returning. I’m excited to see what will happen next season in march.