Salesmanship counts; just ask Seton Hall's Amaker

Sporting News, The, August 23, 1999 by Mike DeCourcy

Perhaps Shaheen Holloway needed to be less of a pioneer a few years back and more of a salesman. Instead of merely dating to choose Seton Hall when the school had lost appeal among the high school elite after P.J. Carlesimo had guided it to the NCAA title game in 1989, he should have dared others to go along. Andre Barrett figured this out. In the fall of 2000, after graduating from New York's Rice High, he will succeed Holloway as Seton Hall's point guard. But he won't go it alone. Athletic 6-6 wing Marcus Toney-El, who attends Seton Hall Prep, committed to the Pirates at the start of the adidas ABCD Camp in July. Once coach Tom Amaker sold the 5-8 Barrett on making Seton Hall his home, Barrett helped Toney-El and Amaker talk 6-9 Philadelphia power forward Eddie Griffin--considered by many to be the nation's No. 1 high school player--into joining them. Together, they are "Seton's Haul," so dubbed by Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger sportswriter Tom Luicci.

There are no questions about Griffin, other than what drew him from his expected commitment to North Carolina to become a part of the reclamation project at Seton Hall. (The answer: Amaker). Griffin is an advanced offensive player with excellent shooting range and technique and a stunning variety of go-to moves.

Amaker already has a fine group of youngsters. Samuel Dalembert, a shot-blocking 6-11 center, signed last year. Shooting guard Darius Lane sat out last season as an ineligible freshman but is ready now. Desmond Herod, a long-distance shooter, transferred from UNLV after his freshman season and will be eligible in 2000-01. The deep Pirates will use their final scholarship on someone who, as much as raising the talent level, will fit in as a component to a championship team.

In two years as coach, Amaker did an impressive job treading water to deliver consecutive 1515 seasons and first-round losses in the NIT, but this kind of recruiting puts him well above sea level. It will be a while before he has to fend off more rumors about moving to another job.

"In all honesty, I think the conference carries all of us," Amaker says. "That's something I learned a great deal about right away: The conference, the Big East, is bigger than any one program."

When the league added West Virginia and Rutgers--two more football-playing, state-supported schools--in 1995-96, though, the Big East was supposed to be big enough to push aside a couple of its Catholic schools. Given the abundance of talent at Villanova then, the presence of John Thompson at Georgetown and the traditional St. John's pipeline to New York talent, Seton Hall, and Providence were expected to be orphaned. Instead, Providence made the NCAA Elite Eight in 1997 and has a promising future under a new coaching staff and Seton Hall is primed to end the decade as it began it, as one of the Big East's marquee programs.

Holloway hoped to deliver this sort of renaissance when he joined the Hall and former coach George Blaney in 1996. Holloway's experience is a reminder of how difficult it can be for a point guard to serve himself up as the first piece of a rebuilding program.

A big center can grab rebounds and put them in the basket, and a great scorer can keep firing shots and straining defenses. A gifted point guard with overmatched teammates soon discovers the agony of watching slick passes tumbled out of bounds. Alter a player such as Holloway has seen enough would-be assists go awry, he determines there is little choice but to do it himself. Which, of course, is unnatural and ultimately catastrophic, Holloway averaged 17.3 points and 6.3 assists as a freshman, but his proficiency declined in his next two years. He was at 15.0 and 6.5 as a sophomore, then 9.3 and 5.0 last season.

"I'm sure Shaheen had to analyze and evaluate whether he'd be one of the kids to restart the music. Thank God he did," Amaker says. "I think that takes a lot of courage. It takes a special kid to believe in something at a time it wasn't fashionable."

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