2022_09_New_Jersey_Monthly
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Cinderella’s Epilogue<br />
Saint Peter’s miraculous NCAA Tournament run has touched<br />
the university far beyond the basketball court.<br />
R<br />
achelle Paul had no choice but to put her husband<br />
to work. As the athletic director at a school with a<br />
shoestring budget, Paul prioritized fiscal responsibility<br />
after Saint Peter’s men’s basketball team<br />
won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament on<br />
March 12, securing an automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament.<br />
That meant that if her spouse, Tim, wanted to be part of the<br />
Peacocks’ traveling party, he had to earn his spot. So Paul left<br />
him in charge of tickets.<br />
The school had to buy a minimum of 350 tickets for its March<br />
Madness opener against Kentucky at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in<br />
Indiana. Reselling that many tickets for a road contest would<br />
have been easy for a powerhouse program with diehard fans,<br />
but Saint Peter’s—a tiny, commuter, Jesuit university in <strong>Jersey</strong><br />
City—is no blue blood.<br />
“At this point, we had 40 season ticket holders,” Paul says.<br />
“There was no way we were selling 350 tickets.”<br />
So Paul’s husband thought it might be worthwhile to call<br />
Kentucky to see if the Wildcats were interested in the Peacocks’<br />
extra tickets. However, Kentucky respectfully informed Tim<br />
that it had no use for the leftover stubs, as the annual juggernaut<br />
planned on selling ticket packages for the entire weekend, a slate<br />
of two games for whoever won the opener. Kentucky’s bundle<br />
anticipated a win over Saint Peter’s, which is what most of the<br />
college basketball world expected.<br />
But Paul knew to believe then and there. “We’re going to win<br />
this game,” she told her partner.<br />
“You don’t sell a ticket package for Thursday and Saturday<br />
when you’re not guaranteed a Saturday game,” the admittedly<br />
superstitious Paul says now, still in disbelief. “You just don’t put<br />
By Gary Phillips<br />
STRUT UP<br />
Led by head<br />
coach Shaheen<br />
Holloway, the<br />
Peacocks went<br />
on an improbable,<br />
universityaltering<br />
March<br />
Madness run<br />
earlier this year.<br />
PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF SAINT PETERS/RICH SHULTZ<br />
SEPTEMBER <strong>2022</strong> NEW JERSEY MONTHLY 71
Change language