2022_09_New_Jersey_Monthly
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Our STATE of EDUCATION<br />
A LASTING<br />
LEGACY While<br />
coach Shaheen<br />
Holloway and<br />
many of Saint<br />
Peter’s players,<br />
including Doug<br />
Edert, have<br />
moved on to<br />
new schools,<br />
their imprint on<br />
the university<br />
remains.<br />
the cart before the horse.”<br />
The rest is history.<br />
Saint Peter’s stunned Kentucky with an 85-79 overtime win<br />
on March 17, the first jaw-dropping result during an improbable<br />
run. Two days later, the Peacocks advanced to the Sweet 16<br />
after beating Murray State. Another gargantuan upset came on<br />
March 25 when SPU outlasted Purdue in Philadelphia, a more<br />
accessible location for the school’s modest fan base.<br />
Led by an underdog group of players, including <strong>Jersey</strong> products<br />
Daryl Banks III (Somerset), Doug Edert (Nutley) and Isiah<br />
Dasher (<strong>Jersey</strong> City), and head coach Shaheen Holloway, a former<br />
Seton Hall star, Saint Peter’s became<br />
the NCAA Tournament’s first-ever 15 seed<br />
to reach the Elite 8.<br />
Ultimately, the magic ran out against<br />
North Carolina, the tournament’s eventual<br />
runner-up, on March 27, when Saint<br />
Peter's lost 69-49. But the Peacocks had<br />
already cemented themselves as an alltime<br />
Cinderella story. What’s more, their<br />
play left a permanent imprint on their<br />
university, one that has already been felt<br />
beyond the basketball court.<br />
“We put Saint Peter’s on the map,”<br />
Edert says. “There’s people all over the<br />
country that didn’t really know Saint Peter’s.<br />
We were able to put the school out<br />
there and get people to realize that it’s a<br />
good school.”<br />
As Eugene J. Cornacchia, Saint Peter’s president,<br />
watched the Kentucky game from the school’s section<br />
at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, he noticed an arena security<br />
guard kept looking at him. Finally, with the score tied at halftime,<br />
the guard approached and said, “I just gotta tell you, your guys<br />
are amazing. I thought they were going to be blown out of the<br />
water in the first five minutes.” An honest Cornacchia says he<br />
replied, “You and me both, buddy.”<br />
Soon after the buzzer sounded, Cornacchia’s phone blew<br />
up with similar interactions from trustees and alumni. Meanwhile,<br />
a wave of curious hoops fans crashed the university’s<br />
PHOTOGRAPHS: (EDERT) COURTESY OF SAINT PETERS/RICH SHULTZ;<br />
(CAMPUS) COURTESY OF SAINT PETERS/AL FERREIRA PHOTOGRAPHY<br />
72 SEPTEMBER <strong>2022</strong> NJMONTHLY.COM