Daryl Banks III of Saint Peter’s University dribbles the ball March 27, 2022, during the Peacocks’ NCCA March Madness game against the University of North Carolina in Philadelphia. The Tar Heels won the East regional final 69-49. (CNS photo/Rich Schultz, Stockton Photography, courtesy Saint Peter’s University)
By Joe Jordan
Catholic News Service
Was it a miracle?
“Astounding,” is how Jesuit Father Andrew Downing described it. He watched with delight as the men’s basketball team at his small Jesuit university leaped into the national spotlight in a historic tournament run to the NCAA’s Elite Eight.
It was the first time a college basketball team ranked so low went so far.
Call it a Cinderella story. Or a David versus Goliath moment. Whatever it was, Father Downing and the entire nation couldn’t get enough of their Saint Peter’s University Peacocks.
“It was miraculous in that no one, even most of us at the university, really thought we could go that far given our limitations and budget for our athletic programs,” said Jesuit Father Rocco Danzi, parish administrator of St. Aedan’s: The Saint Peter’s University Church. “It’s pennies compared to the other bigger schools.”
In 2020, Saint Peter’s spent $7.2 million on all its sports programs compared to the University of Kentucky’s $138.3 million. The No. 15-seeded Peacocks upset Kentucky — a No. 2 seed — 85-79 to ignite their tournament run March 17.
Father Downing, vice president for mission and ministry and the director of campus ministry at Saint Peter’s in Jersey City, draws a Jesuit parallel to highlight the magnitude of the run.
Jesuit schools are some of the biggest names in college basketball, most prominently Gonzaga, which was a No. 1 seed this year. Among other notables are Georgetown, Xavier, Creighton, St. Louis and Marquette.
Even Loyola Chicago has made headlines in recent tournaments, along with the team’s 102-year-old chaplain, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“There are bigger (Jesuit) schools, there are more endowed schools, there are a lot of schools with more prestigious basketball programs … but it’s because of Saint Peter’s that for the fifth consecutive year in a row, a Jesuit school is in the Elite Eight,” Father Downing told Jersey Catholic, the news site of the Newark Archdiocese. “Well, they were the most unlikely of those schools.”
Two days after beating Kentucky, the Peacocks took care of Murray State, which had entered the game on a 21-game winning streak. By the time Saint Peter’s held off No. 3-seeded Purdue and strutted into the quarterfinals, the excitement reached a feverish pitch that held the nation captive.
So what is the great leveler between those with big pockets and those with small pockets? Those with rare athletic ability and those diminutive in comparison? Is there something bigger going on? Father Danzi seems to think so.
The answer comes from what he knows about Saint Peter’s head coach Shaheen Holloway, an alum of Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, and St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth, New Jersey. (Seton Hall announced March 30 that it had hired Holloway to head its men’s basketball program.)
Back when Father Danzi was working at Saint Peter’s as vice president of mission and ministry four years ago, he met Holloway at a news conference introducing him as the Peacocks’ new coach.
“What people don’t see is he’s an extremely spiritual man,” Father Danzi said. “He gathers the guys for prayer before a game or practice, and he’s very serious about that. He doesn’t want anyone else besides the team and his staff in the locker room (because) that moment is just for them, about them, but also about God.”
And when it came time to represent on the national stage, Saint Peter’s modeled its school and faith perfectly, said Father Danzi.
