- Saint Peter's became the first 15-seed to advance to the Elite Eight with latest upset.
- The Peacocks' coach credited a COVID-related month-long "pause" as a positive turning point to their season.
Tiny Saint Peter's played giant-slayer again by defeating Purdue to become the first 15-seed to ever advance to the Elite Eight.
The latest upset came after Saint Peter's overtime upset in the first round against Kentucky who has won eight NCAA men's basketball championships.
Saint Peter's, a Jesuit university located in Jersey City, N.J., with an enrollment of just 3,500 students, is making only its fourth appearance in the tournament and its first since 2011.
COVID helped the Peacocks save their season
More incredibly, Saint Peter's head coach Shaheen Holloway suggested his team might not even be in the
After starting just 3-6, the Peacocks' season went into a month-long "pause" in late December and early January, after COVID spread through the team.
Holloway used that time off to rethink his team's mindset and strategy.
"I started in the off-season trying to be an offensive team because we had [several new players, who were more talented on the offensive end]," Holloway told the media before the start of the tournament. "When we had the layoff, it put things in perspective and gave me a chance to get back to the drawing board and get back to what we do best, and that's defend. So ever since that happened, it's made us a better team. COVID messed up some teams, but it helped us a lot."
Kentucky came into the game as one of the best shooting teams in the country and tops in rebounding margin. Saint Peter's held them to just 4-for-15 from three-point range and nearly matched the Wildcats in rebounds, 36-35.
Holloway also noted that the pause to the season helped him accidentally discover the lineup that beat Kentucky and made him a little superstitious.
"In the first half of the season, the non-conference, [Doug Edert] was starting," Holloway told the media after the game when asked why one of his top players comes off the bench. "Our team went on a COVID pause for 28 days, and the guys that's pretty much starting right now are guys that didn't get COVID. So I kind of stuck with the lineup because I'm superstitious like that. It was working for us, so why change it up?"
Saint Peter's looks for shoulder "chips" and it paid off
Holloway noted several times that he specifically recruits players who feel like they deserve to be playing at schools like Kentucky, not against them in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
"I recruit guys like that, that have a chip on their shoulder with something to prove," Holloway said before the game. "A lot of guys on my team think they are supposed to be playing against Kentucky, so now they get a chance to play against them."
That extra motivation, which Holloway brought up again after the game, seemed to help against Kentucky. Not only were the players looking to prove that they belonged on the same court as the Blue Bloods, but they wanted to prove that coaches like John Calipari should have recruited them to his team in the first place.
"We got good players," Holloway said. "We got good players. I know this is getting old, it's a cliché, but we have guys that really have a chip on their shoulder, that really believe they belong at big-time schools."
Now it is Kentucky, Murray State, and Purdue who will watch the rest of the tournament, and it is tiny Saint Peter's with their big chips that is still dancing with even more to prove.
"Job is not finished," forward KC Ndefo said after their first-round game. "Trying to compete and with hard work and defense and the way you compete every night, the sky is the limit for us."