Saint Peter's can't keep merchandise on shelves after NCAAs
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — Three days after Saint Peter's magical NCAA Tournament ride ended, the mayhem still has not stopped for university president Eugene Cornacchia.
Campus bookstores and suppliers can't keep up with the demand for Peacocks' merchandise. Plans for a parade Friday to honor the team and coaches in Jersey City, New Jersey, keep getting bigger and bigger.
As expected, 45-year-old coach Shaheen Holloway has decided to leave the little Jesuit school and travel less than 20 miles to South Orange, New Jersey, to take the much higher-paying job at Seton Hall, his alma mater.
The Roman Catholic Big East Conference school paid Kevin Willard roughly $2.4 million this past season. He left to take the head job at Maryland. Holloway made less than $300,000 at Saint Peter's.
“I’ve talked to Shaheen, but it’s only been about to congratulate him and to tell him how grateful we are for what he’s done," Cornacchia said Wednesday. "We’re focused on just having a blast on Friday.”
Cornacchia said the past two weeks have been a hectic blur, and it was only a day or so ago he had a chance to consider the Peacocks' improbable run to become the first No. 15 seed to reach the Elite Eight. It ended Sunday with a one-sided loss to North Carolina.
“I had hoped for a successful season with this team and a good outcome of the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) championship,” he said. “We got that, but I could never have envisioned that we would do what we did. As much as you believe in your team and all, you don’t really believe it’s possible until it happens.”
Cornacchia said the school has been swamped with requests from around the country for merchandise. He even got a letter from somebody in Australia who saw the team on television.
“I don’t even know how that works,...