Bio Blast: Saint Peter's Peacocks

March Madness is here, and Kentucky will open the 2022 NCAA Tournament as the No. 2 seed in the East region. The first opponent for the Wildcats will be a new name.

The Saint Peter’s Peacocks were the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Tournament champions, and Shaheen Holloway has led his program back into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011. On Thursday, Saint Peter’s will be playing UK in Indianapolis as a 15.5 point underdog.

For now, it’s time to learn more about Saint Peter’s as the Big Dance gets started this week.

Kevin Willard coaching tree

For the sixth consecutive season, Kevin Willard has produced an NCAA Tournament team at Seton Hall. The Pirates are the No. 8 seed in the South Region and will have to beat TCU to get a crack at No. 1 seed Arizona in San Diego. The former Louisville assistant coach under Rick Pitino is 225-159 (.586) in 12 years at the Big East program.

The 46-year-old has been mentioned as a candidate for the open head coaching gigs at both Louisville and Maryland. Willard now has members of his coaching tree becoming successful.

Shaheen Holloway played at Seton Hall from 1996-00 before playing seven years professionally. After his retirement, Willard immediately hired Holloway to be on his staff at Iona. After three years, Holloway followed Willard to Seton Hall where he would spend eight seasons at his alma mater. During his stay, the Pirates received three NCAA Tournament bids and won the Big East Tournament in 2016.

After setting the foundation in Jersey City with Saint Peter’s, Holloway has the Peacocks in the NCAA Tournament in year four as the program won the conference title as a No. 2 seed in the MAAC.

Defense first

For the third consecutive season, Saint Peter’s has put together a top-100 defense on the floor. Under Holloway, the Peacocks do a terrific job contesting shots and protecting the rim. In 2022, Saint Peter’s enters the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 34 in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency. Using just the raw numbers, Saint Peter’s is No. 12 nationally in defensive efficiency.

The Peacocks get it done on the defensive end.

Saint Peter’s currently ranks No. 6 nationally in effective field goal percentage defense as foes are shooting just 44 percent from two and 29 percent from three. The Peacocks are elite at protecting the paint with a block rate of 14.6 percent and force teams to shoot 36.3 percent of their shots from behind the arc.

Meanwhile, Saint Peter’s ranks inside the top-50 in turnover percentage (20.9%) as teams have a ton of issues running offense on Holloway’s club. Despite being on the skinny side, KC Ndefo (6-7, 195) is elite at blocking shots averaging 3.6 blocks per game, and ranks No. 14 overall in block percentage (12.3%).

Saint Peter’s is nine-deep with a good rotation, and the backbone of their program is to get stops at the defensive end. The Peacocks enter the tournament ranked No. 19 in scoring defense (61.8).

After struggling with good defensive teams in the regular season, Kentucky could be challenged by this No. 15 seed.

The offense is bad

Saint Peter’s is committed to being good on the defensive end. The same is not true on offense. To say this program struggles to get buckets would be an understatement.

In their fourth season under Holloway, Saint Peter’s has put their best offensive team on the floor. Yet, the Peacocks rank outside the top-250 in adjusted offensive efficiency.

Saint’s Peters turns the ball over at a high rate (20.9%, No. 319 nationally), shoots just 45.9 percent from two (No. 317), and gets over 13 percent of their field goal attempts blocked. However, the Peacocks are athletic and can create some unexpected offense.

The Peacocks crash the glass hard and rebound 31.5 percent of their misses while ranking No. 29 nationally in free throw rate. However, if teams guard without fouling and handle the defensive glass this team can have a very difficult time scoring.

Saint Peter’s has just two players averaging double figures and scored 65 points or less in four of their final six games.

Slow pace

Not surprisingly, Saint Peter’s is not trying to win a track meet. The Peacocks have never played particularly fast under Holloway and are currently ranked No. 242 in tempo with 66 possessions per game. Kentucky sits at No. 155 with 67.3 possessions per game.

After slowing things down as the season ended, Kentucky attempted to push the pace more in the SEC Tournament but both Tennessee and Vanderbilt did a good job of slowing things down. Expect the Wildcats to try to play with tempo on Thursday and for Saint Peter’s to try to slow it down.

Lack of quality foes

On their way to a 19-11 season, Saint Peter’s faced just one team who received an invite to the NCAA Tournament. That was No. 4 seed Providence on Nov. 25. Outside of Iona, the Peacocks have not faced a team ranked inside the top-100 at KenPom since that 85-71 loss to the Friars.

The size, speed, length, and athleticism of Kentucky will be new to Saint Peter’s. The start of the game will be critical to the underdog team as they must settle in and get a feel for the game on this big of a stage.