Seton Hall did not fare well during the 2024-25 college basketball season and will be forced to rebuild a large portion of its roster over the next few months. Its latest addition may not be the answer.
An anonymous head coach offered a scathing takedown of his potential while trying to be nice. I think.
The Pirates have one of the lowest NIL budgets on the high-major level of college basketball. Fourth-year head coach Shaheen Holloway does not have a lot of money on which to recruit compared to other programs in the Big East, let alone the powerhouses like Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky or even Virginia. 14 schools are expected to spend close to $8 million on next year’s roster. Seton Hall will spend approximately $1.5 in total.
As we saw last season, it is very hard for the Pirates to keep up. They lost all of their best players from 2023-24 to the transfer portal and they won only seven games with their replacements.
Although the current rebuild looks different than a year ago, it follows the same trend.
Holloway and Seton Hall is forced to raid low- and mid-major programs to fill up his roster. And while other schools take a similar approach, they are forced to go deeper into the portal for guys who are less expensive.
Fordham transfer Josh Rivera is one of them. The 6-foot-6, 225-pound wing came off of the bench for the Rams last season and averaged 10.7 points and 4.3 rebounds on 44% shooting. Pretty solid.
pirate nation wassuppp ? 🏴☠️💙 #Committed pic.twitter.com/PBwA4cjlcM
— Joshua Rivera ✍🏼 (@joshuarivera5_) April 21, 2025
Rivera becomes the fifth player on the roster. He joins freshman Jasheem Felton and Godswill Erheriene and a pair of incoming transfers: Adam Clark from Merrimack and T.J. Simpkins from Elon. One anonymous A-10 coach offered him praise.
He’s got elite athleticism and is a high-major talent without a doubt with 2 years left.
— Anonymous A-10 coach, via NJ.com
A second anonymous A-10 coach was not quite as complimentary.
He’s solid. Big body and physical. I would think he’d be a 6-10 minute a game guy on a good team, the 9th or 10th man.
— Anonymous A-10 coach, via NJ.com
Uhhhhhhh…. that is not not the most positive scouting report! To say Rivera would be the 9th or 10th man on a good team is a backhanded compliment at both he and Seton Hall.
The coach implied that the Pirates are not a good team. He also implied that Rivera is not good enough to get real minutes on a good team. Brutal. It might be the nicest way of saying “he stinks.”