Isaiah Whitehead is returning to Seton Hall to play basketball.
No, the Most Outstanding Player of the 2016 Big East Tournament is not using his final two years of eligibility.
But he will suit up in Walsh Gym this summer as the leader of the Pirates’ entrant into The Basketball Tournament (known as TBT), an intercollegiate alumni tourney that airs on Fox Sports 1 and offers $2 million in prize money to the winning squad.
And it’s not just Whitehead repping his alma mater. The Brooklyn native has recruited two other starters on the Hall’s 2016 title team to play alongside him – fellow guard Khadeen Carrington and wing Desi Rodriguez. Also committed are guard Anthony Nelson, forward KC Ndefo, and centers Romaro Gill and Darnell Brodie.
“It’s time,” Whitehead said by phone. “With Seton Hall’s struggles with NIL and things like that, this will be a good spark for the program, to get fans back and rejuvenated. There’s nothing like having guys who did what the program is striving to do come back and show face again.”
Seton Hall alum Ryan Mulvaney, an attorney and sports agent who is the team’s de facto general manager, said 2016 sixth man Derrick Gordon and former All-Big East wing Jared Rhoden are considering joining the team if their schedules allow. Elisha Boone, Seton Hall’s director of player development and a former teammate of Whitehead’s at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, will serve as the coach.
Angel Delgado, the star center of the 2016 squad, is sidelined by a recent surgery but is expected to make an appearance.
“Angel said he’s going to come,” Whitehead said.
This year’s TBT format is two eight-team brackets – one bracket features alums repping their schools, and another is non-alumni. Seton Hall’s team, named “Hall In,” opens with a best-of-three series against Syracuse, with game one scheduled for July 21, 7 p.m. at Walsh Gym in South Orange and airing live on Fox Sports 1. Game two is July 23 at Upstate Medical Arena in Syracuse (capacity: 7,000). Game three, if necessary, will be July 24 at Walsh.
The July 21 contest at Walsh also will feature a meet-and-greet with players and fans; those details are being finalized.
“The message to fans is come have fun and interact with us,” Whitehead said. “We miss them, they miss us. It won’t just be a game. We don’t get to make a lot of (Seton Hall) games because their season is during our season. So we definitely want to make sure we get in front of fans.”
Like most of his 2016 teammates, Whitehead plays professionally overseas. That’s why they couldn’t stage a 10-year title reunion this past season. He was in Israel until recently, playing there with Rodriguez.
“I left because of the war,” he said. “Desi stayed – Desi lives life on edge. I told Desi, ‘You don’t have kids. I’ve got kids. My daughter is old enough to read the news.’”
Whitehead said he’s trying to recruit more former players just to show up and be part of the event.
“It’s about more than playing – we’re all grown up, and we don’t get to spend much time together anymore,” he said. “It’s different from being in the dorm, when we could knock on each other’s doors. Even guys who don’t play – if they just come and hang around so we can spend time with them, that’s even better.”
‘We kind of rebranded Seton Hall’
Whitehead’s sophomore season began with a ton of question marks and head coach Kevin Willard on the hot seat. It ended with an upset of Villanova in an epic Big East Tournament final and the Hall’s first NCAA Tournament berth in 10 years.
“Our team had so much to prove,” Whitehead said. “We kind of rebranded Seton Hall basketball in terms of attitude. We cemented that we’re not going to be punked, we’re not going to be out-toughed, and I think revived the program in terms of style even more than winning. We put that edge back into the basketball program.
“Now teams come to Seton Hall knowing it’s going to be a dogfight, knowing it’s going to be physical. I think we started that.”
Against a Villanova squad that would go on to win the national championship, Whitehead provided the exclamation point with a game-winning layup and free throw in the closing seconds at Madison Square Garden.
“We’re in the huddle and Willard said, ‘We’re going to get you the ball and go score,’ and that was the simplest a coach could have put it,” he recalled. “Once I saw (Villanova forward Daniel) Ochefu had switched onto me, I knew it was over. My eyes lit up.”
Conquering the Nova Knicks
That Wildcats squad included Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges – three current starters on the New York Knicks who are in hot pursuit of the franchise’s first NBA title since 1973. Whitehead, who played for the Nets after college, said he’s in touch with Bridges and Hart.
“They’re great guys – I’ve congratulated them,” he said. “They’re doing it for my city, so I’m happy and I support them. Hopefully they win it – it will be big for the city.”
What’s it like for him to see Willard coaching Villanova now?
“Man, I think what makes Willard coaching Villanova 1,000 percent OK is that Sha (Shaheen Holloway) is coaching Seton Hall,” Whitehead said. “If Sha wasn’t coaching Seton Hall and Willard was coaching Villanova, I’d be pissed off.”
Holloway was Willard’s right-hand assistant at the Hall from 2012-2018.
“I’m happy for Willard – I didn’t like him at Maryland; I didn’t like him leaving of course, like every other fan,” Whitehead said. “But for him to be back in the Big East and facing Sha at Seton Hall, I’m good with that.”
Whitehead keeps close tabs on the Pirates and he remains tight with Holloway.
“Sha has meant everything,” he said. “From the time I was a high school senior to now, I could always call Sha and talk to him. In order to like Sha, you’ve got to understand Sha. He has a unique way of thinking, a unique way of doing things. He’s the reason we had that attitude I talked about – he instilled that in us.”
‘Transferring is not personal anymore’
On social media, Whitehead has been active in supporting Holloway and cautioning fans to be patient as the coach deals with wholesale roster turnover each offseason.
“There are guys who might be highly skilled, but they can’t handle the kind of scrutiny he’s going to put on them,” Whitehead said. “When he picks guys it’s very strategic, and it comes down to money of course. But even if he had a bigger budget, there are guys he wouldn’t go after because some of those guys, they can’t be coached by him.”
He urged fans to accept the turnover as part of doing business in the free-agency era.
“We’re not the only school dealing with this,” he said “If you’re looking for consistency now, you’re crazy. Any fan that thought Budd Clark or Najai (Hines) was going to stay is insane. Budd might not have a chance to play in the NBA. This might be his chance (to cash in). What we have to learn as Pirate fans is, transferring is not personal anymore.”
That said, Whitehead appreciates that he attended just one college and has a true alma mater. That’s part of the charm of TBT. The other part of his sales pitch to former teammates is how the exposure on Fox Sports could help them land pro-ball gigs next season. Both Whithead and Mulvaney stressed how helpful Seton Hall Athletics has been with the process.
“We want this to be here for years to come,” Whitehead said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can’t play this year but if we keep this rolling, we’ll eventually get to where we want to be roster-wise. We need our fans to help jump-start this, and hopefully that will change some guys’ perspective on playing in it.”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Seton Hall basketball great Isaiah Whitehead is coming back for TBT