Rutgers-Seton Hall basketball banquet: Oh, the stories

NUTLEY – Dan Callandrillo was in his mid-30s, running a restaurant and long removed from his days as a college basketball star when he got a phone call asking for help.

It was Seton Hall coach George Blaney putting in a special request for the former Pirate guard: Could Callandrillo help in the recruitment of McDonald’s All-American Shaheen Holloway?

So Callandrillo did what he knew best: He showed up at Holloway’s high school – St. Pat’s in Elizabeth -- in high tops to take on the rising star in a little one-on-one. St. Pat’s coach Kevin Boyle thought he was nuts.

“Kevin said, ‘You can’t defend this guy,’” Callandrillo told a banquet of Seton Hall and Rutgers fans Friday night. “I said, ‘Kevin, he can’t defend ME.’”

In Callandrillo’s retelling he held his own, got Holloway's attention and earned a follow-up meeting at his bistro on South Orange Avenue.

“I told him, if Duke wants you, go,’” Callandrillo said. “But Seton Hall is a school for guards.”

Everyone at the banquet knew the ending – Holloway picked the Hall, and is now the program’s head coach – but this was the kind of insider tale that flowed for three hours at Mamma Vittoria’s in Nutley at the second annual RU-SHU Hoops Banquet. Organized by “The Front Office,” a basketball events group helmed by Seton Hall alums Pat Lawless and CJ Nobile, the gala featured eight former Hall and Rutgers players and 100-plus fans in advance of Sunday’s Garden State Hardwood Classic between the schools. It was emceed by John Fanta, who is on the play-by-play call of Fox Sports 1’s television broadcast Sunday.

Rutgers-Seton Hall: Garden State Hardwood Classic scouting report, prediction

Stories, stories, stories

Originally conceived as a one-off event to celebrate the return of the rivalry last year after a COVID-induced hiatus in 2020, the 2021 gathering was such a hit that the organizers decided to make it an annual pregame staple. Friday’s panelists were Callandrillo, Jerry Walker, Bryan Caver and Ike Obiagu representing Seton Hall, and Hollis Copeland, Rick Dadika, Austin Johnson and Geo Baker representing Rutgers. The Boardwalk Trophy, which will be awarded to Sunday’s winner, was there as well.

The highlight of the night was the former players’ answers to questions from audience members. These were hardcore hoop-heads who asked smart questions and got eye-opening responses.

Asked about how far Rutgers basketball has come since his arrival as a freshman, Baker said he and his teammates couldn’t even get into campus parties that year.

“We had to sneak in a back door,” he said.

Now he can’t even buy a drink anywhere in New Brunswick.

Baker also recalled traveling to his first Big Ten Tournament and two unnamed teammates only packing one set of underwear. They expected to be one-and-done.

“That was the mindset; now we expect to win every game,” he said.

Caver spoke of Pirate players sneaking out of their hotel the night before the 1991 Big East Tournament final to get haircuts in the Bronx and returning well after curfew. They got caught by assistant coach Mike Brown, who threatened to tell head coach P.J. Carlesimo – unless they won the final the next day (they did, and Carlesimo never found out).

Walker recalled his recruiting visit to Syracuse and speaking to Orange star Derrick Coleman before practice. When practice began and coach Jim Boeheim told Coleman to jump into the team drills, Coleman blew him off with a “can’t you see I’m talking?”

Walker, who played high school ball for St. Anthony legend and noted disciplinarian Bob Hurley, was aghast.

“I knew I couldn’t go there,” he said of Syracuse. “I needed structure in college.”

Dadika recalled opening a back door to the RAC so a bunch of family and friends could sneak into the 1989 Atlantic 10 Tournament final (which Rutgers won on his game-clinching shot). Copeland described games at the “Barn,” where Rutgers’ 1976 Final Four team rang up opponents as paint chips fell from the ceiling and the aroma of chlorine from the adjacent pool wafted through the air. Johnson, who is the Scarlet Knights’ radio broadcast analyst, said Thursday’s officiating debacle at the end of Rutgers-Ohio State was even more of a gut-punch than his 2011 experience, as a player, of officials Jim Burr and Tim Higgins walking off the floor before the end of Rutgers’ Big East Tournament robbery against St. John’s. Obigau said Seton Hall's 2019 game at the RAC was over "by the first whistle" and described how stunned the Pirates were at Rutgers' 14-0 start (and, needling Baker, predicted an easy Hall victory Sunday).

Caver and Walker answered an important query: Do they root for rising national power UConn, which is coached by their former Hall teammate Dan Hurley?

“No” and “hell no.”

Walker described the scene of Seton Hall’s 1991 game at Rutgers when RAC denizens got under Danny’s skin by chanting “Bobby’s Better,” a reference to older brother and Duke star Bobby Hurley.

Moving moment

A moving moment took place when former Pirate standout Glenn Mosley, who was in the audience, rose to tell Copeland how much he loved watching him play -- and hated going against him.

“I had nightmares about you coming in from the right side,” said Mosley, who led the nation in rebounding in 1977.

Callandrillo also spoke of how, as a kid, he admired Copeland and those scintillating Rutgers teams of the 1970s. Afterward, they posed together for a photo with the Boardwalk Trophy. It was a fitting snapshot: Although tension will be high on the court and in the stands Sunday, the camaraderie across the rival programs was evident among the former players.

A third-team AP All-American and Big East Player of the Year as a senior in 1982, Callandrillo was a fire hose of stories all night. He commuted from his North Bergen home to Seton Hall because he couldn’t stand the campus food. At one point his coach, (now TV legend) Bill Raftery, called him into a meeting. Callandrillo thought it was because he’d been cutting a sign language class (Callandrillo’s parents were deaf, so he just showed up on the day of the final exam and aced it).

“Raf said, ‘You have $2,000 worth of parking tickets,’” Callandrillo said. (It remains unclear who paid them).

Shortly before his senior year, Callandrillo learned that Raftery was leaving the Hall and offered to transfer wherever he was going.

“You can’t go there,” Raf told him. “It’s ESPN. I’m going to be on television.”

Callandrillo was incredulous.

“That’ll never work out,” he told Raf. “Who's gonna watch sports 24/7?”

Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers-Seton Hall basketball banquet: oh, the stories