Seton Hall basketball: An inside look at the new practice facility

Posted by Admin October 8, 2024 Basketball

SOUTH ORANGE – In the southeastern corner of Seton Hall University’s campus, amid a noisy chorus of chainsaws and jackhammers, a long-awaited vision is becoming reality.

The $55 million “Seton Hall Basketball Performance Center,” a dedicated space for the men’s basketball program built as a three-story extension onto the Richie Regan Recreation and Athletic Center, is well on its way to completion one year after ground was broken.

The framework for the 44,000-square foot facility is finished, with a 13,000-square foot gym as the centerpiece. Director of Athletics Bryan Felt said the goal is for it to be furnished “by the end of the calendar year, and sometime in January we can inhabit it.”

A long time coming

The project, which Felt said was funded by a “50/50 split” of donations and a bond, is being built by the Red Bank-based construction firm Torcon, which also recently renovated the university’s student center. In keeping with Seton Hall’s high-major peers, the facility will allow the men’s basketball program to have distinct training spaces instead of sharing with other sports – and elevate the team from practicing in the cramped basement-level auxiliary gym.

The addition also creates more space in the old footprint for the women’s basketball program, which will move into the current men’s hoops offices above Walsh Gym, get a new locker room, team lounge, film room and sports medicine space. The women’s volleyball program is getting a new locker room as well. Felt said the eventual goal is for the auxiliary gym to become indoor turf space for the baseball, softball and soccer teams.

The seeds for this expansion have been germinating for about a decade, but it took time to line up the fundraising and necessary permits. Over the past few years the world of basketball recruiting has changed, with name-image-likeness deals supplanting facilities as a driving factor. That said, Seton Hall’s behind-the-times accommodations were a practical and reputational hindrance.

“We can’t not have the best facilities for our student-athletes,” Felt said, noting that fellow Big East schools St. John’s and DePaul are embarking on similar upgrades and Providence unveiled one in 2018. “I know there were detractors who said, ‘You shouldn’t do this now.’ If we didn’t do it now, when were we going to get to it? We got it off the ground at the time we could get if off the ground – and we worked so hard to this point, we wanted to see it through.”

A lounge named for a legend

Pirate basketball coach Shaheen Holloway tours the nascent performance center “just about daily,” Felt said, and has had significant input into its contents. Those contents include:

∎ The 13,000-square-foot gym with a main court, five side baskets, and on-court film-viewing capability. At one end of the main court is a movable glass wall fronting the team’s weight room. The other end, also glassed in, faces the entrance atrium with a view to the Mike Sheppard, Sr. softball field.

∎ A player’s lounge named after Pirate basketball legend Walter Dukes. The lounge will contain a gaming system, ping-pong table and couches and has a glass southern wall facing the softball field. It will feature a plaque commemorating Dukes, a first-team All-American who led the Hall to the 1953 NIT title and a pioneer who helped desegregate the sport.

“The donor who gifted this, who wants to remain anonymous, wanted it named after Walter Dukes,” Felt said.

∎ A third-story dining area, directly above the lounge, with tables and chairs and a veranda overlooking the softball field. Felt said both Holloway and his predecessor Kevin Willard stressed the importance of the dining area for team meals. In the current setup, they take place in the locker room.

∎ A three-story, atrium-style glass entrance lobby with a large hanging video screen, a view of the practice court, and men’s basketball trophies on display. The outside features a giant, illuminating Pirate head and a donor wall, the details of which will be announced later in October.

∎ A weight room, equipment and laundry room, sports medicine center, and a “recovery room” with massage chairs. Previously these were shared with other programs.

∎ A third-level conference room that overlooks the practice court, with balcony seating for visitors and a kitchenette so it could double as event space for donors.

∎ A locker room with six flat-screen TVs and an illuminating Pirate head on the ceiling, plus an adjacent sauna, steam room and hydrotherapy pools.

∎ A film room, which was a late addition at Holloway’s request (Willard preferred to show film in the locker room).

∎ Coaches’ offices and a “recruiting room” that overlook the practice court. On display in the recruiting room will be models of jerseys worn by Pirate players through the decades.

On paper, for folks who are familiar with the campus’ compact footprint, it’s hard to grasp how much facility space has been added to a corner that previously contained maybe a hundred parking spots.

“Everyone we take though here says the same thing: ‘I can’t believe what you were able to get out of this,’” Felt said. “It’s a remarkable use of space.”

Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.