Shaheen Holloway smiled and admitted the obvious: Saint Peter’s is fortunate — fortunate that star senior KC Ndefo wanted to return, fortunate that no other schools were smart enough to know what they could’ve had, fortunate that a scholarship happened to open up.
“If I didn’t have the scholarship, we wouldn’t be here,” the Saint Peter’s coach said on Tuesday, as his team was engulfed by a media storm befitting the Peacocks’ Cinderella status as just the third 15th seed in NCAA Tournament history to reach the Sweet 16. “It’s just that simple.”
After last season, the talented forward entered the transfer portal, catching Holloway off guard after initially telling him he wanted to say. Ndefo, a 6-foot-7 shot-blocking menace from Elmont, N.Y., who went from an unranked and under-recruited prospect into one of the best players in the MAAC, was intrigued by what else was out there, according to his adviser, Will Carter. He wanted to challenge himself against better competition. He visited Texas Tech and had Zoom calls with coaches from Missouri and BYU, among others. But the process didn’t work out as expected for Ndefo.
“He was a little frustrated with coaches promising him things and then going out there and recruiting other guys,” Carter said. “He was feeling like something wasn’t right about the [different] situations.”
During this time, Ndefo and Holloway weren’t talking. New assistant coach Rasheen Davis was pushing the idea of his return to Carter and Holloway, the adviser said. Teammates kept in contact with Ndefo, feeling him out without pushing him in one way or another. But Holloway was preparing to be without him.
“I didn’t think he was coming back,” he said. When Davis and others suggested to Holloway they should re-recruit him, the coach said: “I’m not reaching out to him.”
Without an opportunity arising to Ndefo’s liking, late in the summer he expressed interest in returning. A scholarship, however, wasn’t open. But then, in late August, Miles Gibson, poised to transfer from Eastern Michigan, decided Saint Peter’s wasn’t right for him. Holloway and Ndefo spoke for the first time in several months.
“I want to come back,” Ndefo, the three-time MAAC Defensive Player of the Year, told Holloway.
But Holloway wanted to know why.
After getting the player’s explanation that he didn’t find what he was looking for in the transfer portal and felt returning to Saint Peter’s was the right move for him, Holloway said: “All right, come on home then.”
“What helped was he was with me for three years,” Holloway said. “I knew what I was getting, he knew what he was getting.”
It wasn’t necessarily a smooth return for Ndefo. Since he wasn’t vaccinated, he wasn’t able to rejoin the team until late October. Saint Peter’s struggled initially, starting 3-6. Ndefo scored in double figures in just two of his first eight games. His minutes were down and his impact was minimal.
It turned for him, and the Peacocks, in mid-December. Saint Peter’s had a 26-day COVID-19 pause. Ndefo, now vaccinated, wasn’t one of the players who tested positive. In that time, he was able to get up to speed. He was terrific in the MAAC Tournament, averaging 13.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.3 blocks, and in the NCAA Tournament he keyed the second-round upset of No. 7 Murray State, with a monster game of 17 points, 10 rebounds, six blocks and three assists.
“He’s really the heart and soul of our team, and he’s our senior leader,” Saint Peter’s leading scorer Daryl Banks III said.
With Ndefo hitting his stride, the Peacocks reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 11 years, and then made history by earning the school’s first two NCAA Tournament victories. They’ve become celebrities, this year’s Cinderella darlings. And Ndefo has been in the middle of it all.
“It honestly is crazy,” the senior said. “I try to stay the course and be grateful for what is going on, because anything could’ve happened.
“If I wasn’t here today to be here in March Madness with my brothers, I probably would regret it.”