Shaheen Holloway gets into heated argument following Seton Hall’s win over Wagner

On Saturday, Seton Hall defeated Wagner 72-51 to improve to 4-0 on the young season, but the college basketball world was far more interested in learning more about what transpired in the handshake line. You see, it’s widely believed that Shaheen Holloway took issue with Donald Copeland applying a full-court press on Seton Hall’s bench when the game was out of reach. As Holloway approached Copeland after the final buzzer sounded and extended his hand, he appeared to discuss the matter with Copeland in a calm fashion initially. However, it was clear that Copeland’s response to Holloway’s concern wasn’t satisfying in the slightest, because Holloway proceeded to aggressively yank his hand away from Copeland and begin walking in the opposite direction.

Wisely, Holloway owned up to his mistake in his postgame press conference, stating “I take full responsibility for that. I like Donald. I respect him. He’s a good person, a good player and a good coach.” When the situation was brought to Copeland’s attention after the game, the Wagner head coach mentioned that, “I am embarrassed. I want to apologize to my team for what went on, I have a ton of respect for Sha. He’s a competitor, I’m a competitor too. That’s part of what went on. It’s unfortunate what happened for him and me. …But I want to coach my team from start to finish.”

If you’re Shaheen Holloway, you have to comprehend that every team’s end-of-game objective will be different. I genuinely believe that Holloway’s apology was well thought out and sincere, but in the moment, there was no reason for him to get upset about Copeland’s bunch practicing their press. No, we’re probably not going to manufacture a double-digit comeback, but why can’t we make productive use of the final few minutes of the contest? As long as we focus on our individual teams and refrain from intentionally causing harm to players on the floor, there shouldn’t be any issues to address in the handshake line. Hopefully, Holloway will learn from this unfortunate experience and make smarter decisions in the future.