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.