CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Latrell Reid is the last man standing.
Or, sitting, in this case. Because of the four Saint Peter’s players who spoke to the media Wednesday, from a makeshift stage deep in the belly of Spectrum Center, only Reid could answer the questions everyone wanted to ask:
Have you thought about having the same type of Cinderella run you guys had in 2022?
That’s the thing. Reid is the only one of those “guys” left standing — the only active player left from the legendary Elite Eight run Saint Peter’s went on two seasons ago. Every other player has either transferred out of the program or run out of eligibility. (Oumar Diahame, a backup center on that team who had two steals vs. Purdue in the Sweet 16, is technically still on the roster, but has not played in two seasons due to knee injuries. Guard Brent Bland redshirted that season.) Most of the coaching staff is gone, too — including then-head coach Shaheen Holloway, who returned to his alma mater of Seton Hall.
Which leaves Reid.
“I’ve been getting those questions probably since the day after we won (the MAAC tournament),” Reid said, smiling inside a cramped locker room. “It’s fine, though, because it brings back memories.”
For him, but also for the rest of the college basketball universe. Memories of how Saint Peter’s — a private Jesuit school in Jersey City, N.J., one with 2,000 undergraduates — pulled off one of the NCAA Tournament’s all-time Cinderella runs. Those Peacocks famously upset No. 2 Kentucky in their first game, then No. 3 Purdue in the Sweet 16, to become the lowest seed ever to reach the Elite Eight. North Carolina stopped the Peacocks from making the Final Four, but still: memories.
But in the weeks after that miraculous run, piece by piece, Saint Peter’s broke apart. Stars KC Ndefo (Seton Hall) and Doug Edert (Bryant) transferred out. Holloway got the Seton Hall job. Two of Reid’s other teammates — Jaylen Murray (who transferred to Ole Miss last summer) and Isiah Dasher (who ran out of eligibility last season) — also stayed one additional season, but the rest left.
Reid never really considered doing the same. That miraculous run came during his first season in Jersey; he’d just arrived from Coffeyville (Kansas) Community College, and didn’t want to restart his life a third year in a row.
He pauses his story here, looks up from his locker, and grins.
The other reason he stayed?
“Because where was I going?” he jokes. “Honestly.”
That authenticity is appreciated. Reid knows he was not a star on the team that captured America’s attention — he did not suit up in any of the Peacocks’ victories, and only played one minute vs. North Carolina, grabbing a rebound and dishing an assist — but he was still there. Along for the ride. Straddling the shock of the nation, vs. the belief of his “brothers” in the locker room.
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞: 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐎𝐧𝐞✅@MarchMadnessMBB#StrutUp🦚 | #Toughness pic.twitter.com/eIEepN9ChY
— Saint Peter’s Men’s Basketball (@PeacocksMBB) March 20, 2024
One example? Reid still remembers the first open practice Saint Peter’s had, the day before its eventual 85-79 overtime win vs. Kentucky. “I went back to my phone, and people were saying we were a warm-up game for Kentucky,” Reid said. “Then when we beat them, they were like, hold on. It’s serious.”
The specific memories Reid has are different from the ones we all do, though. He remembers Murray State’s band, midway through the Kentucky game, playing in support of the Peacocks; one of the Saint Peter’s assistant managers even got up and pretended to direct the band. Or how, seconds after the buzzer sounded vs. Kentucky, all he wanted to do was celebrate with his teammates … “but our coach was yelling at us to get in line and shake hands,” Reid adds, laughing.
Then the exodus came, and all of Reid’s friends left. In one offseason, he went from little-used first-year to legacy piece, someone for new coach Bashir Mason to build around.
But even as Mason was trying to rebuild the Peacocks in his image — get them back to this point, where they’ll face off against a different No. 2-seeded SEC team (Tennessee) on Thursday — he realized that the memory of that run endured.
“When you pick up the phone and call and you say Saint Peter’s, most kids say, ‘Man, I watched you guys make a run! I was cheering for you guys,’” Mason said. “Once they stop ranting and raving, I usually follow it up with, ‘Hey… that wasn’t me. I’m the guy that replaced that guy.’”
One of those recruits, sophomore and leading scorer Corey Washington, remembers watching that run from afar. But cool as that was, it paled in comparison to actually meeting Reid and the other holdovers when he first got to campus. “Talking with them and seeing them on my visit,” Washington says, “it was like, ‘Oh s—, this is real.’”
The challenge, then, is not letting that run become an all-time anomaly. Last season, Mason’s first year as head coach, the Peacocks went 14-18, finishing 10th in the MAAC. That led to an offseason conversation between Mason and Reid. Mason asked Reid — a one-time Division I baseball hopeful who walked onto Saint Peter’s back in 2021-22 — if he realized the opportunity in front of him.
“What I talked to him about was going from that baseball player walk-on to now probably becoming one of the most decorated players in Saint Peter’s history if he could lead us back here, and I meant that,” Mason said. “That kid took it to heart — and we’re here.”
And for the upset-inclined college hoops fan? There are signs, albeit small ones, that these Peacocks may be similarly feisty in the Big Dance. They won their first conference tournament game by two, won on a buzzer-beater vs. top-ranked Quinnipiac in the semifinals, and then came back from a seven-point halftime deficit to win the MAAC championship over Fairfield. Stylistically, they do not score like the Saint Peter’s of two seasons ago, but defensively? They swarm all the same. It wouldn’t be a surprise, against a much larger Tennessee team, if Mason threw out a bunch of defensive looks: man-to-man, switching everything, even some 1-3-1 zone.
Whatever it takes to latch onto another meteor.
After Saint Peter’s beat Fairfield, Reid’s phone blew up. The gang — Holloway, Murray, Ndefo — all hit him up, congratulating him on another tournament appearance. “Those are my guys,” Reid said, adding that he still stays in touch with everyone from the Elite Eight group.
He also understands this time is different. A different team, yes, but also a different trajectory. Those Peacocks — equal parts because of their name, their cast of characters, and their results — captured America’s heart.
Reid knows it will be much tougher this time around. No sneaking up on anyone. “I don’t think anybody,” he said, “is going to take us as a joke.” Plus: How many once-in-a-lifetime runs can you squeeze into three years?
We’re about to find out.
“Yes, we appreciate it. Yes, we will think of it. We use it mostly as motivation,” Washington said. “Like, this could be us. It’s possible.”
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(Photo of Mouhamed Sow: John Jones / USA Today)
