For three years at the Prudential Center, Jack Fortin rooted like crazy from his baseline courtside seat for Kadary Richmond.
Fortin is a leader of the Blue Beard Army, the student section at Seton Hall basketball games, and Richmond gave them plenty to cheer about. The dynamic point guard helped the Pirates average 21 wins a season, reach an NCAA Tournament and capture an NIT title.
Then he transferred out for his final year of eligibility, and not to just any school – to Big East archrival St. John’s, whose billionaire booster publicly boasted about poaching him.
On Saturday Richmond returns to Newark for the most anticipated game on the Hall’s schedule (8 p.m. tip, Fox Sports 1). Fortin and his cohorts, who sit just a few feet away from the Johnnies’ bench, will be ready.
“We’re out for blood at courtside,” the senior said. “He had options to go other places and make money, but he had to pick St. John’s and the evil Rick Pitino. It’s like going from the Sox to the Yankees. So the Blue Beard Army, we’re ready. We’re going to give him a nice welcome.”
The students in the front row plan on spelling out a special written message for Richmond. They’ll offer a classic verbal greeting, too.
“He’s going to hear the boos,” Fortin said. “It’s a slap in the face, what he did.”
Welcome to college basketball in 2025, where players change schools like socks – and sometimes flip to a rival. Richmond is the first Pirate ever to transfer within the Big East, a maneuver made possible by the onset of free agency.
The Hall did get a St. John’s transfer in 2023 – guard Dylan Addae-Wusu – but there was no outcry from the Johnnies’ faithful about it because the newly arrived Pitino was reshaping their roster.
Richmond’s departure was different. He was a star at the Hall, earning first-team All-Big East honors after averaging 15.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.2 steals last winter. And he’d reached that level thanks in no small part to Pirates head coach Shaheen Holloway, who’d polished the gem in a way that Richmond’s previous coaches could not.
Although Richmond’s move across the river had a strictly business feel – he seemed to genuinely enjoy his time in South Orange, but St. John’s was wielding a much larger name-image-likeness war chest – it felt deeply personal to many Hall fans. They’ll be processing that as the red-hot Johnnies (15-3 overall, 6-1 Big East) look to beat the struggling Pirates (6-11, 1-5) for just the second time ever in Newark.
This is what four of them, all season-ticket holders, had to say about it.
The torn fan
Glenn Stackhouse is the father of two Seton Hall grads who’s held season tickets since 2016.
“Rationally speaking, he absolutely had every right to do it – if the difference in money was that stark, more power to him,” the 61-year-old Wharton resident said. “But the fan in me is pissed. I dropped $35-40 bucks to buy a ‘Kooks Corner’ T-shirt last year, so it kind of hurts. Now I’m hesitant to buy specific merchandise for a player because they could just leave. So that part of me is a little salty – that sticks in my craw a little bit, from an emotional, visceral standpoint.”
Stackhouse said he rarely boos anyone at games “except maybe the officials,” and he hopes to not make an exception for Richmond.
“He has the right to go where he wants, and I as a fan have the right to not like that he went to our archrivals,” he said. “That’s the dichotomy of being a human being and a sports fan. You’ve got your visceral side and you’ve got your intellectual side, and never the two shall meet.”
So will he boo?
“I don’t think I’m going to boo – but will I get caught up in the moment?” Stackhouse said. “I like to think that the mature side of me will show some courtesy, but I do believe people have the right to boo.”
What bugs him most about Richmond’s move is that it came at the expense of perhaps the most loyal Pirate in modern times – a guy who turned down Duke as a recruit and rebuffed overtures from Louisville as a coach.
“It was Sha who was able to tap into his potential and knew how to get the most out of Kadary,” Stackhouse said. “It feels like it was a little slap in the face to our coach.”
The grateful fan
Scott Passner graduated from Seton Hall in 2001. He’s had season tickets since 2019, bringing his son Brian, now 11, to every game. Last year, during an event at Walsh Gym, Richmond gave Brian a signed pair of his sneakers. Scott bought a Richmond sweatshirt for Brian, which the young man wore proudly to the post-NIT celebration on campus.
“At the NIT celebration, Kadary signed his sweatshirt and took photos with him,” Scott said. “He was always so good with the kids.”
Seeing Richmond and some other Pirates, including standout wing Dre Davis, transfer out a few weeks later was depressing for Passner and other fans.
“This situation is so heartbreaking and sad because if the money was there, Kadary would still be here,” Passner said. “As a 46-year-old adult, how can I say to Kadary to not take that money?”
Passner said so far this season he’s been rooting for Richmond, whose production has dipped (10.7 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 4.7 apg), in part because St. John’s has a deeper roster.
“I will be cheering for him during introductions Saturday, although I might get punched in the head,” Passner said. “But when the game starts, he’s the enemy.”
Like Stackhouse, Passner feels bad that Holloway now has to face off against the star he forged.
“What Sha did for Kadary’s game, the coaching he got in South Orange, can never be repaid,” Passner said.
The sweatshirt and shoes Richmond signed will not be at the Rock. They’re staying home in East Brunswick, in a closet.
“We got a Gus Yalden jersey and an Isaiah Coleman jersey,” Passner said. “The fear is what happens next.”
Coleman, a junior wing, has emerged as the Pirates’ newest star.
“Seton Hall has to be doing everything in their power to make sure Isaiah is back next year,” Passner said.
The heated students
Transferring out is a way of life in college basketball now. Most fans accept that. It’s not so much who transfers, but how they do it, that ultimately shapes a legacy. Davis is playing his final season at Ole Miss – out of sight, out of mind.
“Dre Davis, seeing him go was painful because he left it all on the court, but he’s got a family (a young daughter) and there are other factors,” Fortin said. “If Kadary went to Duke or Texas, it would have been like, ‘Darn, what are you going to do? At least we don’t have to see him.’
“But going to St. John’s and having to play him twice a year, it’s awful.”
Jack Bosworth, another student-section leader and a member of Seton Hall’s Big East champion golf team, echoed that sentiment.
“Dre did the more respectful thing,” Bosworth said. “You don’t go to a rival like that. It’s that much more of a sting.”
Ticket sales for Saturday are coming close to selling out the Prudential Center’s lower bowl, and for many of the 9,000-plus fans who will be in attendance, this will be more than a game. It will be a therapy session.
A loud one.
“There’s going to be a lot of boos, especially at the start,” Bosworth said. “He does play a lot, so it’ll be tough to boo him every time he touches the ball. But we’ll make our presence felt.”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
