Seton Hall basketball adds transfer center Elijah Hutchins-Everett amid roster upheaval

Help is on the way for Seton Hall basketball’s depleted frontcourt.

Elijah Hutchins-Everett, a center from Essex County who played the past two seasons at Austin Peay, announced his intention to transfer to the Pirates Friday.

Here are three things to know about Hutchins-Everett, a sophomore who has two years of eligibility remaining.

1. He’s a true center.

At 6-foot-11 and 255 pounds, Hutchins-Everett possesses desperately needed size, and he’s produced at the mid-major level. Over two seasons at Austin Peay he averaged 11.9 points and 6.1 rebounds in 26 minutes per game. He shot 49.4 percent from the floor, .695 from the free-throw line and took the occasional 3-pointer (.317). Austin Peay finished 9-22 this past season, including 3-15 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

2. He committed to Penn State out of high school.

The Orange native, who attended Immaculate Conception in Montclair and then Putnam Science in Connecticut, originally committed to Penn State as a three-star recruit but decommitted after the Nittany Lions forced out head coach Pat Chambers. After entering the transfer portal in March he drew interest from Virginia, Vanderbilt, St. Louis and Loyola-Chicago.

3. The frontcourt rebuild is underway.

Hutchins-Everett figures to get major minutes underneath, but Holloway’s ideal scenario is to platoon his bigs to keep defensive legs fresh. To that end, keep an eye on 6-foot-10, 245-pound graduate transfer Jaden Bediako of Santa Clara as another potential portal addition at center. Thursday's surprise portal entry of freshman forward Tae Davis, who figured prominently into the Hall’s plans for next season, means the Pirates need a power forward or two as well.

Here is a look at Seton Hall’s projected scholarship depth chart for 2023-24, with five open scholarships remaining.

Guards: Kadary Richmond, Al-Amir Dawes, Dylan Addae-Wusu, Jaquan Sanders, JaQuan Harris.

Wings: Dre Davis.

Bigs: Elijah Hutchins-Everett, David Tubek.

Upheaval in South Orange

Seton Hall basketball’s season ended March 14. Since then six Pirates have entered the transfer portal and three players have committed. This revolving door is mostly a product of the wild west landscape of college basketball right now – with full-blown free agency caused by a combination of the portal and the infusion of name-image-likeness cash (which in many cases has morphed into straight pay-for-play transactions).

But the turnover at Seton Hall has been particularly concerning for many fans because the Pirates’ success over the past several years was mostly a product of identifying and developing under-the-radar recruits and transfers over multiple seasons. Current head coach Shaheen Holloway had a big hand in that as Kevin Willard’s top assistant, and he replicated the formula to great success at Saint Peter’s.

Now, when contributing players like Tae Davis and guard Femi Odukale are hitting the transfer portal after one season in South Orange, that advantage seems blunted if not entirely negated.

The ways to cope with that are to find the best possible fits – a process Holloway is still feeling out entering his second year at the helm – and to execute an NIL strategy that retains players and helps Holloway land the transfers and recruits he deems “best fit” guys. The latter requires a war chest, and the Hall seems to be behind many of its Big East and high-major peers.

The timing of the introduction of full-blown free agency was particularly poor for Seton Hall, which is elbow-deep in a multi-year effort to build a $40 million practice facility to replace the decrepit basement gym the Pirates currently use. That project has encountered approval hurdles with South Orange officials but seems likely to finally get underway in the coming months. It’s also been the donation destination of choice for many of the school’s most monied alumni and boosters – the kind of people who, at peer schools, are funding NIL war chests.

Conversations with insiders indicate that change is in the works in terms of improving and elevating the NIL strategy and building the war chest, with concrete steps to be taken in the immediate future. Is that too late for the 2023-24 roster, which desperately needs more size and another shooter?

That remains to be seen.

Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Seton Hall basketball adds transfer Elijah Hutchins-Everett