NEW YORK — While Seton Hall was busy winning the biggest game of the Kevin Willard Era on Sunday afternoon at the Prudential Center, Tiny Morton was watching the game on TV in a Manhattan restaurant with his Lincoln High School players.
“We all watched it at a restaurant,” Morton told me in the Baruch College gym later Sunday after Seton Hall knocked off No. 5 Xavier, 90-81, to ensure its first NCAA Tournament bid since 2006.
During the Seton Hall game, Morton and Lincoln were awaiting their own contest, which turned out to be a 96-54 beatdown of Queens High School of Teaching in the PSAL AA quarterfinals at Baruch. Lincoln will next meet Westinghouse in the semifinals on Saturday at St. John’s.
Morton, who has won eight PSAL titles and three state titles and coached NBA players Stephon Marbury, Sebastian Telfair and Lance Stephenson, was on the Seton Hall staff as an assistant during the 2014-15 season, but opted to return to coach Lincoln before this season began.
He says he talks to his former Lincoln players Isaiah Whitehead and Desi Rodriguez “all the time,” but doesn’t feel like he’s missing out on anything as the Pirates head to the NCAAs. Seton Hall’s next game is Wednesday night at Butler.
“No, I’m where I’m supposed to be at,” Morton said.
Morton also teaches math at Shirley Tanyhill School, and says he plans to remain at that level teaching and coaching for the foreseeable future.
“I got four more years to have my 25 years in teaching, so I think it’s smart to have my 25 so I can retire from teaching and explore something else,” he said. “It was always my plan to get out when I had those 25 years, but opportunity came earlier so I tried it out.”
That opportunity came in the form of a job offer from Willard in what was widely perceived as a package deal with Whitehead, a McDonald’s All-American who committed to Seton Hall in the fall of 2013.
St. John’s was among those also recruiting Whitehead at the time, and Morton openly said at the time he had spoken with then St. John’s coach Steve Lavin about a position.
Sources said Morton wanted a coaching job and also wanted Whitehead to be guaranteed a starting position in college.
St. John’s at the time had a slew of experienced guards in D’Angelo Harrison, Phil Greene, Sir’Dominic Pointer, Jamal Branch and Rysheed Jordan and was in no position to offer Whitehead such a role.
On top of that, Lavin was perceived by many as lame-duck coach at the time. He was fired in the spring of 2015, and Chris Mullin was hired to replace him.
In the end, Whitehead chose Seton Hall and Morton went along.
Now, Seton Hall is headed to the NCAA Tournament while Mullin and St. John’s are in the midst of a massive rebuilding process. The Johnnies are 8-22, 1-16 in the Big East, but they do have the league’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class for 2016 and are still in the mix for impact players Rawle Alkins and Thon Maker.
“Coach Willard is a guy who’s hungry,” Morton said in 2013, shortly after Whitehead chose Seton Hall. “He didn’t win any championships so he’s going to probably do what he’s gotta do to make sure everybody is successful.”
Several months later, in December 2013, Rodriguez pledged to Seton Hall, too, just as he was blowing up on the recruiting circuit. Iona was involved and Morton said Oklahoma had called the same day Rodriguez committed to Seton Hall.
Morton said he checked with Willard to make sure it was OK to bring Rodriguez along. This was in December 2013, even though Morton wasn’t officially introduced as an assistant coach at Seton Hall until July 2014.
“I just felt like the addition of Angel [Delgado] and Khadeen [Carrington] and Sterling [Gibbs] was the real major reason why Isaiah and Desi committed to Seton Hall,” Morton said. “It wasn’t more or less about Isaiah and the rest of those guys, it was the mixture of upperclassmen they had over there also.”
As for last season’s collapse after a 13-3 start that jeopardized Willard’s job, Morton said it was tough for everyone involved.
“It was tough for everyone with the hype of Isaiah and a couple of guys transferring,” he said. “It got kind of tough but we all knew the talent was there.”
Whitehead is now firing on all cylinders and was named Big East Player of the Week on Monday after averaging 23.5 points, 7.0 assists and 4.0 blocked shots in wins over Providence and Xavier.
Rodriguez was named to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll after head 27 points and 12 rebounds the Xavier game and averaged 19.0 points and 10.0 rebounds on the week.
Though several NBA scouts and experts said they don’t believe Whitehead is ready for the NBA at this point, due to the new rules he could opt to test the waters and work out for an NBA team or attend the Chicago Pre-Draft Combine to get feedback from NBA personnel.
“That’s a perfect time for a guy like him also,” Morton said.
He added: “I think winning helps. The better he plays, the better it’s going to be for him. I hope he’s not thinking like that [about the NBA], I hope he’s thinking about winning these games.”
Morton also said he’s especially happy for Rodriguez, who was dominant against Xavier.
“I’m more or less hoping that Isaiah’s supposed to play like that,” Morton said. “I’m more happy for Desi because he wasn’t as publicized as Isaiah and Khadeen and Gngel. He’s making his way right now.”
As of now, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has Seton Hall as a No. 7 seed playing in Brooklyn against No. 10 VCU. That would mean a return home for Whitehead and Carrington for the first and possibly second rounds.
“We all saw it coming last year,” Morton said. “Those guys just have to have some patience.”
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