If Seton Hall women’s head basketball coach Anthony Bozzella thought nothing could be as chaotic as the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season, he was about to discover things would only get worse.

When the team reported for the 2020-21 season, many classes were online and pandemic restrictions were still in effect. Players were required to take meals in their rooms, go to practice, then come back to their rooms and study by themselves. 

Three COVID-19 pauses interrupted the season. Bozzella himself contracted the virus during the first week. He spent five days in the hospital, but complications affected him for several months. He credits his daughter Samantha, who is about to graduate from physician’s assistant school at Saint Elizabeth University in New Jersey, for taking care of him and possibly saving his life.

“It’s something I never could have imagined,” said Bozzella, who is beginning his ninth season at The Hall. “I was really lucky. I didn’t feel good at all last year, that was part of it. I feel so much better now. I’m back to being myself.”

Amid all the uncertainty, the players turned to the one constant they could count on for support: each other.

“The coaches, they understood what we were going through,” recalled junior point guard Lauren Park-Lane, a 2021-22 Preseason All-Big East Team and 2022 Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List selection. “They were there for us. With our team, we don’t have a lot of locals so we really had to get through it together.”

Assistant coach Lauren DeFalco took over in Bozzella’s absence, which lasted about a month. Despite pleas from the school and his family, Bozzella attempted to come back. In hindsight, he admits that wasn’t the best decision.

“If I could do it all over again, I would have stayed out longer,” Bozzella said. “I was never the same. I never felt good all year.”

Despite the various fits and starts, the Pirates finished 14-7 overall, 12-5 in the Big East. They earned the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament, and got as far as the quarterfinals before falling 83-76 to Creighton. For the first time in program history, the Pirates landed three players on the All-Conference First Team: Park-Lane, senior Desiree Elmore, and transfer guard/forward Andra Espinoza-Hunter.

Following the loss to Creighton, the team waited expectantly for an NCAA Tournament bid, certain their strong finish in a tough conference would assure them a spot.

The bid never came, and Bozzella didn’t hide his disappointment. The Pirates were selected for the WNIT, but decided to opt out for health and safety concerns.

“It’s a scam,” Bozzella said of the tournament selection process. “I really felt we were overlooked and disrespected.”

If last season’s roller-coaster ride taught the Pirates anything, it was to appreciate the return to a somewhat normal existence this season. Fans will now be able to return, and the timing couldn’t be better. Walsh Gym was recently renovated to include a new scoreboard, video board and state-of-the-art NBA-style floor.

“You don’t realize unless you were doing it last year how hard it was to play in those empty gyms,” said DeFalco, who was promoted to associate head coach this past summer. 

“It was like you were in a scrimmage and trying to motivate the kids. It was brutal, it was different.”

In eight seasons at Seton Hall, Bozzella holds the best winning percentage in modern program history with a 147-99 record. He’s reached the postseason five times with two NCAA Tournament appearances. The Pirates were poised to make the postseason in 2020 until the shutdown occurred. Over a 29-year coaching career that includes stints at Iona, LIU Brooklyn and Southampton College of Long Island University, Bozzella has compiled a 453-417 mark.

In his first season with the Pirates, Bozzella led the team to just its sixth postseason appearance in program history, finishing 20-14 and advancing to the third round of the conference tournament for the first time. They won their first Big East regular season title in 2015.

Bozzella’s ability to rebuild programs is remarkable. In 2005-06, he guided Iona to its first winning season in 23 years, tying for third in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and advancing to the conference tournament semifinals.

In just two seasons at LIU Brooklyn, he led the team to the Northeast Conference and an automatic NCAA Tournament berth. Before his arrival, the team had not posted a winning record in 21 years. In similar fashion, it took him just three years to guide Southampton College to its first winning record in program history.

But the X’s and O’s don’t tell the whole story. Bozzella’s passion for the game is contagious. It’s one of the main reasons Park-Lane was drawn to the program. The Wilmington, Delaware native played five seasons at Sanford School in Hockessin, where she was a four-time All-State selection and guided the team to a state title as a senior.

“Coach B is like an extension of myself,” she said. “He’s very high-energy, in love with basketball. He’s passionate about it. That’s one thing me and him have in common, that’s why we get along so well. If I were to be coaching, I would be coaching just like Coach B.”

The Pirates are projected to finish third in the Big East preseason poll. They return four of their top five leading scorers, including Espinoza-Hunter (18.6 points per game), Park-Lane (17.5), and three-point sharpshooter Mya Jackson (10.6).

Espinoza-Hunter, a transfer from Mississippi State, didn’t join the team until the middle of last season. But she quickly turned heads during conference play, scoring in double figures in 16 of the 17 games she started. She nailed seven three-pointers in a game twice, tying for the second-most in a single game in team history.

The Pirates are counting on three transfers to make strong contributions in the frontcourt. Sidney Cooks, a 6-4 redshirt senior forward/center who has 347 career rebounds and 65 blocked shots at both Mississippi State and Michigan State, will reunite with Espinoza. Named one of ESPN HoopGurlz’s top five prospects out of St. Joseph Catholic High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Cooks was a McDonald’s All-American and Wisconsin Girls Basketball Player of the Year.

“I haven’t coached a player as good as Sidney Cooks in a long time,” Bozzella said. “She’s so skilled and so talented. She’s just such a different weapon than we’ve ever had.”

Katie Armstrong, a 6-foot-2 graduate transfer from Fairfield University, averaged 10.9 points and a team-high 6.6 rebounds per game. West Virginia 6-foot-3 senior forward Ariel Cummings will add additional frontcourt depth.

The challenges of last season have made the players more mature and determined to reach the next level. Playing in a tough conference like the Big East doesn’t intimidate them; in fact, they embrace the stiff competition.

“We’ve had teams in the past that were scared,” DeFalco said. “Our kids aren’t. We don’t ever want to change that. We want them to think they’re going to win every game.”