The Saint Peter's Peacocks authored one of the great Cinderella stories in the history of sports. In 2022, as a 15-seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Peacocks stunned second-seeded Kentucky in overtime — with Doug Edert's mustache becoming a national sensation — then beat Murray State and third-seeded Purdue to reach the Elite Eight. It was the first time a 15-seed had ever reached a regional final, and Jersey City, New Jersey, became the center of the basketball universe for two weeks.
Shaheen Holloway, the Seton Hall legend coaching his tiny neighbor across the Hudson, became a March immortal that spring — his defensive game plans dismantling blue blood after blue blood. KC Ndefo's shot-blocking, Daryl Banks III's scoring, Matthew Lee's steady hand: the Peacocks played with a swagger that belied their budget, pressing, confident, and utterly fearless. When it was over, Holloway left for the Seton Hall job, and Saint Peter's had to figure out what comes after a miracle.
The answer was Bashir Mason. Hired on April 12, 2022 — a Jersey City native, one of the most decorated young coaches in the country, a winner at Wagner — Mason was named the 16th head coach in program history and went to work turning a moment into a program. In 2024, he brought the MAAC trophy back to Jersey City, winning the conference tournament and returning the Peacocks to the NCAA Tournament. The Cinderella story had a sequel.
The 2025-26 season was Mason's best coaching job yet. Picked 11th in the MAAC preseason coaches' poll, the Peacocks finished second: 17-11 overall, 14-6 in conference play — just the fourth 14-win league season in school history. They went 13-1 at home, the best mark since the 14-0 team of 1983-84, and undefeated at home in conference play for just the second time ever. A semifinal loss to seventh-seeded Fairfield ended the run, but the message was sent: Saint Peter's doesn't need a miracle to contend.
The engine was defense and thievery. Guard Brent Bland averaged 14.3 points and 2.3 steals per game — 22nd in the nation in steals — a one-man wrecking crew. Bryce Eaton, a preseason All-MAAC Second Team pick, ran the show at 10.6 points, 3.9 assists (seventh in the MAAC), and 3.1 rebounds, with a week for the ages against Manhattan and Siena (21.5 points, 4.5 assists). Zaakir Williamson (9.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 49 percent shooting) gave them a physical interior presence, and Elijah Perkins was a lockdown defender whose dunk in the Fairfield win landed No. 1 on SportsCenter's Top 10.
The staff is a Jersey City story in itself. Assistant Keydren Clark — the program's all-time great, whose 2,726 points rank among the most in NCAA history — now develops the next generation of Peacock guards. Pete Cipriano, Scott Rodgers, and Vince Johnson round out a staff that knows exactly what this program is.
The 2026-27 roster is built on continuity and seniors. Eaton returns as the junior floor general, flanked by senior guards Elijah Perkins, Ken Walker, and Bryson Wilson, and senior forwards Trey Patterson and Akil Watson. Juniors Shaedon Simpson, Xavier Thomas, Robert Wilmote, and center Jonathan Noudjihidi add experience, sophomores Phoenix Glassnor and Bourgeois Tshilobo step into bigger roles, and freshman Mason Santiago brings new blood. It's a veteran group in a league where veterans win.
The identity hasn't changed since 2022: defend, disrupt, believe. The Peacocks guard like their season depends on it — because it does. In the MAAC, where the margins are thin and the gyms are loud, Saint Peter's plays with the chip of the little school that once conquered March. Run Baby Run Arena — the tiny gym in Jersey City — remains one of the great home-court advantages in the league: 3,200 seats, all noise, all belief.
The MAAC landscape is unforgiving — one bid, no margin for error — but Mason has the Peacocks positioned as annual contenders, not one-hit wonders. The 2024 title proved 2022 wasn't lightning in a bottle. The 2025-26 second-place finish, from 11th in the preseason poll, proved the program's floor is rising. For his efforts, Mason landed on the ABIS Coaches Watchlist and was named a finalist for the Ben Jobe Award — the sixth such nod of his career — as the top minority head coach in Division I.
The recruiting pitch writes itself now: come to Jersey City, guard for 40 minutes, and play in front of a building that knows what March feels like. The Peacocks recruit the metropolitan area's toughness — Newark, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Toronto — and Mason's staff, led by a program legend in Clark, sells development over promises. The MAAC tournament path runs through Atlantic City, and the Peacocks have been there before. They know the building, the lights, and the feeling of cutting nets.
Year five is about the next banner. The Elite Eight will always hang in Run Baby Run, a monument to the possible. But Mason's Peacocks aren't chasing a memory — they're building the kind of program where March is an expectation, not a miracle. In Jersey City, Cinderella grew up. She's still wearing blue and white, and she's still dangerous.