More than many Big East schools, there is a dividing line at Seton Hall University between the greats of its past and those of the modern era. While fans can still argue about whether Bobby Wanzer, Bob Davies, or Walter Dukes was the greatest of that earlier era, there is consensus that Terry Dehere was the greatest Seton Hall player of the Big East era.

As late as 1987, Seton Hall's viability as a Big East member was the subject of quiet discussion. In its first eight years, the Pirates were a combined 18-96 in conference play, and winless (0-8) in the Big East tournament. P.J. Carlesimo began the turnaround in 1988 with a 22-13 record and its first NCAA invitation in school history, but still needed to attract a top recruit nationally to take SHU to the next level. They didn't have to look far.

Terry Dehere grew up in the Arlington Gardens section of Jersey City, NJ. In 1985, he enrolled in St. Anthony's HS where, alongside Bobby Hurley Jr. and Jerry Walker, the Friars because one of the New York's area's most respected teams, going 29-1 in 1987 and 30-1 in 1988, culminating in 1989 with a 32-0 record and a mythical national championship. Hurley was signed by Duke while Dehere and Walker stayed closer to home in choosing Seton Hall, which had advanced to the NCAA final versus Michigan.

With the loss of four starters from the 1988-89 team, the Pirates were in a rebuilding mode but Dehere was there from the beginning, starting all 28 games and leading his team with a 16.1 points per game average.

"Terry knew what he wanted from day one and he just worked at it from a young age," his mother Greta told the Los Angeles Times in 1993. "I always knew where Terry was. He'd come home from school and do his homework and as soon as he finished he'd take the ball and go straight out onto the court. He'd stay there until nightfall. He spent all his time on that court. I just had to look through the window and there he was, out there on the court."

Dehere took a major step forward in 1990-91 with a team who was considered too young to contend. "This team is top-heavy with freshmen and sophomores, nine of them," wrote Tony Kornheiser. "This team was coming off a 12-16 season, stuck in the thick mud. No, Seton Hall was nobody's first choice. Not this year. Next year, look out. The year after, wow. But not this year."

"But this team has that sleeper look. It plays that tough, hustling, annoying East Coast defense...Maybe you can't count on this team, but you can dream on it."

A trio of Dehere, junior forward Anthony Avent, and senior guard Oliver Taylor carried the Pirates to an 18-8, 9-7 record heading into the 1991 Big East Tournament. A pair of last second buzzer beaters by Taylor led the Hall to the final versus Georgetown, where in a game filled with 50 combined fouls and 68 free throws between the two teams, Dehere scored 16 to lead the Pirates to a 74-62 win, marking Seton Hall's first ever Big East title and the first team to defeat Georgetown in the final in seven attempts. Dehere followed up the Big East momentum with a remarkable scoring run in the 1991 NCAA's: 26 in a win over Pepperdine, 28 in a win over Creighton, and 28 in a win over Arizona. UNLV held Dehere to just 15 in the regional final, and the Rebels advanced, 77-65.

Oliver Taylor graduated and Anthony Avent was a first round NBA draft pick in 1991, but Dehere was back and so were the Pirates, finishing 23-9 atop a three way tie for the Big East regular season title. Averaging 19 points that season, Dehere led the SHU to a number of big wins down the stretch that season, including 20 points in a 68-64 upset of sixth-ranked Ohio State and 30 points to upset Georgetown, 73-71. The biggest win of the season, however, came on Feb. 11, 1992, as the Pirates ended a 23 game losing streak to Syracuse, 86-76, only to be tripped up by the Orangemen in the Big East tournament semifinals a month later. Earning a second consecutive NCAA bid, Dehere scored 55 points in three games as the Pirates advanced to the NCAA regional final, falling to Duke 81-69. The eventual Final Four MVP, Bobby Hurley, was held to just four points in that game by his old high school teammate, who finished with 21 points in the loss.

In Dehere's senior year, the 1992-93 season was one of the great seasons in Seton Hall basketball history. The Pirates started the season ranked #6 in the nation and that is where they ended it, winning its final eight games of the regular season for a 14-4 Big East record and a 28-7 record overall. Three former St. Anthony players--Dehere, Walker, and center Luther Wright-- led the way, with a fourth St. Anthony's alumnus, sophomore Danny Hurley, not far behind.

Dehere led the Hall in scoring for a fourth straight season with a 22.2 point average and was a factor in nearly every game, with career high 41 in a game at St. John's. His impact was such that Seton Hall took the unusual step of retiring Dehere's #24 jersey while he was still playing, giving him the award before a record crowd of 20,029 at the Meadowlands on March 6, 1993. Dehere did not disappoint, scoring 36 as the Pirates took the season series over St. John's, 92-73, for its first ever outright regular season championship.

"For the first time in a once-bleak history as a member of the Big East, the Seton Hall basketball team has arrived at the end of its regular season, all alone, looking down at the rest of the league," wrote the New York Times.

The senior guard was so popular in New Jersey that a racehorse was named after him. "Dehere", a colt owned by Seton Hall trustee Robert Brennan, became the first horse to sweep three major stakes races at Saratoga since 1916 and was named the Eclipse Award for the outstanding two year old horse that fall.

Terry and the Pirates rolled through a snowy Big East tournament weekend, with wins over Georgetown and Providence before a finals appearance with Syracuse. Shooting 67 percent in the first half, the Pirates led by 14 and never let up in a 103-70 rout, the largest margin of victory in a Big East title game. Dehere, who scored 68 points in the three games, was named the tournament MVP. A week later, his college career ended with 30 points in a second round loss in the NCAA tournament to Western Kentucky that marked the first time Seton Hall had ever appeared three consecutive years in the tournament.

At the time of his graduation, Terry Dehere held the Big East career record for points (2,494) and three point goals (166). In nine NCAA games over three years, he averaged 23.4 points per game. A quarter century later he remains Seton Hall's only three time All-Big East honoree and his second team All-American award is the highest for any Seton Hall player since Walter Dukes in 1953.

The 13th pick of the 1993 NBA Draft, Dehere spent six years in the NBA with three teams before returning to Jersey City in 2002, where he served on that city's board of education and helps develop properties for low-income residents.

"Coming from this community, knowing its ills and temptations and pressures, you can't just walk away from it," he told the Newark Star Ledger in 2010. "I've had a good life. I've been blessed. And if I didn't help the next Terry Dehere, that doesn't make sense to me."