Angel Delgado

Classroom

Angel Delgado is majoring in Social and Behavioral Sciences at Seton Hall and currently has a cumulative grade-point average of 3.017. He has twice earned BIG EAST All-Academic team honors, in 2014-15 and 2015-16, for earning a GPA of 3.0 or higher in a single academic year. He also was named to the Seton Hall University Dean’s List in the fall of 2015.

Delgado has contributed to many team academic honors. In each of the last three years, Seton Hall men’s basketball has earned the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate Public Recognition Award for producing an APR score in the top 10 percent in the nation. The team also earned the NABC’s Team Academic Excellence Award in 2017.

Character

Delgado is a terrific teammate, and he has often been quoted in the media saying that he will do whatever it takes to help his teammates win championships. He has an incredible work ethic, putting in hours upon hours of voluntary work in the gym over the last two summers to improve his skills and tone up his body. This work ethic developed from a challenging childhood in the Dominican Republic. Though he loved living in the Dominican Republic, he knew that to have a better life for his family, he had to move to the United States. Upon coming to the U.S. to get a better education and play basketball, he struggled to adjust because of the language barrier, as he only spoke Spanish. However, he persevered through the challenge, which included going to three different high schools, to find a home at Seton Hall, where he has flourished not only as an athlete, but also as a person. He credits Seton Hall University as the home that has helped turn him into a man.

Community

Delgado is one of the most popular student-athletes at Seton Hall, and it is mostly because of his personality and his interactions with fans and the community. In each of the last three years, he has volunteered at Freshman Move-In Day, helping incoming freshmen and their parents move belongings into the dorms. Also in each of the last three years, he has participated in Seton Hall’s Pen Pal Day, making friends with children who are excited to interact with student-athletes. Delgado has also participated in community involvement through hospital and soup kitchen visits and has volunteered his time at America’s Grow-A-Row, helping harvest vegetables for donation to New Jersey food pantries.

Delgado’s interactions with his young fans have helped shape his personality. He always signs autographs and poses for pictures with fans after every home game, and he famously had a moment of pure joy when he hugged one of his biggest fans courtside after an emotional win over Marquette. The moment was captured in a photo and was the lead in a feature story on him.

Competition

Delgado is one of the fiercest competitors in college basketball and has developed into the one of the best players in Div. I. He took the BIG EAST by storm as a freshman, starting all but one game and nearly averaging a double-double to earn him BIG EAST Rookie of the Year honors. As a sophomore, he enhanced his offensive game and helped Seton Hall win the 2016 BIG EAST Tournament championship and guide the Pirates to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 10 years.

As a junior, after an incredible summer of workouts, he put it all together to become an All-American, leading the NCAA in rebounding (13.1 RPG) and finishing second in double-doubles (27). He set a BIG EAST single-season record for rebounds in conference games (253), and in all games he grabbed over 200 more rebounds than anyone else in the league. He also became the first BIG EAST player to ever grab 20 or more rebounds in back-to-back conference games. He was a first-team All-BIG EAST selection and was named the Metro New York Player of the Year, and he helped the Pirates to a second-straight NCAA Tournament selection.

Delgado is on all the national player of the year watch lists for 2017-18 and entered the year as the only active Div. I 1,000-point, 1,000-rebound student-athlete as well as the active Div. I leader in career rebounds and double-doubles.