Seton Hall's Myles Powell
Kevin Willard had a firm grip on his cardboard coffee cup as he took a swig from it when he was asked how much he misses the celebrated Seton Hall trio of Angel Delgado, Khadeen Carrington and Desi Rodriguez.
As he formulated his answer, you could forgive the coach if he had something a lot stronger than coffee in that cup as he spoke.
“It happens to me everyday I walk into practice,” Willard said. “I miss them. I miss their personalities, I miss being around them and I’m going to miss them basketball-wise. If I said anything otherwise, I’d be nuts.”
It was a group that produced one BIG EAST Tournament championship and three NCAA Tournament appearances during their stay in South Orange. And when they left last spring they took a combined 5,331 career points with them into graduation.
In a league that lost a truckload of talent to both graduation and the NBA last year, perhaps no program was hit harder than the Pirates.
“Losing that star power, that’s a lot,” junior guard Myles Powell said. “Angel is the best rebounder ever in college basketball and Desi and Khadeen were both 1,000-point scorers and top five in Seton Hall history. So just losing that, both on the court and off the court, we miss those guys a lot. They were more than just big brothers to us. They always put us first, they cared for us.”
So with so much talent now out the door, it was no surprise that the Pirates were picked eighth in the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches’ Poll. Well, at least it wasn’t a surprise to Willard.
“It’s kind of where we should be picked,” Willard said. “If you look at the production that we lost, points and rebounds, just from that stat alone. It’s something that we’ve talked about as a team. We have a lot of work to do. But I like the way this group is working, I like the leadership we have so far. Quincy McKnight and Myles Powell have been phenomenal on the floor. There’s good energy and they’re working hard but as far as preseason rankings, we’re probably where we should be.”
That leadership Willard spoke of will mainly fall on the shoulders of Powell, the Pirates’ top returning player. Last season, playing in the shadows of Delgado, Carrington and Rodriguez, Powell averaged 15.5 points a game and was named the conference’s Most Improved Player. He has also emerged as one of the conference’s more lethal long-ball threats as evidenced by his 162 three-pointers in his first two seasons.
“Yes, I want to be the leader,” said Powell, who was named Pirates’ co-captain along with senior Mike Nzei. “Watching those seniors since I was a freshman, I learned a lot from them. I have a lot of knowledge and I’m ready to lead and pass that knowledge on to the freshmen. The best part about our younger guys is I know they look up to me and I know they want to listen and want to get better. When they come and ask me questions, I’m like, ‘Wow, they really want to learn.’ So it’s easy when you have guys like that.”
Though The Hall’s losses were extensive, it’s not as if the talent cupboard is bare. The 6-8 Nzei shot 57.6 percent from the field last season and sophomore guard Myles Cade is someone who Willard believes is ready to take his game up another level. The same holds true for 6-10 sophomore Sandro Mamukelashvili, who was third in blocks last season with 16 and who shall be known going forward as simply Sandro.
But it’s newcomers Quincy McKnight, a transfer from Sacred Heart, Taurean Thompson, formerly of Syracuse, and massive 7-2, 245-pound Romaro Gill (Vincennes Junior College) that has Willard optimistic because while the threesome sat out last season as transfers, they were able to use their sit-out season to bond with each other.
“The good thing about this group is that Myles has been through it, Mike has been through it and Sandro and Myles Cale went through it last year,” Willard said. “But also having Quincy sitting out and Romaro sitting out and Taurean sitting out is that’s it’s a group that has been together so it’s not all new. So we have eight guys who have played together for two-plus years.”
Willard hopes all that bonding the last couple of years pays off this season as a very challenging non-conference schedule will precede the always rough-and-tumble world of BIG EAST conference play. The Pirates will have their hands full as they prepare to battle Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Saint Louis (the preseason top team in the Atlantic 10) and a rejuvenated Nebraska program that is expected to battle for Big 10 supremacy this season. So does Willard worry that the schedule might be a little over the top?
“Every night,” Willard said. “Every night. But I think the schedule is going to be good for us. It’s going to test us. When you are a little bit younger you can get kind of a false sense of security playing an easier schedule coming into this league. I like my team, I want them to be battle-tested and we put together an extremely tough schedule to test them.”
The one thing Willard said he won’t worry about, however, is his team’s confidence level.
“I think today’s kids, I don’t think any kids really lack for confidence,” Willard said. “And as a team, you play against better teams to see what your weaknesses are so you can work on them. I like the challenge that these guys are going to get.”