By JP Pelzman
Myles Powell summed it up for all of us who eat, drink and breathe college basketball.
“I went to sleep Wednesday and when I woke up, college basketball was over and it was time for the real world.”
It was an abrupt ending for Powell, Seton Hall and everyone else when concerns about the coronavirus pandemic shut down all sports in the United States on Thursday March 11, including the remaining conference tournaments and March Madness. The season suddenly was over, with no NCAA Tournament, no champion and worst of all, no closure.
“It hurts,” Powell admitted on a conference call Monday. But he also believes he and his Pirate teammates have plenty to be proud of when they look back on this forever incomplete season.
“The way we’ve got to look at it is, we still won a championship,” Powell said, referring to Seton Hall (21-9, 13-5) sharing the Big East regular-season title with Creighton and Villanova. “Yeah, the season ended earlier than we expected, but we lived up to all the expectations. We were picked first in the preseason and we won that. We had a great season and I’m going to try to keep my head up high. Everything that’s going on right now is just crazy."
“Yeah, we shared it, but we haven't had a team win the regular season (since 1993),” Powell added, saying that accomplishment would be his lasting memory of 2019-20. “For me to be a part of that and get a ring and be able to call myself a champion, that's always a positive. I was preseason (Big East) player of the year, I won player of the year, I lived up to that."
“We were preseason No. 1 (in the Big East coaches’ poll) and to back that up, that's hard. We were first the whole year, too. ... We controlled our destiny the whole time and I just think that goes to show you we were the outright best team in the conference. There was never a point in the season where we were No. 2 (in the standings). Not once.”
Still, there is the unanswered question of how far this team could have gone in the NCAA Tournament. Most bracketologists had The Hall as a No. 3 seed after a two-game skid to end the regular season. But a strong showing in the conference tournament at Madison Square Garden might have resulted in a 2.
What does Powell think?
“We had the type of seed where we feel we were in the right situation to make a run,” Powell said. “Once we got to playing basketball where (the opponent) didn’t know what to expect and people didn’t know the plays we were going to run, that’s when we’re at our best."
“I feel like we would have made it to the Final Four. All year everybody said we were a Final Four team, and I think we would have lived up to it, just like we lived up to everything else everybody said about us all year.”
But Powell and all of us will never know, because of the coronavirus. Although Powell, like everyone else, was aware of it, he said Monday he wasn’t worried until last Thursday.
“I didn’t see it happening at all,” he recalled, “because Coach (Kevin) Willard, honestly was pretty much very calm about the whole situation. Wednesday after my press conference (for Big East POY), we met as a team, everybody watched film (of Marquette, their quarterfinal opponent). We were going about it like everything was still going on."
“We woke up the next morning, had a team breakfast, everything was still fine. When the (St. John's-Creighton) game tipped off, I thought everything was going to be OK. But then the big conferences started canceling their tournaments and that's when it hit me that everything was going to be over.”
It finally sank in after the bus ride from NYC back to campus.
“(Assistant coach) Grant (Billmeier) stood up and gave me a hug and said, ‘Thanks for everything',’” Powell said. “That’s when my heart started to get heavy and that's when I realized it might be all over.”
Powell indicated that Willard provided some solace by bringing the team together for a catered meal at his house, just as he had the previous three Selection Sundays, when actual selections were revealed.
“Coach got fried chicken, mac and cheese, yams, steaks,” Powell said. “We had the (Big East) trophy, we wore our March Madness shirts as if it was going to be Selection Sunday. We were just spending time together. He wound up saying that he was very proud of us. ... This is a group of guys that enjoy spending time together, so just to get another day with everybody in the same room, full of smiles, everybody in good spirits, that really helped a lot. And for us to see our championship trophy again, that just reminded us of what we really accomplished.”
And how will Powell look back on what he accomplished?
“Everything I wanted to get out of college I pretty much got,” he said, noting how he topped 2,000 points for his career. The pandemic cost him a chance to catch Nick Werkman for second place on the Hall’s scoring list, and he finished with 2,252, 21 points shy of Werkman. “I missed a couple of games and the season got cut short, but when you look back at it, you're going to see all the things that we had to overcome. My head is up high. We had a great season and I'm just trying to keep my head up high.”
He soon will find out if he will be Seton Hall’s first first-team All-American since the legendary Walter Dukes in 1952-53.
“It would mean the world to me,” he said. “We haven't had an All-American in quite a while here. For me to be able to add that to my legacy here, that would mean quite a lot.”
And how about seeing his number retired by SHU?
“Of course,” he said, “getting my jersey retired, nobody wearing 13 again, moments like that are what you dream of when you watch college basketball and the NBA and you see guys holding up their jerseys and getting their jerseys raised to the rafters. If I had a moment like that, it would be something I would remember for the rest of my life.”
In this time of uncertainty for everyone, Powell still isn’t 100 percent sure of his future plans. Powell left open slightly the possibility of coming back if the NCAA decides to grant seniors an extra year of eligibility given the unprecedented circumstances.
“I would have to sit down with my family,” he said. “I don’t want to close any doors or say I would definitely come back. When I really sit down and think about it, I don't know how much more I could come back to Seton Hall and accomplish. ... If I sat down with guys who are NBA GMs and they told me another year in college would help me, and make me a better player, I would do that.
“So whatever the NBA would need me to do to get to that next level, that's where my mind is at. That's my goal, to get to the next level and stay there. Not just get there, but stay there.”
He said he is in “no rush” to hire an agent, especially with everything, including pre-draft workouts, on hold now.
“Every day we wake up and it's something different,” he said, referring to the health crisis. “I'm just trying to stay level-headed. My head is still up high. … The guys are still around. We're still hanging out. I'm just trying to cherish these moments I have left with my brothers. I have my graduation and everything I came back to college for, my dreams have come true.
“I’m definitely concerned (about coronavirus),” he added. “It’s definitely something you’ve got to be cautious about and pay attention to. But I feel OK. I feel good, and no one around us is sick. No one has those symptoms. All you can really do is pray.”
He hopes the school still can hold graduation ceremonies on May 18. It would be fitting, given the planned site is the Prudential Center, where Powell made so many memorable moments for so many people.
“You guys know how much me getting my degree means to me and my family, and I just don’t want that taken away from me,” he said. “This is one of the biggest reasons I came back, to be the first person in my family to graduate. Not only for myself but I want everybody in my family to enjoy that moment, so hope everything gets back to normal.”
Looking back on the season, he said he enjoyed “pretty much the whole season, watching everybody grow, the sophomores, watching Sandro (Mamukelashvili) come back from his injury and do well--you guys know how much I love my teammates. I feel like everybody took a step forward this year--Ro (Gill), Quincy (McKnight), Jared (Rhoden), Ant (Anthony Nelson), Sandro, MC (Myles Cale), everybody took a step forward.”
A step forward that, sadly, forever will be frozen in time.
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
Myles Powell summed it up for all of us who eat, drink and breathe college basketball.
“I went to sleep Wednesday and when I woke up, college basketball was over and it was time for the real world.”
It was an abrupt ending for Powell, Seton Hall and everyone else when concerns about the coronavirus pandemic shut down all sports in the United States on Thursday March 11, including the remaining conference tournaments and March Madness. The season suddenly was over, with no NCAA Tournament, no champion and worst of all, no closure.
“It hurts,” Powell admitted on a conference call Monday. But he also believes he and his Pirate teammates have plenty to be proud of when they look back on this forever incomplete season.
“The way we’ve got to look at it is, we still won a championship,” Powell said, referring to Seton Hall (21-9, 13-5) sharing the Big East regular-season title with Creighton and Villanova. “Yeah, the season ended earlier than we expected, but we lived up to all the expectations. We were picked first in the preseason and we won that. We had a great season and I’m going to try to keep my head up high. Everything that’s going on right now is just crazy."
“Yeah, we shared it, but we haven't had a team win the regular season (since 1993),” Powell added, saying that accomplishment would be his lasting memory of 2019-20. “For me to be a part of that and get a ring and be able to call myself a champion, that's always a positive. I was preseason (Big East) player of the year, I won player of the year, I lived up to that."
“We were preseason No. 1 (in the Big East coaches’ poll) and to back that up, that's hard. We were first the whole year, too. ... We controlled our destiny the whole time and I just think that goes to show you we were the outright best team in the conference. There was never a point in the season where we were No. 2 (in the standings). Not once.”
Still, there is the unanswered question of how far this team could have gone in the NCAA Tournament. Most bracketologists had The Hall as a No. 3 seed after a two-game skid to end the regular season. But a strong showing in the conference tournament at Madison Square Garden might have resulted in a 2.
What does Powell think?
“We had the type of seed where we feel we were in the right situation to make a run,” Powell said. “Once we got to playing basketball where (the opponent) didn’t know what to expect and people didn’t know the plays we were going to run, that’s when we’re at our best."
“I feel like we would have made it to the Final Four. All year everybody said we were a Final Four team, and I think we would have lived up to it, just like we lived up to everything else everybody said about us all year.”
But Powell and all of us will never know, because of the coronavirus. Although Powell, like everyone else, was aware of it, he said Monday he wasn’t worried until last Thursday.
“I didn’t see it happening at all,” he recalled, “because Coach (Kevin) Willard, honestly was pretty much very calm about the whole situation. Wednesday after my press conference (for Big East POY), we met as a team, everybody watched film (of Marquette, their quarterfinal opponent). We were going about it like everything was still going on."
“We woke up the next morning, had a team breakfast, everything was still fine. When the (St. John's-Creighton) game tipped off, I thought everything was going to be OK. But then the big conferences started canceling their tournaments and that's when it hit me that everything was going to be over.”
It finally sank in after the bus ride from NYC back to campus.
“(Assistant coach) Grant (Billmeier) stood up and gave me a hug and said, ‘Thanks for everything',’” Powell said. “That’s when my heart started to get heavy and that's when I realized it might be all over.”
Powell indicated that Willard provided some solace by bringing the team together for a catered meal at his house, just as he had the previous three Selection Sundays, when actual selections were revealed.
“Coach got fried chicken, mac and cheese, yams, steaks,” Powell said. “We had the (Big East) trophy, we wore our March Madness shirts as if it was going to be Selection Sunday. We were just spending time together. He wound up saying that he was very proud of us. ... This is a group of guys that enjoy spending time together, so just to get another day with everybody in the same room, full of smiles, everybody in good spirits, that really helped a lot. And for us to see our championship trophy again, that just reminded us of what we really accomplished.”
And how will Powell look back on what he accomplished?
“Everything I wanted to get out of college I pretty much got,” he said, noting how he topped 2,000 points for his career. The pandemic cost him a chance to catch Nick Werkman for second place on the Hall’s scoring list, and he finished with 2,252, 21 points shy of Werkman. “I missed a couple of games and the season got cut short, but when you look back at it, you're going to see all the things that we had to overcome. My head is up high. We had a great season and I'm just trying to keep my head up high.”
He soon will find out if he will be Seton Hall’s first first-team All-American since the legendary Walter Dukes in 1952-53.
“It would mean the world to me,” he said. “We haven't had an All-American in quite a while here. For me to be able to add that to my legacy here, that would mean quite a lot.”
And how about seeing his number retired by SHU?
“Of course,” he said, “getting my jersey retired, nobody wearing 13 again, moments like that are what you dream of when you watch college basketball and the NBA and you see guys holding up their jerseys and getting their jerseys raised to the rafters. If I had a moment like that, it would be something I would remember for the rest of my life.”
In this time of uncertainty for everyone, Powell still isn’t 100 percent sure of his future plans. Powell left open slightly the possibility of coming back if the NCAA decides to grant seniors an extra year of eligibility given the unprecedented circumstances.
“I would have to sit down with my family,” he said. “I don’t want to close any doors or say I would definitely come back. When I really sit down and think about it, I don't know how much more I could come back to Seton Hall and accomplish. ... If I sat down with guys who are NBA GMs and they told me another year in college would help me, and make me a better player, I would do that.
“So whatever the NBA would need me to do to get to that next level, that's where my mind is at. That's my goal, to get to the next level and stay there. Not just get there, but stay there.”
He said he is in “no rush” to hire an agent, especially with everything, including pre-draft workouts, on hold now.
“Every day we wake up and it's something different,” he said, referring to the health crisis. “I'm just trying to stay level-headed. My head is still up high. … The guys are still around. We're still hanging out. I'm just trying to cherish these moments I have left with my brothers. I have my graduation and everything I came back to college for, my dreams have come true.
“I’m definitely concerned (about coronavirus),” he added. “It’s definitely something you’ve got to be cautious about and pay attention to. But I feel OK. I feel good, and no one around us is sick. No one has those symptoms. All you can really do is pray.”
He hopes the school still can hold graduation ceremonies on May 18. It would be fitting, given the planned site is the Prudential Center, where Powell made so many memorable moments for so many people.
“You guys know how much me getting my degree means to me and my family, and I just don’t want that taken away from me,” he said. “This is one of the biggest reasons I came back, to be the first person in my family to graduate. Not only for myself but I want everybody in my family to enjoy that moment, so hope everything gets back to normal.”
Looking back on the season, he said he enjoyed “pretty much the whole season, watching everybody grow, the sophomores, watching Sandro (Mamukelashvili) come back from his injury and do well--you guys know how much I love my teammates. I feel like everybody took a step forward this year--Ro (Gill), Quincy (McKnight), Jared (Rhoden), Ant (Anthony Nelson), Sandro, MC (Myles Cale), everybody took a step forward.”
A step forward that, sadly, forever will be frozen in time.
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
