by JP Pelzman
Trove correspondent
NEW YORK – Despite his talent, Myles Powell is a team player, first and foremost, so keep that in mind when you read the following quote from him.
He was asked Saturday, after Seton Hall’s pulsating 84-83 overtime win over ninth-ranked Kentucky, if he had made a conscious decision to look for his own offense more after taking only four shots in the first half.
“I just had to find it in the offense,” Powell said in the Madison Square Garden interview room. (The World’s Most Famous Interview Room?) “Coach (Willard) told me, ‘stay patient. Things are going to open up. Just keep working hard and then try to get out in transition. And some things started to open up.”
The next quote, said in The World’s Most Famous Hallway, was more on point, much like the five threes Powell banged home in the final 10:30 of the game. “After the Louisville game, I kind of took it personal,” Powell said of the 70-65 loss at the Prudential Center a week before, in which he shot 2-for-12 from three-point range and air-balled a potential game-tying trey in the closing seconds.
“It hurt. It hurt me a lot. I was crying after the end of the game, stuff that I usually don’t do, and I texted Coach and I told him we will never lose like this again. I felt like I lost us the game on defense by losing a shooter and on offense by air balling” his last shot.
Powell was referring to the fact he wasn’t covering Louisville’s Ryan McMahon, who made a huge three-pointer to give Louisville a four-point lead in the final minute of that game.
Kentucky (7-2) certainly wasn’t sloughing off Powell once he got hot, but it didn’t matter. Even with a hand in his face, Powell was money down the stretch in regulation, capping it with a corner three that gave The Hall (6-3) a 70-67 lead with--at first--1.1 seconds to go.
On the play, Powell outmaneuvered defender Immanuel Quickley and then came to a jump stop, creating just enough space for his fallaway three. But soon afterward, the officials--Mike Roberts, Joe Lindsay and Jeff Anderson--convened for the dreaded replay review, and put 1.5 seconds on the clock. That proved to be quite meaningful when Kentucky’s Keldon Johnson swished a shot from half-court to send the game into overtime.
Johnson appeared to get the shot off with about four-tenths of a second remaining, which means if the Wildcats had only 1.1 seconds to play with, it might have been disallowed. (For what it’s worth, a look at the replay of Powell’s shot shows the ball had fully come out of the net with 1.3 seconds to go. So although 1.5 seconds may have been a bit excessive, Kentucky deserved more than 1.1.)
Powell admitted his initial reaction was “damn.” “Everybody was stunned,” he said. “The kid just hit a half-court shot. … I told the guys, ‘let’s just stay together and keep our heads up.’ I learned so much from the seniors about keeping my composure and knew (that calmness) would trickle down to the younger guys.”
Much like the second half, overtime was a hotly contested affair. Seton Hall led 81-77 before Kentucky rallied with six straight points. That left it up to Cale.
On the game-deciding play, Quincy McKnight drove into the lane, trailing by two, and drew a triple team. He passed to Taurean Thompson, who pump-faked from three, went inside the three-point line, and then passed to an open Cale. His pump fake made Kentucky’s PJ Washington sail by, and then he calmly drained the three from the right wing.
Cale had the confidence to take the shot despite having been 3-for-17 from the field at that point.
“Myles Cale, he’s like my little brother,” Powell said. “We share the same name. I love having him by my side every day in practice. I just told him stay with it. Your time is going to come. He took a page out of my book that looked like one of my threes--pump fake, sidestep. He’s watched me do it in practice. They always make fun of my shot, but it helped him today.”
“My coach tells me to always be ready,” Cale said. “You never know when the ball is going to come your way. … No second thoughts. It was going up.”
And once McKnight partially blocked Johnson’s three-point attempt on the other end, Kentucky had been taken down. And coach Kevin Willard’s sport coat and dress shirt soon would be soaked in the locker room, necessitating him showing up for the post-game interviews with a Seton Hall T-shirt.
“I started it,” he said, smiling. “It was me. They got me (after) Miami, I got them here. I can’t blame them for throwing the water. I threw the water first.”
Fitting, after the rain of threes by Powell and Cale.
COMMENTS
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
Trove correspondent
NEW YORK – Despite his talent, Myles Powell is a team player, first and foremost, so keep that in mind when you read the following quote from him.
He was asked Saturday, after Seton Hall’s pulsating 84-83 overtime win over ninth-ranked Kentucky, if he had made a conscious decision to look for his own offense more after taking only four shots in the first half.
“I just had to find it in the offense,” Powell said in the Madison Square Garden interview room. (The World’s Most Famous Interview Room?) “Coach (Willard) told me, ‘stay patient. Things are going to open up. Just keep working hard and then try to get out in transition. And some things started to open up.”
The next quote, said in The World’s Most Famous Hallway, was more on point, much like the five threes Powell banged home in the final 10:30 of the game. “After the Louisville game, I kind of took it personal,” Powell said of the 70-65 loss at the Prudential Center a week before, in which he shot 2-for-12 from three-point range and air-balled a potential game-tying trey in the closing seconds.
“It hurt. It hurt me a lot. I was crying after the end of the game, stuff that I usually don’t do, and I texted Coach and I told him we will never lose like this again. I felt like I lost us the game on defense by losing a shooter and on offense by air balling” his last shot.
Powell was referring to the fact he wasn’t covering Louisville’s Ryan McMahon, who made a huge three-pointer to give Louisville a four-point lead in the final minute of that game.
Kentucky (7-2) certainly wasn’t sloughing off Powell once he got hot, but it didn’t matter. Even with a hand in his face, Powell was money down the stretch in regulation, capping it with a corner three that gave The Hall (6-3) a 70-67 lead with--at first--1.1 seconds to go.
On the play, Powell outmaneuvered defender Immanuel Quickley and then came to a jump stop, creating just enough space for his fallaway three. But soon afterward, the officials--Mike Roberts, Joe Lindsay and Jeff Anderson--convened for the dreaded replay review, and put 1.5 seconds on the clock. That proved to be quite meaningful when Kentucky’s Keldon Johnson swished a shot from half-court to send the game into overtime.
Johnson appeared to get the shot off with about four-tenths of a second remaining, which means if the Wildcats had only 1.1 seconds to play with, it might have been disallowed. (For what it’s worth, a look at the replay of Powell’s shot shows the ball had fully come out of the net with 1.3 seconds to go. So although 1.5 seconds may have been a bit excessive, Kentucky deserved more than 1.1.)
Powell admitted his initial reaction was “damn.” “Everybody was stunned,” he said. “The kid just hit a half-court shot. … I told the guys, ‘let’s just stay together and keep our heads up.’ I learned so much from the seniors about keeping my composure and knew (that calmness) would trickle down to the younger guys.”
Much like the second half, overtime was a hotly contested affair. Seton Hall led 81-77 before Kentucky rallied with six straight points. That left it up to Cale.
On the game-deciding play, Quincy McKnight drove into the lane, trailing by two, and drew a triple team. He passed to Taurean Thompson, who pump-faked from three, went inside the three-point line, and then passed to an open Cale. His pump fake made Kentucky’s PJ Washington sail by, and then he calmly drained the three from the right wing.
Cale had the confidence to take the shot despite having been 3-for-17 from the field at that point.
“Myles Cale, he’s like my little brother,” Powell said. “We share the same name. I love having him by my side every day in practice. I just told him stay with it. Your time is going to come. He took a page out of my book that looked like one of my threes--pump fake, sidestep. He’s watched me do it in practice. They always make fun of my shot, but it helped him today.”
“My coach tells me to always be ready,” Cale said. “You never know when the ball is going to come your way. … No second thoughts. It was going up.”
And once McKnight partially blocked Johnson’s three-point attempt on the other end, Kentucky had been taken down. And coach Kevin Willard’s sport coat and dress shirt soon would be soaked in the locker room, necessitating him showing up for the post-game interviews with a Seton Hall T-shirt.
“I started it,” he said, smiling. “It was me. They got me (after) Miami, I got them here. I can’t blame them for throwing the water. I threw the water first.”
Fitting, after the rain of threes by Powell and Cale.
COMMENTS
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
