Before I name my list. I must remove Jeremy Hazell from consideration because he wasn’t a Kevin Willard recruit and only played 1 season (18 games due to injury) for coach. For that same reason I will count Theodore and Pope for consideration but devalue their rank for only contributing two seasons under the “Willard Era.”
Myles Powell
- Consensus All American
- Jerry West Award Winner
- Big East POY
- 2X - All Big East
- BE Most Improved Player
- 3rd All time in program scoring (2252 points)
- Program leader in 3 point FGs made (348)
- BE Regular Season Title
Myles takes the #1 spot because of his lengthy resume of accolades, 4 years of contributions to the program, his dynamic performances (29 games 25+ points scored and 12 games 30+ points scored), his ability to lead the team to the dance during a rebuilding year, and being the #1 guy on a team that reached a national ranking as high as #8.
Isaiah Whitehead
- All American Honorable Mention
- Big East - 1st Team
- BET Champion
- BET MVP
- Big East - All Rookie Team
- 2nd in BE scoring - 2015-16
- 3rd in BE assists - 2015-16
Whitehead could arguably be the most talented player under the Kevin Willard era and the most influential in terms of returning Seton Hall to national relevance. During the second half of his sophomore season he put together a stretch of basketball in which he could have been considered the best player in college basketball.
Over those final 17 games he averaged 21.2 ppg, 5.7 apg, 1.8 bpg, 1.4 apg, and shot 41% from 3.
He ultimately led the Pirates to a memorable victory of the BET in which they knocked off #5 Xavier and eventual national champion Villanova in back to back nights.
Angel Delgado
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar winner
- 1st Team All BE
- 2nd Team All BE
- Big East ROY
- 2nd All Time BE history - Total Rebounds and Rebounds per game (includes all games)
- 2nd All Time Program history in rebounding (1455)
- 8th All Time program history in rebounding average per game (11.02)
- 17th All Time program history in scoring (1593)
- BET Champion
- 3 time NCAA tournament participant
- 72 career double doubles.
Angel was a dominant rebounder, 24 times finishing with 15+ rebounds in a game, twice he recorded a 20 point / 20 rebound performance, most notably in his final career game vs Kansas in the NCAA Tournament. Angel was not as important as Isiah Whitehead in putting Seton Hall back on the map, but was instrumental in keeping them there as a perennial BE contender.
Khadeen Carrington
- 2nd Team All Big East
- BET Champion
- 3 time NCAA Tournament participation
- 29 career games with 20+ points scored
- Best performance: 41 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, 4 steals over #20 Creighton
- 10th All Time program scoring list (1846 points)
- T-3rd All time program - games played (132)
- 8th All time program - 3 pt fgs made (189)
- 11th All time program - free throws made (433)
- 13th All time program - assists (388)
- T-19th All time program - steal (138)
Although Carrington didn’t bring home the same amount of hardware and national recognition as the first 3 players on this list, he was a steady as a rock for the Pirates program.
KC is only one of 4 players in program history to record 1800+ points, 400+ rebounds, and 300+ assists in a career.
He joins Myles Powell, Andre Barrett, and Terry Dehere on this list.
During an interview with Shaheen Holloway on LCP we asked who was the best Pirate he saw play and his answer was Khadeen Carrington. That speaks volumes for me and as Sha also said, “the numbers don’t lie.” Also think about where those numbers might be if he wasn’t asked to play out of position his senior season.
Desi Rodriguez
- BE All 2nd Team
- 3 time NCAA tournament participant
- BET Champion
- Led team in scoring - 2017-18 (17.5 ppg)
- 1657 points scored - 13th All time
- 630 rebounds - 21st All time
- 138 steals - T-19th All time
- 139 3 pt fg made - 14th All time
Desi clearly was an enigmatic player, as he had issues staying out of Kevin Willard’s dog house from time to time. But when Rodriguez was performing at his peak by his senior season he was one of the most difficult matchups for an opposing defense. We all knew Desi was going left and yet you still couldn’t stop him. He also consistently improved year over year from his frosh season to when he graduated. Especially adding the 3 point shot to his arsenal as a consistent weapon (37% over his final 3 years). He also became a trusted go to scorer for Willard down the stretch as illustrated by his game winners @ Louisville and vs Texas Tech at MSG.
Jordan Theodore
- 1371 - Career Points - 29th all time
- 541 - Career Assists - 4th all time
- 180 - Career Steals - 10th all time
- 1227 minutes played single season - 2nd all time
- 226 assists single season - 1st all time
In his first two season Jordan Theodore played in the shadow of Eugene Harvey as his back up. However, by the time his senior season rolled around he put together one of the best individual seasons as a PG in program history. Led the team in scoring (16.1 ppg) and in assists (6.6 per game). He set the program single season record for most assists and would have broken the minutes played record if they had more sustained post season success. Only Andrew Gaze (13 minutes more) has logged more time in a Pirate season. He was an absolute warrior for the Hall that year as the Pirates challenged for a tournament bid only to fall short after losing to lowly Rutgers and DePaul to end the year. If they would have made the NCAA tournament, I feel Theodore would be held in higher regard for what he accomplished his senior season.
Sandro Mamukelashvili
- Big East POY
- All Big East 1st Team
- 1100 Career Points
- 651 Career Rebounds
- BE Regular Season Champs
Sandro was an integral part of the 2019-20 team that was Tri-BE Regular season champs. He was also the focal point of other teams defenses on the 2020-21 team that challenged for a NCAA tournament bid during the Covid-19 shortened season. Sandro is only the 3rd Pirate to ever win BE POY honors, that alone requires inclusion on this list.
Fuquan Edwin
- BE defensive POY
- 2nd Team All Big East
- Led NCAA in steals (102) in 2011-12
- 7th All time - BE Career Steals List
- Program career leader in steals - 295
- Program single season leader in steals - 102
- 1633 Points Scored - 15th All time
- 172 3 pt Fg made - 12th All time
Some of these defensive numbers speak for themselves, and his scoring totals are vastly underrated. However Fu played on some poor Seton Hall rosters that didn’t produce a lot of success. The year he led the Pirates in scoring (16.5 ppg) the Hall finished BE play 3-15. So they lack of postseason success kicks him down on the overall ranking and impact of these numbers.
Those are my top 8.
I am ok with debating the bottom group with guys like Cale, Rhoden, Pope, Gibbs, McKnight etc.
If I had to I would go
9. Pope
10. Rhoden
