Seton Hall Basketball: Myles Powell could be NCAA’s best scorer in 2019-20
Myles Powell was already one of NCAAB’s better scorers last season. With another year of growth and experience, he could take Seton Hall Basketball to the next level.
Seton Hall Basketball earned a 10-seed last season, but fell in the 1st round to the 7-seed Wofford Terriers by the score of 84-68. A tournament victory is well within reach this upcoming season, however, and senior guard Myles Powell will be the biggest reason why. The Trenton, New Jersey native tested the draft waters but opted to return for one more year.
(Credit to KenPom and sports-reference for statistics and Big East Conference for GIFS)
As Powell has improved over his college career, the main “storyline” has tended to revolve around the significant weight loss he’s gone through. This upcoming season, however, the “storyline” should simply be about how great he is at the college level.
Efficiency
The 6-2 guard was one of the best scorers in the nation last season. What’s made him special is not only his scoring volume, but the efficiency with which he’s put up his numbers. Last season, only four players met each of the following criteria (per sports-reference):
- Greater than or equal to 23.0 points per game
- Greater than or equal to 36.2 percent 3-point percentage, AND
- Greater than or equal to 53.8 percent 2-point percentage
3-point Shot
Along with his efficiency, Powell’s game is marked by a heavy usage of the 3-pointer. His 295 3-point attempts last season were 17th most in the nation (Campbell’s Chris Clemons was first with 389).
Among 50 players that averaged >=20 points per game last season, only 17/50 (34.0%) attempted more 3-pointers than 2-pointers. Powell took 52.3% of his shots from downtown last season.
Heavy Workload
Similar to Maryland’s Anthony Cowan (who I touched on here), Powell carried quite the load last season. He played 89.0% of minutes per KenPom, which was 58th in the nation (Boston College’s Ky Bowman was 1st at 96.8%). Even more impressively, he hasn’t missed a game over his ENTIRE college career.
He’s never fouled out either, which is noteworthy not only due to his high minutes load, but the fact that he’s been a fairly aggressive defender. Although known for his performance on the offensive side of the ball, Powell was 96th in the nation last season with a steal rate of 3.2 percent.
As his scoring numbers suggest, the senior has expended plenty of energy on the offensive end as well. Powell was 55th in usage rate last season among players that averaged >=20 min. The fact he’s done all this with such a heavy minutes load is incredibly impressive.
Next Season
With Quincy McKnight, Myles Cale and Sandro Mamukelashvili also returning, the Pirates should have an exciting season in store. Although things could change before the preseason AP poll comes out, most sites have Seton Hall ranked in the range of 10-20.
How high the team will rise next season will ultimately fall on Powell’s shoulders, but improvement from his teammates would of course be beneficial.
Next. Ranking all 2019 NCAA Tournament games. dark
With continued improvement, the senior McKnight should provide solid playmaking alongside Powell. He was already arguably the team’s best distributor last season (26.7% assist rate vs. Powell’s 18.4%). If Cale and Mamukelashvili take steps as well, the Pirates should be in good shape.