Big East Basketball: 2020-21 power rankings heading into New Year

4. Seton Hall 8-4 (5-1)

I’ve loved Seton Hall from the get-go this season. Sure, replacing Myles Powell is a difficult task, but the country knew very little about the Pirates last year outside of him. They were and are loaded.

Sandro Mamukelashvili (18.2 Pts, 6.7 Reb, 3.2 Ast) is showing he is a pro who can guard all five positions and play point forward. In the midst of putting up unreal individual stats he’s spearheading a stretch where Hall has won seven out of its last eight games.

Mamu’s dominance is not a huge surprise, but the emergence of Myles Cale (12.4 Pts, 3.3 Reb, 0.9 Ast) might be. The senior and former top 100 recruit, took a step back in 19-20 but has become a force through 10 games in 2020-21 posting careers highs in field goal percentage (48%), 3-point shooting percentage (40%), and points.

Jaren Rhoden (15.5 Pts, 7.6 Reb, 1.9 Ast) and Shavar Reynolds (8.3 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 5.1 Ast) are also putting up career numbers with greater opportunity. Again, there was just a lot of depth behind Myles Powell throughout his career and we are seeing the fruits of Kevin Willard’s recruiting and player development prowess in Newark.

There was some early season growing pains, which are to be expected when losing a talent like Powell but also the team’s point guard in Quincy Mcknight who averaged 12 points and five assists a night. Those early-season woes, however, look like a thing of the past, as the Pirate’s only loss in its last eight games was in overtime to Providence. The Hall is an easy call for #4 in the Big East pecking order as of today.