5 questions for Seton Hall

Graduation of last year's Angel Delgado-led senior class has left Myles Powell to claim spotlight as Seton Hall opens 2018-19 season Tuesday against Wagner. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

Seton Hall's season gets underway in less than 24 hours Tuesday, and for the Pirates, it will be the official commencement of a new era.

Gone are four-year stalwarts Khadeen Carrington, Angel Delgado, Desi Rodriguez and Ismael Sanogo, a quartet who led Seton Hall to its first NCAA Tournament victory in nearly a decade-and-a-half last March, when the Pirates defeated NC State before narrowly falling short against Kansas with a trip to the Sweet 16 hanging in the balance. In the place of the foursome stands a battle-tested, but hungry, group led by junior Myles Powell, a player head coach Kevin Willard believes can be one of the best scoring talents in the country by the time the calendar flips to March.

The road ahead will be filled with its share of challenges, including second-ranked Kentucky as well as high-major foes Louisville and Maryland in the non-conference season, but that is just the way Willard wants it for this year's incarnation of the Pirates, picked eighth in the Big East Conference preseason poll, but a team he feels can hit its best stride sooner rather than later. Before the ball is tipped at Walsh Gymnasium against Wagner on Tuesday, though, we take an attempt at answering some of the questions that present themselves in and around South Orange:

1) Can Myles Powell live up to the pressure as Seton Hall's leader?

All indications are that the answer to this first -- and most important -- question will be a resounding yes. Powell has impressed both Willard and his teammates with his transition from supporting cast member to main stage player this offseason, and the junior guard -- last season's Big East Most Improved Player -- is talking the talk just as strongly as he seems to be backing it up in practice.

"I'm used to going up to the four seniors and Mike (Nzei) and asking them questions," Powell said when asked what has changed for him most over the offseason. "Now, I've got the freshmen and the sophomores coming to me. I'm just trying to take my role as the leader and do my best."

"I look to Myles in practice a lot for motivation," said Nzei. "I believe his energy transfers to the rest of our teammates, even when he's not on my team during practice. I love when he starts going hard, because I've got to match his space. I look to him all the time for energy and motivation, because I believe when he comes with that energy -- you've seen it in a lot of games -- I see greatness, and everyone just follows."

2) How much of a concern is Willard's worry about mental toughness?

At Big East media day, Seton Hall's head coach stressed the need for his team to improve its mental toughness in the wake of graduating last year's senior class, and while Willard is optimistic in the long run, he pulled no punches in citing the learning curve that will be navigated during the year. His players, however, are more unfazed by it.

"Having been around for a long time, I have a lot of faith in the young guys and the way they play," Nzei, a fifth-year senior whose role takes on more importance this season without Delgado, intimated. "Sometimes you see the freshmen battle me in the post, and they never back down. Me, being a senior seeing that they're going hard against me, I need that from them. It's good when I see my freshmen come with that toughness. I think the toughness is there. We've just got to bring it to the game."

3) How effective is the two-headed monster at point guard?

In Sacred Heart transfer Quincy McKnight and freshman Anthony Nelson, Seton Hall has perhaps its deepest and most complementary point guard rotation in Willard's tenure. The Pirates have had their share of talented floor generals, with the likes of Jordan Theodore, Sterling Gibbs, Isaiah Whitehead and Carrington all directing traffic in the backcourt over the years, but Willard's effusive praise of McKnight and Nelson suggests a more stable flow in setting up the offense for a team that will need to be more adept at scoring the basketball and creating turnovers on the defensive end.

"They're both point guards," said Willard. "They've both been in that position the whole time, so I like that position probably the best of any that we have."

"Anthony's been great so far, and I think you're going to see someone that's -- we haven't had a point guard like Anthony in quite a while -- got great court vision, pass-first kind of guard. We've had scoring guards ever since I've been here. Ant picks things up really quick, and he's impressed me as much as any freshman has in understanding concepts. We put our press on the first day, and he just kind of picked it up. He's extremely smart. As his shooting gets better, he's going to be someone we'll rely on to get Myles shots and get other guys shots."

4) What can be expected from Taurean Thompson?

The Harlem native, New Jersey product and Syracuse transfer will be the primary focal point for the Pirate front line post-Delgado, and after holding court this past Thursday at Seton Hall's media day, the newcomer is eagerly anticipating the challenge just as much as he is making up for lost time when he suits up for his long-awaited debut Tuesday.

"Taurean's coming along great," Willard said of his starting power forward, who was unavailable for Seton Hall's exhibition last week against Boston College, but should be good to go for the season opener. "He's healthy, he's been practicing, and he's really been progressing nicely. What I love about T is he has a great work ethic and he has a thirst to get better, and he's really been working hard to improve. He can obviously shoot the basketball, but he's been really working hard to become a low-post scorer. He should be an 80-85 percent free throw shooter, but he's been progressing really nicely, working really hard."

5) New team, but same goals?

Willard hinted at the NCAA Tournament becoming an expectation in recent seasons, and with Seton Hall aiming for its fourth straight inclusion into the field of 68 this year, the bar being set at its highest should come as no surprise for a group with a collective chip on its shoulder as Myles Powell even admitted the Pirates have something to prove.

"I think more than anything, you can fix your team in December," Willard said when addressing the non-conference schedule and its gauge toward an eventual at-large berth. "You cannot fix a team in January, and if you wait until January to find out that you have huge shortcomings, huge deficiencies in certain areas, then you're never gonna be able to fix those. We will find out really quickly what we need to fix and what we need to get better at, and not only do I think this team has a chance to be really good as we go forward, but I think more importantly, next year, we'll have a chance to be really good, and I wanted to test this team and make sure we were working on all the things we need to work on to become a very good basketball team."

Prediction: 20-11, 10-8 Big East