JP's 5 Thoughts: Seton Hall ends losing streak in must-win over Providence

Myles Powell was fired up after steal and dunk late in second half put exclamation point on resonating win over Providence in which Seton Hall's junior superstar led all scorers with 31 points. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, NJ -- Going into halftime with a seven-point lead over Providence at home after playing great defense in the first half, it looked like Seton Hall would get the victory it so desperately needed to avoid a five-game slide in Big East play.

But a 15-0 Providence run changed the narrative in the early second half, and behind 31 points from Myles Powell and some great defense down the stretch, the Pirates pulled it out, 65-63, to put an end to a four-game losing skid in a game they had to have at home in frigid Newark.

Here are the Thoughts:

1. Powell Possessed

When big games arrive, particularly must-win games as tonight's was, coaches need stars to be stars, and that's what Myles Powell was tonight. Scoring 31 points on 12-of-23 shooting is great no matter what, but tonight, only seven of those 23 shots came from long range. The junior guard had a look in his eye, and drove the ball hard to the basket, showing a stout determination to win.

"I was just in attack mode today," Powell said. "I told my teammates coming in that I was locked in and I was going to do whatever it takes for us to win. My shot hasn't been falling, I've been in a slump, so I took it upon myself and told myself that I was going to get to the rack today."  

But he also did it on the other end, finishing with four steals, the last of which was a heady play to jump a passing lane and dunk it on the other end. Put simply, Powell wasn't about to let the ship drift further off course tonight, and head coach Kevin Willard urged the Pirates to re-focus and get his star the rock.

"I told the team the other day we can't go five minutes without Myles Powell touching the ball," Willard said. "We got here riding his back. Let's not play make-believe. This is the guy that got us here. And I thought he came out being aggressive, and I thought that really set the tone."

A rising tide lifts all boats, so the saying goes. And when Powell gets going, it elevates everyone else.

"When you see one player just going out there and scoring the ball at all three levels, it's amazing to see," point guard Quincy McKnight said. "When we go out there and we see him doing it against other teams, it definitely gets us hyped up. When he gets a bucket and we get back on defense, he's juiced up, and I'm juiced up for him. I'm his number one fan. If you put a mic on me on the court when he shoots it, all you hear is me screaming."  

It sounds cliched, but sometimes, as has been the case several times this year, one team has Myles Powell, and the other team doesn't. But basketball is a team sport, and Powell had some critical help in crucial junctures.

2. Big Guys

Let's start with the literal big guys off the bench. For Taurean Thompson and Romaro Gill this year, there have been huge performances and then there have been other games where they don't make nearly as much of an impact.

Tonight was the former. While Gill still isn't at 100 percent physically after returning from an ankle injury, his defensive presence was still as it's ever been. He grabbed seven big rebounds, and altered possessions with his 7'2" length. The most obvious of these trips was the very end of the game, when with Seton Hall up only two and Isaiah Jackson on the block with a mismatch against Powell, Gill got to the spot as Jackson turned towards the hoop and smothered his potential game-tying layup against the glass, effectively ending the game as time ran out.

Then there was the enigmatic Thompson, who has skills for days but who hasn't always put them to the best of use. Tonight was his best game since the December win over Kentucky, as he finished with eight points, a team-best nine rebounds, and four blocked shots for good measure. 

"Taurean was terrific," Willard said. "The thing I was really happy with with 'T' is he rebounded the basketball. He went in there and got dirty, came up with some big rebounds, kept some balls alive, came up with a big block on a three-point shot, just played really well."

3. The 'Q' Factor

The bigs were big, no doubt, but there was also a valuable leadership moment for McKnight: Seton Hall was down seven at 47-40, its largest deficit of the game, and in the huddle, it was the junior guard that essentially told everyone to snap out of it.

"I saw it on our faces," McKnight said. "We were back in the same position as the last couple games when we were losing, so I told them 'get the look off your face and let's keep fighting.'"  

"We're battle-tested, and we've been in in that situation before," Powell added. "We got down seven and our heads kind of dropped. Quincy got the huddle together and said 'get these negative faces of your face.' After he said that, we came out and we fought back."

To show what kind of leader and player he is, consider this: He was on the bench for most of the Pirates' run that allowed them to come back in the middle of the second half. But instead of being rusty when he did get back out there, he made an immediate impact with a big steal and layup, plus a foul for a three-point play that ended up giving Seton Hall the lead for good. 

"At my old school, I was a scorer, so there were times when I wasn't scoring the ball, and I was on the bench watching my team play without me," McKnight said. "Sitting out last year changed my whole mindset on getting subbed out. (Instead of) pouting, being upset at myself, now I stay in tune with the game."

4. Meet & Greet

After getting trounced by Villanova for their fourth-straight loss on Sunday, it was clear the Pirates needed to get back to the drawing board. And it was the players that took that responsibility, calling a players-only meeting when they returned from Philadelphia on Sunday night.

But the difference between this meeting and most such gatherings? They brought the game tape with them.

"They called a meeting to watch film," Willard said. "They didn't really call a meeting just to have a meeting, and to me, that was more important than anything else. Because you can talk all you want, but when you sit there and watch yourself, you have to be honest with your teammates about how you're playing."

"We got back, we watched the Villanova game," Powell added. "We sat down, everyone talked on the team, and we said we have to get back to (being) ourselves. Mike (Nzei) ran the meeting, and I feel that it really helped us."

The thing that's interesting about this year's Seton Hall team is that they are at the same time young, with only Nzei and Powell returning who played major minutes the year before, and mature in that they give consistent effort and also aren't above hashing things out that need to be done with each other.

"Monday was great," Willard said of how his team responded to the blowout loss at Villanova. "No matter what happened tonight, or going forward, this team showed up Monday, and we practiced for a good hour and 45 minutes, hard. They got after it, had a great attitude. Yesterday's practice was great, they were into it. To me, that's what I was looking for. It's not the win today -- we could have been blown out today, but they showed me what they're all about on Monday and Tuesday."

5. Boards And Blunders

For the first 27 or so minutes of the game, Seton Hall struggled with turnovers again, ending up with 19 for the game, their sixth Big East game out of nine with 15 or more after it was one of their greatest strengths in non-conference play. They have also struggled at times with rebounding the basketball, and the combination of the two reared its ugly head in the losing streak. 

Willard knows this, and offered some thoughts postgame.

"I went back and I watched the first half at Villanova," he said after the game. "The only thing we did (wrong) was throw it around, but our intensity was great, we defended at a high level. And I went back and said 'guys, the only difference between us now and us in December is we're getting killed on the glass and we're not taking care of the ball.'"

"We did 30 minutes of box-out drills (Monday)," Willard added. "I just had to remind them that if we rebound the basketball, we have a chance to win, but we can't not rebound and turn the ball over. We turned it over again tonight- I know why we're doing it, it's just that one of these days, guys are just going to have to relax."

The Pirates were plus-10 on the glass tonight, their best showing in conference play, so they certainly corrected that aspect of their game. We'll see if the Hall can turn the turnover issue around in the coming games. As of now, it's a work in progress.

Nevertheless, sometimes just the win itself can be a turning point, a chance to once again feel good about yourself as a team. Seton Hall will see that newfound resolve tested next at Butler on Saturday.