Myles Powell’s Prudential Center finale takes place Wednesday, beginning closing chapter to one of Seton Hall’s greatest careers. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
He came to Walsh Gymnasium, a one-hour drive from his native Trenton, 45 pounds overweight and nowhere near 100 percent physically. Little did he, or anyone else for that matter, know that this would be far from the only transformation he would experience over the four years that followed, evolving from out of shape to out of this world one shot at a time.
Myles Powell will take the stage one last time at Prudential Center Wednesday, amid a capacity crowd as his Seton Hall team, ranked eighth in the country – the program’s highest placement in a national poll in nearly two decades – host Big East Conference rival Villanova with a chance to clinch an outright conference championship for the first time since 1993, when an equally unforgettable guard named Terry Dehere solidified the Pirates’ exploits and put South Orange on the national map for college basketball powerhouses. Much has been made of Powell’s prowess for scoring, but as head coach Kevin Willard frequently attests, there is way more to the makeup of the Dan Marino of the Seton Hall brand – Powell, much like the Hall of Fame quarterback, wears No. 13 – than meets the eye.
“I think we got a pretty good player,” Willard said on a conference call earlier this season when recounting Powell’s recruitment, first at Trenton Catholic before the senior superstar played a post-graduate season at South Kent Prep in Connecticut, where Willard and former assistant Shaheen Holloway, now the head coach at Saint Peter’s, continued to track Powell and his upward trajectory. “But he was 250 pounds and coming off a broken foot, so I knew we had a lot of work to do with him. But I also thought he was a special player, with the fact that he had a great ability to shoot the basketball and score the basketball.”
When Powell arrived on the Seton Hall campus for the first time, his nascent super powers were put to the test, not on the hardwood, but in the weight room, with an unflattering nickname to put his determination on the fast track.
“They used to call me Butterball,” Powell recalled at Seton Hall media day prior to his junior season, the moniker given to him by strength and conditioning coach Jason Nehring in a ploy to get him into game shape. “Jason said, ‘When you get to 200, then I’ll call you Myles.’”
“You never know how a kid’s work ethic is going to be once he gets to you, and his work ethic for the last three-and-a-half years has been second to none,” said Willard. “I think that’s why he’s turned himself into such a great player. He’s embraced coaching and he’s really embraced the work we put in – the work HE had to put in – and I think when you combine a kid that’s got a great attitude and a great work ethic, you’re seeing the results of a guy turning himself into a special player.”
For those familiar with Seton Hall and the face the Pirate program dons in the public eye, no explanation is necessary for the level at which Powell serves as its ambassador. Always extroverted and displaying an outsized personality as big as his heart and his once-voracious appetite, Powell is always looking to not only include his teammates – almost always referred to in interviews as his brothers – but also any live being with whom he comes into contact in his life, allowing each the opportunity to savor an experience that most 22-year-olds would likely desire to keep to themselves. Yes, Powell is a rare breed, but the encore of the past four months was nearly left on the cutting room floor.
Myles Powell’s decision to withdraw from NBA Draft afforded senior guard one last season to add to rich legacy at Seton Hall. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
Following a junior season in which he was an honorable mention on the Associated Press All-America list and recipient of the Haggerty Award, bestowed annually upon the best player in the New York metropolitan area, Powell tested the waters of taking his talents to the professional ranks, entering his name in the NBA Draft. But unlike fellow Seton Hall guard Isaiah Whitehead, who hired an agent and thus closed the door on returning to New Jersey for his final two seasons and passing on the chance to play with Powell, who began his freshman year several months later, Powell kept his options open and did not sign with an agent, ultimately deciding to write the final chapter in a legacy that has grown all the more illustrious by the day. And while his decision – announced via social media – was the best thing to happen to his team and its fan base, perhaps the greatest blessing in the process was the deeper cultivation of his bond with Willard, of whom he speaks reverently, a second father of sorts.
“I didn’t think we could get any closer, but I was wrong,” Powell said of the relationship between he and Willard when the subject was broached this past October at Big East media day. “This summer, I feel like we took that final step of Coach Willard really being like my backbone. With him helping me get through that process and then him pretty much taking a month-and-a-half off from his family to go out to Peru (for the Pan-American Games) to spend that time not only with me, but with Myles (Cale) and other kids in the Big East, it just shows how much Coach really cares about the conference and the kids that he’s dealing with.”
“When I went in there and I first told him that I wanted to do it (enter the draft process), he said, ‘Well, if you’re going to do it, you’re going to do it as (if) you’re staying in.’ I was out there in California getting ready for my pro day, and I just needed somebody to lean on. Coach Willard was the first person I called, and I just told him that I needed him there. He hung up, he called me back in about 30 minutes, and he said, ‘I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon,’ so just for somebody that I could rely on like that, that meant a lot to me.”
The admiration is clearly a two-way street, as Willard has a mutual love for his latest pupil to join the likes of Whitehead, Angel Delgado and Khadeen Carrington as precocious talents who have progressed to one-of-a-kind superstars. On numerous occasions, Powell has effusively praised Willard, saying he would not be the man he has become without his coach’s patient guidance and steady hand, but would Willard be the same coach without Powell?
“Not at all,” he shared. “Every day in practice, he has a level of enthusiasm that’s contagious. It’s one of those things that you love coaching a kid that loves to be in gym, wants the big moment. As a coach and as a person, we’ve been through a lot together. We’ve grown together, and I think that’s why he is where he is. For me, he’s been like a third son.”
“I feel like Coach would give me his last (breath) just like I’d give him my last,” Powell reaffirmed. “I’ve got his back just like how he has mine. I love Coach Willard with all my heart, and he’ll always be my guy for life. I wouldn’t be here, I wouldn’t be the Myles Powell I am today, if it wasn’t for Kevin Willard. I’m not afraid to say that, and I’ll say it to every reporter in here. None of this would be possible if it wasn’t for him believing in the fat kid that was 250 pounds three years ago.”
Nor would any of what he has accomplished since his debut on November 11, 2016 be possible without the adulation he has received from the blue-and-white-clad fans over the years, the levels of which figure to reach triple-digit decibel readings when public address announcer Tim McLoone begins to highlight the accomplishments of Seton Hall’s third-all-time leading scorer, with program legend Nick Werkman within reach for second place behind Dehere in career points before the final buzzer sounds on a once-in-a-generation career. In fact, outside of a sense of unfinished business stemming from last March’s NCAA Tournament exit, the outpouring of support Powell has received may be the second-most alluring reason why he eschewed a chance to ply his wares at a higher level last summer. What could possibly supersede that? Walking across the stage in May to receive a degree in the same building that produced so many other timeless memories.
Myles Powell’s 3-pointer late in second half against Villanova last March ranks as one of many iconic moments in Seton Hall great’s four years. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
“The bad taste was still in our mouth from us losing in the (Big East) championship and then losing to Wofford in the first round, especially wanting to play Kentucky again,” said Powell. “So I just felt like it was still a piece that was missing, and I still felt unaccomplished. I had to go back to school for basketball to accomplish some more, and I’ll be the first person in my family to graduate. So for me to be the first person to say that I graduated and I have a diploma in my family, it’s bigger than me and it means so much more to me than just the basketball part as well.”
“With all the love they’ve given me, truly, deep down in my heart, I feel like I made the right decision. This was the best decision for my career.”
Thousands of fans, many of whom figure to be on hand in Newark to pay one last homage to a native son that has taken them along for the ride of a lifetime, would concur.
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