Myles Powell pumps fist after Seton Hall all but locked up NCAA Tournament berth with upset of Villanova Saturday. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
NEWARK, NJ -- "We're fighters."
That two-word synopsis was how Myles Powell summarized the season for his Seton Hall team following Wednesday night's cathartic victory over Marquette, one that concluded on a 27-5 run in which the Pirates scored the final 18 points of the evening.
The transcendent junior star echoed the same sentiment Saturday afternoon, as he and his band of brothers cemented its latest opportunity for March success, which appears to be all but in the cards following a raucous 79-75 upset of reigning national champion Villanova in front of over 16,000 strong at the Prudential Center.
"I've been saying this whole week that we're fighters," Powell again remarked after Seton Hall (18-12, 9-9 Big East) led wire-to-wire and by as many as 16 points against Jay Wright's Wildcats, bending several times in the second half as the majority of the pro-Pirate crowd sensed -- in typical Seton Hall fashion -- any triumph would have to be earned through attrition and the equivalent of hardwood combat. "Our backs were against the wall all year, but this was our biggest challenge and we got the job done."
Following a double-overtime loss to Georgetown one week ago Saturday, it would have been easy for Seton Hall to mail it in against Marquette and Villanova -- the top two teams in the Big East standings -- and look ahead to a potential Cinderella run at Madison Square Garden for the conference tournament. But that isn't the way this Pirate team -- or any other iteration of head coach Kevin Willard's nine-year tenure -- is wired. In fact, the ensuing practice following the setback in the nation's capital was what prompted a remarkable showing of optimism from the Hall's skipper heading into what many assumed would be a make-or-break stretch as it related to South Orange being referenced by Greg Gumbel on Selection Sunday.
"I thought their attitude kind of set up the rest of the week," Willard said of his team's response in Monday's practice session. "They came in Monday and practiced great, came in Tuesday and practiced really well, and I had a good feeling going into this week just because of their attitude."
Winning begets winning, and winning in practice -- Willard stressed the importance of individual development sessions as his way of fostering confidence in both player and team -- served as the impetus to a reprisal of Seton Hall's zenith in December, when the Pirates took down Kentucky and Maryland in a non-conference season that revealed both their glaring points of improvement and precocious nature as far as thriving in big-game atmospheres.
"Picked eighth," Powell reminded the media Saturday afternoon. "When we got in the gym, Jason (Nehring, Seton Hall's strength and conditioning coach) had that on the board. All those reminders -- picked eighth, this is gonna be a rebuilding year, we're too young -- we showed today why we're one of the best teams in the conference."
"We could play with anybody in the country. We just beat two ranked teams, we beat Kentucky, we beat Maryland. The list goes on. We could play with anybody in the country."
Essentially secure among the NCAA Tournament field for a fourth straight season, the first time in program history that such a feat has been accomplished since P.J. Carlesimo's final campaign in the Garden State a quarter-century ago, Seton Hall no longer has to worry about playing itself onto the bubble in next week's Big East tournament. In fact, the focus has shifted -- in Willard's own words while speaking reverently of the annual conference get-together in the Big Apple -- solely to winning what would be the Pirates' second league crown in four years. For Willard's superstar guard, the focus is on one last battle to cement this team's legacy, which gets underway Thursday when Seton Hall once again steps into the ring.
"We got after it, and we knew how much these two games meant," said Powell. "We took it the hard way (losing to Xavier, St. John's and Georgetown before the two big wins this week), but that's not our story. The job's not finished. We're gonna come back next week and finish the story right. Our story is that we're fighters."
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