NEWARK, N.J.– I got a chance to watch the best team in the Big East play Thursday night and came away impressed.
Even though the 12th-ranked Seton Hall lost to third-ranked Michigan State, 76-73, before a crowd of 14,051 Thursday night that included 24 NBA scouts at the Prudential Center at the Gavitt Games, but the Pirates (2-1) will be a handful this March.
This is a team with a terrific young coach Kevin Willard who can go 11 deep, have two seven-footers and a dozen players who are 6-10 or taller and four high major guards and wings, including 6-3 senior guard Myles Powell, a pre-season All American who is one of the top five players in college basketball.
“I think he’s the best player in the country,” Willard said.
Powell, who was a game time decision after he suffered a severe ankle sprain against FDU last weekend and did not practice all week, made a strong argument for himself by pouring in 37 points in 34 minutes, grabbing six rebounds, making six threes and scoring eight straight points for his team, including two free throws to give the Pirates a 73-72 lead with 43 seconds to play before their batteries ran out. Michigan State took the lead for good when freshman forward Malik Hall– who shot 7 for 7 and scored 17 points– scored on a layup with 26 seconds to play.
On the next possession, Powell drove to the basket trying for the go ahead basket, but Hall got a steal with 14 seconds to play as Willard screamed for a foul after heavy contact and Winston ceiled the deal with a pair of free throws.
“I thought Myles definitely got fouled going to the basket,” Willard said.
Then he added sarcastically. “I thought the officiating was excellent.”
The game itself had an NCAA tournament feel to it and unlike the Champions Classic at the Garden Nov. 5, it completely lived up to the hype. “This was a March game in November,” Izzo said. “College basketball needed a game like that. Two teams fought. There were some great shots, great plays. We just beat– or could have lost to– a Top 10 team.”
“You dream of playing in games like this,” Powell said. “It’s not something you pass up on.” ‘
Willard told Powell to go out for warmups before the game, but to stand on the sidelines and watch. When the Pirates went back into the locker room about a half hour before tipoff, he told his coach he was ready to go. ‘We looked at each other and I just said, ‘Coach, I got you. I’m ready. You dream of playing in games like this. It’s not something you pass up on.” ‘
Powell, who scored 24 points in the second half, gets bonus points for courage in a game that matched him against Michigan State’s senior pre-season All American guard Cassius Winston.
“I don’t think God could have stopped him on some of those shots tonight,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.
Winston, looking understandably fatigued from the raw emotions after his younger brother Zach was struck and killed by a moving train last Saturday, scored 17 of his 21 points in an heroic second half for the 2-1 Spartans after battling foul trouble and poor shooting.
“I don’t know who could guard Powell,” Izzo said. “He just did an incredible job. He deserves every accolade he gets, but I’ll tell you what, Cassius Winston does, to. It might not seem like it tonight, but to play with a broken heart he has, and to play with the mental part of the game that he’s been through, I think we saw two superstar guards, and in different ways.”
