When resilience and persistence meet confidence, anything can happen.
Basketball players from the City of Trenton, New Jersey are used to being the David to the basketball Goliaths that are come through the small city. People from New York City to Philly thinking they’re going to walk out with a victory. Every win is hard fought, and losses are avenged with impunity.
That mentality becomes embedded in the DNA of all who represent that Trenton Makes The World Takes motto on the world stage. And that includes Seton Hall’s, Myles Powell.
For the 24-year-old Powell, the signs of success were there for quite some time. In his junior season out of Trenton Catholic, Powell has steadily improved his playmaking ability, his ball-handling and his rebounding over the years. However, it’s his shooting that puts the fans in their seats.
Currently averaging 22 points, 4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2 steals per game, Powell’s high output and clutch ability to knock down deep threes, but his defense might be what separates him from most collegiate shooters, some of which only focus on the offensive side of the ball.
“It’s rough. It’s a lot going on there. You gotta stay….it’s either two roads you can pick, it’s either the down road or you can pick the right road. And I mean, there’s a lot of kids that pick the wrong path, but there’s a lot of kids that pick the right one, and me being me, I think that you should pick the right one.” said Powell when asked what it was like growing up in Trenton during an interview his freshman year.
Indeed, it goes without saying that one becomes endowed with the characteristics of his or her environment, and those attributes can help propel an individual depending upon how they’re manifested. For Powell, standing at six-foot-two, beating the odds and playing major Division 1 basketball is certainly in line with how said environments can be the catalyst for greatness.
Worldly success is also determined by our ability to self analyze, and correct hindering behavior as well. While attending South Kent for post-graduate, Powell “exploded” to a whopping 250 pounds, looking more like a defensive end than a future star point guard for one of New Jersey’s flagship college basketball programs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEh36vbhcaw
Visualization and inspiration met with perspiration, and Powell would drop 60 pounds once he got to Seton Hall. The Big East Conference Most Improved Player in 2018, recently joined Marquette’s Markus Howard, Villanova’s Phil Booth, and Eric Paschall as the only players named to the All-Big East first team unanimously.
Last week, Powell exploded for 34 points, which included a barrage of 10 straight points late in the game, to life the 17-12 Seton Hall Pirates over then No. 16 Marquette in a 73-64 win.
With a poor in-conference record in the historically tough Big East Conference, Powell is going to have to lead The Hall on a historic run, and perhaps win the entire Big East Tournament, in order for the squad to get a halfway decent seed in the NCAA tournament.
Things were looking pretty bleak for the Pirates to make the Big Dance even after defeating Marquette, but then Myles poured in another 20 points to help them topple No. 23 Villanova just three days after beating Marquette.
“We just beat two ranked teams. We beat Kentucky. We beat Maryland,” said Powell afterward the win, who added seven rebounds, five assists and three steals in more than 36 minutes. “The list goes on. We can play with anybody in the country when we are playing our basketball.”
When resilience and persistence meet confidence, anything can happen. Seton Hall is currently in the eighth slot in the Big East tournament and will kick things off at the world-famous Madison Square Garden against the Georgetown Hoyas on Wednesday, March 13th.
