Seton Hall basketball: Pirates ready to party like it’s 1989 and make Final Four?

With a loaded roster and a transcendent superstar in Myles Powell, Seton Hall basketball is primed to party like its 1989 and return to the Final Four.

No. 10 Seton Hall basketball could be primed to make history.

The college basketball world is topsy-turvy this year with anyone proving they can beat anyone on a given night. This unstable environment has led to an opportunity for some unusual suspects to make runs to the Final Four, with the Seton Hall Pirates ranking near the top of the list.

The Pirates have only made the Final Four once in program history in 1989. That team was coached by P.J. Carlesimo who led the Pirates to a National Championship Game loss to Michigan. It has been a consistent downward trend since with the Pirates failing to even reach a Sweet 16 in that same span.

That could change this season.

Seton Hall has run roughshod over the Big East this season, going 10-1 to build a three-game lead over Creighton, Villanova and Marquette entering Wednesday’s showdown with No. 23 Creighton. Villanova has usually been a thorn in the Pirates’ sides but Seton Hall dispatched them in Philadelphia 70-64 over the weekend for their first win at Villanova since 1994.

The key to success for Kevin Willard‘s team has been the play of guard Myles Powell who can take over a game on any night. Powell is averaging 21.9 points per game and has topped 25 points in a game seven times, including a 34-point clinic against Georgetown last Wednesday.

Having a player like that is huge in the NCAA Tournament since Powell can carry the Pirates on his back and it never hurts to have a go-to-guy when you need to make a clutch shot down the stretch. Powell’s presence is making life easy for the rest of Seton Hall’s roster, which has the kind of versatility and depth elite teams would kill to have.

If you’re looking for talented bigs, the Pirates have a pair in Romaro Gill and Sandro Mamukelashvili. The 7-foot-2 Gill is a nice complementary piece on the offensive end of the floor, but his real value comes on defense. The Pirates have a weapon in Gill’s shot-blocking ability. The big man is averaging 3.6 rejections a game.

Gill is an elite defensive big man while Mamukelashvili is the Pirates’ most gifted score outside of Powell. Mamukelashvili missed 10 games in the middle of the season and Seton Hall struggled to put the ball in the basket with him out.

Powell was also playing hurt for a while during that stretch, but Mamukelashvili is the perfect partner for Powell thanks to his ability to score inside the paint and from beyond the arc.

Mamukelashvili knocks down 40.6 percent of his three-point attempts and is shooting over 50 percent from the floor so the junior from Tbilisi, Georgia is another matchup nightmare.

While those three are the headliners, the Pirates also feature quality depth options in guards Jared Rhoden, Quincy McKnight, Myles Cale and Shavar Reynolds. Each brings a unique skill set to the table, such as Reynolds’ outside shooting and Rhoden’s ability to crash the glass (he leads the team in rebounding).

Seven different players average more than 14 minutes a game so Willard is doing an effective job of getting the most out of his roster. That kind of depth makes it hard for teams to shut Seton Hall down since pretty much anyone can step up and contribute.

The other big edge Seton Hall has over some of its competitors is the amount of experience on its roster. The Pirates’ rotation features four juniors and three seniors and that maturity factor is often critical in the pressure-packed games in the NCAA Tournament.

Playing in the Big East is another advantage for Seton Hall, which is getting tested every night thanks to a rugged 10-team league. There are no automatic victories in the Big East and encountering all the different styles of play the conference provides will be a benefit in March.

Seton Hall isn’t usually a college hoops powerhouse but their deep team and elite star in Powell give them as good a chance as anyone to conquer the brackets.

A Final Four trip is certainly a possibility and perhaps a title is possible if Powell has a Kemba Walker-like run through the NCAA Tournament.

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