Seton Hall’s Myles Powell is one of the best in college basketball and Kevin Willard believes he has a bright future at the next level.
The Seton Hall Pirates will only go as far as Myles Powell takes them this season, but once his college career is over, the dynamic guard will be off to make a name for himself at the next level.
Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard can’t say enough about Powell after the Pirates’ 74-66 win over DePaul on Monday. The preseason All-American poured in 27 points, 18 of which came in the second half.
“Some GM is going to make himself look like a brilliant man for drafting that kid,” Willard told AM970 per Chris McManus via SHUHoops.com. “I watch all of college basketball and I see all of these great players and there’s a lot of good ones but I’ll take that dude over anybody, every day of the week.”
Powell is averaging 21.7 points on 41.3/37.0/76.9 shooting splits this season, but trying to evaluate the senior’s draft stock based on box score stats is a dubious proposition, at best. Instead, we’ll leave the scouting to the experts. Ricky Scricca of The Stepien believes Powell’s value falls somewhere in the 20-40 range of the draft.
“Score-first small guards always have a steep curve to climb for positive NBA impact, but if you believe he has some hope at non-disastrous defensive impact, his movement shooting (almost singular in eliteness) is an intriguing NBA-level skill that would allow him to pair alongside a bigger ball handler,” Scricca wrote.
The NBA has a fascination with young guys in the draft right now. However, upperclassmen like Powell can come into the league polished and ready to contribute from day one. Recent Big East studs like Jalen Brunson and Eric Paschall are examples of upperclassmen who were able to make an immediate impact in the NBA despite falling to the second round of the draft.
Perhaps Powell can be the next second-round steal hailing from the Big East. His coach already seems convinced.
