An interesting reporting nugget from the Asbury Park Press this summer hints at the fact that Willard is open to letting Powell initiate the offense more frequently this season:

In order to get there, Willard must carefully balance Powell’s development with the team’s needs. At 6-foot-2, Powell has to evolve from shooting guard into more of a lead guard in order to catch on with the NBA. To that end, the plan is to give him much more of an opportunity to run the Hall’s offense, to have the ball in his hands and do some playmaking.

If this comes to fruition, McKnight and Powell will no longer be pigeonholed into their ‘point guard’ and ‘shooting guard’ position labels, respectively. Rather, look for both to play more interchangeably as ‘co-initiators’, with Powell obviously leading the scoring charge.

Turnovers plagued Knight’s offensive efficiency during his freshman and sophomore seasons at Sacred Heart, so it’s no surprise that those same ball security habits lingered as he stepped up in competition last year. Thus, molding McKnight back into more of a combo guard – his true basketball self – should result in fewer wasted possessions this year, which disrupted the Pirates offensive rhythm on countless occasions last season - for context, Seton Hall’s 20% turnover rate graded out as the worst in the Big East. Still, McKnight can more than hold his own on the other end of the floor, where he’s bloomed into one of the top perimeter defenders in the league.

Rounding out the backcourt is ‘the Other Myles’, Myles Cale, whose sophomore surge last season was partially overshadowed by Powell’s fireworks. Cale was on our radar last year as a prime breakout candidate, but he got everyone’s attention in Seton Hall’s dramatic takedown of Big Blue nation at Madison Square Garden back in early December. Despite a poor shooting night from the floor, Cale delivered the biggest blow of the game with his go-ahead triple, giving the Pirates a one point advantage with just 10 seconds left in overtime. Cale was certainly feeling himself that night – I vividly remember this stunt when he got in Keldon Johnson’s grill after making a free-throw…