For all the hype, all the high expectations, all the promise of this upcoming Seton Hall season, there is a but.
And it surrounds one player’s transition, the one question all the experts ask after talking up the Pirates’ promise.
Can Khadeen Carrington adapt to point guard?
“I hear it, of course,” the 6-foot-3 senior from Brooklyn said. “If you’re on social media, you’re definitely going to see it.”
This isn’t the first time he’s heard such doubts. Some questioned whether Carrington, a first-team All-Big East preseason selection, was talented enough for Seton Hall coming out of high school, whether he would get recruited over.
“I took on a lot of challenges since I’ve been here. A lot of people didn’t think I was good enough to play at this level,” Carrington said Monday during Seton Hall media day at Walsh Gymnasium in South Orange. “Look at me now, I’m a 1,000-point scorer, one of the top scorers in school history. I love when people doubt my abilities. That just makes me go harder. That’s just fuel to the fire.”
After the team’s three key seniors — Carrington, Angel Delgado and Desi Rodriguez — decided they would be back to finish what they started following the school’s first consecutive NCAA Tournament berths since 1993-94, coach Kevin Willard sat Carrington down. He was going to move him to point guard, after the graduation of Madison Jones. Willard toyed with the move a year ago, but was worried the Pirates wouldn’t have enough scoring if Carrington was focused more on playmaking.
At the age of 22, he has played off the ball his entire life, through his time as the all-time leading scorer at Bishop Loughlin High School and through his first three years at Seton Hall. Sure, he spent small portions of games at point guard under Willard, as a backup to Isaiah Whitehead his first two seasons, and again at times a year ago.
But this is different. This is permanent. The ball will be in his hands. Freshman point guard Jordan Walker will be used in short spurts, but Carrington, who averaged a team-high 17.1 points per game a year ago, is unquestionably the guy. So far, the results are positive, everyone around the program says.
“I have total confidence in him,” Willard said. “The 12 guys on the team and the four guys on the staff have total confidence in him.”
Carrington spent the offseason preparing for this. He’s basically adopted Willard’s office as a second home, where he has pored over video with the head coach and top assistant Shaheen Holloway, both former point guards. It’s a daily tutorial, about when to attack, and when to look for others’ shots, how he has to change his game.
It doesn’t end there. Carrington, a lefty, has made a habit of watching southpaw players like James Harden and Mike Conley Jr. and observing how they operate. He joked he’ll even pull up highlights in class on occasion. He frequently talks to Whitehead, his former teammate and close friend, about the transition he made as a sophomore at Seton Hall.
“It’s like becoming a father: You are the least important person in the world,” Willard said. “You’re the most important, but you’re the least important.
“In his mind, everyone else has to be in front of him.”
Willard believes Carrington’s biggest challenge is evolving as a vocal leader. Everyone looks to the point guard; he’s the extension of the coach. Jones was that guy last year, Whitehead the year before. Carrington is quiet by nature, preferring to let his play do the talking.
“I told him we got to get the coolness out of him,” Holloway said. “Now you got to be more of a rah-rah guy.”
There will be growing pains, everyone acknowledged. Holloway admitted Carrington is attempting to make a “huge” change. Carrington described it as “different,” thinking pass before shot.
“It’s definitely a challenge, but what’s life without a challenge?” he said. “I’m definitely ready to take on that role.”