As expected, Myles Powell was a unanimous selection to the Big East first team by the league’s coaches for the second straight season.
Now, the high-scoring Seton Hall senior from Trenton will have to wait until Wednesday to find out if he will join Terry Dehere (1992-93) and Dan Callandrillo (1981-82) as the only Pirates to be the league’s Player of the Year. The Coach of the Year will also be announced on Wednesday at a press conference prior to the start of the league tournament.
Powell led eighth-ranked Seton Hall (21-9, 13-5) to a three-way tie atop the Big East with No. 11 Creighton and No. 14 Villanova for the regular-season title, though the Pirates had two chances over the last week to win the title, but fell to the aforementioned teams.
The preseason Player of the Year in the conference, he is averaging 21 points per game, second-most in the league and 18th-best in the country, and was tied for 10th in assists (3.4) and tied for eighth in steals (1.4) in conference play.
Powell was joined on the first team by Marquette’s Markus Howard, Xavier’s Naji Marshall, Villanova’s Saddiq Bey, Creighton’s Ty-Shon Alexander and Butler’s Kamar Baldwin. Howard and Bey were the other unanimous selections.
Powell joins Dehere as the second Seton Hall player to be named to the league’s first team in consecutive seasons. He’s a finalist for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award, and a semifinalist for the Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy.
Third-seeded Seton Hall opens the Big East Tournament Thursday night against No. 6 Marquette at 9:30 p.m.
The development of young players at St. John’s (16-15, 5-13) under first-year coach Mike Anderson has been one of the highlights of this season, and a future building block was recognized by Big East coaches. Forward Julian Champagnie was named to the all-freshman team hours after he won his second Big East Freshman of the Week award. Villanova duo Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Justin Moore were unanimous selections to the all-freshmen team. DePaul’s Romeo Weems and Xavier’s Zach Freemantle and KyKy Tandy were also picked for the team.
A well-rounded 6-foot-7 Brooklyn native, coming off a 21-point, 12-rebound performance in a win over Marquette on Saturday, Champagnie is averaging 10 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, ranking third and second, respectively, among Big East freshmen in those categories. The last St. John’s players to make the league’s all-freshman team were Marcus LoVett and Shamorie Ponds in 2017. The ninth seed in the Big East Tournament, St. John’s will face No. 8 Georgetown in the opening round of the Big East Tournament Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
Creighton’s Marcus Zegarowski, a first team snub, led the second team selections, along with DePaul’s Paul Reed, Xavier’s Tyrique Jones, Villanova’s Collin Gillespie and Providence’s Alpha Diallo, a Harlem native. Seton Hall point guard Quincy McKnight was an honorable mention selection, as was Georgetown big man Omer Yurtseven.