'Becoming his own man,' Seton Hall basketball's Myles Cale makes his mark

As Myles Cale prepared a speech for a George Floyd protest rally last June, his father wanted a sneak preview. George Cale is a police officer and was, like his son, a prominent basketball player.  

He came away impressed, and more than a little surprised.

“I said, ‘You wrote that? Really?” George recalled. “Myles is an introvert. He really is a shy kid.”

After a pause, the dad concluded, “He’s becoming his own man.”

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Myles Cale’s journey to manhood took a decisive step this year, on and off the court. The kid who left Middletown, Delaware as a talented introvert four years ago is a core leader for Seton Hall basketball, a community pillar and senior who is playing like someone intent on leaving a legacy.

After fulfilling dirty-work roles in the shadow of the programs’ upperclassmen the previous three seasons, Cale is posting career numbers: 12.6 points per game while shooting 48% from the field, 39% from 3-point range and 78% from the free-throw line. He’s also the team’s top defender, often drawing the toughest man-to-man assignment for the Pirates (12-8 overall, 9-5 Big East) who play host to DePaul Wednesday (8:30 p.m., Fox Sports 1) as they march toward another NCAA Tournament berth.

“He’s having a great year,” said Steve Wright, who coached Cale at Appoquinimink High School in Delaware. “He paid his dues, he worked hard and he waited for his opportunity. And he’s taking advantage of that opportunity.”

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There’s a lesson in Cale’s journey, Wright said, that every aspiring hoops star should absorb.

“Can you be what your coach needs you to be when he calls your number?” Wright said. “He could have had that attitude, ‘I’m going to transfer.’ But he stayed true and this is what the result of staying true looks like.”

A different mindset

Cale has the game in his blood. His father was Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Player of the Year for North Carolina A&T in 1987.

“He never wanted to play me one-on-one,” Myles said. “He had me at an older age. He always says, ‘If I was younger, I’d give it to you.’”

That’s just banter.

“He’s way more talented than me,” George said. “He does things I never could have done. I told him, ‘I don’t know where you get that defense from, because I didn’t play any defense.”

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Cale ended up being a four-star recruit, but Seton Hall was on him early thanks to a tip from the Neptune-based Hoop Group to then-Seton Hall assistant Shaheen Holloway. Former assistant Fred Hill followed up with his AAU coach, Tim Legler. Cale wound up being a perfect fit with Hall head coach Kevin Willard — two even-tempered, low-key personalities.

In the offseason Willard spent painstaking hours working one-on-one with Cale on his shot and handle.

“He takes his time,” Cale said. “It’s so repetitive, and until you get it right he’ll keep going at it.”

The results were up and down. As a junior Cale took a back seat to alpha-dog seniors Myles Powell and Quincy McKnight, and his production dipped.

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“Personally, I didn’t accomplish what I really wanted to last year,” he said. “I sacrificed a lot of my skill for the team. The team was doing very well and I was buying into doing whatever I had to do to win, just doing my role. This year I had a different mindset. Coach said he needed me to be more aggressive, more vocal.”

It didn’t come naturally.

Support from home

In postgame media sessions, most college players are visibly elated or crestfallen based on results. Cale’s postgame demeanor is always the same, whether Seton Hall wins at the buzzer or gets run out of the gym. As Wright says, if you met him off the court you’d never know he was a high-level athlete (aside from his 6-6 frame) — and he wouldn’t tell you.

“Myles has always been mild-mannered,” mom Shevena Cale said. “He’s not one to do a lot of trash-talking. He’s not going to badger someone or blame anyone else. He self-reflects.”

That doesn’t mean he’s a robot. Cale leaned on the counsel of his parents and teammates as he struggled last season and wondered if he belonged. He’s felt the hardships and mental-health strain of playing through the pandemic, something Willard has been careful to address.

“He allows them to say what they feel, giving them space to talk and really get it out,” Shevena Cale said of Willard. “That has been very, very helpful.”

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It was a big deal in the Cale household when parents were allowed to attend this season's games. George and Shevena went to just about all of them, home and away, over the first three years. Even when Shevena shattered an ankle, requiring surgery, she rolled into arenas in a wheelchair.

“We always felt it was important for us to be there just to show support through the ups and downs,” she said.

“My parents are road warriors,” Myles said. “Just like us.”

'That's my son'

Cale’s speech at the George Floyd rally was an outgrowth of "Cale Cares," the community initiative he founded in his hometown. It’s a mentoring program for youth with a goal of “building bridges between police and young Black men,” he said.

“I’m very proud of him,” Shevena Cale said. “When you are successful and have a platform, it’s important to say, ‘What can I do to give back?’”

Myles graduates in May with a degree in social behavioral sciences. He’ll have the option of returning for a fifth season of eligibility, a discussion he will have with Willard and his parents after this season.

“I haven’t decided yet,” he said.

Right now the focus is on getting the Pirates back to the Big Dance. He’s got the most big-game experience on the roster, having played in three NCAA Tournament games and a Big East Tournament final. It shows. After three years in the shadows, Cale is embracing his senior moment.

“When I watch him in interviews I’m like, ‘That’s my son — he’s really grown into a leader here,'” George Cale said. “That’s pretty cool.”

Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.