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2020 Pirate Player Preview: Tyrese Samuel

Date: June 11, 2020

By: Wilnir Louis

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AP

With the number of upperclassmen that Seton Hall had on their roster last year, it might have been easy to overlook Tyrese Samuel. As a matter of fact, he was the only freshman that the Pirates had on their roster during the 2019-20 season. Age wasn’t a factor in his game, and we saw flashes of the potential he can bring to the team. Throughout the past year, he was able to learn from great forwards and centers along with Grant Billmeier, who is a tremendous coach for the frontcourt players. Samuel will be a great asset for the Pirates not only for this upcoming year, but for the next couple of years.

Samuel, a consensus four-star recruit from Montreal, Canada had an interesting journey before landing in South Orange, N.J. He initially came to the United States to live with a host family and attend Riverdale Baptist in Upper Marlboro, Md. Sheray Thomas, an alum of that private school and a fellow Canadian, put in a good word for Samuel to the head coach of Riverdale Baptist, Louis Wilson. Thomas graduated from the school in 2002 and went to Kentucky to play four years there. Since Wilson was able to have one successful Canadian on his team in the past, he trusted Thomas and gave Samuel a shot on the team.

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Mark Giannotto/The Washington Post

At Riverdale Baptist, the Canadian was able to further excel his basketball game, play with better competition, and enjoy the American culture. In an article by the Washington Post, Samuel noted his love for Popeyes and the benefit of eating it multiple times per week since coming to United States. Popeyes wasn’t the only think that Samuel was feasting on though.

On the court, Samuel shown in the 2016-17 season, which was his first year playing in the US, that the skills that he developed in Canada can translate to the way kids play in the States. He was versatile on both ends of the floor, and it showed in multiple games, including a 22-point outing against Gwynn Park, a stat stuffing game against St. Albans where he had nine points, seven rebounds and five blocks, and a game against a team in New Jersey, when he played Notre Dame and had six points, 15 rebounds, and three blocks. Riverdale Baptist ended up winning the Maryland state championship that year, ending the season with a 31-9 record.

After a year in Maryland, Samuel went to Utah to reclass and transfer to play at Wasatch Academy. Wasatch Academy is one of the top teams in the nation when it comes to high school basketball. When Samuel transferred to them in 2017, Wasatch Academy was ranked No. 15 in USA Today High School Sports Super Preseason Top-25, only returning two starters. Samuel already had offers from Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Providence, UConn, and other schools before attending Wasatch Academy, but being at a national powerhouse helped to boost his stock a bit.

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Ben Nelson Pics

The Tigers finished the 2017-18 season going 24-2 and Samuel had some great games, including a 21-point and six rebound game in the middle of the season against Legacy Charter in South Carolina along with a couple of other games where Samuel would steal the show with over 20 points.

With the national attention that Samuel began to get, he was invited to the 2017 Basketball Without Borders Camp, which is a joint venture with the NBA and FIBA to train and scout top international prospects during All-Star Weekend. The camp is a must-see event for scouts and some great players like R.J. Barrett, Jamal Murra, and Frank Ntilikina were attendees in previous camps. Samuel excelled at the camp and eventually was named to the camp's All-Star team.

Attending Wasatch Academy and being in the United States helped Samuel improve his brand, but for his final year in high school, he headed back north of the border to play at Orangeville Prep for the 2018-19 season. Before playing at Orangeville Prep, Samuel was selected to play at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship for Canada.

The Canadian team was able to make it to the finals of the tournament, where they played a USA team stacked with Cole Anthony (University of North Carolina), Mark Watts (Michigan State University), and Tyrese Maxey (University of Kentucky) among other top players, and Samuel had a good game in the final, scoring 13 points and grabbing 11 rebounds with one block as well. Canada did lose that game 113-74 and got a silver medal in the tournament.

At Orangeville Prep, Samuel was able to show his refined skills against other Canadian players. During his senior year, the team went 19-2 with his performances, including six games where he scored over 15 points. In his senior year, he averaged 15 points, eight rebounds, three assists, three steals and one block. Orangeville Prep had a great season and fell in the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association Tournament finals.

For Samuel, he ended his high school career playing in the BioSteel All Canadian Games at the conclusion of the season and finished with 13 points in the game. Samuel was also invited to play on the U19 Canadian Men’s National Team at the FIBA U19 World Cup the summer before attending Seton Hall. In those games, Samuel averaged 9.1 points per game and 6.4 rebounds. He had an impressive performance in the World Cup when Canada faced off against Latvia. In the 78-76 victory for Canada, Samuel went off, scoring 22 points on 10/21 shooting and 17 rebounds to go with three assists, and five steals in 35 minutes of play.

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Seton Hall Athletics

Samuel got his first action with his new teammates at Seton Hall when the Pirates had their Tour of Italy trip in mid-August when they played two teams, Da Ground and Peak Warriors. Seton Hall went 2-0 on that trip and Samuel averaged 8.5 points in those two games, which was sixth on the team. Pirate fans were able to get their first glimpse of Samuel on October 25, 2019, when Seton Hall welcomed Bloomfield into Walsh Gymnasium for an exhibition game.

Samuel got almost 16 minutes of action, and he made those minutes count, getting five points, 10 rebounds, and one assist. Samuel had a similar game during the next exhibition against Misericordia, when Samuel had 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals in 16 minutes of action.

Throughout Samuel’s freshman season, his averages weren’t magnificent, but he did show glimmers of what he could become these next couple of years as a Pirate. On the season, Samuel averaged 3.2 points per game on 37.5 percent shooting, 32.7 percent from deep, and 44.0 percent from the free throw line. He also averaged 2.7 rebounds and had a total of nine blocks and four steals on the season.

He was a freshman, so by the time conference play came around, Samuel’s minutes did dip significantly, which in turn hurt his shooting average. During non-conference games, Samuel was averaging 4.7 points on 40.4 percent shooting and 3.3 rebounds per game in 14 minutes of action. During games against Big East opponents, Samuel only averaged 2.2 points on 24.3 percent shooting in 9.1 minutes of action.

However, looking at some of the highlights that he had during the 2019-20 season, he showed what he could bring to the table. Seton Hall’s game against Prairie View A&M was Samuel’s best game so far in a Pirate uniform, as he was able to get 21 minutes and tallied 12 points on 4-8 shooting, eight rebounds, two assists and one block. Samuel also got a start in Seton Hall’s Big East opener against DePaul, where he went 3-8 for seven points and corralled six rebounds.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Samuel for the 2020-21 campaign. In terms of development, there is no question he will become a better player. Assistant coach Billmeier has done an excellent job at developing big men during the past five seasons in his second stint with head coach Kevin Willard. Players like Angel Delgado, Ismael Sanogo, Michael Nzei, Romaro Gill, and Sandro Mamukelashvili have all thrived under the instruction of coach Billmeier, and Samuel will just be one of the latest projects that we will see flourish.

We will have to wait and see how Willard distributes minutes to Samuel. If Mamukelashvili returns for his senior season, the front court players on the roster will consist of Samuel, Mamukelashvili, Jared Rhoden, and Ike Obiagu. You also have Myles Cale who’s listed as a guard/forward on the roster, and incoming freshman Jeff Ngandu, who is a center and was teammates with Samuel at Orangeville Prep.

Wilnir Louis is the Sports Director at 89.5 FM WSOU and can be reached at wsou.sports@gmail.com.

Posted in: Men's Basketball, Sports, WSOU

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