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With eight incoming transfers and two freshmen, nobody is quite sure how this new Seton Hall team will look once the 2024-25 college basketball season begins in a couple of weeks.
But Ohio State transfer Scotty Middleton believes the Pirates are poised to do some big things.
“I just think we all bring something to the table that’s special, and that’s what Coach Sha [saw] in us when he recruited us all here,” the 6-foot-7 Middleton, a 20-year-old Miami native, told NJ Advance Media this week, referring to coach Shaheen Holloway. “We’re all such special and individual guys that we all have something individually to bring to the table to put as a collective and I think that we can be a scary team.”
Middleton, who played one year of high school ball at The Patrick School in Hillside, N.J. before finishing up at national power Sunrise Christian (KS), is expected to play a big role for Holloway’s team. He averaged just 4.4 points and 1.4 rebounds in 30 games at Ohio State, but is a strong candidate to start for the Pirates and play a key role as a leader as well.
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“Scotty is very vocal,” Holloway said. “I haven’t picked a leader yet, or captains yet. I tell these guys, they gotta earn it. You gotta be consistent with it, so hopefully by our first game [Nov. 4 against Saint Peter’s] we should hopefully have [captains].”
Middleton enjoys listening to Gospel, rap and R&B to get his head ready before practice and doesn’t like to be disturbed.
“I think I can bring a lot to this team, a lot of versatility, leadership qualities, I could just bring things on the court and off court,” he said. “Just being there for my brothers, just talking to people and being a good teammate.”
A four-star prospect coming out of Sunrise Christian, Middleton chose Ohio State over Seton Hall and UConn in August 2022.
When he entered the transfer portal, Holloway and his staff circled back and targeted Middleton as a top priority as they sought to rebuild the team after winning the NIT championship and losing Kadary Richmond (St. John’s), Dre Davis (Ole Miss) and Al-Amir Dawes.
“Just the relationship,” he said of Seton Hall. “After being on the phone with [Holloway], I just thought that this was the perfect place for me.”
Like a lot of transfers, Middleton has a new opportunity in a new place and wants to show he can be a key player on a winning team.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s something to prove, I think that we’re all just hungry for an opportunity to be a part of something greater than us,” Middleton said. “Where we put the team first and not worry about personal goals. We’re kind of just worried about making each other better on a daily basis, so I think that’s the thing I’m ready for the most.”
Both Seton Hall and Ohio State were in the NIT last year — with the Pirates cutting down the nets — and now Middleton wants to help lead The Hall back to the Big Dance.
“We have a job, an obligation, to kind of hold the standard of what it is to be a Pirates,” he said. “They won the NIT last year and I think that a lot of guys on that team last year wanted to go farther, so I think that we have an obligation to hold the standard to push it past that. I think that we’re talented enough and hungry enough to go an do it.”
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his Website at ZAGSBLOG.com.
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