Seton Hall Lands Coveted Harvard Grad Transfer Bryce Aiken

Seton Hall's search for a lead scorer post-Myles Powell appears to have found an answer: Bryce Aiken.

The highly-touted Harvard grad transfer announced Thursday that he's picked the Pirates over Michigan, Maryland and Iowa State. He will be immediately eligible in 2020–21 pending receiving a medical redshirt.

Aiken, 23, is a native of New Jersey, having played in high school at The Patrick School, a short ride from Seton Hall's campus.

A four-star, top-100 recruit in high school, Aiken was part of a breakthrough 2016 recruiting class at Harvard—one that ranked 25th nationally and also included Seth Towns, who would go on to win Ivy League Player of the Year in 2018 and recently transferred to Ohio State for his final year.

Like with Towns, Aiken's career with the Crimson would be plagued by injury. After averaging 14.5 points and 2.8 assists in 26 games as a freshman, Aiken played just 39 total games over the next three seasons. In 18 games as a junior in 2018-19, the 6' 0" point guard had his best year, averaging 22.2 points while shooting 39.8% from three.

Aiken played just seven games as a senior before a foot injury ended his season. Those seven games included a 32-point outing against Holy Cross and a 30-point effort vs. Maryland.

With the starting backcourt of Powell and Quincy McKnight graduating and a pair of three-star freshman guards on the way in, the Pirates were in need of a stabilizing scoring presence at the guard position. After two years of having Powell carry the offense, Seton Hall should benefit from bringing in a veteran who has experience in being the lead option—as a junior, Aiken took 34% of Harvard's shots when on the floor, good for 13th nationally.

Seton Hall also loses 7-footer Romaro Gill, but will look to have 7' 2" junior Ike Obiagu take on a larger role in the interior in his absence. The Pirates also return seniors Myles Cale and Shavar Reynolds, junior Jared Rhoden, sophomore Tyrese Samuel and may get back second-leading scorer Sandro Mamukelashvili, who is testing the NBA draft waters.

Seton Hall did not appear in SI.com's initial Way-Too-Early Top 25 for 2020–21, but fellow Big East schools Villanova and Creighton were both in the top five.