SAN DIEGO — It was love at first sight for the kid from Delaware. 

“They won the 2016 Big East championship, and I’m like, ‘I have to come now. I’m not going anywhere else but here.’ The day before they won the championship, I told Coach [Kevin] Willard that I wanted to come to Seton Hall,” Myles Cale recalled. 

And now, all these years later, Myles Cale got the one last chance, the one Last Dance, he dreamed of when he made the decision to return. 

“I felt like I had some unfinished business,” Cale said. “It wasn’t going to sit right with me just not going to the NCAA Tournament, just finishing my legacy like that. I just couldn’t go out like that. I talked to my family a lot about it, and they agreed. They thought it was the best decision. I felt like I wasn’t where I needed to be, and I feel like this year would have helped me in my future also.” 

The Last Dance for Myles Cale arrived on Friday night against ninth-seeded TCU in a first-round matchup at Viejas Arena. 

“It feels tremendous,” Cale told The Post. “That’s actually one of the main reasons why I came back to Seton Hall, just to feel what the NCAA Tournament is one last time. It’s a blessing, because we’ve been through a lot this past year, and not having fans, just having to win games at the end of the season, not coming up with those last couple of wins. It’s really like a relief almost. Like, wow, we’re back, and this is where we’re supposed to be.” 

He flashes back to his freshman year, when the Hall beat N.C. State in Wichita in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Cale (four points) started and played 23 minutes. 

“I didn’t really know how to go about it,” he recalled. “I didn’t even know the magnitude at that time, and how important those games were, so I was just living in the moment at that time. Looking back at it now, I can really say that I was grateful to be in that position.” 

No NCAA jitters? “I was just kind of clueless,” Cale said, and laughed. 

The Pirates defeated N.C. State. They were not as fortunate against Kansas. “I remember just watching Kansas on TV, Bill Self, like he’s a household name. … Just playing Kansas, I’m like, ‘Wow, I’m just not playing Kansas right now.’ It was an unbelievable feeling for me,” Cale said. 

The Hall was one-and-done the next year against Wofford in Jacksonville, Fla. 

“They had crazy shooters, and they played really unorthodox,” Cale said. “It was a different type of speed playing Wofford.” 

But 2020 brought the promise of an unforgettable March … until the pandemic shut down the Madness.. 

“Now we’re living in the moment like, ‘Well what if?’ Now have to say that for the rest of our lives,” Cale said. “We had thoughts of us going to the Final Four.” 

Even before his dream was shattered two years ago, Cale had personally endured a lackluster season. His minutes (23.0) and scoring average (6.0) dwindled. 

“I just felt like I wasn’t giving my team everything that I had,” Cale said. “I just felt like I wasn’t a big part of the reason why we were winning at that time.” 

He looks back now and believes he had lost some of his laser focus. 

“I might have paid attention too much to the haters and doubters, and I let them get in my head,” Cale said. “And that’s why like now, I use it as fuel and it doesn’t affect me now.” 

He views it as an important reality check. 

“I feel like that really helped me become who I am today,” Cale said. “Everything before that was just all peaches and cream, just a fairytale. I had never really been through that kinda stuff mentally. I found out who my real friends were, I found out like how important my family is. All that stuff came to light when I was going through adversity.” 

The son of a retired police officer, Cale felt compelled to give a speech at a rally in his Middleton, Del., hometown following the murder of George Floyd. And his Cale Cares mentoring program there connects police and teenagers. 

“It’s times where we need to change, and we just need to end racism, and we had to have those uncomfortable conversations,” he said. “I felt like right then and there it was needed, and everybody needed to hear my voice. I’m usually one of those quiet kids that don’t say a lot and sit back and watch, but I felt like that time period I needed to say something.” 

The last two years Cale flourished the way he once did for Tim Legler’s South Jersey Jazz AAU team as an unselfish player who prides himself on his defense. He will leave having played in the most games in the history of the Big East Conference (94) and the most games played in Seton Hall history (154). 

“It means that I’m old, I guess,” Cale said jokingly. “It means that I’ll be here forever, I feel like. People won’t forget about me. I think I’m set in stone. 

“My legacy is OK here.”