Sunday, January 1, 2017

Kevin Willard quotebook: Marquette postgame

On Seton Hall's resolve down the stretch:
"Yeah, it was...we talked about it at halftime: This league, this year, you're going to be in more games like this than you're going to be in easy games. Even when we got up eight, we had a tough offensive rebound go off Desi (Rodriguez)'s shoulder, and that was a big momentum changer. But we did all the little things to kind of gut out a win, and every once in a while, you can't win pretty sometimes."

On whether Seton Hall would foul up three points before the final possession:
"We were going to foul."

On Khadeen Carrington:
"I thought he did a good job in the first half of getting rid of the ball a little bit, four assists, one turnover in the first half. He's just going to have to get used to when you're scoring 21 points a game, you're going to get extra attention. I thought Jajuan Johnson did a heck of a job on him using his lanes and being physical with him. He just has to get used to, early in games, getting rid of the ball. He's going to get it back eventually, but he's a tough son of a gun and that's why I ran the play for him. I knew he would make a good play."

On whether this was a tough game to win given Marquette's offensive proficiency:
"It is. It's a little bit different. Last year, we were only worried about (Luke) Fischer and (Henry) Ellenson. They didn't shoot the basketball the way they shoot it this year. This year, he's doing a great job of spreading everybody out, and I love the freshman point guard, (Markus) Howard. They're a good basketball team to put up a ladder."

On whether it was important to keep Marquette off the foul line:
"I thought both teams did. I thought the game was extremely well-officiated, I thought they called it the same way on both ends, they let guys play, they let guys get to the hoop and I thought the post play was; they let it be physical, which I like. I thought Fischer and Angel (Delgado) were able to battle down there and play. I don't know what the final foul totals were...15-10, I thought it was a well-officiated game."

On Carrington stepping up after a quiet first half:
"Deeno has played, he just scored his 1,000th point, I have a lot of confidence in him. When he's struggling, I still want the ball in his hands. I know he's going to make a big play. He's just got to fight through some times when he is struggling, but again, anytime I can get the ball in his hands, I have a lot of confidence in him."

On Ismael Sanogo defending Katin Reinhardt:
"We just kind of reminded Ish that we watched two days of film of No. 22 shooting the basketball, and 'please don't let him shoot it anymore,.' We had two breakdowns, one in transition and one in the zone, that's how we got both of them. I thought we did a better job in the second half of just understanding where he is and making sure to make him dribble. He's a good player, but when you make him dribble, he's a lot less effective than standing and shooting."

On Jevon Thomas:
"Jevon has been great. We're all battling the flu a little bit: I'm just getting over it, Jevon just has it, Angel's getting over it, Ish is getting over it, Desi has it. We've all been battling the last two weeks, to be honest. We traveled so much, I think it's worn us down a little bit so it's good to have a week to kind of get some rest. We just haven't had, we played on the 23rd and then went and traveled to Creighton. We've just been on the move so much, a lot of guys have been battling not only mental fatigue; but we've also had some physical fatigue, so we're going to take this week and really kind of get rested because our next four games are brutal."

On Isaiah Whitehead, who was in attendance:
"I would rather see him on the court. It's always good. He hangs out, he comes back...every time he's in town, he has a chance to come back and he hangs out with these guys. He's in the gym with these guys, he's here all the time, so it's nothing new for us. I think it's nice for the fans to get to say thank you, and appreciate all that he did the last two years. For us, it's just seeing Z; for them, it's exciting."

On older players coming back to support the program:
"I think it's great. It's something I maybe didn't put enough time into when I first got the job, was trying to get some of the older guys to kind of come back and mentor the younger guys, but Jerry (Walker) has been really great over the last couple of years, Terry (Dehere) has been great over the past couple of years. We had six or seven guys stop by practice all the time, so over the last couple of years, it's been really nice that these guys have really taken some of the younger guys under their wings a little bit. We have a lot of great players that have played in this program, but most importantly, a lot of great people have played in this program, so it's good when you can get not only great players; but great people back, I think that's even more important."

On free throw shooting and its recent improvement:
"I'll take anything over 50 percent right now. I think our best play was a free throw we missed, we got two offensive rebounds. We're getting better, like Khadeen should be an 80 percent free throw shooter, he'll eventually get up there. Desi's going to be a 70-72 percent free throw shooter, that's right where he's at right now. Ish should be a better free throw shooter than he is. If you look at our numbers, they're skewed a little bit because Angel has really struggled and Mike Nzei has really struggled. If you take those two out of it, we're not the 334th team. I'm well aware of it, I think we're all well aware of it, I think that's why we rebound so well now. We understand we're not making a ton of them, so that's why instead of running back, we try to rebound now. I think the more time we're home, the better off we'll get."

On Angel Delgado's improvement when double-teamed:
"We've got a lot of work to do, and it's probably our biggest improvement. He's great when he's getting single coverage, he just has to be a little bit better of a quarterback when he's getting doubled."

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