Thursday, March 1, 2018

Kevin Willard quote book: Villanova

On what Seton Hall showed Wednesday night:
"I think they showed me the same thing that they've shown me all year. The toughness has been great, their resilience when we got down and just fought. I'm really proud of the way these guys played tonight."

On Myles Cale, Ismael Sanogo and Desi Rodriguez:
"Myles just cramped up. He hasn't played that many -- 37 -- minutes. Ish is going to be out, he sprained his ankle. I don't know if Ish will be back for Saturday, probably not. He'll be doubtful for Saturday. Myles was just cramping."

"Desi is still doubtful for Saturday. He looks better, he was able to shoot yesterday a little bit. He's still having a little trouble jumping, so we'll see how he looks. He looked better today, but we'll see."

On Seton Hall's defense:
"I thought both teams just played at a high level. I thought both teams really guarded, really pushed everybody away from the basket and just did a lot of good things. I thought their rotations were great, I thought we scrambled great, chased the right guys off the line. I just thought it was a really high-level game."

On challenges of defending Mikal Bridges:
"Yeah, he's tough. He's really tough when he moves to the four and you've got (Omari) Spellman out there. You've got a guy who can pick-and-pop, you've got Bridges, who can iso on your four man, does a lot of little things. He causes a lot of mismatches, especially when he's at the four spot."

On how he looks at Wednesday's game:
"In this league, when you play a game like this and both teams battle, I couldn't be more proud of my guys. I hate losing, but when you go out and you leave it all on the floor the way these guys did, diving on the floor, I thought both teams played just a high-level game. Sometimes you lose those games. We lost by a point. It was a great game. I thought it was well-reffed, too."

On Eron Gordon's apparent reach-in foul in the final seconds:
"I didn't see it, but we got a couple of good calls down the stretch, and I thought it was a really well-officiated game, so I have -- if they called a foul, I'm sure it was pretty much a foul."

On Khadeen Carrington being fouled on the floor, possibly in the act of shooting:
"I don't know. I think you might be better off asking him. That's one of those things where the refs know they're going to foul, sometimes you get the benefit of the doubt."

On Prudential Center atmosphere:
"We're a weird group. I think sometimes we play better when there's like, 2,000 people in the building. These guys have gotten used to -- for good crowds and tough crowds -- it's a great atmosphere. Again, our students have been phenomenal. I've said it for the last seven years, our students make the trip down, and they've been the most consistent fan base. I see it on the road, for a group of students -- this is our third Wednesday night home game -- they make the trip down. They're phenomenal, man. I just love the passion our students have. I think our kids feed off that, whether it's a non-league game or a league game. They've really come out and supported us, and I think that's phenomenal."

On Sandro Mamukelashvili:
"Sandro's been great. I wanted to play him more, it's just that lineup they went with, it was really hard. But he's continuing to become the player that I know he's going to be, and he's just going to be a good offensive weapon as he gets stronger and his shot improves. I think he's going to be really good."

On getting his players back to full health:
"It's going to be very important that we get healthy. I think the biggest thing is once we get Desi back, it kind of puts everything back to normal, and that's my biggest focus. That's why -- again -- I don't know if he'll play on Saturday just because I've got to make sure he can play the rest of the way."

On whether Rodriguez will rest up to the Big East Tournament:
"That might be the plan. I just don't know. Saturday's a big game, so I'm not sure if he can play. I just think it's going to be a tough decision."

On Sanogo's injury:
"When he drove, he drove middle and he kind of stepped over -- I think it was Bridges' foot, and he just rolled his ankle. It's the same ankle he rolled last year, and so he kind of just -- he re-sprained it. I just looked at it, and it was pretty swollen for an ankle. But he came back last year within about 5-6 days from the Georgetown one, but like Deeno said, he'll battle through it. I think he'll be back for the Big East opener."

On Jordan Walker:
"Jordan's hand was pretty swollen still today. I don't see Jordan playing until the Big East Tournament."

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