Kevin Willard quote book: Wagner

*All quotes courtesy of Josh Adams, College Hoops Digest

On Seton Hall’s season-opening performance:

“I really appreciated the effort overall, so just considering the fact that we played defense as hard as we did, it just shows how hard they really played, and the kids did a really good job of playing hard.”

On Sandro Mamukelashvili in his first career start:

“You know what? That’s the way he’s been playing all preseason, and I think as he gets more comfortable – as with all these guys: Quincy, Taurean, Jared, Romaro, all these guys, and getting their feet wet a little bit – I think as the year goes on, they’re gonna be a little more comfortable, a little bit more confident, and I think you’re gonna see that whole group continue to get better.”

On Shavar Reynolds:

“Shavar’s not a charity case. He earned his scholarship, and throughout the whole preseason, the reason why Myles Powell’s so good right now is because he has to go against Shavar in practice, and those two battle each other. Shavar’s gonna be a guy that’s on the court because I have a lot of confidence in how he can defend, and again, he’s a guy that – as he gets a little comfortable playing – he can shoot it, make plays, and he’s a tough son of a gun. Shavar’s out there because he’s earned it.”

On Myles Powell and his career-high-tying 30 points:

“That’s not even the Myles Powell we’ve seen. I didn’t think he played good. Once he gets his game shape and once he gets his – I know his numbers are phenomenal, so I can’t say anything – in only 24 minutes, just wait. I’ve been saying I think he’s one of the best players in the country for a reason, and once he gets in a little bit better game shape, you’re gonna see a lot of those, in my opinion. He’s a special player.”

“He has filled that void very well, and he knows what his job on the court is. I really was happy with everybody. I thought Quincy McKnight played really well, and they complement each other really well because Q can really defend and does a lot of things. Myles has been working. He took a back seat a little bit, which he had to and which he should have, but this year, there will be no back seat for that young man.”

“He’s like, seven percent body fat and he’s 195. He’s worked hard on his body. He was in the 12 percent body range. He was still a donut guy.”

On Taurean Thompson:

“Q, Taurean, Ro, I thought Ro looked really nervous compared to the way he looked at Boston College. I’ve got a lot of confidence in how Taurean’s gonna progress. He was super excited to finally get out there, and we’ve gotta get him to be a little more simple on offense, but you saw he can make shots, he can post. He’s a bear in the post when he wants to do it, and as he calms down and kind of gets in the flow of things, he’s just gonna keep getting better.”

On Seton Hall’s ball movement, with 20 assists on 29 field goals:

“I actually thought the ball movement was just okay. I thought we had a lot of game slippage into what we’d been doing in practice, which is normal this time of year. I think that’s gonna continue to get better, but it is something that these guys all understand, what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to pop the ball a little bit more, because last year with Angel, it seemed to stick more – it didn’t stick, it’s just that we were trying to kick out the ball a lot, so sometimes it did stick – the ball’s not gonna move around the perimeter when it’s going inside. This team, I think they’re doing a pretty good job of understanding how we want to move the ball. It’s a work in progress.”

On defense and deflections:

“Yeah, I think the goal is for this team to be a little more active than we’ve been in the last couple of years, being able to switch a little more defensively, a little bit like we were Isaiah’s sophomore year with Derrick (Gordon). Quincy and Shavar, and even Ant (Anthony Nelson) will get to the point where Derrick really brought us a different dynamic defensively – he helped us and gave us opportunities a lot. I think this team’s a little more like that where they can create opportunities and kind of disrupt the other team’s offense.”

On adjustments during a first half timeout before a 12-0 Seton Hall run:

“I have to coach this team much more than I did last year, and I’m still getting used to that a little bit, where I would let some things go with the older guys and I would let them slide. I can’t let the young guys slide, so I think I did call a timeout and I think it was more or less to kind of get the young guys to understand the importance of closing out the first half. I think that was what my temper was about. I would always know that the older guys would give me certain things, and I would let them slide on certain things, but they never got to slide when they were freshmen and sophomores. Never. They got it all the time, so it’s kind of getting back to that mentality of making sure these younger guys understand certain situations – how important the last three minutes of the first half are, how important the first four minutes of the second half are, how important timeouts are – it’s kind of what those guys went through their freshman and sophomore year. I’m doing a lot to help these guys out, if that makes sense. I know it’s a long answer.”

On analytics and embracing plus-minus:

“I live by plus-minus during the season, with my lineups. I’ve gotten a little bit more analytical than I was earlier in my career. I think you can get too analytical and I think you can get paralysis from it. For the most part, I won’t look at plus-minus during a game. You still have to, if Anthony Nelson’s minus-6 and Quincy McKnight gets his third foul, I’m not gonna keep Quincy McKnight in the game because Anthony’s minus-6. I take the lineup analysis tremendously, and I take the plus-minus as the year goes on, because it’s a great teaching tool to see the importance of, like, ‘Well, why did Shavar Reynolds play 15 minutes and I only played six minutes when Shavar was plus-12? So from that standpoint, I use it during a game.”

On Mamukelashvili’s efficiency:

“Sandro and Mike (Nzei) are always going to be on the floor, no matter what. They understand what we’re trying to do, and they get everything else from me easier on the court, so no, I’m not surprised by that.”