Kevin Willard quote book: St. John's

On Shavar Reynolds and his game-winning three-pointer as a reward for his dedication:
"All his hard work has given me confidence to put him in the game in that kind of situation, and he played really well at Maryland. I thought he gave us a really good spark at Maryland, and at that point, you're thinking it's going to be a drive-and-kick. He's probably our second-best shooter, and I just have -- because he worked so hard and he's in the gym hours and hours and hours -- I had total confidence that he could make the shot."

"It's just really gratifying. Every high school kid should understand that if you work really, really hard and you have a great attitude, and you're a good person, good things are going to happen to you. And that's Shavar Reynolds. He works hard, he's a great person, he's a 4.0 student, and good things are happening to him because of his hard work."

"I wouldn't put him in the game if I didn't think he could help us, and from a defensive standpoint more than anything, he gives us a lot of energy and I always know that when he goes into a game, defensively, he's going to change the game in a good way for us defensively."

On Seton Hall winning its Big East Conference opener in this fashion:
"It's league play, you can definitely tell league play's here. We've played a lot of good teams, and that might be the best team we've played, one through five. They make it so hard on you to defend them, and Shamorie, the way he gets guys involved. The three days off hurt us a little bit, we weren't as sharp as I wanted to be at the start of the game and we had some mistakes early in the game that we hadn't been making for a while, but that's a good basketball team. They're going to win a lot of games in this league."

On the replay review after a timing error may have cost St. John's the win, and his strategy for the last possession:
"No, we just drew it up. I asked Q (Quincy McKnight), 'Did you throw it out of bounds?' And he said, 'No, it got deflected.' We just drew it up, and the big thing was just how much time there was going to be -- 3.5 (seconds) or three. The play was zipper Myles (Powell) up, get Myles the ball and everybody get out of his way, but the second option was if they both jumped on him, to hit Sandro. Q was a cut back door, but I think Sandro was so surprised that he was right in front of the rim, and he made a good kick-out, and Shavar was there and ready, so it's amazing that we executed at the end of the game the way we did."

On Sandro Mamukelashvili and his maturity:
"I think the biggest maturity for Sandro is that he really struggled early on. He wasn't playing well, and then for him to end up with 14 points, eight rebounds, four assists, I think that shows maturity -- I think he sat for a good straight six minutes in the second half -- to get off the bench and then make some big plays, and really play well defensively towards the end of the game."

"He didn't get to shoot a whole lot last year -- I don't think he got to shoot at all -- and so now, what he's trying to get used to more than anything is now that if you take five threes, more than likely, you're going to miss three of them. If you go 2-for-5, you're a 40 percent three-point shooter, and that means you're a pretty good shooter in college. I think it's him just getting used to the fact that it's okay to miss shots. He's not going to come out and -- like, last year, he only got two minutes at a time -- now he's out there for 12 minutes. You're going to miss some shots, you're going to make some mistakes. It's learning that that's okay."

On defending Shamorie Ponds:
"The biggest thing was we wanted to start off the game and not give him threes early in the game, which obviously, we didn't do. I think, to be perfectly honest with you, I just think Quincy McKnight really worked his butt off on guarding him and just made things hard on him. I think that's one thing Q does better than anything. He might not get steals on the ball, but he just really works hard to make guys work over him. I think Shamorie did a really good job in the first half of getting everybody involved, and I think when he had to score, sometimes it's kind of hard to flip that switch back on. I thought Q did a really good job of just staying low, staying down on him and trying to make him work."

On adjustments on the perimeter:
"I think the biggest thing is we went small. We put Jared Rhoden out there, and Jared gave us another wing perimeter that we could actually lock in and put somebody on (LJ) Figueroa that wasn't small, and so we were a little bit bigger on the wing. I thought he gave us really -- he gives us great energy -- and I thought going to Jared defensively kind of really helped us defensively."

On Michael Nzei and his double-double:
"Mike's a fifth-year senior. Mike should have all the confidence in the world, because he's put a lot of hard work in and he's going to be out there. Mike's a guy that's -- he's my safety blanket this year. I know what I'm going to get from Mike, I know he's going to bring it every night -- 14 and 10 -- it's not like he didn't start because he didn't deserve to start, he didn't start because we were going up against a seven-foot, 260-pound guy. People put way too much emphasis on starting. It wasn't 'Mike's not starting because he's not playing well.' Mike didn't start because we couldn't defend a monster, and sometimes you game plan. It's not like his maturity or anything, it's just the fact that he knows every once in a while, you have to game plan."

On whether or not Seton Hall should be ranked next week:
"I'm not worried about that. One win at a time in this league. I can't believe we're playing league games already, December 29. This is the most brutal December I can remember, so one game at a time. I'm not worried about that. I'm proud of the effort these guys are giving, I'm proud of their attitude, and I love their resilience. That's really the only thing I'm worried about."

On Seton Hall's leadership:
"One reason why we were really good last year is because Quincy and Taurean (Thompson) were sitting out, and Ro (Romaro Gill), so our scout team last year -- with three guys who I feel like I could start right now -- and Quincy, the way Quincy defends, his leadership is unbelievable from the way he defends and the way he brings an unbelievable attitude defensively. Again, I think I have the best player in college basketball in Myles Powell, and offensively, he gives us a lot of confidence."

On clutch performances after losses to Saint Louis and Louisville:
"I think they've really grown, and the biggest thing is they're understanding their roles. I think everybody has much more confidence in what they're doing, so I think when you have more confidence in your roles, end-of-game situations get a lot easier because now everyone's not guessing, 'Should I take a shot? Should I pass it?' They all know what they're doing out there, and I think that makes a big difference."

On envisioning a better start to Big East play:
"I told the guys I think this is the best win I've ever had in this building. I go back a long time ago, when Fuquan (Edwin) stole the ball against Villanova late in February (2013) and there was like, a thousand people. We stunk, but we got a big win over Villanova, and I thought that was a huge win at the time, because it helped us the next year. But I think this is, just for the fact that we didn't play all that well and I think we were playing one of the top two teams in the league and we found a way to win, yeah, that's a big win."