Kevin Willard quote book: Creighton

On fouling with a three-point lead in the final seconds:
"The only reason I did it -- and I usually don't -- there's two big factors: One, he (Greg McDermott) is a really good coach at end-of-game situations and they have enough shooters on the floor, and two, I was worried that if we did go to overtime with our foul trouble -- Myles (Powell) having four, Q (Quincy McKnight) having four -- more than likely, one of them's going to pick up their fifth and foul out, and I didn't want to get in that situation where we fought back, we came back, but now all of a sudden, we go to overtime and they get a foul, so those were the two biggest factors. If Myles didn't have fouls and Q didn't have fouls, I probably wouldn't have fouled."

On Myles Powell's stretch drive:
"I'm trying to get him -- a little bit -- to have that intensity and that sense of urgency from the start, and I think it's tough because he plays so darn hard and he gives it his all that I think he does, at times, kind of just -- I wouldn't want to say coasts offensively -- but I do think at times, he kind of takes a rest. And when he plays with that sense of urgency and that little fire that he's got going towards the end of games, he's just unstoppable. But it's hard to ask him to do that for 40 minutes."

On defensive effort:
"I think the biggest thing was -- our biggest key was we didn't want Mitch Ballock to have a big night. When he's making threes, they are almost impossible to defend, and the fact that we really focused -- he got a couple of open ones off offensive rebounds early, but for the most part, we did a great job of switching and making it tough on him. It really was a good job defensively, because they are really good offensively."

On Taurean Thompson not suiting up:
"Violation of team rules. He understands what he did, he apologized, and we've moved on. It's just one game, we have moved on."

On Powell thriving in clutch situations:
"He understands how important these games are, and he understands how important he is to us. I think at times when he's not playing well, it weighs on him, and he's not a guy who responds to getting yelled at. Sometimes, believe it or not, you've got to pump him up, and I'll just put him in the middle of the floor and say, 'Do what you do.' That's really kind of what I said to him. I said, 'Do what you do and we'll be fine,' and he really did a great job of reading defense. The ball fake and the foul was huge, because we'd been working on that and to see him go to it towards the end of the game was really impressive."

On defending Creighton's Christian Bishop and Martin Krampelj:
"Bishop played really well. They haven't played him and Krampelj a lot together, and that kind of threw us for a loop because he's a tough load down low. He can rebound, he's bigger than -- we had Jared (Rhoden) playing some four -- the biggest thing that we started doing with Krampelj was we started switching pick-and-rolls a little bit. Him hitting those two threes was really tough, and he's a good player. It's good to see a guy who has gone through what he's gone through come back and play at the level he is. He's a good kid, he's worked hard, and it's good to see that."

On parity in the Big East:
"Greg and I were talking about it before the game. Just wait until next year. Our league is young. Wait until all these kids go through this a whole year. I'm not looking forward to next year. They have everybody back, we have everybody back just about, Marquette has everybody back. Everybody brings guys back. It's crazy, and it's the most balanced, by far. There's no weak team. The last couple, two or three years, there's been -- the ninth and tenth-place teams, you could almost look at and say you've got a W -- there's no one you look at and say you're going to get a W, nobody. I look at Georgetown and how young they are. Wait until those kids are sophomores, and they've got the transfer from NC State (Omer Yurtseven) sitting out. The whole league, as young as it is, I'm so impressed with how young the league is and how hard all the teams are playing. I think that's what I've been most impressed with everybody in the league. Sometimes young kids have a hard time sustaining playing hard, but all these teams, it's really impressive."

"I think it's fun to watch, and I think it's fun to play in. The kids really enjoy the games, our crowd this year has been great -- it's really helped us at home -- it's just a good league, man. It's so balanced top to bottom, and the players are so good top to bottom. It's not fun coaching in it, but it's fun watching it."

On Georgetown and Wednesday night's matchup:
"I've had a lot of fun watching those young guys play. Obviously (Mac) McClung and (James) Akinjo get a lot of press, as they should, but the kid (Josh) LeBlanc is really fun to watch. They don't run plays for him, but he rebounds, he runs, (Jamorko) Pickett's really shooting the basketball, and obviously you have Jessie (Govan), who's probably one of the top five players in the league. Pat's done a phenomenal job with them."

On Seton Hall's bench and its production:
"We're coming off our second bye week, so I was really worried about early on, the five guys getting gassed, because we haven't played in forever. And the bench guys have been practicing really well. We had a great week of practice, and I thought Jared Rhoden gave us great energy, I thought Anthony Nelson really did a good job passing the basketball, and I thought Shavar Reynolds was much more aggressive tonight, which I like to see."