Kevin Willard quote book: Big East conference call

Opening statement:
“I was really happy with the way our guys battled all game long. I thought Providence’s defense was probably one of the best we’ve seen, they played physical — it was a physical basketball game where both teams, I thought, played really well. I like the way we shared the basketball, and this week, we’re going to take a couple days off and try to get healthy a little bit, and get back after it Saturday and get ready for a very good DePaul team.”

On Shavar Reynolds’ value:
“I think it’s huge, because the one thing that most people don’t know about Shavar is that he’s an extremely smart basketball player. I could play him at three different positions, he’s one of the best on-the-ball defenders that we have, but he’s also a physical and strong enough kid where I could move him to the wing and play him on bigger guys like we did last night against Alpha Diallo, who’s one of the better players in this conference. He understands what his role is for this team this year, to come in and give us energy on the defensive end, and I think he’s playing very well on the offensive end. He’s playing very under control with a lot of confidence, and he just gives me multiple options on the floor, and those are guys I really like.”

On the timing of Seton Hall’s bye week:
“I think it’s a pretty good time. We’ve been grinding pretty hard just like everybody else in the league, and Myles and Quincy — and really Ro now — have put in a lot of mileage in the conference schedule. I just think it gives us a couple days, more mentally than it is physically, and it gives us a couple days to just clear our head and kind of get refocused on the next seven games before we have a bye. I’ve got to put some new plays in to try to help with face-guarding with Myles and some things like that, so we’ll work on that, but overall, we’ll kind of continue just getting better, focusing on the next three or four games, because it’s three or four big ones.”

On Quincy McKnight’s defensive mentality:
“I think we kind of get our identity defensively from Quincy. He brings the toughness, the grit, really a workmanlike attitude to the defensive end. He’s always going to guard the best player, he’s gotta cover for a lot of guys on the court, and I think more than anything, he just brings a mentality to our team that we’re going to be a great defensive team because it all starts with him. When those other four guys are seeing him heating up the ball and working on it, it gets them engaged to do the same thing. More than anything, it’s just his attitude, and really, his toughness.”

On Myles Powell opening up the perimeter to other players:
“I think the one thing Myles does as good as anybody in the country is Myles really picks his spots. He’s gotten so much more mature with when and how he shoots the basketball. Last night, I thought he played one of his better games even though he only scored 14 points, just because of the maturity he showed in the fact that other guys were open because of the double-teams he was facing, even triple-teams sometimes last night, and his maturity and his growth as a player has allowed everybody to kind of let their games grow and get better. It just shows you what type of player he is and how good of a player he really is, because he’s letting everyone grow and has confidence in his teammates to make plays, and I think all the guys are doing a good job with stepping up.”

On being surprised by Romaro Gill’s maturation and evolution:
“No, not at all. I saw this — he started developing at the beginning of the last Big East Conference season, and unfortunately, he had that really bad ankle injury that had him miss seven games — we got off to a good start early in the conference because I thought he was playing at a high level. He’s a young man that has a great attitude, probably one of the best attitudes I’ve ever seen, and he has a relentless work ethic, so when you add a work ethic and a great attitude, good things are going to happen.”