Kevin Willard quote book: DePaul

On Seton Hall winning games on its toughness:
“I thought they did a really good job defensively on us, too. I think you have to give them a lot of credit, I thought they were very physical on the pick-and-rolls, they did a good job of keeping everything tight, but you’re not always going to able to score 80 points — especially in this league — so I thought it was a really good fight, a really good effort. I thought all the guys did what they had to do to find a way to win, and that’s really all that matters.”

On Quincy McKnight’s defensive performance:
“He got his third foul and he sat a lot in the first half. We just needed some good energy, some good vibe, and I thought him and Jared, their energy was really infectious almost, and kind of just — even though we were missing free throws and having a hard time making shots — I thought their defense kept us upbeat and kept us going.”

On potential rust coming off a bye week:
“It’s never easy coming off a bye week, but I think you give a lot of credit to their size and physicality. I thought they did a good job defensively.”

On Charlie Moore and DePaul:
“Charlie’s really tough, and I think Dave (Leitao) does a great job putting him in different pick-and-roll situations. I think DePaul’s good, there’s a reason why they won at Minnesota, won at Iowa. They’re having a hard time making shots right now, I think that’s the biggest issue. They were shooting the ball better in the non-conference, and I think the only difference now is that they’re struggling to shoot the basketball.”

On Ike Obiagu:
“Ikey’s been playing great, it’s just been tough to get him in there because Ro’s been playing so good. But Ikey’s playing with a lot of confidence, he’s making the progression I was hoping he would make, just like Ro did last year. I think you’re going to see him continue to get better and better, and make that progression just like Ro did.”

On his message to Myles Powell:
“I was just trying to encourage him. He was struggling, and every once in a while, you don’t have your A-game, and I just wanted to tell him to keep on attacking. Sometimes the building’s loud, you just have to yell. One of the issues that we’re having is teams are doing a really good job, especially early in halves, early in the beginning of the game because everyone’s so fresh and locking in on him, and he’s expending a lot of energy early in games. That’s why I was having that nice conversation with him that you brought up, to just kind of stay with it and don’t worry about it.”

On Sandro Mamukelashvili’s return:
“It was great. Actually, I thought Sandro played much better than I even thought he would for having four practices. I was actually very encouraged, he wasn’t, I was just encouraged of where he was. In the second half, I just couldn’t get him back in there. For a guy that hasn’t played in that long, it just wasn’t the time.”

On his message to the team:
“At this time of year, with everything that’s going on — classes starting back up — sometimes teams need to be reminded of not slipping on the little things, that’s it. Not that they have, but there’s some things that I’ve been seeing, and I just want to make sure we stay on top of what we’ve been doing to get to this point. This is a great group, they work hard, obviously they play hard, we’re just trying to keep them focused. It’s a tough time of year sometimes.”

On remaining poised amid physicality:
“I think that’s one advantage we have in this conference, we have great referees. I thought the referees, again, they do a phenomenal job. These kids all play so hard, it’s a physical game in this league, so I think our refs do as great a job as anybody being proactive. It’s going to be chippy and you’re going to get into it a little bit, but you’re going to have some things. That’s just part of life in the Big East.”

On second-half adjustments to Charlie Moore:
“I just think Q was a little bit more aggressive, and he does a lot. He played 38 minutes. That’s a lot of minutes for him, and he’s guarding on the other end. I think the biggest thing is he just got a little more aggressive at the point of attack, and made it harder for him to get deep.”

On free throw shooting:
“It’s tough. I could say it in practice and Jared goes 90-for-100. Free throws were kind of what got us in the first half. When you’re up six, up seven and you miss two front ends of the 1-and-1, it kind of takes some steam out of it a little bit, and that’s what I told the guys at halftime. I’m like, ‘We’re still playing pretty good, we’re just missing some free throws.’ I just think when a guy’s a career 88-percent free throw shooter goes 8-for-13, sometimes you have an off night.”

On Saturday's 11 a.m. tipoff against Xavier:
“It’s just like a noon game. You just have to wake up a half-hour earlier. We’ll do the same thing we usually do, we’ll practice early Friday, have a night walkthrough Friday night and get after it on Saturday.”

On Powell and McKnight sparking an 8-0 run:
“That’s just kind of — I think everyone knows how good of a defender Q is, but the way he does it — it was a huge play, because Charlie picked and Myles was about ready to pull a three and he picked it on him, and then he had a dunk, which would have been huge. QU’s energy and his effort, and how hard he plays, he made a phenomenal play breaking it up, and then he slapped it off (Jalen) Coleman-Lands’ leg and we got the ball back, so it was a monster play.”