Kevin Willard quote book: Providence

On Romaro Gill’s progression:
“I think the way he’s progressed this summer, he’s put a lot of work into his game. This summer, when we went overseas to Italy, I thought he had a different understanding of the game and had a much better feel than what he did last year. He was starting to play this way before he got hurt, he had two big blocks and a big dunk at Xavier, then he got hurt right before the DePaul game and missed seven games, and I thought those seven games kind of stopped him from progressing the way he had been progressing, so I started seeing this a little bit early last year. I thought it hurt us last year when he went down.”

On winning despite Myles Powell only taking six shots:
“That’s one of those things that, the way they play — the physicality, as good as they are — they make you grind and they make you guard for a full 25 seconds, and us giving up 19 offensive rebounds really hurt the fact that it just limited the number of possessions that we had on the other end. I thought it showed a lot of maturity by Myles that he didn’t get frustrated. In years past, he would have gotten a little frustrated with getting face-guarded, with getting grabbed, and I thought he really kind of sacrificed — made a great screen coming out of a timeout for a layup — and I think the rest of the guys kind of understand that when he’s getting taken away, they’ve got to step up and make some plays.”

On Gill being a second option offensively:
“I wouldn’t call him a second option, because we’re not throwing him the basketball in the post. He doesn’t get any plays run for him, what we try to do is kind of use different guys in pick-and-rolls and disguise coverages so it’s not the same way, but I think the biggest thing is what you’re seeing, that guys are very confident in throwing it up to him, and even if he misses it or drops it, the guards are very confident that he’s going to catch it and do something good with it.”

On Jared Rhoden’s physicality:
“Jared is — I told him, ‘J, you gotta get in there and rebound, you gotta try and do something for me,’ and that’s what I love about Jared, you tell him something to do and he’s going to go out there and try to do it. I thought he did a really good job against their zone, getting them out of zone, hitting the high post and making some good plays.”

On Quincy McKnight:
“You’re looking at a senior who has played a lot of games, a lot of minutes. I think the biggest thing with these guys is they’re all playing their role really well. No one’s trying to do anything they’re not supposed to do, and I think when you understand your role and you play your role and you do it well, you have confidence in what you’re going to do.”

On Sandro Mamukelashvili returning next week:
“Sandro’s not clear to practice yet, so no. He looks great in doing individual stuff, and that looks great, but he just doesn’t have enough muscle in his forearm yet to protect himself if he falls, and that’s why he’s not clear. He doesn’t have enough muscle in his forearm — his bone is healed and his wrist looks great — but I have to protect him just in case he falls again. He’ll be clear for practice, he won’t be clear for Wednesday. He won’t be ready to play Wednesday.”

On Seton Hall’s versatility and depth:
“It helps you look like you know what you’re doing on the offensive end, that’s for sure, and again: I think when the guard play has been as good as it has and you have one guard as good as we have, and is as excellent as we have, I think the other guys are really understanding at times when it’s their turn. That’s something that a mature team and a veteran team does, and I think these guys are doing it.”

On Seton Hall’s offense against Providence’s zone:
“We shot 54 percent, so I’d say I liked my offense pretty good. They were really pressing up on us and taking away Myles, but I thought we did a good job of — when you shoot 54 percent against a Providence team, your offense is obviously doing something right — and 16 assists, I like the fact that we’re sharing the basketball and everyone’s getting involved in the offense.”

On whether Seton Hall could have won a game like this last month without Powell:
“I think last month, we could have. I think last year, we would not have. I think all these guys have great confidence now, I think that’s kind of grown from when he went down, I think all these guys understood that they can’t just depend on him. I think that’s been the biggest growth. We’re still going to roll with the little man, but I think the biggest thing is when he went down, everyone kind of realized, ‘Okay, we’ve got to step up and do something different, we just can’t sit there and just depend on him to do this on a nightly basis.’ Every once in a while — he’s played six phenomenal games in a row in Big East play — he’s going to have an off night, and tonight, the off night was we gave up 19 offensive rebounds and I couldn’t get him anymore shots than six.”

On tying P.J. Carlesimo for most Big East wins in program history:
“I’ve had a lot more chances. He only played a 16-game schedule, I’ve played an 18-game schedule, so I think it’s a little skewed. Gary (Cohen) just told me that P.J. only got 16 games a year. I’m getting 18, so I think there’s got to be an asterisk until I get at least a lot more to even out — I can’t divide, but I know the ratio of wins and games played, and I know that’s got to be somewhere to the point where P.J.’s games, Coach Raf — he never won any Big East games, P.J. won all the games — so I’m a little skewed because I’m sure I have a lot more losses than him, too. I don’t deserve to be anywhere near Coach Carlesimo. He is the gold standard, will always be the gold standard, he’s the one that put this program on the map. I’m just an asterisk below him until I get the ratio. I’ll go home tonight and have a club sandwich and see if the ratio — Tom (Chen) is good for that. Tom’s the best SID in America, so Tom will probably come up and tell me that I have a conference call tomorrow at 11:40, and my ratio is not even close to Carlesimo.”