Kevin Willard quote book: Creighton

On defending Creighton:
“Watching then throughout the year, I’ve always thought, of everyone in the conference, they were going to be the one team because of their guard play. (Marcus) Zegarowski’s great, Ty-Shon (Alexander) is awesome, and obviously to hold Mitch Ballock 0-for-7 And you still give up 87 points, it tells you how good they can be.”

On playing a smaller lineup:
“We had no choice. Once (Christian) Bishop got his third foul, he (head coach Greg McDermott) went with (Denzel) Mahoney and (Damien) Jefferson. That’s a hard matchup for Ike and Ro, they just put so much pressure on you through pick-and-rolls. We tried to go small and switch some stuff, but we just didn’t do a very good job of keeping guys in front of us. I thought they did a good job of attacking, especially with Mahoney and Jefferson.”

On Myles Powell having an off night:
“He had an off night. It happens. As good of a player he is, if you watch NBA, you watch college, every once in a while a great player has an off night, and he just had an off night.”

On shot selection:
“I thought we took too many threes, but again, they were small and switching, and they did a good job. Jefferson’s a good defender, Mahoney can sit down and defend a little bit, so when we went small, their switching kind of kept us in front. But we still scored 82 points, so at the end of the day, if you score 82, you should have a better shot of winning on your home floor.”

On Sandro Mamukelashvili playing amid foul trouble:
“The way he’s been playing, and obviously going small, he helps us tremendously running offense. I would have played Tyrese more, but Tyrese didn’t practice the last two days because he’s been battling the flu. So I was a little hesitant, and I probably — just because he hadn’t practiced in two days — I was a little hesitant putting him in there, then I started mixing and matching probably a little too much, which kind of got us off a little bit.”

On Romaro Gill:
“As much as I love Ro, the way they were spacing us out, it was just too hard. We were giving up too many easy buckets. He got off to a great start with (Kelvin) Jones in there, I thought he got a couple of good blocks, but once they went to kind of like a five-out offense, it was really hard to keep him out there.”

On team illnesses:
“Name it. Jared didn’t practice Monday or Tuesday, Tyrese didn’t practice, Darnell’s in the hospital, Taurean’s sick. I think Darnell might have mono, we’re not sure yet, and Sandro didn’t practice on Monday. All flu.”

On a message being received from Wednesday’s loss:
“We’re 10-2, I like where we’re at. I didn’t do a very good job of getting these guys ready for the type of pace — it’s such a different pace than Villanova, where ‘Nova walks it up every time and makes you defend for 25 seconds — we had a hard time getting in transition defense. That’s really what hurt us, and more than anything, our live ball turnovers, I thought were the difference in the game. We had four live ball turnovers in the second half that gave them eight points, and you just can’t turn it over against this team. They’re too good, they make you paralyzed, they make you work, and we just gave up too many live ball turnovers. If you throw it in the stands against them, at least you can defend them, but they’re too good and I thought they were just a little bit quicker to the loose balls, and they got a couple of loose balls that changed the game.”

On Creighton’s size difference:
“It’s the way they play. When Ballock’s not out there taking the shot — I thought we did a good job on Ballock for the first time in a while — but Jefferson’s a driver and again, I think the biggest difference I’ve seen in them is Denzel Mahoney gives them such a different dynamic at the four spot, and even at the five spot. He could just drive anybody, he’s so aggressive, and I really thought him and Jefferson were the difference in the game, they were aggressive driving. Zegarowski, that’s how Zegarowski plays if you watch him. He’s always in the lane, he’s always scoring. He’s turned himself into a heck of a player.”

On Providence and its slower pace:
“The only good thing is I know we’re in the middle of February, but everyone we’ve played, we’ve seen twice. To play them in the middle of February and not see them was a little different. We’ve kind of seen everybody, so I think the preparation’s a little bit easier because we’ve played Providence one time.”

On what to make of Creighton:
“I think they’re really good and really tough, and there’s a reason why they average 77 points a game in conference play. I thought our defense was not where it usually is or should be. I think they’re really good offensively, and I don’t think we played really well defensively.”