Kevin Willard quote book: Villanova

On what Saturday's win at Villanova says about his Seton Hall team:
“I complain about the schedule all the time, but I think our schedule really helped us. Playing at Iowa State, at Saint Louis, at Rutgers, three games in Atlantis, I thought those games have really kind of prepared us for an unbelievable atmosphere like it was tonight, and also a tremendous basketball team. I think our non-conference schedule, although it was brutal — it was testing, and obviously it didn’t go as everyone wanted it to go — I think it really prepared us for the rest of the season.”

On having a three-game lead in the Big East standings:
“I’ll tell you what feels better than anything: Having the most Quad 1 wins on the road. I just think it shows the toughness of this team. We still have eight games left in Big East play. We’ve got Creighton twice, we still have these guys at home, so there’s a lot of basketball left. So more than anything, when I look at all the Quad 1 wins and I look at all the road wins and all the teams we’ve played — we’ve played more than anybody of Quad 1 teams, and our road wins — I just think it shows the toughness of these kids and the way they’ve battled, and the way they’ve grown throughout the season.”

On navigating the five-minute stretch with Myles Powell on the bench due to accumulating four fouls:
“The difference — when he went out the two games against Maryland and Florida A&M, we didn’t have Sandro. I think the biggest difference now is, I’ve always said, Sandro’s my security blanket. Whether it’s press offense, whether I could throw it to the post, whether I can pick-and-pop him, he’s going to make a play, I had so much confidence in that group out there because Sandro was out there. He’s a junior that’s been through it, and he’s just starting now to kind of get his confidence back and get his groove back. It was huge, and again, it just shows you what type of player and person Myles Powell is. The whole time, he was calling plays, he was telling guys what to do. It’s just the type of leadership that he has. He just has such great leadership at all times. He was instrumental in how that went, even though he wasn’t out there.”

On what Saturday's win means to the program:
“You guys know me. If we had lost, I’d have been like, ‘Alright, we got cheesesteaks on the bus.’ It would have been 27 years, and eventually, it might have been 28 years. It’s more about this team and living in the present. It’s more important right now where we are in the standings, where we are in the seedings. Everyone always says about ‘89, and it’s all about these kids, and I think for them — he (Powell) just passed the all-time 3-point record. This is six straight road wins, so I’m more concerned about this team right now and what they’re doing, and I love their work ethic, I loved their focus yesterday. I thought this was a focused group, they were loose, but they were focused. So I think more than anything, I’m just living in this moment and enjoying being able to coach him and coach this group.”

On Shavar Reynolds:
“Shavar was awesome. I thought his defense on Collin (Gillespie) was really, really impressive. He picked him up full-court, he dropped back, he didn’t leave him. He made it very hard for Collin to get into a groove, and that was what we talked about with Quincy and Shavar. He’s such a strong guard getting in the lane. Our whole key was just trying to keep him off balance. Saddiq Bey played phenomenal and is an amazing player, but you can’t let both those guys have good games, and I thought Shavar and Q were just great all night.”

On Seton Hall’s resilient nature defining its style:
“I’ve always said we’re not always pretty, but we’re going to fight, we’re going to scrap, and we’re going to battle. Even after our Xavier loss, I went into our locker room and said, ‘at least we battled, at least we played good, it’s not the end of the world. Let’s just go back to doing what we do,’ and that’s playing extremely hard, playing really good basketball, and just being tough. That’s who we are as a program if you look at all these guys. Sandro comes from Georgia, but he’s been — since he was 15 — playing basketball against grown men. He (Powell) comes from Trenton. There ain’t a tougher dude around this guy. All my guys — I wouldn’t say I’m tough — they take on the personality of what we need to do to win, and I think they embrace that, I think they like it, they enjoy — I talk about our defensive numbers all the time — and I think they enjoy the fact that we’re a really good defensive team. They’ve embraced it, and I think they enjoy it.”

On preserving Powell down the stretch:
“It was just offense-defense. We had to get some stops, and I couldn’t have him pick up a cheap foul or for him to not be in the game when we needed to make free throws and to run a play. We do that anyway towards the end of games, we go offense-defense with him just so I can keep him fresh and we can get the ball in his hands after timeouts.”

On being a No. 3 seed in CBS’ NCAA Tournament reveal Saturday afternoon:
“It’s great. That’s awesome. Last year, we were fighting for our lives, now we’re being talked about as a 3-seed. That’s where this program is. That’s great. Our fans should be excited about that, and these guys should be excited about that, but it’s — what’s today’s date? February 8? Selection Sunday’s not for another — if Jon Rothstein was here, we’d get the exact date. March 15? Still, like I said, we saw some great opportunities and beat some really good teams. We’ve just got to keep our head down and stay focused, and try to block out Twitter and Instagram and TikTok — my son’s asking me to get on TikTok, I’m like, are we playing a game? I have no idea. So it’s a long time, that’s a month. As Jon Rothstein says, we have 40 days until Selection Sunday, and we sleep in May. We’re just going to stay focused, enjoy this win. I think Creighton's as good as it gets, so we have to get ready for a team that’s much different, plays at a different pace and a different style.”