Sha Sounds Off: Iowa

On what he learned about his team:

“That we’ve got work to do.”

On Kris Murray:

“He played well, he played really well. He’s good. I thought we made him look a little better than what he is, but he’s good. He’s long, he’s athletic, can shoot it, obviously he played multiple spots. He just embraced playing basketball. I think some of the guys on our team can learn from that.”

On Tray Jackson and Al-Amir Dawes’ struggles:

“Sometimes it’s going to be like that. Sometimes your offense isn’t going, and when your offense isn’t going, you’ve just got to worry about playing defense. I think our guys are learning that right now. No disrespect to the two teams we played, but when you’re playing a good team like Iowa, you’ve got to make sure you’re doing the right things, and I thought tonight, our defense sucked. And I blame myself for that.”

On Seton Hall’s inability to get stops:

“You watched the game. I don’t know, I’ve got to watch film. I thought our pick-and-roll defense was horrible, which is sad because we work on it a lot. I know we had some lineups in there that haven’t played together, so I think guys got a little confused. But when we came out in the first four minutes of the game, we came out with great defense, great intensity. I made some subs, and normally when I make subs, our energy goes up. It kind of went down tonight. We’ve just got to learn from it. Sometimes you’ve got to lose to win, right? Tonight we lost, and you kind of get what you deserve. We haven’t practiced well the last couple days, and you can’t play like that against a team like Iowa. This team’s a veteran team, they’ve been together, they’re very well-coached. I thought the point guard played particularly well for them. As good as Murray played, I thought the point guard was the key to the game for them, (Tony) Perkins. We knew he’s a good solid player, but he was driving the basketball and nobody had good step-ups. I thought Rese being in foul trouble really hurt us, because I had some guys in there that are still trying to embrace that role of playing at the five, and Rese was playing good. He had nine points and eight rebounds at the time, and I should have got him back in a little earlier, but the game was kind of moving so fast. You’ve got to learn from it.”

On what changed when Tyrese Samuel picked up his third foul:

“I don’t know, I’ve got to watch the film and see that. We came out the first four minutes of the second half and kind of got three stops in a row, and they kind of settled down a little bit. I think the kid Perkins drove by Jamir and no one stepped up, they got an and-1 and came down, but our offense hurt us tonight. Our offense really hurt us because we had no movement, guys weren’t moving, not like we did the first two games. Everybody was kind of like, one pass and it’s time for me to go. Against a good defensive team like Iowa, they weren’t having it tonight.”

On his biggest adjustment after tonight:

“I’m just worried about Wagner right now. I’m not looking ahead to any of the other teams. Wagner’s good, they just beat Temple and Temple just beat Villanova. We’ve got to worry about Wagner and after that, kind of focus on that. I think it’s us, we’ve got to work on our offense. I think our defense is pretty good. The game kind of got out of hand, but this team was averaging 110 points a game. We took away what I thought was their strength in their 3-pointers, and then they started dropping it. So we’ve gotta make some adjustments, we’ve gotta watch film, make a few adjustments and kind of go from there.”

On missed layups:

“I don’t know, Jerry. Like I said, I’ve gotta watch it. I don’t want to say anything that’s gonna get me in trouble. I thought we got there, we’ve got to finish. I thought for them to not be having a shot blocker, I think Kadary had a stretch in the second half where he drilled the ball three straight times. He’s got to do that a lot. There’s no reason for him not doing that all the time, he’s supposed to be the guy on our team. Second team all-Big East, he’s got to learn to take the game over. And I think this is us learning each other. I don’t like the difference in free throws, but that’s part of the game.”

On emotions during the game:

“You know what? I don’t know. I thought we came out really hot, great crowd, I thought the student section was unbelievable. And like I said, normally that second group gives us energy, tonight they just didn’t have it. I thought when I made subs, Iowa kind of got settled, and once they got settled, it was kind of downhill from there. Early on, we had them on their heels, they didn’t know what to do. Then we made some subs and some guys came in and started worrying about things that are not important. Those are the things we’ve got to get better on.”

On Kadary Richmond:

“He came out, he got a steal on an out-of-bounds play that you never really see, and then he got another steal, got his hands active and made some drives. Kadary has to be — once he gets 100 percent — he’s got to be a big part of who we are, especially on the offensive side. He’s very talented, he’s gifted, right? Like I told you guys before, we’re a work in progress. We’re going to get better, I’m gonna watch the film, make some adjustments. Like I said, I’ll take the blame anytime we lose. It’s on me.”