Sha Sounds Off: Providence

On playing small down the stretch:

“I just played that way because I just thought those guys were battling better today.”

On defending Ed Croswell and Bryce Hopkins:

“That’s the decision I made. The kids played well. We didn’t defend. Samuel had four fouls.”

On Kadary Richmond:

“I thought he was just aggressive. He played hard, he was aggressive. As long as he’s aggressive and he’s healthy, I think that’s the guy that everybody was anticipating seeing and the things he could do, as long as he continues to be aggressive and stay healthy.”

On changes in the second half:

“I thought (Providence) came out with a little bit more juice in the second half. They came out in the beginning of the second half and I told our guys, ‘we gotta keep them out of transition.’ I thought they got in transition and got some easy buckets and had us on our heels, and I thought that was the difference.”

On facing Xavier’s offense:

“I haven’t watched them yet. I was getting ready for this game, so I would know more tonight when I get home and watch them. I was getting ready for Providence, I really haven’t watched Xavier. I know they’re a good team, obviously that’s a great environment, a tough environment to play in, a good coach, so I’m sure it’s going to be a tough game.”

On Al-Amir Dawes’ last-second 3-point attempt:

“He had a good look. I thought Kadary did a good job getting in the lanes creating. He caused a lot of people to come towards him and we got one of our better shooters a good look. That’s all you could ask for.”

On Richmond’s engagement making it easy to navigate injury concerns:

“The guys that the trainer says could play will play. Like I said, I thought he was very aggressive this afternoon. I need him to be aggressive, we need our guys to make some shots, we’ve gotta continue to keep defending, keep battling, stay healthy. That’s it. It’s not really rocket science.”

On Jamir Harris:

“I thought he had some good open looks. He’s a good shooter, once he gets back in the lab and gets some repetition in, I’m sure he’s going to knock those shots down. I thought he had some good looks.”

On what Seton Hall learned from today’s game:

“We’ve just gotta come out and play with energy and passion the whole game. You can’t do it for the first half and then come out in the second half, the first four or five minutes, dragging. And they kind of jumped on us and we started playing catch-up. It’s conference time now, every game is going to be like this, it’s a battle, it’s physical. You’ve gotta come out and be ready to play. I thought the last six minutes, we played with that passion and energy and got right back in the game. We’ve got to do it the whole time.”

On Femi Odukale:

“I thought we missed Femi just because he’s a good defender, another guy that could create some offense, and I thought his offense is coming along. I thought his confidence was coming back, and we miss him. We need him back, I don’t know where he’s at, the timetable. Like I said before, when the doctor tells me guys could play, we just want him to play. I don’t know, you’ve gotta ask Tony (Testa, Seton Hall’s trainer). I hope we have him back sooner rather than later.”