Sha Sounds Off: UConn

On what Seton Hall showed him:

“First off — I know this is not really professional, but in this profession, you’ve got to give credit — I thought Luke Murray did an unbelievable job having those guys ready to play, so hats off to Luke. I like Luke, (he’s a) good guy, man, he had those guys ready to play. As far as what I’ve seen, just us. I keep telling you guys, I’m worried about us, I’m not worried about no other team. When we come out and do what we’re supposed to do, we put ourselves in position. The second half, I thought we came out and understood the game plan better. The first half was a debacle. We just defended and scored off our defense, you know? Ballgame.”

On Seton Hall’s second-half defensive intensity:

“We’re starting to understand what I want. We’re starting to understand that if we defend and keep teams out of transition, we give ourselves a chance to win the game. The guys are working at it. I thought KC came out in the second half and just played, and the team just followed him. He came out with the intensity, him and Femi, and we kind of went from there.”

On the second half being Seton Hall’s best basketball this season:

“I don’t know, I gotta watch the film. I thought it was a good second half, defensively I thought it was, especially because of the way they scored in the first half. It was like a clinic, hitting threes and just getting out in transition. We kind of stopped taking bad shots, no runouts for them, and we started defending. And once you do that — I thought Tyrese battled, I thought Tray battled, I thought all the guys battled, Femi had good pressure on the ball, Al had good pressure on the basketball and KC did what KC did.”

On quality shots in the second half:

“I think with us, we’ve got to get the right person taking the shot. I give my team freedom, I don’t put nobody in the box and say, ‘you do this, you do that,’ but sometimes they’ve got to understand the feel of the game. I thought the first half, we didn’t understand the feel of the game. In the second half, I thought we did.”

On KC Ndefo’s game-winning putback:

“We didn’t run the play the way I wanted to run the play. Before KC took it out, I told him, ‘make sure you get down there to offensive rebound,’ and I thought he was in position, he did in the second half. If you watch the game, just the second half, his deflections, his energy, his putback dunk…he did the things that I’ve seen him do for the last four years with me at Saint Peter’s. I thought he did the last couple games, at DePaul he did it good, and tonight he did it in the second half.”

On defending Adama Sanogo:

“I thought it was a team effort. I thought those guys — we tried to not let him get position, low position. We tried to push him out a little bit because once he gets position down there low, it’s over. There’s nothing you could do about it. But I thought Tyrese battled, I thought Tray battled and I was happy to see it. I thought he battled, and that’s all I ask, guys to battle. And I thought Tyrese battled as well.”

On growth of Samuel and Seton Hall:

“It’s coming. I thought from the beginning to now, there’s a big difference than I see with him in practice. It’s coming, and we’ve just got to continue it. This is a good win for us, but now we’ve got to get ready for a good Marquette team.”

On crowd atmosphere:

“It was pretty good, man. Welcome back to the students, I miss them. I thought it was loud…not just the students, I thought everybody was loud, but the students just bring another element of energy. They were loud, the place was loud, this is home court. You gotta take care of home court.”

On Seton Hall’s defense being where he wants it:

“I thought the second half, I thought we were — I want to say we were like, around 80-85 (percent). The first half was like, 20 percent. We just gave up shot after shot after shot, especially when the game plan was (Jordan) Hawkins and the other kid, I don’t want to mess his name up, the four man (Alex Karaban). He can really shoot it, but it was just like a clinic. The second half, we took care of that and changed the whole game around.”

On Seton Hall’s mentality going forward:

“We’ve just got to understand we’ve gotta want it more than the other team. We’ve gotta take care of us, I keep saying that. I thought we had two solid days of practice, so when you win in practice, you win in the games. I think the team’s starting to understand what I want and how I coach, and it’s starting to get there. We’re still a long way away, but we’re taking steps.”

On Kadary Richmond’s defensive improvement:

“He has to pick it up, or I’ll sit him down. That’s it. He’s starting to get it, and I think he wants it. Him having 10 rebounds tonight was big. He’s kind of flirting with double-doubles, but like I said, he has to play at a high level every game for us. And in order to do that, you’ve got to prepare like that. That means he has to do it in practice.”

On Seton Hall’s composure:

“Jerry, I’m telling you the truth. You guys might think I’m full of crap, but I don’t think no one in the country shoots more free throws than us. We shoot free throws — like, if it’s a two-hour practice, I would say for 30 minutes in between that two-hour practice. We’ve just got to go to the line and cash in. Guys made them down the stretch. I wanted KC to miss (in the final seconds), he missed, and the rest was history.”

On preparation for Marquette:

“We almost can’t (give them a day off). It’s almost Thursday now, so tomorrow, we’ve gotta try to do something. We can’t do too much, then Friday we’ll have a good solid practice and then try to get ready for Marquette.”