“Pretty impressive. Yesterday, we came in and we had a great practice, we practiced offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, their press and us pressing back. I thought we just came out with a mentality that we wanted the game. I think the guys are starting to understand that, starting to get it. We’ve still got a long way to go, but a good win.”
On Seton Hall’s 28-0 run:
“I just heard that. That’s crazy. I know at the under-4 minute timeout, I told our guys that we’ve gotta go on a good run to make sure they don’t come back. I think we were up six or something like that, or eight. I said, let’s get three stops in a row, three scores. I thought we did that and then it kind of carried over to the second half.”
On Elijah Hutchins-Everett:
“I’m happy for him. He’s been working really hard, he could shoot the basketball, we all knew that. When I say we all knew that, I mean the team knew that, he kind of worked at it. I’m happy with his defense and his rebounding. Once you do that, everything else takes care of itself. He did that, he battled — especially Soriano, one of the best bigs in the country, I thought he and Jaden did a good job of containing him, stopping him — and the rest is kind of history. We have a lot of plays and I’ve got a lot of motion plays like that. Elijah’s a good passer. He’s skilled for a big guy, I think he’s starting to get comfortable. He had some injuries early, and hopefully today was a game that he understands when you go out there and play with energy, that’s what I want, and everything else will take care of itself. I thought he did that. I think he’s just getting a feel for the game, right? When you’re sitting on the bench, the game is going fast, and then you’re battling Soriano, who, like I said, is one of the best bigs in the country. Our focus was to make sure he’d catch the ball out, don’t let him get post position. So I think our bigs were kind of worried about that and nothing else. I thought when he came back in — you get a chance to see it when you’re on the bench — he got a layup, sometimes scoring kind of sparks things, and then it went from there.”
On Dylan Addae-Wusu:
“He came out and played. He was ready, and I thought it was a carryover. I thought he had a good game at Butler, and I think he came in and kind of set the tone, got his hands on a lot of balls, scoring, driving to the basket, hitting threes. I’m happy for him, but like I said, we’ve got a lot of work to be done.”
On Seton Hall reaching its potential:
“I don’t know. I just looked at the stat sheet and Kadary didn’t have a great game offensively, and then we come out and we still score 80 points. Dre had 10 and Kadary had 12, but other guys stepped up. That’s the sign of a team that’s trending in the right direction, and that’s kind of what I want to be happening. I’m happy that we were able to keep this team under a certain amount of points. That’s kind of who I am as a coach, a defensive coach.”
On not coaching against Rick Pitino:
“I don’t care about that. You guys care about stuff like that, I don’t. I want to wish him a speedy recovery. I hope he comes back soon. Coach P’s good for the game of basketball.”
On Seton Hall’s buzz changing his preparation:
“No. It stays the same. You gotta know me, big dog. If you know me, you’ll understand why we’re never gonna have that mindset. Our mindset is always gonna be the underdogs, our mindset is always gonna be we’ve got something to prove, we’ve got a chip on our shoulder, never get greedy, never get satisfied, stay humble, stay low-key.”
On Kadary Richmond and Dre Davis:
“(They mean) everything. Those guys are our leaders. Dre, Kadary, Al, those are our three captains, those are our leaders. You add Dylan in there, add Jaden in there, and I’ve got a veteran group of guys starting to understand how to play with each other. We’ve gotta keep working, keep getting better.”
An update on Richmond’s status:
“That’s my fault. I should have gotten him out of the game a little earlier. I don’t know, I didn’t talk to the trainer yet. I hope it’s nothing serious, but we’ve got tomorrow off, so he could take a day off and relax.”
On reaction to Pitino not coaching:
“It’s what it is right now with COVID, right? I didn’t think nothing. Steve is a great coach, he did a great job at Manhattan, he won a lot of games there, so obviously he’s got a lot of experience. I didn’t think nothing of it. Like I said, I wish Coach a speedy recovery, but I didn’t think nothing of it. I didn’t change anything.”
On Seton Hall’s student section:
“It’s good to have them back. It’s good to have them at the game, especially in a snowstorm. I didn’t think too many people would come out, so it was great to have the students here, and not just the students, it was great to have the building rocking, right? I hope it continues. I hope everybody will be here Saturday, but for those guys, it’s good to have the students back, so welcome back.”
On fan response to Seton Hall’s performance:
“I’m not getting into that, Jerry. I just kind of worry about us, right? Fans are going to be fans. Right now, we’re just worried about getting better and worried about our locker room. That’s it.”
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