Sha Sounds Off: DePaul

On senior night:

“It was…I don’t know. I didn’t really have too much emotions. I was trying to get these guys not to think about it so much, trying to get them loose all day. I knew the first half was going to be all emotional. Some guys still didn’t get out of it, but I’m happy. I’m happy for these guys, these guys work hard. Like I told you guys before, they put up with a lot of my stuff. I’m very demanding when it comes to certain things, and for these guys to go out like this, for me, it’s great because I know how these guys are not just good basketball players. They’re good people, and to me, that means more than anything else.”

On Seton Hall’s veteran leadership:

“It means a lot. I’m not knocking what other coaches do, but I’m not a guy that messes with the starting lineup. I stick with guys when things are not going well, I stick with guys when things are going well. I was a player, so I understand it, right? You kind of get the sense of when a guy’s not playing well, the last thing you want to do is put him to the bench and not think that you believe in him. These guys are great, they work hard, they’re mature, they’re older. They get it, they understand the sense of urgency. Even in the beginning of the year when things weren’t going great, we were really close but so far away, and they believed in everything I was preaching. They just worked hard.”

On Seton Hall’s 3-point shooting:

“It’s been good. We’ve been working really hard with it. I’m glad the guys are making shots, because we work really hard. We come in the morning, guys come before practice, guys stay after practice, so it’s good to see that happen, especially at a time like this where it’s tournament time and you need to start making some shots, so it’s good.”

On potential turning points during the year:

“That’s a tough question to answer, because there were a few games that were the turning points. I thought the first one, obviously, was after Rutgers. I was really disappointed in myself — and Rutgers is a good team, they’re very well coached — but I was disappointed in myself that I didn’t have my guys understand the magnitude of that game. I thought he three guys who played in it last year would actually help the guys with it. So after that, we had some talks and obviously after the Xavier game, we had 10 days off. We had like, a mini-boot camp, we came back in and I think after that, guys were really focused on understanding what the Big East is all about, especially some of the new guys.”

On facing St. John’s in the Big East tournament:

“I’ll be honest with you, I’m not even thinking about that right now. My main thing is I haven’t slept, I’ll finally — hopefully — get some sleep tonight and go watch my son play tomorrow. I haven’t watched him play in two months. And then tomorrow night, I’ll start focusing on St. John’s.”

On messages to those who doubted Seton Hall:

“I don’t get involved with that, big dog. That’s people’s opinion. Our thing was to always stay within that locker room, don’t worry about the noise outside the locker room. So we never really thought about that, I didn’t care about that, that didn’t matter to us. We just play basketball.”

On how far Seton Hall has come:

“The difference was, obviously, we lost Kadary for the last four, five games (last year), and we just kind of played mismatched. I thought we went up to Providence and had a good, good win, and in the Big East tournament against DePaul, controlled the whole game and then down the stretch, just made some bonehead plays, right? And then, obviously the guys weren’t really up to playing the NIT, which was disappointing because anytime you get a chance to play in the postseason, you’re supposed to be ready to go. And then this summer was great. This summer, most of the team was here except Malachi and Arda, and I think these guys had a tremendous summer together off the court. I think that’s what makes this team good, because they’re so tight off the court. On the court, it takes on a life of its own.”

On what it means to succeed at his alma mater:

“For me, I don’t even care about the individual stuff. I’m a team guy, but you guys gotta understand something: The more you guys understand me and get to know me, I’m a sore loser. I am. I hate to lose, I never want my guys wanting to lose and take losing, so after games we lose and I come in here and I’m not chipper or happy, I don’t want everybody to get all messed up and be like, ‘he’s this, he’s that.’ I bleed blue. This is my school, this is my program. I always want to do well, and when we don’t win or do well, I feel like I let the school down. So now that things are going okay — they’re not going great, things are going okay — I just want to continue to keep building and keep moving forward. That’s the goal.”

On Dre Davis and his improvement:

“If you guys get a chance to know him off the court, you guys will understand his motivation is through the roof. Obviously, him having a kid, but he takes the game so seriously. Him and Al-Amir Dawes are the two guys that never, ever, ever, have a bad practice from a standpoint of they’re not giving me everything they’ve got. When you’ve got guys like that, I’m not surprised that this is happening. He works so hard on his game, he works out with the bigs, he works out with the guards. To see this happening for him, I’m super happy for him and super proud of him.”

On his lack of sleep:

“There’s no sleeping during the season. Any coach that cares about this game the way I care about it, they’ll tell you that. It’s always on to the next, but I’m gonna try to sleep tonight — which, it’s late already — I gotta wake up early and go to my son’s game. I gotta see him play, I haven’t seen him play in two months. And then tomorrow night, I get to watch St. John’s and kind of get focused with that.”