Sha Sounds Off: North Texas

On Seton Hall’s defense:

“I thought — to be honest, I was a little concerned. I watched these guys and I want to give credit where credit is due. I’ve got great respect for what they do and what they’ve done the last couple years, good program. They kind of play like us, they try to outscrap you, outclaw you, out-tough you, so we made a big thing about that the last couple days. I thought the crowd after the timeout — we were down 14-6 or something like that — I got the five guys together at halfcourt and some things were said, some good things. And I thought we came back out, after that moment, I thought we came back out and started doing what we do. But I thought it was a big thing, the crowd got these guys up, got the going, and stayed with us the whole game. I want to thank everybody for that and for coming out, especially on a rainy day like this.”

On Seton Hall’s bench:

“We’ve got a lot of our main guys banged up. I knew I had to try to get some guys in there, and Jaquan Sanders, I want to give a lot of credit because he’s been out the last two days sick. He didn’t practice yesterday, he did individuals, so I wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to play. He came in and gave us some big minutes in the first half, he made a big shot. And then Isaiah, him and I had a good talk this week about a couple things. I thought he came out and stepped up to the challenge, and so did Elijah before he got hurt, so it was good to see other guys going in there, especially when we needed it.”

On Elijah Hutchins-Everett’s health:

“I haven’t seen him yet.”

On Seton Hall being validated by Virginia and Colorado State’s NCAA Tournament losses:

“What do you mean? You really going there, man? We’re just worried about playing basketball. Whatever happened, happened. We can’t cry over spilled milk, it is what it is. We were just focused on North Texas and trying to win this game. What happened, it’s over with. What are you gonna do about it? You can’t do anything about it.”

On Kadary Richmond:

“I used him today a little different. I used him more as a post-up. They were doubling, so we could get some movement off it, and he made the right plays. He impacted the game different and that’s what good players do, right? Whether it was rebounding, whether it was assists, scoring, he impacted the game different and I thought not just him, I thought everybody did. I thought we had really good balance. When you get four guys in double figures, especially when — the last couple days, I didn’t know what was going on — we were only able to go 3-on-3 and 4-on-4. But I’m proud of all of them, man. It was a gutty performance.”

On emphasizing North Texas’ 3-point shooting:

“Oh, absolutely. That’s kind of been one of our Achilles’ heels this year, especially early on. In Big East play, I thought we got better with it, and (John Buggs III) hit a tough one. It was right in my face, too, it was a good shot. But we just wanted to make sure we understood that personnel is important when it comes to this time of year. Personnel is important to understand who does what and take it away. That kid (Jason) Edwards, he’s really good, he takes a lot of shots, so you’ve gotta contain the shots and make sure he takes tough ones, and I thought we did that.”

On transition from Wednesday’s game against Saint Joseph’s:

“I wouldn’t say easier, but once you get the first one going — because they were still up in arms and emotional about what happened last Sunday — we kind of got that out of the way. Now obviously, it still stings, but now we understand there’s something bigger there. We want to be playing basketball, it’s still March, this is a major tournament, let them continue in this tournament. And you want to go out for these guys — one thing I keep telling them is it’s a different audience. It’s ESPN, it’s not Fox. A different audience gets to see you, so you get a chance to help us as a school and then as individuals, so that’s kind of been my message to them.”

On Seton Hall’s fan response:

“It’s great, right? We’ve got passionate fans. They care a lot about this team, and I think they appreciate the work that this team put in this year, the hard work, the three Ds that I call our team: the dedication, desire and the discipline. They appreciate what we do. We go out there and we give it our all, put it out there every single night, and I think when you see that, you can kind of relate to that. I think our fans are relating to that, and that’s why they’ve been showing up. And the last two games, we needed them to show up. There’s been a tremendous homecourt advantage.”