“No, I mean, we’ve had — (Devin Askew’s) been out for almost two months, Zion (Stanford)’s been out for two weeks. We’ve had so many injuries that it’s been tough for us to progress. We didn’t even practice the last two days, so I was really proud of the way these guys played coming into the fact that we didn’t practice. I mean, we practiced, we just didn’t practice. We’re a little bit behind, I think offensively, we’re struggling a little bit, but I was really proud of (what we did) defensively. I thought we did some good things.”
On forcing turnovers in the first half:
“Yeah, I think we’re getting there. We have a long way to go on both ends, but I thought our intensity was really good. I thought our ball pressure and deflections were really good, and you know, VCU’s the same way as us. That’s their first-game jitters. It’s gonna be a little ugly early, it always is.”
On Acaden Lewis:
“I thought they all played — I thought Acaden played very well. Again, I think one of the biggest things with young players is getting the casualness out of their game and understanding that every possession’s really important. I think that (Lewis and Bryce Lindsay) are really talented, I think both can score the ball in different ways, but getting them to understand in college basketball, like, you just can’t come down and be casual. It has to have purpose on every possession. So for their first games, pretty good, but we just gotta work on it.”
On Villanova’s versatility:
“I think once we get healthy, we’ll be able to practice it, Hoops. We haven’t practiced it, so we had a lineup of — we had Chris (Jeffrey), Bryce and Acaden out there with Matt (Hodge), so we had — I haven’t had three freshmen on the court since, I think it was 2012 or 2013. So again, for not being able to practice the way we wanted to practice over the last, probably two weeks, I think these guys have done a pretty good job.”
On first half ball movement:
“I think these guys are very unselfish. That’s been one thing I’ve really liked about this group, that they’re an unselfish group. They kind of understand that at any one point, it could be (Acaden) can get 30, Malachi (Palmer) can get 30. We have guys that can really score the basketball, so I think they — Tyler (Perkins) has been great. Just guys that are playing unselfish, and I think they understand as long as they play together, they’re all gonna benefit.”
On Villanova’s injuries:
“We’re hoping to have Dev maybe back for the homestand here. I think we have Queens after BYU, so hopefully Dev will be back then. Zion, he’s still in a boot for another two weeks, so he’s looking more like December. Tafara (Gapare) will be back this week, so that’s good, and then, who else is hurt? Malcolm (Flaggs), he’s out for a while, so we just have to kind of piece together practice and once we get Dev back for practice, hopefully after BYU, I think that’ll help. They don’t get any rest in practice, they take all the reps. I think that’s one reason it’s helped them a little bit, but I’m more worried a little bit long-term, hitting January, February and all of a sudden they’re a little gassed because they haven’t had rest in practice. So I think that’s my biggest thing. I’m looking long-term, so that’s my update.”
On what to improve:
“Oh, man. We’ve got a lot of stuff to focus on. We’ll go back and watch film, and see really what we have to get better at.”
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