“To be honest with you, I think the team looked tired. Like, we looked really, really tired. I think these three games in a short period of time is getting to us, playing Friday, Monday, and now today. When you play Friday, you can’t really take Saturday off because you gotta prepare for Fairfield, then when you play Monday, you gotta prepare for (Monmouth). So I think these guys are tired. These next couple days are gonna be really important for me to understand that I gotta give these guys some rest. Tomorrow, we’ll take off, and maybe Saturday as well, then go Sunday-Monday and get ready for Tuesday. We just looked tired, Monmouth came out and did what they wanted in the first half. I think they outplayed us, they outbullied us a little bit, and we just couldn’t make a shot…I don’t know how many layups we missed at the basket, 13? And a lot of them were easy…well, not easy, but at the rim, that we should have made. But we looked tired and they took advantage, plus I told these guys the only way they could beat us is hitting the three and the offensive glass, and in the first half, they did both. They hit four threes and took advantage on the offensive glass. The second half, I thought we did a great job of not letting them shoot as much threes. If I’m not mistaken, they didn’t score a field goal for like, 16 minutes or whatever, and they started shooting free throws when we started fouling. So I thought we had a good second half, we came out with a little bit more energy. I think we got our second wind, but we can’t do that if we want to be a good team.”
On the second-half defense:
“I’m gonna have to go back and look at the film, to be honest. I thought we had a good couple halves against Saint Peter’s — not against Wagner at all — we had some moments in the Fairfield game as well. But yeah, we’re still not pressing the way I want to press, to be honest with you. Guys are like, not sure when to do it, they’re kind of hesitant, so we gotta get better. Gotta look at the film and get better.”
On Trey Parker:
“Trey is good. Trey’s gotta get used to playing. I told you before, he was out for almost two weeks, he’s getting his rhythm back, he’s getting his timing back. I’ll be honest with you, I think all the guards, except Tajuan, looked a little hesitant…he’s not, he wants to shoot the ball every time. I’m joking, but I’m serious too. But everybody else looked a little hesitant and not sure, so I gotta get guys being back confident because they’re a confident group. These guys can play, they just gotta show it all the time.”
On Seton Hall leading the nation in blocks:
“Yeah, but at the same time, I told these guys because they want to block shots, we give up a lot of offensive rebounds. Like, I’m okay with just stepping up being big, like, blocking shots looks good, but when they get out of position, then the guards gotta come down and get that rebound. And we’re not, and that’s something we gotta get better at. I think weak side blocks are really good, not straight ahead…our guys try to block straight ahead. But I don’t know. It’s a good thing, right? But at the same time, you gotta control it a little bit.”
On playing like he did at Saint Peter’s:
“Yeah, I thought the last couple games, guys have played double-figure minutes a lot. Obviously, this is Josh’s first game back, so we gotta get him back in the rotation, he’s gonna be good for us. Not having Jah out there as our other guard, I don’t really want to play — like, Budd played almost 30 minutes — I don’t really want to play him 30 minutes right now. Mike played 26, Tajuan 31, like, if they’re playing like that, that’s why we’re not pressing as much. They played too many minutes.”
On TJ Simpkins:
“He’s a good player. I think he averaged almost 16 points a game last year, 15 points a game. He’s a good player, he can score. I want him to playmake a little bit more, but yeah, this is what he can do for us. He can’t guard one through five, I don’t know what Budd’s talking about, but he’s getting there. He’s a good basketball player, he’s been around, he could shoot it, he could make free throws. I gotta get him comfortable going to the basket. He wants to shoot a pull-up because he’s got good size.”
On Budd Clark:
“Budd looked a little unsure. I want Budd to be super aggressive. He’s a good basketball player, he just looks a little unsure right now. After the second half, he did a good job getting to his spot. He’s got a really good pull-up game, he got a couple pull-ups that were really good for us. I just want him to play basketball. He looks like he’s not sure right now, so him and I gotta sit down and watch film and look at some things.”
On Najai Hines:
“He’s learning. Every game, he’s gonna get better because he’s understanding college basketball a little bit more now. He got really tired in the first half, so that’s why we had to take him out, and then he hurt his groin in the second half, but yeah, as long as he can stay healthy, keep watching film and keep getting better, he’s gonna be really good for us.”
On Jahseem Felton:
“Jah, unfortunately he ripped his ACL, so he’s out for the season. It’s a big loss for us all around. He’s one of our leaders, one of the guys that stayed with me, one of the guys that gets us going in practice, gets us going in games, understands what I want, so it’s a big loss for us. I feel bad for him, he’s such a great young man and I know he’s gonna come back stronger.”
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