Kevin Willard quote book: Seton Hall

By Jake Copestick (@JakeCopestick)

On what it was like returning to Seton Hall:

“It was emotional for my wife and I last night with my boys. When I got this job, I had a one-year-old and a three-year-old. Now I have a senior in high school and a freshman in college. This place helped raise my family in a very special way. I saw the same security guards that used to carry my kids after games that are back there, the same alumni are here. For me, that was the emotional part, also the scary part that I have a freshman in college and a senior in high school. But just to relive, we went through the pictures, we relived a lot of the good times, we relived a lot of the bad times. This place is a very special place just because they take care of their own, that was the emotional part. Once I walked out, we had to win a game.”

On sharing a moment with Shaheen Holloway before or after the game, and the job Holloway has done:

“I’ll talk to Sha tomorrow at some point, but he’s done a phenomenal job. I mean, that defense, they make it so hard to execute. If they keep playing defense like that all year, they can be a second round NCAA Tournament team.”

On Villanova’s defense:

“It was good tonight. I didn’t think it was that good in the first half. We went back and watched it at halftime. We looked a little tired. I mean, the size of Wisconsin kind of wore us out a little bit. I thought once we watched the film, the second half, we were much more aggressive. I thought we got our hands much more active, and made them take a lot of tough twos.”

On Acaden Lewis:

“Acaden Lewis is special, man. He had one bad college game so far in my eyes. No one played good at Michigan. We all had goose eggs at Michigan. You look at what (Lewis) has done, I look at Matt Hodge. Those two freshmen are playing at an extremely high level. You start two freshmen, a sophomore, a junior and a senior, and they’re getting better and better. He’s a special point guard.”

On the defense on Budd Clark:

“Our whole game plan was to make Budd a scorer, just let him shoot. You can’t let him spray. He’s so good at spraying it, and we would have changed our defense if he was making shots. You can’t let Williams and Staton-McCray make threes, because it really ignites their defense, especially at home. I saw what they did to Rutgers when they started making threes. That was our whole game plan, just let him score and not let him spray, because he can spray with the best of them.”

On what worked during Villanova’s 16-0 run early in the second half:

“I just thought we played really good defense. I thought we got our hands active, we got a couple steals. We got some good ball fakes because they do run at you a lot. They really challenge the three as well. We were able to get in transition. You have to get in transition against them.”

On if the team is farther along than he thought:

“We’re trending in the right direction. I like the fact that no one’s really talking about us, to be honest with you, because it gets me to keep them focused. We’ve got three days off for Christmas and when we get back, this will only be our second home game in December. That’s been a little bit of a challenge. I just look at Matt Hodge and see he had six more rebounds tonight. He knows that’s what he’s gotta do. I look at Acaden and what he’s doing, Bryce Lindsay is only a sophomore. As long as those guys can continue to improve, we’re going to continue to improve.”

On matching Seton Hall’s intensity:

“We’re battle tested. We played BYU on the road, Michigan on the road, and Wisconsin on the road. We’ve had to play three Big 5 games, which if you haven’t played through the Big 5, every one of those games is intense. I have a lot of confidence in the fact that our guys have played against a lot of good teams. Watching Seton Hall on film, we knew that we were going to have to play at a very high level to get a win.”

On if Holloway gets enough respect as a coach nationally:

“I know within the coaching community he does. No one listens to you guys. Your Twitter is horrible (to Adam Zagoria). You post like, ‘on the Hudson,’ you post like, ‘hey, good morning on the Hudson.’ I’m like, I’m at the office. I don’t give a fuck about you’re on the Hudson. You post about that, you got a dog. I’m like, alright, you’re supposed to be a sportswriter. You’ve got your dog in the Hudson and Jerry (Carino)’s talking about Festivus.”

On Seton Hall’s turnaround:

“(Sha’s) done a phenomenal job. He’s a phenomenal coach. He’s a great person. It takes time. This era is crazy. This era is insane. What he and everyone has to deal with, the NCAA is totally clueless, lost. It’s a joke. I just tried to sign a 47-year-old Chinese guy from the European League. I’m sure he’ll get eligible. I think Oklahoma just signed a 24 year old Russian. It’s like, what are we doing? But Sha has done a phenomenal job. He’s done a phenomenal job since he’s been here. I know last year was a tough year, and everyone has tough years. That dude can coach and he’s the right guy for this program. I’ve got nothing but the utmost respect for him.”