“I think the biggest thing is the fans have to understand in the first half, Ed gets to yell my play out to his team, I get to yell their play out to the team. So it’s really hard to score in first halves because the coaches all know the plays, but I’ve watched Georgetown play nine times now, so we know when the center’s out in the corner, they’re gonna run a boomerang. We know when (Malik) Mack’s on the block, it’s gonna be an iso. You’re yelling that out, so you’re giving the advantage, so it’s more or less…we only watch defense at halftime so they don’t have to contend with my voice in the second half.”
“And it’s just getting a very young team to understand…that was all I talked about at halftime. This is Big East play, they’re a really good, physical defensive team. It’s not gonna be easy, we have to rebound and get out. That’s usually all the message is, it’s just really cleaning up what we’re struggling with defensively. We watch film, we see where we made our mistakes, I watch the offensive stuff to see what I want to call in the second half, and it’s just about…again, I think (Acaden’s) a freshman, even though (Tyler’s) a junior, he’s playing many more minutes. Bryce is a sophomore, Matty’s a freshman…the physicality’s like, alright, this is like this every time. It’s just getting used to the physicality, and this is a very physical league. In the second half, when the coaches can’t yell the plays out, it always opens up and loosens up. Now the players just have to play defense. They usually don’t.”
On forcing 17 turnovers and 12 steals:
“I put a lot on Acaden’s plate. He’s done a phenomenal job this year. One of the biggest things I’m trying to get him to understand is as a point guard is when he brings the ball up, everybody’s looking at him. When he’s guarding the ball, everybody’s looking at him. And so I thought he did a phenomenal job tonight picking up Malik and heating him up, pressuring him, and I thought his body language and his energy transformed everyone else.”
On guarding Malik Mack:
“Just make it tough. Malik’s a special player, he’s really good on ball screens. We just wanted to be physical, and again, I thought Acaden’s early physicality, which we didn’t do against St. John’s, I thought that changed the way Malik attacked the ball.”
On Villanova’s poise controlling the ball:
“I think you have to give them a little bit of credit too, on the defensive end in the first half. I thought they did a really good job of staying home on Bryce, they took away the roll in the game, we missed some layups early, but I thought we did a much better job of being secure with the basketball.”
On UConn and Saturday’s matchup:
“That’s the good thing about league play, you get to watch everybody now. Yeah, Danny’s done a phenomenal job. He’s got all veteran players, the young kid (Braylon Mullins) can really shoot the lights out. He hunts shots, it’s so fun to watch him play because he’s always hunting, he’s always looking how to get a shot. We’re gonna have to defend at a high level, but more importantly, we’re gonna have to rebound on the road against a really, really good basketball team.”
On Villanova honoring George Raveling:
“I think the good thing is these guys learned who Coach was. I asked the whole team before how many knew him, and I think there was one or two that really did. And everyone’s like, ‘oh, that’s crazy,’ but then you think about when they were born. Coach played here in the late ’50s, he was an assistant in the ’70s…they weren’t even, their parents weren’t even born. So I think what I tried to explain to them is just understanding yes, he was a great coach and a great man, but he really stood for the civil rights movement and that was his passion, and that’s what I thought he brought so much, what his legacy’s all about. And these guys don’t know it, but their opportunities are here and what they’re getting is all because of guys like Coach Raveling. He was a trailblazer. When you really look back, he was a security guard — he volunteered to be a security guard — and that’s how he got the speech, which is nuts. Today, these guys…my goal was that they go back and they read about him and they learn about him because I’ve really enjoyed that. I didn’t know Coach worked here before I got the job, and so when I found out that he had played here, then I started doing my research on all the great impacts he’s had. It’s special. He’s a big part of what Villanova is today, that’s for sure.”
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