Kevin Willard quote book: Butler

On Seton Hall’s defense making the difference:

“Yeah, I thought we did a pretty good job most of the night of making them take tough shots. Myles Tate played great, I mean, he really played tremendous, so I thought down the stretch, I thought we did a better job of getting them to take some tough twos and not giving them open threes.”

On Shavar Reynolds’ end-of-game sequence:

“Yeah, I thought he played great. I think the thing is he was a little more aggressive on the pick-and-rolls, he tried to get downhill, tried to get into the lane, and I think sometimes he’s not passive, but I think he’s trying to make the right read a little bit, and I think he understood that Sandro hadn’t come out and they were doing a good job on the wings. I thought he did a really good job of being aggressive and trying to get to the hole.”

On Creighton and playing ranked opponents:

“I think the biggest thing for us is we have four of our next five on the road. I don’t think we come back into this building until the end of January, I don’t think, so the good thing about these opportunities are we all know each other at this point, so (they’re) great opportunities (and) tough tests. I think Creighton’s as good as any team in the country, and obviously Villanova’s as good as any team in the country, so we’re going to have to play really well on the road, we’re going to have to play really fundamental to beat these teams.”

On improved free throw shooting:

“To be honest with you, most of our guys shooting are our best free throw shooters, so I think that helps. Jared’s an 80-85 percent free throw shooter. I think they’ve all taken a jump in percentage just because they’re out there and they’re getting more opportunities. I kind of commented on this in the last game, if you’re only getting one or two free throws a game, it’s a little bit different than if you’re getting seven or eight. I just think they’re a little more comfortable at the line, and when you’re more comfortable, you’re going to make more.”

On Sandro Mamukelashvili:

“I think he’s growing into this role really nicely. I think he’s — I really believe he’s got another level that he’s going to play at as the season goes on. There’s times where I think he gets a little ahead of himself. I think once he realizes the speed that he needs to play with at times, I think you’re going to see a player take another jump this season, I truly believe that. I think he’s the best player in the country right now, but I also think you’re going to see someone get better as the season goes on.”

On starting 5-1 in Big East Conference play:

“I had a lot of confidence in this team. I think what we’ve done is — the consistency that we have with losing good players and then having really good players ready to step up and be in the fold in the program — I think it just kind of shows you where the program’s at. We have great kids and we get great players that work hard on their games, and I really like this team. I think this team has a lot more growth to go. I don’t think we’re nearly as good as we’re going to be here in a month.”

On managing his rotations:

“As much as I’d love to get the freshmen more minutes, it’s difficult. We’re in January, and for Tray’s purposes, this has been really good for him. What I told Tray was, ‘It’s going to be hard for you to get minutes, but this is really going to help you for next year.’ He’s going to travel, he’s practicing more. I just think it’s, overall, helped his growth, especially playing against Sandro every day. In this league in January, as much as I want to get these guys some minutes — and the way Jahari’s practicing, I think I can get Jahari some minutes and I think Tray can get some minutes — it’s not something that’s going to be pressing right now.”