“I thought we came out and didn’t try to overdo it, meaning we had a short prep, we played Sunday so we couldn’t do too much on Monday, and then we had a solid day yesterday. We just came in and just tried to take away the three, and in the beginning of the game, they got the lead early because they hit a couple threes. Then once we did that, from there, we just kind of played basketball. I did a little thing differently today with some of the mismatches so Kooks could go one-on-one, especially with their coverage.”
On Dylan Addae-Wusu:
“I’m just getting him to play basketball. He was thinking too much, he was trying to fit in, he was trying to figure out how he could fit in with this team. And then I put it on the players. I said, ‘listen, this is your brother, he’s here, he’s struggling, you gotta build him up.’ And I thought the last week, we’ve been doing that. He’s come out and he’s just playing basketball, but the one thing with Dylan you gotta understand is him scoring 20 points is a bonus. I’m not saying he can’t, but I want his hustle, I want his grit, his toughness, I want his energy. And the team feeds off that, alright? It’s contagious.”
On beating UConn:
“It’s Big East basketball. I watched games last night, we see what Providence did to Marquette. It’s Big East basketball. I told my guys, this is a different season. This is part two. The things that we did the first half of the season, that’s non-conference, let’s learn from them. Those are all lessons we could learn from. We took a lot from there, and then I thought once again, just coming out and just playing basketball, not worrying about anything. I really want to say thank you to all the fans that came out and spent the holidays with us. You can’t enjoy the moment because now you gotta get ready for a good Xavier team.”
On only attempting eight 3-point field goals:
“We were just taking what the defense was giving us. I told the guys, playing them last year, they tried to take Al away last year and Jamir (Harris), so I knew they were gonna come out and take away the three. And then they’ve got a two-headed monster with their big guys. One played deep coverage and one played what they read, so I wanted to attack the big guy early, and once Kooks started playing like that, the other guys on the team started playing like that and we just hit our free throws. That’s part of it.”
On a short turnaround helping Seton Hall play loose:
“Yeah, I think so, right? Like I said, not trying to overdo it, don’t come in and try to change the basketball. We came in to just go over some sets, go over the things they like to do, make sure you know No. 11, Karaban — I don’t want to mess his name up — and obviously Spencer, you can’t let those guys get off shooting the basketball, you’ve gotta give up something, right? The big guy (Donovan Clingan), he was kind of scoring down low a little bit, but I knew JB could contain him. I didn’t want them getting off on the 3-point line because when they’re shooting the ball, they’re a tough team.”
On Kadary Richmond and Seton Hall’s defense:
“Just the whole team, I told them we can’t gamble. With this team, you can’t gamble, you just play solid because they move so much. You just can’t gamble, you can’t try to go for steals. I thought a lot of (Richmond’s) steals were in the passing lane because of his height, but I thought we just played a solid game tonight. I don’t think we did something great, special, I thought we just played solid, within ourselves, and just a good victory against a great team.”
On adjustments after the first media timeout:
“I thought we kind of mixed it up a little bit, kind of went zone, got them standing around a little bit. I wanted to use my zone more, even in the non-conference, but the guys just weren’t picking it up. Now we saw them pick it up a little bit and like I said, we just made a conscious effort not to let these guys off and make them drivers. The kid Newton, I was really worried about him, he’s playing tremendous basketball. But like I said, overall, I thought the guys did a terrific job just sticking to the game plan.”
On Seton Hall having a target on its back:
“It’s conference play, right? When you’re in conference play, everything kind of starts over. This is a good win for us, we’re not gonna get ahead of ourselves and start acting like we did something really good. We’re just gonna be solid and have a solid two days — tomorrow, we can’t do too much, but Friday — of practice to try to get ready for a good Xavier team.”
On what Seton Hall can be moving forward:
“I’m thinking we’ll just be solid and stick to the game plan and really pay attention to the details and small things. I’ll be honest with you guys, we lost some games that I thought we should have won, and the reason why I’m still excited about this team is we’re still not playing the way I think we could play. That’s why I said a couple weeks ago, and I’ll say it again: Trust me, we could still get a lot better. That’s why I’m still optimistic about the season and about the team. And we’ve still got a long way to go. I don’t want too far ahead of myself. Thank you, guys. Happy holidays.”
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