Sha Sounds Off: UConn

On Seton Hall’s toughness:

“That’s who I am, that’s who we are, that’s what I want to be. I’ve always had teams that out-tough people and outplay people, so I thought we had a good stretch when we had some really good intensity on defense. We had a couple breakdowns, but for the most part, I just feel happy for those guys in the locker room. Those guys worked their butt off this week. Shoutout to Scotty and Dylan, those guys put in overtime to get back. They weren’t supposed to play that much today, but it was a feeling. I asked them how they felt and they just continued to want to play. Tony Testa’s been sleeping at Seton Hall the last week and a half trying to get these guys back on the court for me.”

On building confidence:

“I’ll be honest with you, it was just good to have some subs. It’s been a tough five, six games without having those subs. It’s good to just have some subs. I told these guys, though, to tell you the truth: We didn’t win the game today, we won this game this week. This bye week was tremendous for us. I thought guys had a lot of energy, Scotty and Dylan back gave us a shot in the arm, and I thought we came out with the mindset of just trying to play. I thought the crowd was unbelievable.”

On late inbounds plays:

“You know what, I thought we did a really good job of paying attention to detail the last week. We started preparing for these guys way earlier than we normally do, and I thought guys were just locked in. They understood this team and the strength of the team, and for the most part, I thought we took it away, but guys just wanted to win and like I said, I’m happy for those guys just to get this win.”

On Godswill Erheriene:

“You know what? I said this in the beginning of the year—it’s like it was last year, right—but I said him playing early is gonna help him down the stretch. Him playing those minutes early on was gonna help him down the stretch. I thought he’s been battling and battling and battling, playing against a lot of good bigs in this league, and he’s starting to get it a little bit and that’s kind of what freshmen do. Freshmen kind of battle, struggle early, then they play and get better and better. He’s getting better, and I’m proud of him because he just made some plays down the stretch—through the whole game, to tell you the truth. He gave us toughness, like what we need. He was our anchor down there, and if he didn’t block the shot, he was gonna alter the shot and that was really, really good for us.”

On Scotty Middleton’s game-winning putback:

“I didn’t really see the play yet, but it was a crazy eurostep. One of the best things about Scotty is his desire to want to play basketball. Like, this is why him and I get along so well. He just cares about winning and he just cares about playing, and he made some plays down the stretch like that for us. Think about it: They’re probably not gonna tell you guys, but Scotty’s probably like, 65 percent (healthy), Dylan is clearly like 65-70 percent, and those guys are playing and diving and pressing and doing all this type of stuff. Now, the kicker is, do I have these guys Tuesday? But it was good to get a win at home, man, because we haven’t won here in a long time.”

On the crowd:

“It was good. It was needed. It was positive, it was good energy, they were our sixth man. It was like this building always was. But we gotta give them something to cheer about too, right? And we really haven’t been, but I thought they came out today with the mindset that they were gonna cheer for us and get after it with us. And like I said, it was great having them out.”

On Seton Hall’s resilience and not giving up:

“That’s not my teams. In the past, this year is probably hard to see it, but my teams always battle. The game is never over. You go back to—and I hate to do this—but you go back to last year in the (NIT) championship, we’re down seven with two minutes left and it’s like, ‘okay, let’s get right to it.’ The huddle was the same way. I let the guys talk today, I’m like, ‘you guys tell me what we need to do,’ before the game, halftime and during timeouts, and I thought it was great for those guys to take ownership of some of the things that were going on. But the big thing is it was just great to have subs and great to have guys back. Like I said before, all we needed was one to kind of turn it around, and hopefully this is the one we needed to just get some good momentum going into the Big East tournament. But it was good to get this win. Today, I wanted to try something different. It started at the beginning of the game, before we went out. I’m like, ‘tell me what the game plan is,’ and I thought they did it. And the same thing at halftime, and I did it in some timeouts. I thought it was great. I thought the guys really understood what it took to win, plus by them talking, they gotta back it up and I thought that was the biggest thing.”

On the energy during Seton Hall’s bye week:

“This week was energy that we didn’t have in a long time. I thought it was because of Dylan and Scotty coming back, to tell you the truth. They brought a tremendous amount, and I thought Isaiah and Garwey and Jah were happy to have some people so they could get a little bit of rest, because they haven’t gotten any rest in a while. But the energy was unbelievable this week, like really, really high. It reminded me of back before the season started, how everybody was excited to practice and excited to be there, and as a coach, that’s all you ask for.”

On Chaunce Jenkins:

“You know what, Adam, to be honest with you, I’m gonna tell you like I always tell you guys: Whenever guys can play, they can play. I didn’t know how much Dylan was gonna be able to play today because he practiced one day and then had to sit out. Scotty, too. I know (Jenkins) did some spot shooting the other day, so that’s a good sign, but I don’t know when. Do we need him back? Absolutely. For me, fellas, it was just good to have subs and be able to complete, and I was able to press a little bit and do some full-court defense. I couldn’t do that the last five games, so it was good.”

On Seton Hall’s response amid adversity:

“It was good. Obviously, this year isn’t going the anybody wanted, you know? For myself, for the players, for the fans. For (the crowd) to be here tonight, this afternoon, especially with a snowstorm coming, for them to be here for this game and cheer the way that they cheered, it was great. I’ve been getting a lot of support from a lot of our fans, a lot of e-mails, a lot of, ‘Coach, we’re still with you,’ ‘we got your back,’ stuff like that. And that goes a long way. And I’ll be honest with you guys: Danny (Hurley)’s been unbelievable to me. Unbelievable. I’m not gonna tell you what he said, but he called me a few times, giving me advice on stuff, just keeping my head up and even before the game, before I came in here. He’s been an unbelievable person for me to lean on at this time, so shoutout to Danny for that. He does an unbelievable job.”