Sha Sounds Off: Villanova

On what he learned this season:

“I already told you that the other day, Jerry. Come on. A lot, Jerry. This league is extremely tough…great coaches, great players. The last home game, I told you guys I learned a lot what not to do, but I did learn a lot what to do as well. You just gotta make sure you get the right players in that fit you and kind of fit what you want to do. I still feel like this team, we didn’t reach our potential because of a lot of different reasons. I don’t want to make no excuses, but just a disappointing season, right? Disappointing season.”

On Isaiah Coleman and his potential return:

“Yeah, he’s fine. He just cut his hand and his back a little bit. I think he’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know, Coach. I want him back. Obviously I told these guys we’ll take a couple days and kind of get back into the mode of school, right? That used to be the most important thing to these young men, I don’t know if it still is, but get back into school and then we’re gonna have some meetings and kind of go from there. Obviously, I want him back. We’ll do what we can to try to keep him.”

On Jerry Walker being honored as a Big East legend:

“Jerry’s like the big bro. Obviously, he was a great player, he was a warrior, that’s why he’s very well-respected around the Big East, old-school people and new-school people. He’s been a very good supporter of mine, I’ve got a lot of respect for him. Like I said, he’s like a big brother. I’m super happy that he got that award. Very well-deserved.”

On Dylan Addae-Wusu:

“He gave his all. Dylan—obviously, I don’t share a lot about guys’ injuries for a lot of reasons, but Dylan was dealing with a bunch of injuries this whole year. He couldn’t even practice, couldn’t really walk, so for him to go out there and give it his all like he did every single night for me, I’m very appreciative. He played a big part in last year with the team we had, and this year as well. His body just didn’t allow him to do some things he wanted to do.”

On second-half adjustments:

“I’m disappointed in the way we came out, obviously the last two, three games. We obviously made some adjustments at halftime, I thought we got back in there and we got a chance to get it down to maybe 10, I think, and then we had some bad shots. We took some bad shots, and then they kind of got back out, and it was an uphill battle from there again.”

On health playing a role in this season:

“I thought it did. When you’ve got one of your key players, one of your key scorers, out…at one time, Chaunce was our leading scorer. I don’t know how many Big East games he played, maybe two or three, so you take that away and that’s somebody that can give you 13-15 points a night. Dylan missed a bunch of games, Scotty missed some games, and we never got in rhythm. We never gelled, then that’s the season you have because of it.”

On takeaways from this season:

“Didn’t I just answer that? Yeah, a lot of things. I think the main thing is making sure these guys understand what it feels like to play in this league. It’s a physical league, it’s a big boy league, and I think some of the guys that came from other programs didn’t understand this league until we got into it, and that’s on me to make sure they understand stuff like that. Just get guys that kind of fit what you try to do.”

On Seton Hall’s resources increasing:

“I knew that was coming up! You know what? It’s something that I don’t like talking about because until I see it, right? Now obviously, I believe it because my administration’s not gonna tell us, but in this climate of NIL and stuff like that, it’s important. You have to have it or you can’t be successful. And like I said, we’re ending in the right direction, but I think that we gotta make sure we understand—and I gotta make sure the fan base understands—alumni don’t understand how important it is because no one wants to go through something like this again. I know I don’t. I know they don’t either, but I got the word that people are stepping up and they think it’s gonna be there, but I want to make sure it’s there and more, to tell you the truth. We need more.”

On this season motivating him for the future regardless of resources:

“You gotta be careful with that, J. You can’t say regardless of resources and that. You have to have that because if you don’t have it, you can’t be in the game. Period. No matter how good of a coach I think I am—I think I’m a decent coach—if you don’t have those resources, it’s a different ballgame. But yeah, I’m definitely motivated. Disappointed too though, right? Like I said, I thought this team definitely was better than our record. I’m definitely gonna look myself in the mirror and make some adjustments, and kind of go from there.”

On Seton Hall’s future and the transfer portal:

“The portal is tricky, it’s really tricky, right? You have all of maybe a week to recruit somebody, and you recruit somebody that maybe played good on another team or maybe played good in another league, and you don’t know if that stuff transfers to your team or this league. Obviously, you can’t go too young, not in this day and age, but you gotta get a mix of both. You gotta get some high school kids, you gotta get some JUCO, some transfers, and you gotta gel it and fit together in a short period of time. I think the only thing that helps us this year is last year, we made a deep run and we got done in April. By then, a lot of guys were going other places. But I think it’s also important that you get the right people, not just names, and not just look at numbers and say, ‘okay, he averaged X amount of points at this place, I think he could average X amount of points here.’ You really gotta do your research and you gotta take some chances and trust your gut. I think all that kind of plays into it.”

“We’re gonna have a conversation the next couple days. I don’t know the answer to that right now, I don’t want to speculate. We’re gonna have a conversation the next couple days and then I’ll take it from there.”