Sha Sounds Off: Creighton

On Seton Hall’s perimeter defense:

“I thought we came out, I thought we had good energy. We did a really good job the first half. In the first four minutes of the second half, we kind of lost our mind a little bit, and then once we settled down, kind of got back to it. Creighton’s a very, very good team, obviously well-coached, and they want to play in transition and get a bunch of threes, and it’s tough. The first four minutes of the second half, we kind of played into that, but once we settled down, I thought we were fine.”

On an opportunity against St. John’s in the semifinals:

“It’s funny, I was telling them this. I try to explain to these guys about the Big East tournament and the atmosphere, but playing tomorrow night, Friday night, in the semifinals against St. John’s in the Garden at home, that’s what you play basketball for, so (it’s) a great opportunity for us. We’ve just gotta get back right now and get hydrated, and make sure these guys get some rest and then kind of go from there.”

On his first Big East tournament win:

“Yeah, you know what? I didn’t even think about that. Yeah, I guess it’s not really my win, because when you get a bye, I consider that a win. I don’t have to play on Wednesday, so that’s a win for me, but no, it actually felt good to get the first one.”

On Seton Hall’s bench:

“Super important. That’s why I want to play 10-11 guys, right? I think if you only have six, seven guys and things don’t go well, you can’t go to your bench. Jacob came in and gave us great minutes, so did Trey Parker, and so did Tajuan Simpkins. So when you’ve got guys like that, when the starters are really not playing well, to come in with a bench — and we’ve been doing that the whole year — I think that’s been the key to some of our success.”

On what impresses him most about Budd Clark:

“I didn’t watch Budd at Merrimack. You gotta be careful with that, you can’t watch kids when they’re on other teams. You know what attracted me to Budd — wow, that sounds crazy — but what I liked about Budd was I like that he played with a chip on his shoulder. He played with the passion and the heart and the determination that I kind of played with, and I love the fact that people counted him out because of his size. I know if he gets with me and learns, because he’s got some things that you just can’t teach, and for ,him the good thing is that he’s still learning. I think once he continues to keep growing and learning, I think his game can go even higher.”

On Jacob Dar:

“That’s kind of what…that’s why he’s here. He’s different than Elijah, he’s different than Josh, he’s more athletic. Sometimes throughout the season, you kind of go through ups and downs, but give him credit, he always stayed ready no matter what. I always told him, ‘just stay ready.’ He practiced hard, just like he plays, and that kind of stuff is contagious.”

On Seton Hall’s NCAA Tournament chances:

“You know what? That’s above my pay grade, I don’t kind of get into that. Personally, I think we did enough. I know everybody thinks that the league is down. The league is not down. The problem, which you understand, is this league is good from top to bottom. I’m not disrespecting other leagues. Other leagues are top-heavy. Winning this game really helps, but all we can be concerned about is playing tomorrow night. We can’t worry about the future right now.”

On adjustments facing St. John’s again:

“I gotta get back — obviously, we just played them not too long ago. You’ve gotta get back, watch a little bit of film and come up with a game plan. They’re a very good team, obviously very well-coached, great players. But our guys played well throughout both games. We gonna do what Seton Hall do. We’re gonna defend, play hard, and what happens from there happens from there.”