Men’s Basketball Weekly Conference Call Highlights – Feb. 3

 

On game vs. Villanova

“Villanova is really good. Jay does such a great job of teaching them spacing, and penetrating and pitch. They’ve got their big guys so much more involved now than they probably did a year ago. I think they’re very good and are well deserving of being one of the top 10 teams in the country.”

 

On John Flowers

“The thing about John is he loves being in the gym. John’s work ethic has just become better and better and better the more years that he’s been here. He’s always loved being in the gym; I don’t know that he’s always loved working at his game. I think being around guys like Da’Sean [Butler] and Joe Alexander has helped John immensely. John has turned into our hardest worker. He’s always loved being in a gym. Anytime there was anything going on in a gym John was always in there. He’s always at the rec center just playing. He’s really worked diligently on his shot. Obviously from being a guy who didn’t shoot 50 percent from the free throw line his first three years to being a 75 percent free throw shooter tells you the amount of work and diligence that John has put into it.”

 

On Joe Mazzulla

“He’s made some shots. I think he was shooting .017 or something like that from 3. I told him going into the Louisville game, I said ‘Joe, you’re going to be our secret weapon. They wouldn’t have any idea that you could make a shot.’ When he makes shots people have to come out and play him, they can’t give him that big cushion. He’s really good at getting the ball to the basket. He’s shot the ball really well lately and he’s shot the ball really well from the free throw line lately. Just a couple very subtle changes to his mechanics has helped him a great deal.”

 

 

On Georgetown

“We’re not getting Georgetown at the ideal time obviously. They’re playing as well as anybody in the BIG EAST or even as well as anybody in the country right now. I think our guys are looking forward to that kind of challenge, to play against the best and see if we can hang in there and have a chance at the end of the game. They’re very talented not just because of one or two players but they’ve got depth, quickness, speed and strength. They’ve got the makings of a team that can go really far, not just in the BIG EAST conference but beyond that this season.”

 

On Villanova

“They pose a big problem for teams. We might be one of those few teams that can match up a little bit with them because of our quickness, although we’re young in the backcourt. But other teams that don’t have that kind of quickness, it really makes them susceptible to their dribble penetration as well as their ball pressure and the way they guard on defense. It’s a nice combination to have and I can see a lot of teams having trouble with that matchup.”

 

On playing on the road

“I think we’ve been improving. You look at our last 10 games and there have been remarkable differences in percentages both offensively and defensively. Unfortunately as we go on the road for the last stretch it’s not going to be easy, not that there are any easy road games in the BIG EAST, but the heart of our road games are the top teams in this conference coming up. So to be able to get a win is going to be tough. I think you go in with the confidence that we know we can play against the best in this league. You go on the road and you have to be able to execute even better than you do at home. I know our guys are looking forward to the challenge. I think like a lot of teams in this conference, we know we can play with the best. We have to play even better to win on the road.”

 

 

On the number of BIG EAST that should make the NCAA tournament

 “Absolutely 10 teams in my opinion and nine minimum. Only because if you look at the fact we’ve beaten Purdue, Michigan State, Texas outside the conference. We’ve got some great wins in this league against some of the other top conferences. You run through our league and look at some of the wins we’ve had: Tennessee, Duke. Our league is the best league, it’s not even close, in the country and we go all the way to 12 or 13. My biggest fear is there are a couple good people that are going to be left home. Pittsburgh has made the separation of probably being a one seed. But I think everyone else in the league is still fighting to get there. It’s that competitive and I think every night is going to be a tough battle. But because of that and because of who the league has beaten on the outside, we should be able to send 10 teams. If we can’t then they aren’t looking at the total picture of our BIG EAST season.”

 

On Villanova’s guards Corey Fisher and Maalik Wayns

“Nightmares I think is the best way to describe it. It’s your worst nightmare. Corey, when he was here, and we have some great guards in our league, but he and Kemba were both great. He had 28 points, Wayns is a terrific player. Quite frankly I put them as givens. They’re very difficult to defend. Obviously they shoot the ball well. To me the key to Villanova is, as good as their guards are and their guards are terrific. With all that said, if Yarou plays well and Pena plays well, to me they’re a different team. They’re a tough out anyways but then they become a real tough out.”

 

On Kemba Walker

“He’s playing 36 minutes a game, getting a lot of attention and getting banged around an awful lot. He’s got bumps and bruises all over the place. And quite frankly I don’t think I’ve had a great player, unless he’s had a lot of help. And remember his help is predominantly five freshmen and a sophomore. He’s trying to lead them and in-turn he’s going through some struggles himself. I have great confidence in Kemba and I know that he’ll be back ready for Seton Hall and St. John’s and Georgetown and on down the line. Richard Hamilton had struggles midway through his sophomore year and I can go through some other of our great players who have had struggles like that. We just have to fight it and get better shots for him and he’s got to take better shots himself. Besides working and he works like crazy in practice. He’s a hard-working kid. He’s doing the other things. He’s passing the ball and he’s rebounding. When you can average over six rebounds a game at six feet tall, you’re doing your job in the BIG EAST. He’s got to make some shots, which will set up his ability to go by people.”

 

 

On Lamar Patterson, Brad Wanamaker and Nasir Robinson

“Usually it’s the passing ability that stands out. I think that’s the thing that all three of those guys have in common, they’re all great passers. We find that if they can pass, they have a little bit better understanding of the game and their versatility comes with that. Once you have that, you have that feel for the game and that’s a good starting point. And he’s [Lamar] going to be a real good player for us. He’s changed his body and he’s changed his athleticism. He’s become a better athlete and I think he’s going to be a real good player. He’s playing really well lately as his freshman year winds down. All are good players from just outside the Philadelphia area.”

 

On National Championship hopes

“I think we’re a good team. I think we’ve got a lot of room to improve and that’s what we’re working on. We need to improve and there are some areas that we’ve addressed this week as we’ve had a little bit more time. We took a day or two off. We’re not where we need to be and we understand that. We’re trying to get better on both the offensive side and the defensive side as we prepare for this tough second half of the conference season.”

 

On Brad Wanamaker

“He’s a guy that’s a big part of what we do. He’s a guy that I was singing his praises all of last year and in the preseason this year. I didn’t feel enough people were listening. I think the word is out on him a little bit more so now. We play him as a 2 but really he plays as a 1 because he creates shots for so many different guys. He has the ability to get in the lane, he can get other guys shots, he can finish on his own, he can shoot the ball. His numbers rebounding-wise are high for a guard so he’s very versatile. He’s a guy that’s been a winner all his life. He won at a high level in Philadelphia. There are certain guys when you go recruit that you just know are going to be a little bit better than people think, and he was the guy for me. I saw him a bunch in the summer when we recruited him and in the fall and I was convinced he was going to be a great player and people were going to be wondering where he came from and what he was. He’s a great all-around player and a great kid and as unselfish a player as I’ve ever been around. I can’t say enough about him and what he’s done. It’s great to go get a player from Philly and that was a big thing for us because since then we’ve had a lot of players out of Philly. Very good ones too. He was the first real guy that got us started in that area.”

 

 

On game against Connecticut

“UConn is a terrific team and they’re doing a great job this year. Kemba Walker is playing out of his mind. He’s one of the best guards in all of college basketball. Our mindset is to try to contain him and not let their supporting players get off like Shabazz Napier and the other freshmen that are playing well right now. This is a chance for us to win a big game at home. We really need to come out and play well and try to win this game on Saturday.”

 

On Kemba Walker

“A guy like Kemba you can only hope to contain him. You aren’t going to shut him down. He’s a great player. He gets a lot of passes in the open court. He’s really improved his jump shot so it’s really hard to try to guard him now. Last year I think people played off him because I think his shot wasn’t as consistent. Now he’s making that jump shot so if you push up he can go by you. It’s really tough. You almost have let him get his and try to shut everyone else down. Guys like Marshon Brooks. You just have to play them tough and make them make tough shots and try to shut down the supporting cast.”

 

On Jordan Theodore

“We work with Jordan and Keon [Lawrence] every day about being more consistent. What you have to realize with Jordan is, he played a lot as a freshman and he played a lot as a sophomore, but he played behind Eugene Harvey. Eugene Harvey was a great point guard for Seton Hall. Now Jordan is the main guy. It’s really easy to come off the bench and play behind somebody, but for you to be that main guy every night and go out and play 30-35 minutes every night is real tough. So he’s making that adjustment. We put a lot of pressure on him to go out there and be our leader and to go out there and play ball. It’s not easy at the point guard spot. So I think it has taken him some time to adjust to that. But I think for the most part he’s getting it. We just need to get him to be a little more consistent. And how you do that is to work hard at practice and work hard on your game and good things will happen.”

 

 

On play lately and game against Providence

“Lately I think our guys have found ways to win games. We just have to find a way to keep that going, which sounds very obvious but is very difficult in this league. Against Providence we’re going to have to have a very good defensive effort because they can put points on the board. They can put pressure on you offensively and defensively.”

 

On play at beginning of the season versus five-game winning streak

“We did play noticeably different. During the bad stretch I think collectively Chris, Austin and Jason were not shooting well. We can’t win with all three of those guys off and during that stretch they were. Also I think lately we have been defending much better. We’re trying to make the opposition take more difficult shots. That being said, everyone has seen it and the coaches have said it since day one, this league is terrific. The parity is not just a word, it’s reality in this league. Coach Pitino said it the other day, you don’t know where your wins are going to come from.”