Kevin Willard quote book: Wagner

On Angel Delgado and Khadeen Carrington bouncing back from Saturday's loss at Rutgers:
"We took a couple of days off after Saturday, we had a really tough stretch going into Saturday and then we pretty much -- we controlled the game and then the way we lost, I think was disappointing, and I thought that it was important that the guys cleared their heads a little bit. I thought we came back, yesterday especially, and really practiced with a purpose again, and I thought the guys came out with that purpose and did what they had to do to get a W."

On Desi Rodriguez's injury:
"I'm not sure what happened, but I know he's okay."

On shutting down Wagner's Blake Francis:
"He'd been -- they had been on fire, they had ten threes in four of the last five games. That was a big point of ours, try to just chase them off the line, get them to shoot twos and we -- I thought Myles Powell did a good job early in the game of just kind of shadowing him and just letting him know that he wasn't getting any easy ones in transition. His foul trouble, obviously him getting some fouls, helped us too."

On establishing a physical presence:
"We had talked about that, about how this was probably going to be the first time in a while that we played a team that, from a physical standpoint, we could beat up on a little bit. Again, five of our last six, we haven't been able to do that. It's been an even match, and it's been -- it's taken a little bit of a toll, so it was nice to kind of -- we went inside early, I thought Angel did a great job getting an early offensive rebound, Mike (Nzei) got an early offensive rebound, Desi got a post-up, just got things at the rim to put pressure on them."

On Seton Hall's bench:
"Again, I said this after the Rutgers game: I've got a lot of confidence in those guys, and the more they get out there, the more experience they get, the more runs they get, the better they look. It's just, I'm really being careful now just making sure Myles Cale gets some run with some guys, some starters; Sandro gets some run with some starters, so they're just not always that second unit. Again, I think they're doing a good job progressing."

On Khadeen Carrington's bounce-back game:
"The tough thing about Saturday night was he took good shots. He wasn't taking bad shots. He missed a floater late, he missed a pull-up jumper he usually makes, he missed a wide open three that he usually makes. The big thing for him was I wanted him to be a leader these last two days. I thought he came to practice very aggressive, he came to practice very focused, and I thought that rubbed off on everybody and I thought his mindset led him to this game."

On his message to Jordan Walker:
"Jordan is a freshman who's going through it, he's had a tough, tough time just because he's been hurt, and really it seemed like it was a lot longer. It was only like a four-hour span that we went through. Him and his parents and me had a great conversation around 5:00 Tuesday, and it was good for him to hear my thoughts, and I thought it was very good for me to hear his thoughts. We're glad to have him back. I think he's going to have a bright future, and I think everyone has to understand that he's had a really tough go of it with his injury and he hasn't been able to play, and it's very frustrating for a freshman when you can't do what he's able to do."

On what he has seen from Walker:
"It's hard to -- it's kind of what I talked to him about: You can't get frustrated, I'm not frustrated. I'm not sure what he can do. I think I know what he can do, but I think he's frustrated with the fact that he wants to show it, but he hasn't had a shot yet. That's understandable. Maybe I kind of understand those things, and I think the big thing was just me and him getting on the same page, and we are."

On his feelings as Seton Hall goes into Big East play:
"I think being 10-2 is right where we should be. I think we've had some really good wins, two tough losses, one by one point and one where we controlled the game and just didn't play well at the end of the game. I love our depth, I love the way we're shooting the basketball, I love how we're passing the basketball."

On raising tempo in the second half:
"I think Bashir (Mason) did a good job of setting the tempo too, and they play fast. Bashir runs a phenomenal program, he's done a great job there. I like his basketball team, he's got a good chance of winning his league. I think part of his thing is he didn't want us coming down and just grinding on him and beating them up a little bit from our size, so I thought they did a good job in transition and trying to push pace a little bit."

On how Saturday's matchup with Manhattan came about and his relationship with head coach Steve Masiello:
"Mas called me in late August and he still needed a game. He needed a game, we really didn't need a game. I was stuck -- this was going to be our last non-conference game, I was going to stay at 12. But I also thought we were going to see some zone, and he presses and goes to a zone, he plays hard-nosed defense. I thought going into the Christmas break, it would actually be a good game for us. His teams play hard, they're physical, they rebound, and they defend, so I thought it's going to be a good test for us going into Christmas, especially since we're going to take a couple of days off after Christmas."

On what went through his mind when Rodriguez was injured:
"I've been around Mr. Rodriguez now for four long, beautiful years. I could tell you when he's hurt and when he's not hurt, when he just wants to run in and yell because he missed a dunk. That's more what that was, and he took advantage. Usually when he misses them in practice, he has to go down the stairs and he goes through the locker room, and you hear him yelling in the locker room. I think he really enjoyed the fact that he didn't have to go downstairs and come back upstairs, to be honest with you."