	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: WICHITA

March 14, 2018

Kevin Willard

Wichita, Kansas

THE MODERATOR: Pleased to have with us head coach from Seton Hall, the Pirates, Kevin Willard in his eighth season. Welcome to Wichita. Let's get your thoughts right away on the challenges North Carolina State presents.

COACH WILLARD: Thank you. It's great to be here. I think it's a really good matchup for both teams. I think we're both very evenly matched. Their guard play is some of the best guard play we've faced all year. Love their big guy, love the way he can play inside and out.

So really looking forward to the challenge and just happy to be here in Wichita.

Q. Kevin, NC State coach and players when they were up here talked a lot about Seton Hall's physicality, the Big East physicality. How much of a priority is that for you guys tomorrow to bring some of that to this game?
COACH WILLARD: Yeah. Obviously I think conference play, when you watch us in conference play, just the way our league plays, it's extremely physical. But I've been impressed with how physical they are. Dorn, for a power forward, is -- he's a lot like Ish. Can really play defense tough off the dribble. Their guards are physical. I think they defend and get after you. And it's a really unique matchup in the sense that both teams play physical basketball.

And obviously anybody coming from the Big East, if you watch us on film, that's what you're going to see just because of the way the league is kind of set up.

Q. What do you think this game means for your seniors' legacy? They've kind of done everything except win a tournament game.
COACH WILLARD: No matter what, I think these four guys have left a great mark at Seton Hall. I think more than anything, the way they've brought the fan base back from the way they've played, obviously it's going to help if you win a game. But I just think how they've interacted with the fans, how they've kind of won a lot of big games, I think their legacy will be pretty good either way.

Q. Could you sense, though, how important it is for them to win a game in the tournament?
COACH WILLARD: Yeah. I definitely have a different sense with them this year than I have last year. It's been less me trying to get them to understand the importance of being in this tournament and how hard it is to get into this tournament.

I think they realize the opportunity that they have now, where I think after their sophomore year they were just happy to be there. Last year, you know, we had a chance to win the game. We were up four with a minute and a half to go, and I think that loss really hurt them. It really kind of haunted them a little bit this year.

So I think they understand now more than ever they have a chance.

Q. You mentioned a little bit about their guard play, but this is also a team that likes to take a lot of threes and they like to put up shots at a fast pace. How do you try to slow them down a little bit defensively?
COACH WILLARD: Yes. It's not an easy task, to be honest with you. I think the hardest thing about them, as I watch film, is how balanced they are. It's just not one guy. I wish I could say, well, it's just Freeman or it's just Braxton. It's not. I mean, they are so well balanced, and I think Markell Johnson does as good a job as anybody I've seen on film of getting in the lane and creating really good opportunities for his teammates.

So I love the pace they play at. And I just think they put so much pressure on you. They put four guys out in the perimeter, and they drive it and they attack you. And you never know who's going to get you. I think that's the hardest thing about it when you watch film is that they're extremely balanced. They really technically have five guys scoring double-figure points, and over the last five games they're shooting almost 50 percent from the three.

Then you add Hunt into the equation, which over the last five games he's playing over 20 minutes a game, you know, there is -- at times they have five guys on the floor that can make shots. So I think that's what makes them so hard to defend.

Q. Just to follow up. You mentioned you get a different sense from these guys, you don't have to tell them the importance of this. Any examples of that? Anything they've said that's different?
COACH WILLARD: No, I really feel the biggest difference has been in practice. We've been -- it's really hard this time of year when towards the end of February you kind of wind practice down a little bit. You're only going for like an hour, hour and 15 minutes. And then all of a sudden you have four or five days where you have to kind of start practice back up.

And I haven't had a hard time getting them to practice again. We practiced yesterday for almost two and a half hours, and usually -- last year there's no chance I would have been able to do that. I had no problem getting them to practice. We'll practice again for probably a good solid two hours. And they're looking forward to practice.

So I think from that mentality, that's the biggest thing I've seen.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297