BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2021

Jared Rhoden

Seton Hall Pirates

Madison Square Garden

Postgame Media Conference

Seton Hall 77, St. John's 69

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Jared Rhoden.

Q. I want to ask you what you thought of Mamu's performance today the way he handled the ball against the pressure and everything he brought to you guys to set the tone?

JARED RHODEN: He was phenomenal. We always preach to Sandro you're one of the best ball handlers. We trust him to handle the ball under pressure. He does it all the time in practice. We have the ultimate confidence in him. I think he did a very well job today.

Q. Could you talk about your performance, you were ferocious on the boards today. What's your overall mentality? What did you feel at the Garden at this level?

JARED RHODEN: Means a lot to me coming back home. Dream come true. I had a great conversation with Coach this week. And I think that kind of helped me, boosted my morale. I came in being aggressive, being gritty doing everything and everything else will come in line.

Q. Coming into this game, I mean you lost four in a row. Did you guys feel like if you were going to the tournament this was it?

JARED RHODEN: Obviously we know that the tournament was at stake, but we were just trying to play possession by possession. That's kind of what we've been preaching in practice. Taking small steps. You can't think about the tournament. We're trying to win this tournament first. Little by little, whatever they give us, whatever they give us keep chipping away I think that's what they did tonight.

Q. I know you're just coming off this game. Keep this momentum going in a big game with Georgetown tomorrow. You win that game you get to the Big East final.

JARED RHODEN: I think the main thing is to not get too hot on ourselves. Stay humble. Short turnaround. Tomorrow we play at six. We have to get back. Get some good recovery. Get some good meals and mentally get our minds back as if it's 0-0 clean slate.

Q. How different did you guys feel like you played today compared to the last four games? Could you tell a big difference just in how you guys played defensively and just your effort overall?

JARED RHODEN: Coach has been getting after us in practice, preaching to us how important the defensive end. We have so much talent offensively. So the main thing for us is if we could play defense, we can be unstoppable. So we went over a lot of the motion offense that St. John's was running and Coach was practicing communication with us. And he did a great job. Coaches did a great job scouting them, telling us what we had to do to get this win tonight.