Kevin Willard is getting a lot out of a coachable group. The McKnight-Reynolds-Powell-McKnight-Cale-Mamukelashvili pass play that resulted in the clinching basket against Butler was a perfect metaphor for the unselfishness and togetherness of this team, and much of the credit goes to Willard and on- and off-court leaders Myles Powell, Mike Nzei and Quincy McKnight. They honestly don’t care who gets the credit, and it shows in the way they play. Powell seems to have learned exactly when to defer and when to take the game upon his shoulders, a tricky balancing act for any team’s superstar.
Sandro Mamukelashvili bounced back from DePaul. Mamukelashvili made the right play at the end of that string of passes by going for the driving layup, in contrast to his ill-advised three-point attempt at the end of the loss to DePaul. Willard wanted him to drive to the basket in the previous situation in Chicago, and either finish or pass to somebody else. But Willard didn’t get down on Mamukelashvili because of the lapse in judgment and neither did his teammates, as Powell said they all reassured him afterward to help prevent him from going into a funk. And give credit to Mamu himself for showing the mental toughness to get through it. Remember, he still is only scratching the surface of how good he ultimately can be.
Darnell Brodie emerges. The seldom-used freshman helped keep Butler’s bigs from dominating in the paint with shot-blocker extraordinaire Romaro Gill (ankle) sidelined for a second straight game. Brodie has three points, four rebounds and one blocked shot. “We knew with Ro being out,” Powell said, “somebody was going to have to step up and Brodie took it upon himself.” Powell also extolled Brodie for his hard work in practice every day.
As for Gill, Willard said he is improving physically and it seems as if the target is for him to be able to play at Providence on Tuesday, although he hasn’t been ruled out for Marquette just yet.
Not too early to talk about THE tournament. Willard had an interesting response Thursday when asked on the Big East coaches’ conference call on whether he discusses the NCAA tournament with his players. He indicated he used to try to shield them from such talk, but now tries to educate them on what goes into being selected and seeded and what the team needs to do to get into a good position for the NCAAs.
“With social media,” he said, “it’s impossible to get them not to be aware of it, so I’ve actually embraced it and talked about it. I’ve kind of gone the other way (from discouraging talk) and we talk about it on an almost weekly basis. We’ve taken all the analytics and tried to educate our guys so that when they see (bracketology projections) they understand it.”
But rest assured he isn’t ever looking ahead. Willard and the Pirates could have hosted South Orange Middle School prior to last month’s Kentucky game and he wouldn’t have taken Kentucky questions from the media until after the South Orange contest.
Butler looked a bit different than usual Wednesday. It was a hard-fought game, as it almost is against the Bulldogs, especially for the Pirates. But the usual crisp ball movement was missing. Butler’s best player, Kamar Baldwin, scored 23 points, but it took him 26 shots from the field to do it. Baldwin, whom Seton Hall did a terrific job on defensively, often forced shots Wednesday night, especially late in the game. Butler had only nine assists, including two by Baldwin. It will be interesting to see if the Bulldogs are playing more cohesively by the time they host The Hall on Feb. 2.
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
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Sandro Mamukelashvili bounced back from DePaul. Mamukelashvili made the right play at the end of that string of passes by going for the driving layup, in contrast to his ill-advised three-point attempt at the end of the loss to DePaul. Willard wanted him to drive to the basket in the previous situation in Chicago, and either finish or pass to somebody else. But Willard didn’t get down on Mamukelashvili because of the lapse in judgment and neither did his teammates, as Powell said they all reassured him afterward to help prevent him from going into a funk. And give credit to Mamu himself for showing the mental toughness to get through it. Remember, he still is only scratching the surface of how good he ultimately can be.
Darnell Brodie emerges. The seldom-used freshman helped keep Butler’s bigs from dominating in the paint with shot-blocker extraordinaire Romaro Gill (ankle) sidelined for a second straight game. Brodie has three points, four rebounds and one blocked shot. “We knew with Ro being out,” Powell said, “somebody was going to have to step up and Brodie took it upon himself.” Powell also extolled Brodie for his hard work in practice every day.
As for Gill, Willard said he is improving physically and it seems as if the target is for him to be able to play at Providence on Tuesday, although he hasn’t been ruled out for Marquette just yet.
Not too early to talk about THE tournament. Willard had an interesting response Thursday when asked on the Big East coaches’ conference call on whether he discusses the NCAA tournament with his players. He indicated he used to try to shield them from such talk, but now tries to educate them on what goes into being selected and seeded and what the team needs to do to get into a good position for the NCAAs.
“With social media,” he said, “it’s impossible to get them not to be aware of it, so I’ve actually embraced it and talked about it. I’ve kind of gone the other way (from discouraging talk) and we talk about it on an almost weekly basis. We’ve taken all the analytics and tried to educate our guys so that when they see (bracketology projections) they understand it.”
But rest assured he isn’t ever looking ahead. Willard and the Pirates could have hosted South Orange Middle School prior to last month’s Kentucky game and he wouldn’t have taken Kentucky questions from the media until after the South Orange contest.
Butler looked a bit different than usual Wednesday. It was a hard-fought game, as it almost is against the Bulldogs, especially for the Pirates. But the usual crisp ball movement was missing. Butler’s best player, Kamar Baldwin, scored 23 points, but it took him 26 shots from the field to do it. Baldwin, whom Seton Hall did a terrific job on defensively, often forced shots Wednesday night, especially late in the game. Butler had only nine assists, including two by Baldwin. It will be interesting to see if the Bulldogs are playing more cohesively by the time they host The Hall on Feb. 2.
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
COMMENTS
