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Head Coach Jay Wright

Opening Statement

"Good night for us in getting the whole team back together. It's nice to have everybody back and healthy. It is great to have Phil (Booth) back. Great leadership tonight by Mikal (Bridges), Jalen (Brunson) and Phil. That is what is important in games like this one."

On what he saw in #5 guard Phil Booth's return

"As a 57-year-old person I am amazed that you can have a cast on your wrist for five weeks and come out in practice an and perform the way he did yesterday. Our assistant coaches helped him rebound but all the credit should go to him for his amazing recovery. He looked like nothing had happened at practice and he looked pretty good tonight."

On forward #4 Eric Paschall's play tonight

"I am never surprised by Eric's dunks. But what I am really amazed at is how tough he is defensively and how he chases guys down. I want him to rebound a little more, but he can guard around one to five and that is the best thing he does for us."

On having the team back and healthy

"Its really interesting. We are looking at 29 minutes for Mikal, Donte 32, 29 for Jalen, we have been going 37-39 for some of these guys. I didn't notice what to expect with Phil, but we will get into a rhythm with our rotations, but I still see a lot of room for improvement."

On the importance of the seniors to the program

"I am very proud of our seniors. They are extremely important to this program. Denny Grace has played here for five years, Tommy (Leibig) has been playing a lot of us and has been a big help at times. Matt (Kennedy) has been an inspiration to us academically in terms of his work ethic he also was dealing with a struggle while he was here which was also an inspiration to all of us. Three really unique guys that are really valuable members of the program."

#25 Forward Mikal Bridges

On how Phil Booth ties the team together,

"He's one of our leaders. He knows how we play Villanova Basketball. He's in the right spots on the defensive end and knows when to make the extra pass, all that stuff. We're just happy to have him back."

#5 Guard Phil Booth

On how he felt in his first game back,

"It felt good to be back out there playing. I had a little rust just from not playing but I just wanted to get back out there."

On if he was surprised by how fast he got into rhythm,

"I didn't think I had that much of a rhythm to be honest. I wasn't going to be worried about what happened on offense, I was more focused on helping out on defense. Coming off of the bench, I just wanted to spark the game in any way I could. I wanted to take shots when they were there and make plays when they were there and help my team out as much as I could."

On what felt out of rhythm,

"Just the rhythm of the game as a whole. Catching the ball; I'm still getting use to trusting my hand. Getting the rhythm of catching and passing, all of that. My hand feels great though."

On the team's reaction after the two seniors knocked down their shots at the end,

"You should see the stuff they do for us; they rebound for us before practice, rebound for us any time we call them, they're constantly in our ear trying to help us. It's all the little things that they do that people don't see. That's why we were so happy. They cheer for us all game long so the least we can do for them is cheer for them like that, especially because they don't get the recognition they deserve.

#4 Forward Eric Paschall

On how important it is to have all of the pieces back together heading into the stretch run of the season,

"It means a lot to us. Just having Phil back is huge; he's an experienced guy. It takes a lot of pressure off all of us, we've all been playing a lot of minutes and it's just good to have a full team now."