Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez held a two-and-half hour wide-ranging discussion today with the team’s beat writers in a conference room in the basketball offices. A light lunch was served. Sometimes contentious, sometimes light-hearted, it was certainly informative. Here are some nuggets from the presser, with more coming later and in tomorrow’s paper.
ON THE SUSPENSION FOR ONE BIG EAST GAME NEXT YEAR:
“I take full responsibility for my actions (criticizing the officials after the Rutgers game). I’m moving on it from it. Period. It happened. It’s over with. There’s not a lot else to talk about. I respect the university’s decision (to suspend me). I have to respect that.”
ON HOW IT MIGHT HAVE IMPACTED RECRUITING:
“We all know here that there was a decent amount of negative publicity this spring, from a variety of different things. Certainly that was some of it, getting a suspension for a game next year definitely put some negative press out there….I think that people were trying to use whatever possible negative publicity they could get against us in recruiting because that is the nature of the business today….Anything anybody can use, they’re going to use.
“I think it was more a perception thing, it was more hype. I think things pass. I didn’t feel it was anything that major that it affected us from getting a kid. I really don’t.”
ON WHO WILL COACH DURING THE SUSPENSION GAME:
“I’ll turn it over to Dermon Player. Derm is my top guy and some day I do want to start pushing him for top jobs.”
ON LENNY ROBBIN’S NEW YORK POST STORY SAYING HE COULD BE FIRED:
“Absolutely no credibility. Just rumors happen.
“I was at the Final Four with my wife and my daughter taking a boat ride down the water enjoying myself by the time I heard the rumors. I mean, It’s ridiculous.”
ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH AD JOE QUINLAN:
“At the end of the day we both want the same thing. We want Seton Hall to be successful. In my seven years at Manhattan I certainly was not an angel, but you never read any kind of public reprimand. They did things differently over there. It takes a couple of years to learn a school, to learn writers, to learn the area.”
ON THE RIVALRY WITH RUTGERS AND THE RECRUITING SITUATION:
“The rivalry is growing, it’s getting more excited, it’s getting more intensified, so I think that’s a good thing. The perception right now is that they’re doing better in New Jersey, and they probably are. I think it’s important for Seton Hall to get kids from St. Benedict’s, St. Anthony, St. Patrick, Mount Vernon, but I don’t think we only have to recruit kids in New Jersey.”
“It’s important for us to get a great top 5, top 10 guy in the state of New Jersey and if we don’t do that it sort of says we couldn’t do that.”
“We haven’t done it yet. We know that we haven’t gotten a McDonald’s All-American from the state of New Jersey. We have to do that. I do think we’re going to be able to.
“I do think I have to do more in the state. It’s only natural for a coach to go to his strengths, and I think my strengths have been in New York.
“If you don’t get a kid from the state of New Jersey, your’e probably going to get fired.”
ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH REFEREES
“I think the referees are fair. I don’t think they come into games saying, ‘I’m going to block Bobby Gonzalez out, or I’m going to go against his team.’ I think the Big East refs have been dealing with different coaching personalities for years, so I think I would be getting too much credit in that regard. You got strong personalities in this league, whether it be a Bob Huggins or a Jim Boeheim or a Jim Calhoun. I’m not that worried about that perception. I think the referees see that I’ve made a strong effort to back off.”
ON HIS FUTURE BEHAVIOR:
“What do I want to change about myself? I don’t want to put myself in a situation in the future where either our university or the conference feels they have to suspend me…That’s not going to happen again.”
ON MIKE GLOVER: “He’s currently still a senior at Seton Hall. He just finished his second semester, and he’s doing fine right now at Seton Hall. It’s an ongoing situation with the NCAA. It’s definitely not all with, it’s definitely not ended, it’s definitely not 100 percent either direction…Has it been a long frustrating process? Has it taken a long time? Yes, but sometimes certain situations you can’t control. “I do know he’s a difference maker. He’s a special player. And certainly we also obviously need the position, so I recognize from a fan standpoint why everyone’s so frustrated and waiting so intently to hear because he’s a four man and we don’t have an abundance of four men.” ON MELVYN OLIVER: “He’s a difference maker who could end up playing in the NBA, similar to Mark Bryant or Samuel Dalembert. He’s a big guy who with development or conditioning that can be in the NBA. He’s a five man. He’s a center. He needs to go about 20 pounds down. I think he can play at 310 (pounds). He doens’t have any body fat on him. This guy looks like Eddy Curry. He has big wide shoulders. He has a man’s body. He has great footwork, great soft hands. He reminds me of Oliver Miller from Arkansas. ON ROBERT “STIX” MITCHELL “He’s a gifted scorer. Whatever ‘it’ is, he has ‘it.’ He’s one of those thin, George Gervin-types. He’s a very difficult matchup. I knew he could score the ball. If we wanted to put him at the point, we could. Robert MItchell can play almost four positions, the one, two, three and an undersized four.” ON PAUL GAUSE “He’s progressing tremendously (from ACL surgery). He should be fully ready to go 100 percent in September.” ON JOHN GARCIA “He had minor surgery on his knee (scoped) and was cleared a couple weeks ago.” ON MIKE DAVIS “He looks like a different human being right now (because of conditioning).” SCHEDULING NOTES: **Seton Hall will go to Puerto Rico the week before Thanksgiving for the tournament that also includes USC, Missouri, Xavier, Hofstra and Va. Tech **Seton Hall is trying to get a home-and-home beginning this year with Michigan for the 20th anniversary of the 1989 NCAA title game **Games are also set against St. Peter’s at the Jersey City Armory, at Robert Morris and potentially against Princeton, or another Ivy League team **There is also talk of a potential two-day event at the Rock featuring Fordham, NJIT, Seton Hall and fourth team
