St. John's University Athletics
Pregame Quotes: St. John's vs. Virginia Tech
12/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 9, 2005
QUEENS, N.Y. - St. John's travels to Virginia Saturday to tip-off against the Hokies of Virginia Tech. On Friday, head coach Norm Roberts met with the media to discuss the matchup.
Head Coach Norm Roberts
On playing on the road:
"We have to be tough and what you have to focus on is playing consistently and understanding. We really have to pay attention to detail and execute, be ready to shoot, be ready to defend, because you're not going to have a crowd behind you to push you which is a comfort of being at home. It's a different situation when you go into it. We have a mindset that we're going into a battle and we have to go in there and focus in on the 16, 17 people that are with our party that will take care of business."
On the opposing crowd:
"I tell my team to just focus on the game, don't focus on the crowd, don't focus on the people that are screaming at you. You have to focus in on what we're doing both on the bench and in the game. We often talked about little things. Last year, we came very close to winning some games on the road and came up short. A lot of those things happened because of missed free throws late in the games or missed assignments. That's when you really have to knuckle down and be disciplined in order to win on the road. We must be focused like that."
On the difference between last year's team and this season:
"We'll have to wait and see. I think we have guys who have been in hostile environments, such as Lamont and Darryl, Eugene and Cedric, Dexter and Phil, those guys know what it's like but the young guys probably don't. Spears knows because he was at Illinois and knows what it's like to play in hostile environments. We got quite a few guys that understand it, but we're going to have to go out there and make plays and just play at a big level."
On Virginia Tech:
"They really improved their inside play and Deron Washington was a great athlete last year. He's more of a playmaker this year. Collins is terrific. He's probably one of the best big guys in the country. He's really improved and does some terrific things as far as scoring on the low post. So, last year they really weren't too much of a low post team and now they're terrific on the low post as well as the great guard play they always had last year."
On the low post combination of Aaron Spears and Lamont Hamilton:
"Virginia Tech is playing its big guys quite a few minutes and we're going to have to hold our own inside. If you remember last year when we won, Lamont Hamilton really had a breakout game. He really played well in that game. We're really going to need Lamont to play that well again and Aaron needs to help us inside. One of the reasons we recruited Aaron and brought him here was because we felt he could be an inside presence and he can guard big guys inside and help us in rebounding and those things he'll have to bring to the table for us in this game."
On Virginia Tech's guards:
"They're great. They're terrific. They're really really good. Dowdell and Gordon are two of the best in the ACC. The thing that makes them so good is they're very versatile. They can handle the ball, play the point. They both can play off the ball. They're 6-3, long arms, extremely athletic and they both can shoot."
On young guys traveling and playing on the road:
"It will be very interesting to them. It will be exciting for them and will be exciting for them to carry the bags of the older guys and those guys are looking forward to that. It will be exciting for them even if they try to hide that it's not exciting for them. I could tell by practice this morning, they were pretty excited."
On practice this morning:
"It was good. They worked hard and were focused. I think they're excited about the opportunity."
On Virginia Tech's loss to Duke:
"We had a tape made up, not specifically on that game but of their last three games and we'll talk about different scenarios and what they like to do. We'll watch film tonight before we go to bed."