St. John's University Athletics
Taffner Field House Press Conference Quotes
9/8/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Sept. 8, 2005
Queens, N.Y. -
Rev. Donald J. Harrington, C.M.
University President
On the mission of the basketball program and the mission of the University:
"The institution has risen, so will the athletic programs including the women's and the men's basketball teams...and we need competitive facilities so student-athletes or recruits would say `I want to come and be apart of that.'"
On being competitive in the new BIG EAST:
"Without a facility it would have been very hard to truly be competitive. Without truly outstanding coaches, it is very hard to be competitive, and I think we are blessed to have the people we have running our two programs right now."
On the usage of Taffner Field House:
"The two courts [on the west end] are for everyday student play, the two courts [on the east end] are for the basketball teams and their practice."
"It has been a big concern of mine for years that the students did not have a place like this and as you know, they could use Carnesecca Arena when it is not used by the varsity teams and that is really tough in terms of availability. This is something that we have wanted to do for a long while."
On plans for Carnesecca Arena:
"It is our top priority now, not necessarily to expand it but to make it a much nicer, a much more crowd-friendly arena, to really spruce that up. That is a top priority now."
"Significant dollars will be put in to fixing [the arena] up. The seating is problem, we know that. The overall appearance is a problem as you can see we have identified problems over the recent years, facilities-wise, university wide and other things. We identify the problems; we formulate a strategy and fix them. And obviously Carnesecca Arena is at the top of our list of things we need to do."
Chris Monasch
Director of Athletics
On the advantages of Taffner Field House:
"What has changed over the years, it used to be that coaches wanted to practice on the game court. Now the trend is to have a state-of-the-art practice facility with all the amenities to help the programs."
On being competitive in the new BIG EAST:
"I think it's been a challenge for us to get the facilities up to speed with where we want to be. That has been apparent for a number of years and I think the University has identified that and has obviously taken significant steps to get us where we need to be."
Norm Roberts
Head Coach - Men's Basketball
On Taffner Field House:
"One of the great things here, having this practice facility, is it is a place for us to call home. Our offices are here, the weight room for men's and women's basketball is here but the whole complex here shows people that St. John's itself is taking huge steps to make sure our facilities are on par with everyone else."
"What we have been trying to sell [to the recruits] over the past year is the vision [of the facility]. The dream has become a reality. The facility is a lot better than what I had envisioned it to be."
On the impact for the team:
"I think our guys are very excited and the women's team is very excited but it's also a responsibility."
"There are a lot of guys, a lot of sweat and tears and hard work that went on in Carnesecca Arena. So I let my guys know that...they haven't done anything to deserve this; there are a lot of guys that have done a lot of work here who deserve what our guys have right now. We have to respect what we have and do the best we can."
Kim Barnes Arico
Head Coach - Women's Basketball
On the advantages of Taffner Field House:
"This new facility has really, really been a plus for us just in the recent week, probably the last three weeks. We have had some top recruits up that are being heavily recruited by other BIG EAST programs and bringing them in this new facility has really opened their eyes to saying St. John's is making a huge commitment both academically and athletically to their programs and to their men's and women's basketball programs specifically, I think that it has helped us tremendously."
On the impact on the team:
"I think the young ladies have to prove they deserve it. They have to take care of it and have to represent the University in a first class manner."
