St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 64, LIU 46
11/28/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
St. John???s Head Coach Norm Roberts
On his team???s effort:
???I thought we came out and played with a lot of energy and our defense was much better. We did a decent job getting to loose balls and rebounding. I told the guys before the game that there are certain things you can???t control, but we can control our energy level and our focus. When we come out and do that, we can be successful.???
On the struggles of his interior players:
???Aaron Spears and Lamont Hamilton will play a lot better when they play against guys their size. Every where I have been, its always been tough for big guys to play against little guys. They have to chase them around and then when the big guys become physical, it looks like they are overpowering the little guys and then they get called for the foul. It makes our big guys very tentative. When we get to the BIG EAST, I think those two guys will play a lot better.???
On the play of Tomas Jasiulionis:
???I thought Tomas did a good job. I talked to him about playing within himself and playing with energy. Tomas is a very mature young man. He will do whatever you want him to. He is happy to play two minutes or the whole game. If you watch him, he never changes his demeanor. He cheers as hard as he can for every single guy on our team and all he wants is for St. John???s to win.???
Sophomore Forward Anthony Mason Jr.
On his second half performance:
???I couldn???t come into the game with less energy than the other guys because they were really intense. We played hard, we all played together and we had a good turnout.???
On his team???s defensive struggles:
???We had to buckle down after some tough losses and that???s what we have been working on in practice. After looking at the tape, I think we played good defense last game, we just had different slips. We have to step it up, stop slipping up on defense and guard our man.???
On the shift to BIG EAST games:
???As the BIG EAST comes, our opponents are going to be much stronger and a lot taller with moves, so I think its important for our big guys to keep improving so we can prepare for the conference match ups.???
Sophomore Guard Ricky Torres
On coming off the bench:
???I think we practiced really well over the last two days and we came out ready to play. Qa???rraan Calhoun and I have been practicing together as a second team and we just wanted to come off the bench with energy. When everyone is energetic and ready to play, I think we???re a hard team to beat between our first and second teams.???
On supporting his teammates:
???Lamont and Aaron are going through a slump right now but we???re all here to support them and they???ll snap out of it. When it comes time for BIG EAST, I know those two guys will be ready to play. We all just have to stick through it and practice our game and go one game at a time.???
Long Island Head Coach Jim Ferry
On his team???s performance:
???We came in and we played extremely hard. We held them to 36 percent from the field and we out rebounded them by 10, with 19 offensive rebounds overall. We just didn???t find the basket at the right times. I thought we showed a lot of toughness and were aggressive with the ball.???
On St. John???s performance:
???I thought Norm did a great job of getting his guys ready to play. They were highly motivated. Ricky Torres really hurt us. He can really shoot the basketball and I thought Norm made a great move when he shifted Torres to the four spot. Our guys were forced to match up and that gave Torres some open shots.???
