St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 48, Georgetown 72
2/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Madison Square Garden
February 1, 2007
St. John???s vs. Georgetown
St. John???s Head Coach Norm Roberts
On tonight???s game:
???Give Georgetown a lot of credit. They really played well in the second half and shot the ball well. We didn???t do a good job of guarding and we got off to a bad shot. Lamont got into foul trouble and that hurt our inside game. We relied too much on jump shots. We didn???t do a good job on the glass. We did a good job in the first half and they did a good job in the second half.???
On Lamont Hamilton???s foul trouble:
???It hurt us quite a bit. It was a situation where we got into foul trouble and we had to get other guys in the game. Qa???rraan (Calhoun) did a good job of rebounding for us early. Qa???rraan (Calhoun) played quite a few minutes and I think he got tired. I think we gave up three offensive rebounds where we got stops and we didn???t get the rebound back.???
More on tonight???s game:
???I think the first five minutes of the second half are very, very important. We are young and immature in some spots. We missed bunnies, we got bothered. Give them credit. They made shots. I don???t think we responded to their run. Even when we did make some plays, we bobbled balls. We got fast break lay-ups and we bobbled the ball. We got some wide-open shots we made in the first half, we didn???t make in the second half. We just have to be able to make those plays.???
More on tonight???s game:
???I think there were three possessions where we played great defense for 32 seconds and they made fall away jumpers with two seconds left on the shot clock. Those are just players making plays. Sometimes when that happens it is disheartening to your guys. Those things happen. We only have eight guys and we have to play the guys we have. This league is such a tough league that when your main player like Lamont (Hamilton) gets into foul trouble those things change what you want to do.???
On the rest of the season:
???We have to continue to get better and focus on the next game. We are playing very good teams. Georgetown is a good team. We are not as talented as the other team. We have to play a certain way, we have to play tough, we have to rebound the basketball and we have to get stops. If we don???t do those things we will struggle because we will struggle to score.???
Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III
On their run at the end of the first half:
"It got us going. I don't know how much time was on the clock, but I felt we were down eight or nine, then Jon [Wallace] banged a shot and got us going. To cut [a lead], in half where we didn't necessarily play well, going into halftime down one was key. Our intensity picked up and it carried over to the start of the second half."
On the second half:
"It started with our defensive intensity, it just started with us running down loose balls, it started with us getting rebounds and that just carried over to an easy flow and a hardness that we had on the offensive end."
On the improvement of the team:
"A lot of teams early in the year have to build some continuity. You have to figure out, and it is applicable to us and a lot of teams around the country, how your team is going to when you try to piece together new parts. As the year progresses, we hope to get better and we have gotten better. We can still continue to improve. We are not a lot different than other teams. As the year progresses, you start to piece things together and everyone understands what they must bring to the table on any given night. Hopefully, on both ends of the floor, we can continue to improve because there is still time to get better.???
Jeff Green
On tonight???s game:
???On the defensive end, I felt, we communicated very well. On the defensive end, we just stayed with our stuff and just ran over stuff very fluently. Jon [Wallace], Jesse [Sapp] and myself made a couple of big plays. We made all of the hustle plays. If we keep communicating and make all of the hustle plays we can play like we did in the second half.???
