St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 73, Long Island University 63
11/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 15, 2008
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Head Coach Norm Roberts
Opening Statement:"LIU did a good job defensively. We missed quite a few shots on our own, but they really tried to get us out of the rhythm of how we really wanted to play. We're learning and we're young. I though Sean [Evans] played with great energy and did some very good things for us. I thought D.J. [Kennedy] made big shots and big plays for us. I didn't like how we finished the game. We have to finish games better and we have to be more mature, but we will work on that and we will get better."
On getting off to a 15-3 lead in the first half: "We got the early leads because of our defense. We made steals, got outlet stops and rebounds. Where we got into trouble was with our fouls. That's where we have to get much better. We have to stop making silly fouls, grabbing fouls, holding fouls. We have to get better at moving our feet and not fouling people 30 feet from the basket, because then it breaks up the rhythm of the game."
On what St. John's needs to work on for the next game: "We have to have more of a killer instinct and work on attacking the basket. Even when we had a 12 or 13 point lead we came down and forced a shot or took a silly quick shot. That's just time-scoring momentum and trying to get your team to understand that this is when you have to really get after a team. You have to lock in and get stops and you have to be really precise offensively. You have to get inside rather than getting an easy basket. They will learn that, but give them credit, they made some big shots too, which kept them in the game."
On St. John's playing a running game:
"That's how we want to play, but sometimes teams will force you not to play like that. They will run back into a zone like Jimmy [Ferry] did in the last seven minutes. If you're not getting the ball off a rebound, and you're always taking the ball out of the net because they are making a play or there is a foul you can't run as much. But we want to run. We want to get up and down and we want to run."
On sophomore guard D.J. Kennedy:
"D.J. is absolutely one of the hardest working players I have ever been around. He works tirelessly. He stays after every practice for at least 50 minutes and takes at least 400 shots everyday. He wants to make himself the best basketball player he can possibly be. He deserves it. The way he played tonight is because he has prepared himself to do it. I'm happy for him."
Head Coach Jim Ferry
Thoughts on the game:
"We put ourselves in a position to win but we did not do the things we needed to do to finish the game. I felt that in a situation like this, where we shoot 31 free throws on the road, we have to win the game. If we limited their trips to the foul line, that could have made the difference because they didn't shoot well from the field. Both of our teams are young, and we both made mistakes. You just have to figure out a way to grind it out."
On the first half:
"I thought we outplayed them in the first half. Not by the score, but by the things you can control. We outrebounded them and took more free throws. We did the things we were supposed to do to win on the road. The turnovers really hurt us, but that's something we have to learn and build from."
On the outlook of his team:
"I think we have a chance to be very good. We have depth but we have to mature quickly. We're still young. I think the sooner we can mature and make our free throws we'll be okay. We have to learn from this game and move on."
