St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 82, NJIT 54
12/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 8, 2008
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St. John's Head Coach Norm Roberts
Opening Statement:
"We were obviously a little rusty not playing a game in six or seven days. NJIT is an up-and-coming team. They are trying to get better. They played hard all the way until the end."
On playing non-conference opponents:
"You try to get better, you try to execute and get different line-ups out there. When you have a nice enough lead we try to do some things that you may not be able to do in other games. You try to change the defenses up and try to see what works. We tried to see some combinations of players. When D.J. [Kennedy] didn't have a great shooting game we got other guys in there to pick up the slack."
On Paris Horne's development as a starter:
"He's doing what he does. He's a transition guy. Malik [Boothe] has a lot to do with it because he does a great job of getting him the ball. Our big guys do a good job of finding him and pitching the ball out to him for 3's. Paris isn't doing anything different than what he normally does. He is a good spot-up shooter, he can score in transition, he can score off the catch. He's a good defender, so he scores coming off defense sometimes. Coming off every game and going into the BIG EAST schedule, he has to raise his level of play because he's going to have bigger, stronger opponents coming at him. All he has to do is build confidence like he is doing right now."
Sophomore Forward Justin Burrell
On his second half dunk that broke the stansion:
"It wasn't that hard, one of the walk-ons grabbed the rim during warm up and it might have broken it a little. I actually wanted to break the second one. This was one of four that I have broken. I broke two in the park, one in Vegas and this one here. One I just cracked the rim, the other two I took the rim down, but this was the first time I took the whole thing down. I usually like to take the broken rims home with me."
On his dunks:
"I study Shaq a lot. I try to mimic his style as much as possible. If he saw this one though, he would say it was terrible."
On head coach Norm Roberts' reactions to his dunks:
"As long it goes in the basket he doesn't care."
On NJIT:
"They're a good team and they are an up-and-coming program. We can't go light on anyone, regardless of what's going on in the arena and with the team's previous games."
Sophomore Forward Paris Horne
On his team-high 18 points:
"I had a good four or five days in practice this week and I felt good shooting around in warm-ups today. I've gotten more comfortable now in the starting position."
On preparing for NJIT:
"They could have come in here and out-hustled us, out-rebounded us and completely took us out of our game. We have to face each game with the same mindset and the same momentum no matter what their previous record is. Today, that worked well for us."
NJIT Head Coach Jim Engles
Thoughts on the game:
"I think St. John's played great. They're so quick and athletic which makes them tough to guard. I was hoping we competed a little better on the defensive side of the ball. I was also a little discouraged on some of the things we did offensively. We're still a young team that's trying to build and take the next step. It's good to compete against high-level competition like St. John's so you know where you stand."
On the challenges of building a program:
"To build a culture and to set a standard and expectation for our players is a major challenge. I wasn't happy with some of the things we did tonight. Going into the game, I think we were starting to build a defensive identity for ourselves and we just gave in and didn't play any defense at all. That's a reflection on me and what I have to do in practice. I want them to play the right way."
