St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 59. Georgetown 56
3/3/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 3, 2009
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
QUEENS, N.Y. -
St. John's Head Coach Norm Roberts
On tonight's game:
"It was definitely one of the best games I've been a part of as a coach. I was really proud of our guys. They never gave up even when we got down by 15. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. We couldn't make layups, we couldn't finish plays, we were fumbling balls. But I thought our guys showed tremendous character and toughness in staying with it. We constantly told them, `Don't let your offense affect your defense. Stay with your defense. Stay strong, we're going to make some shots.' And I thought all of our guys, to a man, all stepped up and made big plays. So it was a great team win for our guys and a great learning experience for our guys."
On moving forward after tonight's win:
"I hope. Not the first ten minutes of the second half, I don't want to carry that over at all. But I think that we're doing the little things. And we've done that in some games at spurts. And I thought tonight at the end we really focused in, really guarded, did some of the little things to keep us in the game. We made some big free throws, D.J. (Kennedy) making a big pull-up, Paris (Horne) making a big pull-up when things didn't go right. So hopefully we can carry some of that over, but this league is a monster. Every game is a different scenario. We'll be in a hostile environment at Notre Dame. It will be their senior night. They've got some great seniors on their team, who will all want to play well. So we're going to have to focus in and play together."
On being able to win a tight game:
"It just means our guys are growing and getting better and learning how to win. Because this league is really tough; it comes down to wars at the end of games. And our guys are getting better at dealing with that. Our guys have had to play a lot of minutes, because we've had guys hurt, but it's also given us a lot of experience. I thought we got good minutes from Quincy (Roberts) when he came in the game, I thought he helped us. I thought Thomas Jasiulionis helped us. He did some good things in the game. And obviously Rob (Thomas) did a great job coming in off the bench. So it's great for our guys. I think our guys feel that we have a lot to play for. In the BIG EAST tournament, in March anybody can win. That's what makes March Madness so great. And you want to be playing well at the end of the year going into the tournament. So hopefully we can keep that going."
On coming back from 15-points down:
"Realistically, I thought we could get back in the game. I really did. I told them that we had to get some stops. And I think what happened was D.J. might have gone to the line twice, made two free throws and then boom, it's a 12-point game and you're right there. We just kept telling our guys, `Grind it out. Let's get some stops.' And then we told them, `Guys, get stops and then just push it as hard as you can in transition. Forget about going against their set-up defense. Push it and let's try to score.' And even when D.J. missed a couple of shots, that was fine. We were getting it up, we were attacking and we weren't getting stagnant offensively. And I thought for awhile there we were getting really stagnant."
On play of forward Rob Thomas:
"Well it just gives us more versatility. Sean (Evans) has really been coming on and playing well. Justin (Burrell) has had spurts where he's played well. Rob just gives you another guy who can score. And he's a matchup problem for people. He's gotten better for us defensively as well, so he just adds more versatility to our team."
Sophomore Forward Rob Thomas
On foul shots to tie game with 2.3 remaining in regulation:
"Crazy. I had a lot of stuff running through my mind and I looked over at Coach and he was like, `Settle down, hit the front rim, take your time.' So I took my time and I knocked them down."
On his improvement over the course of the season:
"I just come to practice and work hard every day. In the last couple of days in practice Coach has been getting on me and stuff like that... (I just have to) be aggressive. That's about it. I wasn't (aggressive enough before).
On tonight's win:
"It was one of the great moments in my career. We toughed it out. Coach told us to keep with it, keep scrapping. And it turned out we won the game."
Sophomore Guard/Forward Paris Horne
On play of Rob Thomas:
"I think it's great. It's not that we didn't see this before. We always knew Rob had it in him; had the potential to do it. Every day Coach would just get him to work hard and we would get him to work hard. And it all played out today."
On the win:
"I just know this is a great win, especially remembering what happened last year with them coming in and crushing us here. That was in the back of all of our minds and we just wanted to come back and win this game."
On team's play:
"I think we did the little things, hustling for loose balls and getting rebounds, being solid on defense. Making them run down to five seconds on their shot clock and not fouling. Just sticking together."
On feeling after tonight's win:
"It feels great because last game against Syracuse we played poorly and Syracuse ran us out of the building. So that was another reason why we got up and made sure that we got this win. Because it's not over yet, we've still got a lot of play for."
Sophomore forward Justin Burrell
On slam dunk in final seconds to extend team's lead to three:
"I was panicking trying to get back. We actually lost a game like that in Hawaii right at the buzzer. So that kind of lingers in my head, in every close game like that. So what I was thinking was, `Get back.'"
On how the win ranks:
"I'm going to say the best win we ever had was my first win ever. That's just a great feeling to get your first win. But this win, this was up there."
Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III
On tonight's game:
"They, meaning St. John's, did what they had to do coming down the stretch. They got shots, they got second shots, they made foul shots. Coming down the stretch, we didn't. We didn't."
On this being an upset:
"This is league play. There are no upsets in league play. We go into every game knowing if we don't do what we should do and how we should do it, we can lose. If we do things the way we should do it, we can win. It has been that way for years. I don't look at league play as an upset and this is not an upset, especially not this year. In this conference with our team."
