St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes vs. Providence
1/3/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 3, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
QUEENS, N.Y.
Head Coach Norm Roberts
Opening Statement:
"We had a chance to open it up, but didn't take advantage. We got in a rush in the last four minutes and didn't make plays. It was a learning experience for my team."
On struggling in the final minutes:
"Tonight we didn't make plays, we bobbled balls and we got way too rushed. We knew it was coming and we didn't handle it well."
On lineup changes:
"We miss Malik Boothe and it is a lot of pressure to put on Malik Stith as a freshman point guard. We put Dwight Hardy there, but it takes away from his offensive game because he is thinking about running the team. We have to fight through it and do what we have to do."
On the long season ahead:
"We can't let our mistakes fester, We will take a day off and regroup on Tuesday to work on what we didn't do well and get better. We have to play better, handle the ball better and finish plays. It is a learning process for my team. We will work on things and get better."
Junior Forward D. J. Kennedy
On the mentality down the stretch:
"We fell apart mid-way through the second half. There were a few balls and a few plays that we didn't convert and they opened it up. We can't win games with that many turnovers. We started rushing and could still close the game. We should have been able to close it down the stretch."
On the second half deficit:
"We felt we needed to come back so fast. We should have stayed poised under the pressure."
Junior Guard Paris Horne
On second half pressure:
"We should have been more poised, but we were thinking about making quick baskets. We will go back to practice and work on it and it will come."
On the Providence press defense:
"We worked on it, but we didn't make shots and we rushed. We did well with the press for the majority of the game."
Providence Head Coach Keno Davis
Opening statement
"To win a game on the road in the BIG EAST, let alone against a quality opponent in St. John's, any deficiencies we had tonight I can easily overlook because of how hard we played having so many new faces and young people on our team. We've been focused as a team on effort all season and so I think that's kind of what won us the game tonight. We had tremendous effort and work ethic on the defensive end. And even when St. John's seemed to have our number, as far as getting the ball into the post and getting easy opportunities, I thought our guys were working extremely hard and I'm very proud of them tonight."
On the effectiveness of Providence's zone and press defense
"It would be a little bit unfair if I don't mention that (St. John's) was not playing at full strength. Obviously, every team has gone through that. So to be able to press, we were going to look at different variations of our press. But our three-quarter court seemed to disrupt them a little bit, whether they would turn it over or, in the half court, they wouldn't get set in their alignment. That's what pressure does. You have to worry about turning it over and sometimes it takes you out of your offense."
