St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's vs. Columbia
11/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 19, 2010
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Head Coach Kim Barnes Arico
Opening Statement:
"I thought it was kind of a sloppy game. Columbia forced us into a lot of turnovers. I think we obviously need to get better in that area. We did a nice job on the glass. I thought Coco [Hart] and Shenneika [Smith] did a terrific job, but our guards need to do a better job of taking care of the ball, and we need to get better."
On her assessment of the game:
"We just have to get better. We are a long way off from where we were last year. We missed a lot of layups that went from one side of the backboard to the other. The same thing sort of happened at K-State. Part of the reason that we lost there was because of the same kind of shots we took tonight, easy ones, not difficult shots. I'm hoping that our practice will continue to improve. Coming into the year our expectations were so high, but now we realize we still have a lot of work to do. We have to get better every day and get back to just going one day at a time."
On her reactions on the sideline:
"I think the thing for me is that we want to play fast because that's where we are best: in the open court. But if we are going to make such poor decisions and turn the basketball over so much, I'm going to make them play slow. I feel like our kids want to put on a highlight reel on ever possession. They are trying to thread the needle and make the great pass. It's turning into a turnover instead of making a simple extra pass. We have to get back to it and it has to be our focus for a while."
Junior forward Da'Shena Stevens
On what Coach Barnes Arico said at the half:
"She just told us that we were turning over the ball way too much. I think our turnovers affect our play as far as running and getting into the flow of the game. When we turn over the ball every other play, it's kind of hard to get a flow."
Senior forward Centhya "Coco" Hart
On the difficulty of maintaining focus against Columbia:
"It's hard trying to be consistent of playing defense, getting back. Often, we lose that focus and are content with being up. We do lose focus on the little things."
On playing close to home at Arkansas State (Nov. 22):
"My family is coming to watch me play, so I'm excited about that game."
Head Coach Paul Nixon
Opening Statement:
"I thought our team came out ready to play tonight. We had a struggle this season with getting off to slow starts. It was a focus of ours to not get down double figures by the first media timeout, which is something St. John's has been doing to their opponents. We obviously knew they were a formidable opponent having to play them last year. You have to give St. John's a lot of credit; they asserted why they were a ranked team."
On offensive rebounding:
"The biggest statistic that defined the game was the offensive rebounds. They got three times as many offensive rebounds than we did. Overall, They out rebounded us by 26 and got 19 second-chance points to our none. We did not convert any of our seven offensive rebounds into any points. When you get beat that bad on the boards, you're not going to win the game."
