St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. Bonaventure 67, St. John's 66
12/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 7, 2010
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St. John's Head Coach Steve Lavin
Opening Statement:
"Clearly, it was a hard-fought game. Hats go off to St. Bonaventure. We just talked to our kids in the locker room about the fact that they were able to come in and hang tough even with our home crowd being very engaged and active and giving us a lift. They were able to do the things down the stretch, in particular the free throws: 18-of-22 from the foul line and shot 81 percent. We struggled in that area going 10-of-20. I think that was probably the biggest difference offensively. Then they got on the boards because we had a smaller group and they took advantage of that and got some second shots, some second- and third-shot opportunities, which was wise on their part to pound away there. I told our kids really the things that we struggled with tonight are all correctable, and that's the good news. So, we've just got to go back to work and get more reps, get more drill work. We'll watch film tomorrow at four o'clock and then get back to work. But within the areas we need to amplify and improve, we have give credit to St. Bonaventure. I thought they kept their poise even with the runs. They still managed to get some good looks and, at the end in particular, we should've chased (Andrew) Nicholson off the 3-point line. We had done that all game on his catches on the perimeter and his catches inside. We wanted to double and make someone else beat us. We weren't aggressive enough in our last closeout for that situation. We want to pressure, drive them off the 3-point line and then get help in our rotation and then sink and fill behind. But my point is, they're all things we need to improve on. Free throw shooting and our defensive rotations were the two things that cost us in the second half. But a lot of positives for our guys as well."
On Dwayne Polee's struggles from the field:
"What I mentioned to Dwayne after the game is that being aggressive and being confident, but then using or exercising judgment within that swagger, confidence and aggressiveness. I think he's good enough as a basketball player to be confident, to be aggressive, to take initiative and yet exercise or be mindful of judgment. There was a stretch in the first half when we fell in love with the jumpshot and we had them in the bonus. We did a better job in the second half of turning down some of those shots and still being aggressive, using a shot fake, getting into a gap and making that and-1 and one more pass for an open look. But there was a stretch I thought when we were in transition, we had the numbers and we wanted to go ahead and take the opportunities that were there in transition. Then if we don't, our conviction is ball reversal and we didn't get ball reversal and it was an equal-opportunity situation. We had four or five players that took shots early and a couple had just gotten in the game. We tend to focus at the end and clearly Nicholson's shot was big. The stops down the stretch are amplified because of the significance of it being late game. There's pieces or components, like a mosaic in the first half that are just as important, whether it's a missed free throw, a missed block-out responsibility, a missed rotation or taking a shot early when we need to make them defend a little bit longer. So with Dwayne, we want him to be aggressive, have some swagger, have that confidence and have initiative, because he's really a gifted player, but also have that understand when you just get in the game, maybe take something to the hole, get yourself to the foul line, make a couple of free throws. Now that bucket looks a little bigger and you're helping the team that's in a middle of a drought instead of adding with another launched rocket out there that isn't going to enhance our chances of finding a rhythm as a team offensively. Again, it wasn't just Dwayne. There were four or five there and we'll see that. And that's what I told them in the locker room. These are all correctable issues. They need to be addressed and there's a sense of urgency because before you know it we'll be in the BIG EAST. But we've got to improve our free throw shooting - 10-of-20 won't get it done. Give St. Bonaventure credit, they came in on the road and made 18-of-22, 80 percent - that's how you win on the road. Then we had that stretch where we didn't execute offensively. We weren't prudent with our shot discipline and our shot selection. And the third area was late in our defensive assignments. We really wanted to put heat and blitz and drive Nicholson when he catches on the perimeter, to force him to put it on the bounce and we're going to help early so we see St. John's jerseys all night. And for all those catches in the post, we wanted to help early, we wanted to blitz their ball screens and we did. Those are the three big areas and then you can add rebounding as the fourth. And that's what it led to it being such a good game. The positive was our kids fought back. Our kids were resilient. We had eight turnovers and that's continued to be a positive. I think we're second in the country in taking care of the basketball in terms of turnovers. So there were some good things and even opportunities late with some of the steals and scores in transition. But when we need to get that one big stop at the end, it often comes down to that, we weren't able to do it."
On what the defensive assignment was on Nicholson's game-winner:
"When you want to drive, you have someone who square up to shoot the ball and we want our pressure to be at a point where it forces him to put it on the deck. Then we have help when that happens. So we'd rather have our players be overaggressive in that situation because you know he's their go-to player. It's like in the NBA, you want to get it out of your primary scorer's hands and force that third or fourth option, but not their first or second. So the disappointing part is we did a good job of that in the first half. You're not going to shut a player like that out. I mean he's averaging a double-double for a reason. Yet we still expect in our standards, what we demand is when we have assignments like that, it's unacceptable for us not to force him to put it on the deck and get our help and make someone else beat us. But not Nicholson because that was our targeted bull's eye, shutdown box awareness collectively. We wanted to shut his water off and we did for the first half: two points. Second, half they did a nice job and we lost track a little bit, which happens sometimes. In the flow of the game you lose the clarity in your defensive coverage and assignments and that's something we have to improve on just in terms of maturity and in as a staff, I've got to do a better job there in terms of communicating. So we're all getting better. I told them they're the same group that pulled out some big wins and tonight we lost and we've got to give St. Bonaventure credit too. That's what gets lost sometimes in games like this. The focus is on what we're not doing well and it's really not fair to St. Bonaventure because they deserve a lot of credit for the way in which they hung there and found a way to get a win in a tough environment in Carnesecca against a BIG EAST team. They were hungry and they had seniors that worked hard for their careers and had a big night. So it's a special victory for them and they've got to feel good going home. And for us, we've got to get better and learn from it."
On Dwight Hardy battling through his recent shooting slump:
"I think he's a competitor. He's been a high-level scorer his whole life, from the time he picked the ball up in the third or fourth grade, trying to put it in the hole as a kid at the playground or in youth basketball. So naturally, you'd rather make the shots than not make the shots. So I think he wanted to step up. We didn't talk a lot about it. A lot of shooting is just confidence. There's mechanics and things we talked about with the middle three fingers, getting the feet squared, the shoulders squared, catching it for extra coil as we like to say in the 'crouching tiger' position. It also gets to a point like putting and free throw shooting can be that way too where if you talk about it too much, then I think you almost feed into the slump instead of just continuing to get your reps. Eventually nothing will fall and keep taking your hacks like a homerun hitter. You can't think too much about it."
On how correctable free throw shooting is:
"There's things we've taught: routine, repetition and getting in the gym and working. Those are I think the biggest things. We've got a 100 club where you shoot 100 three times a week. We do pressure free throws where everyone lines up on the baseline and you pull a player out and he shoots a free throw and if he makes both, you don't have a 17 or a suicide. So you go through the different stretches, not using running or punishment as motivator. Then when that doesn't work, you go to some running and some pressure conditions. So you just keep exploring and looking for ways to improve your free throw shooting. In my experience, we've had teams that really shot the ball well from the free throw line and then teams that didn't. Usually it would return to that form, you might improve a little bit, but we're going to keep plugging away and keep shooting."
Senior Guard Dwight Hardy
On the final shot of the game:
"Coach just wanted us to get something to the basket, but I saw I had an opportunity to get open when Malik (Stith) was driving down the floor. I tried to take the best possible shot I could and unfortunately I missed."
On breaking out of his shooting slump:
"It's frustrating for a shooter not to hit shots, but I've been patient, just putting up extra shots after practice and I knew it was going to come. I just wish we would have got the win. It doesn't usually happen, but I've stayed positive throughout the whole stretch. As long as I stayed positive, I knew I was going to get out of it sooner or later."
Senior Forward Justin Brownlee
On St. Bonaventure's Andrew Nicholson's game-winning shot:
"We went over it in scout so we knew what he was capable of. But I think it was just a bad defensive job on my part. I let him get that shot off."
On holding a double-digit lead:
"I thought we could have held the lead. I think we took to many jump shots and we should have been more aggressive. We should have gotten to the free throw line and made our free throws."
Senior Guard Malik Boothe
On digesting the loss:
"We take it for what it is. We didn't get a stop at the end and like coach said, we're going to come in tomorrow, watch film and get right back to work."
On holding a double-digit lead:
"They started to hit shots and we weren't as aggressive when we had the lead."
On Andrew Nicholson's second half:
"I think Nicholson was just demanding the ball more. In the first half he was passing a lot of those out, and in the second he started to shoot more."
