St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Cincinnati 53, St. John's 51
1/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 22, 2011
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St. John's Head Coach Steve Lavin
Opening Statement:
"I've got to start by giving credit to Cincinnati. Coming on the road in a tough environment in game that has significance, they pulled out a big win. Our players battled valiantly and really did everything we wanted to do in the second half except convert from the foul line. It wasn't just the 12-for-26, but also the three or four front-ends of 1-and-1 opportunities. Potentially you're leaving 18 or 19 points on the board. This week we asked the players three areas we really wanted to concentrate on and one was taking care of the ball, they delivered on that with nine turnovers. Another was to play through the post. We executed very well in terms of getting paint-touches and post-touches. The third was competing and playing aggressively for 40 minutes. So all three of the aspects of play that we asked for this week the kids delivered on. As disheartening as it is to lose a close game at home, they did everything that we had focused on and talked about in our school sessions and in practices. We just didn't convert from the foul line. That was the difference today."
On not taking a timeout after Cincinnati went ahead with eight seconds remaining:
"Throughout my career I've tended to lean away from a timeout in that situation because we only had one. Also, if they pressure and switch everything you got a five-second violation and the second reason is I wanted to get the ball into Dwight Hardy's hands. We were able to do that through our communication while they were shooting a free throw. Ultimately, we had a look that even if we ran a set from out-of-bounds and managed to get the ball in bounds and up the floor it would have come back to Dwight Hardy getting space to drive. He's our best free throw shooter and someone we have faith in creating off the bounce."
On the postgame speech:
"I put up three areas on the board after the game. You competed like warriors, you executed effectively and you took care of the basketball. It was basically a checklist of what we had worked on coming off the Louisville game. We had three areas we wanted to improve on and they improved in all of those areas. We took care of the basketball, we played through the post and we played aggressively on defense for 40 minutes. We asked them to do that and they did those three things. It was free throw shooting that reared its head this afternoon. Then it was that our better days are ahead and we've got to bounce back. Basketball families stay together during tough times. We'll watch film and like we did after Louisville, we'll get better. It was a better performance than we had against Louisville. I thought we made some strides, but it wasn't enough to get over the hump and no one is into moral victories here so we're obviously discouraged."
Senior Guard Malik Boothe
On if when Dwight Hardy stepped to the line, he thought, 'automatic':
"I think that with any shot he takes. That's the kind of confidence that, not just me, but the whole team has in him."
On if St. John's had good defense on Yancy Gates' shot at the end:
"Yes, I thought Justin Burrell did a great job on him. It may have been a foul, it may not have been a foul, but that's the way the refs called it. I don't think there's pretty much anything we can do about that."
On if he anticipated that Cincinnati would go inside on its final shot:
"Yes. That's their big gun. That's their top guy. I thought maybe, yes, that's what they were going to go to."
On if there's a sense of lost opportunity having lost before a sellout crowd at home against a ranked team:
"I don't think it's a disappointment. Nobody came into the locker room saying that they didn't leave everything out on the court. We came in here and played a tough game. It was a game where not a lot of scoring was happening. Just like I said before, it was just a tough shot at the end of the game that they made."
On if the team thinks that the game came down to going 12-for-26 at the free throw line:
"We're thinking about it now. Pretty much everyone is still in the locker room talking about it. We've just got to make our free throws. If we would've made half of our free throws, we would've had this game tonight."
Senior Guard Dwight Hardy
On how his ankle felt during the game:
"My ankle was fine. I've been getting treatment the last two days on it, heavily, and it felt good day and I was able to go today at full speed."
On if the ankle hampered him at all rhythm-wise or shooting-wise:
"I felt comfortable out there on the floor."
On if he wanted the ball in the closing seconds:
"Yes. I'm a 90-percent free throw shooter. I should have made the shot. Unfortunately I missed it short. Next time I know I've just got get more legs into it and I'll be fine."
On if he was tired at the end of the game:
"I was energized. The crowd was into the game, our adrenaline was flowing and the TV timeouts helped us during that stretch. I feel that we had a lot of energy out there. It was just they made a tough shot and we didn't capitalize."
On what the team discusses in the huddle:
"When we're in the huddle, we just remain calm and we've got each other's backs. We just tell each other what we want on the next play down or how do we want to guard somebody or how we want to execute on offense. That's basically it."
On if there's a sense of lost opportunity having lost before a sellout crowd at home against a ranked team:
"We always want to come out and perform at a high level at home in front of the fans so they come out and support every night out. We don't look at it as a disappointment. We always come to the game feeling that we should win the game. Being that we didn't, we know that we play thing again and for us to win up there on the road, it will be an equal opportunity to get them back, just to get them back."
On if the team thinks that the game came down to going 12-for-26 at the free throw line:
"I think we're shooting at a good percentage in the league in free throws anyway. For us to come out and shoot 12-for-26, I just think our concentration needs to be up more and we just need to be more flexed a the line and just settle down and knock them down."
Cincinnati Head Coach Mick Cronin
Opening Statement:
"This was a great win by our team. We did something that other ranked teams weren't able to do: come to St. John's and win. We needed this win. We're at the end of a tough road stretch. We learned a lot in the last week about ourselves and our guys grew up a lot today. We got back to playing defense. We held St. John's to 14 points in the paint and we fouled when we were supposed to foul, not that we wanted to, but it was by design. We were trying to be committed by not giving up lay-ups, especially to their big guys. Credit to our players, they did a great job in that area. I thought St. John's played really hard. They took us out of what we were trying to do offensively for the better part of the night. That's what made it such a tough game, a typical BIG EAST battle."
On the last play:
"I only wanted two points, but we got three. Because of the way St. John's was defending us, I thought it would be hard for us to run any type of play that required more than one pass. They were denying and taking us out of our offense so I wanted to go to something where we could get the ball close to the basket by giving it to Yancy Gates as tight as we could close to the rim. We had been trying to run that play the entire game, but their pressure took us out of it the previous times. Rashad Bishop did a great job in getting Yancy the ball and he did a good job taking his time to get the shot off. I think Justin Burrell stopped him three times on that play, but Yancy refused to settle for a jump shot or any type of fadeaway. It was a great individual play by Yancy in that situation."
