St. John's University Athletics
Pregame Quotes: St. John's at Georgetown
1/25/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2011
Head Coach Steve Lavin
On being aware of the big picture in terms of how St. John's is perceived in projected NCAA brackets:
"You're always aware. You focus on the task at hand but you are aware of the fact that your goals and objectives are to play in the NCAA Tournament. So you have a sense for that as you go through, as you navigate through your schedule. But in terms of the tone that we set as a staff and focusing on what I've called before the exercise and prioritizing is really what this business is about, and then not looking too far ahead. But you're still aware. You're aware of your overall record. You're aware of the standings in the BIG EAST. You're aware of your strength of schedule, your RPI. You're aware of those things and you're cognizant of it. It's just that your focus is amplified on incrementally improving on a daily basis. I think that runs through our whole staff."
On the feeling that how one BIG EAST game can impact how the team looks to the college basketball world:
"Having been associated with college basketball for a number of years now in different capacities, as an assistant, as a head coach, as a broadcaster and back to being a head coach, everyone wants to participate in the NCAA Tournament. But understanding how to get there is the important part. That starts on a daily basis in practice and continuing to improve. The success, the body of work and the resume will follow if you manage to make enough progress over the course of the year and win enough games, then you'll have the opportunity to do something special come March. And if not, then you regroup and you look to the next year. But our focus is just on right now and this week obviously free throw shooting as we get ready for Georgetown. Last week after the Louisville game, it was turnovers and cutting down on our turnovers and sustaining a level of aggressiveness. I though we accomplished everything we set out to do in the Cincinnati game except free throw shooting. Now it's a moving target and now we're really locked in on that this week."
On if Georgetown will have a different look this time around:
"They're very consistent with their approach in terms of what they do. The key is containing the big three of Wright, Freeman and Clark. We were able to defend them well in the first matchup. But, naturally, they're going to be incentivized to play against us and get a payback win and try to move up the standings and perform well. So we know we've got our hands full in a road game in the BIG EAST like this. What they do is pretty consistent from year to year with John Thompson III as their coach."
On Georgetown without a dominating big man:
"It's unusual, but they've managed to adapt and adjust to not having a traditional low-post presence. I don't think it hurts them as much offensively. The defensive end is where you see it more. They run an offense that spreads the floor and takes advantage of the cutting, ball movement and precision. The lack of a traditional, dominant low-post presence affects them more at the defensive end of the floor. With that said, I think they've obviously been able to neutralize or off-set the lack of a true post player with both their offense and collectively hitting the boards and playing a cohesive style of defense."
On what a win would do for the team's mental state:
"In this league you want to stop the bleeding; whether it was Cincinnati with road losses or Notre Dame struggling on the road. This is just a league where everyone beats each other up. You don't want to allow one loss to become eight of nine losses and that can happen. You can lose seven of eight in this league and not necessarily be playing bad basketball, but it's just an indication of how deep this conference is. You have nine ranked teams so you're playing four teams ranked in the top 10, then two teams that you're comparable with and the ball doesn't bounce your way, you miss a couple of free throws, an officials call and all of a sudden you lose those two. Now you've got the four losses against top 10 teams, two against teams that are comparable in talent levels and you just get nipped at the buzzer and now you lose confidence, the bottom falls out and all of a sudden you lose a game or two that you shouldn't. And I'm not talking about us, but that's just the nature of this conference."
On the loss to Cincinnati:
"At the end of the day winning games is the business that we're in. No matter how you slice it you need to be able to win ballgames. The formula that I've come up with in coaching is you want to protect your home court and split on the road. If you manage to do those two things you're going to be in the league race coming down the home stretch and you're probably going to have a strong enough season if you're playing in one of the power conferences to do something special come the NCAA Tournament. So the Cincinnati game was more we didn't protect our home court. Like Notre Dame winning at Pittsburgh or Louisville losing to Providence, I just think in this league you can't focus too much on that. Every practice you've got to maximize that practice time in terms of preparing for the next opponent and every game you've got to be prepared to play at the highest level. We have 11 single-game seasons remaining. It's like each game is a season. Your preparation for it and mindset throughout has to be that way if you're going to be successful."
Senior Forward Justin Burrell
On what the team is focusing on against Georgetown:
"Their three guys, (Jason) Clark, (Austin) Freeman and Chris Wright are going to be way more aggressive. We held them down pretty well last time. Clark kind of got off at the end of the game, but I expect them to be more aggressive and attack the basket and get out in transition."
On why the team was successful against Georgetown at MSG:
"In the first meeting, we were really aggressive. Every time that we get a loss, it's because we aren't aggressive in so many other aspects besides scoring the ball. We have to attack the rim, being aggressive on defense and attacking the passing lanes. When we lose games, it's because we play lackadaisically and nonchalant. We've seen that in film but sometimes it's hard to bring that energy. You have to do that against Georgetown or they will humiliate you."
On if the team has emphasized free throws since the Cincinnati game:
"Absolutely. Free throws are not necessarily something that you want to do while you're working out, but it's something that you know that you need to do. Sometimes you are laughing and joking at the free throw line in practice. After that loss, there was definitely none of that. We were really locked in and focused on making those free throws."
Senior Forward Justin Brownlee
On what it would mean to make it to the NCAA Tournament:
"It would mean a lot to get St. John's back to the tournament. It's been several years, but it would feel good to get back there. We talk about it almost every day. That's our main goal for this year, and we've been working hard for that goal."
