St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: DePaul 69, St. John's 54
1/8/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 8, 2011
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St. John's Head Coach Kim Barnes Arico
Opening Statement:
"I thought we had our chances a little bit and they kind of got away form us in the second half. DePaul is a really good team and we have to get better, so that's our focus right now. Obviously it does get any easier, playing Connecticut Wednesday. Right now it's just about St. John's and we've just got to try to get better every day."
On the role of being the team other teams elevate their game for:
"It's a different role than we've ever been in before. So, for sure, we have to get adjusted to that because we've never been in this position before. But I think we've had some unfortunate things happen to us early in the season and we're not really where we need to be at this point in the season. The positive thing is we still have some time to get in shape or we better win some basketball games between now and March or we won't be dancing."
On the team's three straight losses:
"We've lost three straight, but one's against Maryland, who played at Duke on Thursday night and they're talking about Duke being a top seed and (Maryland) almost beat them there. The other was against Louisville, who is extremely tough at home and beat three ranked opponents at home. And the other one's against DePaul who's one of the top teams in the country right now and beat Stanford. So I think we lost to three quality, quality programs. I do believe that the injuries and the people not playing together and the different things that have transpired have definitely hurt. I mean Nadirah McKenith shows flashes of brilliance but Sam Quigley did not score the first 30 minutes of the game. But the last 10 minutes, she was able to drive around Nadirah because she was out of gas. So I need Nadirah to get to the point where she can play 40 minutes for us and she really hasn't been able to do that yet because of the injuries and being out of practice and all of the other stuff. The same can be true for Coco Hart - she's not 100 percent. Da'Shena Stevens hasn't been at all of the practices - she's not 100 percent. Shenneika was out a couple of practices. So if you go down the line, but the thing is tonight even Shenneika was sick all day. So in the first half, she was like, `I can't go.' And at halftime she said, `Coach, can I not start in the second half?' There comes a point where I want say to them, which I don't know if they really follow, `Have you ever heard of Cal Ripken Jr.? Have you ever heard of Brett Favre?' That means that they've played through sickness, they've played through injury. They need to be able to show a little toughness. I think we lost that toughness a little bit when we lost Joy McCorvey. And that toughness is a thing our team is trying to find right now. I think Nadirah has it. She's a baller, she wants to play ball, she wants to play basketball games. And when she gets on the court, she plays her butt off. But I think she runs out of gas and right now our team is running out of gas. Obviously we looked good for a certain period of time and we couldn't put them away and we couldn't sustain it. It didn't help that we didn't make our free throws. There's a lot of different things that happened today that we weren't at 100 percent. I told them, we definitely have the pieces, but it's more than just about talent that wins basketball games and we've got to find all of those other things. We've got to find that toughness. We've got to find that conditioning. We've got to find that mental focus. There were times in the game where we didn't know what defense we were in. Were we in man? Were we in zone? And half of us are in man and half of us are in zone, and we're giving up an easy shot. That kind of stuff, when their fatigued, they lose that. And they're fatiguing too easy because they're not practicing hard enough. Obviously, I'm not losing hope. We played two really good teams and one pretty good team that's probably going to be an NCAA Tournament team on their home court. So I'm not completely discouraged, but we've got to get back to work."
Sophomore Guard Nadirah McKenith
On what she tells her teammates to bounce back from the loss:
"I just tell them that starting tomorrow in practice we've just got to work extra hard. We've got to do the things that we didn't do today and we've just got to get back as a team. Everybody's got to trust each other and we've just got to work hard and play St. John's basketball."
On whether there is something missing from the team, following three straight losses:
"We have all of the pieces to the puzzle. We've just got to put it together and play as a team and trust one another and know that if one person's not playing good, the whole team will have her back. We've just got to play as a team."
On if the team is starting to gel after starting the season with some injuries:
"As of right now, I think we're still trying to find ourselves. But we're running out of time to be able to find ourselves. We need to find ourselves quickly. We've got games coming back-to-back and we've got UConn on Wednesday, so we've just got to practice hard, play hard and just bounce back."
DePaul Head Coach Doug Bruno
Opening Statement:
"Winning on the road in the BIG EAST is huge. To be able to knock off a team like St. Johns, whom we have so much respect for and to beat a ranked team on the road, like them, was huge. I am really proud of the way our players stepped up and got the job done. It was one of those total team efforts. We got off to a rocky start and we started scratching and trying to figure out who was going to play and who was going to help us. I was thrilled that Taylor (Pikes) got her common sense back together after a rough start. She really did a great job on the boards and knocked some key shots down for us in the first half. Also, Anna Martin got back to filling it up like she has done in the past. "
DePaul Sophomore Guard Anna Martin
On keeping up with the momentum of the game:
"It was definitely challenging. St. John's is a run and go team. We just had to have the confidence in each other and stay levelheaded."
DePaul Junior Guard/Forward Taylor Pikes
On rebounding:
"The key to every game is our defense and rebounds. The more rebounds we get, the more possessions we get."
