St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Basketball Media Day Quotes
11/4/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
St. John's freshman guard D'Angelo Harrison
On if he's always been a vocal player:
"In high school, I stood out a little more than others and I've always been that `voice' of a team. My coaches encouraged me to have a voice. Every one is trying to be a leader here. There isn't just one leader on this team. If everybody talks we will really be able to play together."
On his role on the team:
"I want to play some defense and just get after it. Everybody just needs to play hard, play together and play focused."
St. John's freshman guard Phil Greene
On if this team is good enough to win the BIG EAST Conference:
"I can't say that. I can say that we will be ready to compete. We have a good team, that's going to play hard in games and practices. I think we have one of the toughest practices in the country, because we get up so early and have two-a-days everyday. We'll be ready to compete at the highest level.
On his favorite moment so far at St. John's:
"The games. I love putting on that jersey and warming up with the crowd getting into it. The atmosphere has been great. I like the atmosphere here a lot."
On which games and arena's he's most looking forward to:
"I'm really looking forward to playing at Kentucky, DePaul and at Duke. Definitely Rupp Arena because it's so historical and I'll get a chance to face a former teammate. Then going to DePaul back home in Chicago where I'll have a lot of support and family at the game. Finally, playing at Duke, that's just an experience of its own with the Cameron Crazies and Coach K.
St. John's sophomore guard Nurideen Lindsey
On the differences between the first two exhibition games:
"The first game we were just really excited and anxious to play. A lot of hard work went in up until that point so we were just excited to get out there. We took a lot of beatings in practice both mentally and physically so we were just excited to go out and beat on somebody else. Offensively, we went out and showed our offensive abilities. I don't think we were that great defensively in the first game, but as second game stats show, we played a lot better defensively. I think the main difference between the first and the second game was us improving in certain aspects of the game."
On the difficulty of the schedule:
"We all have the same goals in mind. We never play to the level of our competition. We understand that we are in a tough conference, so we're going to get ready for games like they're conference games. The game against St. Mary's was a good test for us early in the season. It was a tough game. If I'm not mistaken, they were up by about five points for four minutes or so. I think coming back, getting the chemistry going and being in a tough situation like that was a good test for us."
St. John's freshman swingman Sir'Dominic Pointer
On the team's chemistry:
"We've come together really fast, especially everyone that was here in the summer. We've grown together really fast. Nobody has an attitude and everybody is here to win. That's our main goal... everyone wants to win."
On his teammate Sam Sealy:
"Sam brings height to the team and he's going to make Gift better in practice. He's a really nice guy, came right into the group. He knows what he is here for and he is ready to play. He'll help move Moe (Harkless) around and help block shots."
On his role on the team:
"I'm going to be a defensive stopper, grab rebounds and fuel the defense with my energy."
On the difference between the two exhibitions:
"Much better defense. The defense from the first game to the second improved so much. We scored a lot in the first game, but we know with our schedule, that won't always be the case so we would have to lock down on defense."
St. John's junior forward God'sgift Achiuwa
On assistant coach Mike Dunlap:
"First of all, he's very friendly and he's very funny. He makes us laugh all the time. On the court, I've never seen anybody like him. He's intense every single day. Intensity is the best word to describe Coach Dunlap."
On his role on the team:
"I'm older than most of the guys so I need to be a leader in practice, games and off the court, especially in the locker room. Secondly, I see myself as a rebounder and someone that does the job down low."
On feeling embraced by the St. John's basketball fans:
"I feel welcomed having those kind of chants during the game. Even walking around and everyone talking to me and saying hi to me. I feel at home even though I'm far from home. I feel like people here love me."
St. John's head women's basketball coach Kim Barnes Arico
Opening Statement:
"This is my 10th year at St. John's and I'm really excited you are all here. I'm excited to get this season started. We've had a pretty good stretch of practices here and we're looking forward to the upcoming season. We have a really difficult schedule - probably the toughest since I've been here. We've had some significant losses in our personnel, especially in our starting line up, so it will be interesting to see how we adjust and how some of the younger kids step up. But I'm excited to see what happens this season and I'm glad you're all here today."
On the team's depth:
"A lot of people think that we're really deep coming in because we have Shenneika (Smith), Nadirah (McKenith) and Gina (McPherson) coming back who have all played significant minutes for the last couple years, but with losing Da'Shena (Stevens) early on as well as Coco (Hart) and Sky (Lindsay) - who had played in every game of their careers - we definitely need some fresh faces to step up. Keylantra Langley has looked really good in the preseason as has Mary Nwachukwu, but we're going to need production from Tesia Harris as well as Briana Brown moving forward and our freshmen Amber Thompson as well as Jennifer Blanding.
On the role of Eugeneia McPherson this season:
"Gina will no longer be coming off the bench. She was our sixth player last year, but she has been doing a tremendous job for us in the preseason and I think she's really going to have a breakout year for us this year. She has done really well in the scrimmages and stepped up, but I think she has been our leading scorer early on. Last year, she probably could have started, but she was an instant spark for us coming off the bench. She's one of our players with more experience so she will be an impact-player for sure."
On the roles of Mary Nwachukwu and Tesia Harris this season:
"Mary and Tesia are both transfers - Mary from Boston College and Tesia from Delaware. Starting with Mary, she didn't play very many minutes her freshman year so she sat out last year and really learned our style and got in shape. She's going to play significant minutes for us on the inside. She's more of a face-up post player, but she's big, strong and can knock down the jumper. Tesia, a local product from a great basketball family, is an extremely hard worker. She had a good career at Delaware and is adjusting to the speed of our game at our level. We have some exceptionally quick guards and she's learning to play with them and adjust to the speed in the BIG EAST. She's a scorer and we're going to need her to be able to knock down some jumpers and score."
St. John's sophomore guard Briana Brown
On the mindset coming into this season:
"Play quality minutes for my team and help my teammates do better. We want to go as far as we can obviously and work as hard as we can."
On how far this team can really go:
"It depends on how hard we work during practice and how bad we want it, so that will determine itself."
On her biggest improvement since last season:
"Being mentally prepared. As a freshman coming in, I wasn't mentally ready yet. I didn't know how the BIG EAST was going to be, I didn't know anything about Division I basketball. Now I know what to expect and my role as a player."
