St. John's University Athletics
God's Gift Achiuwa Quotes
4/28/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
April 28, 2011
God’s Gift Achiuwa
Opening statement on why he chose St. John’s:
“First of all, I like the coaching staff. They’re great people and St. John’s has a very experienced coaching staff. There are three guys on the staff that coached in the NBA. Also, they bring in great kids, very athletic kids. I like the way they play. It’s very high-tempo basketball, which is what we do here at Erie. It all really fits what I was looking for. Besides that, they have a very good home court which is Madison Square Garden, the biggest stage in the world. New York City is a great place to be and St. John’s is also a religious school and my family and I are religious. Those are the main reasons I choose to play basketball at St. John’s in the upcoming 2011-12 season.”
On the importance of the NBA experience within the St. John’s coaching staff:
“That is very important to me because my dream is to play in the NBA. Having those guys around me will help guide me to where I want to get in the game of basketball.”
On comparing himself to any current NBA player:
“I don’t really model myself after guys in the NBA or anybody. I just try to do something new and I try to play the way I can. I play hard, but there isn’t a person that I can point out and say ‘this is who I play like.’ I can’t model myself after anybody. I try to play hard and do whatever I can do when I’m on the basketball court.”
On the final list of schools it came down to:
“Finally, I decided to cut the list down to Cincinnati, Washington and St. John’s. Those were the three schools where I went on visits.”
Erie C.C. Coach Alex Nwora
On Achiuwa’s development over the past two years and readiness for the top level of NCAA Division I basketball:
“Being here for only 18 months, I think he has developed a lot from the first year that I had him. He was able to make All-American his first year averaging 14 [points per game] and 14 [rebounds per game]. This year, the type of work we put in and the type of regiments we put in place helped God’s Gift tremendously. They developed him to the point where I think he can play at any level. At a point, I was thinking with the way he was developing the scouts might be on him to put his name in the draft, because after Christmas he was scoring 30 points consistently against very tough competition. In back-to-back games he scored 39 and 38 points with 17 rebounds in each game. He’s been commanding double teams throughout the whole season and that didn’t happen last year, so that tells you the type of work that he put in and the respect that he gained from his opponents. He’s going to be able to help St. John’s tremendously at the next level.”
