St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 78 - West Virginia 62
1/25/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
St. John's Assistant Coach Mike Dunlap
Opening statement:
"We had three goals for this game. Those were to play level on the boards, run and keep running, and third was any adjustments we needed to make to recover and adjust to the feel of the game. I think we have struggled with closing games out and also taking good care of the ball."
On the team making strides:
"Our two issues are closing games out and playing level where we are beating people including rebounds and turnovers. Typically, opponents have been coming in and shooting between 31-39 percent against what we are doing defensively and the guys are giving a grand effort. In the second half when you turn the ball over up top they are getting to the rim and the field goal percentage has been skyrocketing so we feel that the culprit has been the turnovers and the energy defensively in the second half and we have addressed those two issues."
On the lineup switch:
"It is a lineup that coach [Steve] Lavin has spoke about in our team meetings. So it was a matter of feel and we will eventually try many lineups as far as the versatility of seven or eight players. We have not moved to an eight man rotation but we are considering that as well... Coach Lavin said when you feel it then do it as far as changing the lineup goes."
St. John's Freshman Guard D'Angelo Harrison
On Moe Harkless' lack of recognition:
"He gets a double-double every night and has been really consistent in all our BIG EAST games and I think he deserves a little more credit, but Moe is a great player and he is going to get his recognition."
St. John's Freshman Forward Moe Harkless
On Phil Greene:
"I think we are getting better every game and you can see it out there. Today we played great and everyone did their job and had a good game. Phil was out there balling today, he had one of the best games of his career and it was just a really great collective effort."
West Virginia Head Coach Bob Huggins
On tonight's game:
"I think they played well. We didn't. We didn't prepare very well. They do a really good job in their zone of taking things away from you. I couldn't get our guys to buy in. I had Josh cut up film when we just got absolutely manhandled last year at home by St. John's. They beat us down the floor. We got it to ten. KJ's [Kevin Jones] shooting free throws pretty well and he misses two. We could have gotten the lead to eight with the ball out of bounds. They played well."
On Kevin Jones:
"I asked our guys who thinks they're so good... Where would we be without No. 5? What do you think our record would be without him? He's been the most valuable player in the country. He's playing with all these freshmen who can't pass. The numbers that he gets are pretty good when they can't pass him the ball."
On playing against five freshmen:
"In 1992 I saw the Fab Five and I didn't like that much, but I didn't like this that much more. They are talented guys. They want to shorten the game. They have seven guys and all those freshmen so that shortens the game. They got guys who can beat them off the bounce. I think Moe [Harkless] did a really good job. Dom [Pointer] beat us off the bounce. Phil Greene beat us off the bounce. D'Angelo Harrison can really shoot and he beat us off the bounce."
On his team's play:
"When you spend a whole timeout telling everybody where they're supposed to go, it's not good. We were going to try a 1-3-1 because nothing else was really working. When you have three guys in a 1-3-1 and two of them aren't, then you wasted a whole timeout; they're really not into what you're doing."
