St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 79, DePaul 72
2/21/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 21, 2012
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Assistant Coach Mike Dunlap
Opening Statement
"Quick turnaround in less than 48 hours and the heavy minutes that we played tonight that's the story for us we played with a lot heart and we were able to play with them on the glass we took good care of the ball against a pressing team we were scrappier in the second half and that's why we won."
Freshman Swingman Amir Garrett
On his strategy coming into the game:
"The coaches told me to be aggressive. I haven't really been aggressive as much as I could have been with getting to be the basket; they basically told to play my game."
On the team's emotions throughout the game:
"Our team's really emotional. D'Angelo gets us hyped which gets us ready and gets us focused."
On getting up to speed with the rest of team after being out earlier in the year:
"I'm still catching up, these guys are running up and down the court and I'm winded but I'm going to get there though. I just have to keep conditioning and keep practicing."
On his growing confidence:
"It has grown a lot. In the first half of the season I was scared to take shots and I was scared to mess up but I've calmed down a little more and I've started to trust my teammates, and my teammates trust me."
Freshman Guard D'Angelo Harrison
On having the ball in his hands late in games:
"My teammates did a good job of getting me the ball because I shoot the highest percentage [from the free throw line]. Anybody can really shoot it, but they did a good job of finding me and since they did that, I try and make them."
On having four players in double figures:
"That's two games in-a-row that we've had balanced scoring. With four people in double figures, that's lovely, and [Sir'Dominic Pointer] had nine which is balanced scoring. They can't focus on no one in particular when we're playing like this, so that makes us even more of a threat. If we keep playing like this, the best is yet to come."
On how hard it is to get BIG EAST wins:
"When you think of a seven or eight point lead, coach does a good job of telling us to keep doing what we did to get the lead, because if we let up, teams crawl right back. They came back and they were down by three points, then they got a foul call so they were right back in it. Coach [Dunlap] just tells us to do a good job of being aggressive. 'Keep your foot on the gas,' is what he says and to just stay aggressive throughout the whole game."
DePaul Head Coach Oliver Purnell
Opening Statement:
"I thought it was a pretty good game. It was one of those late season games where both teams wanted it down the stretch. I thought St. John's got to the rim well. We probably shot a few too many 3-pointers. We had some open looks that I thought should have gone down for us and they didn't. We didn't play real smart defensively towards the end of the game. We were shooting jump shots to try and catch back up. Obviously, if those shots go in, you'll catch up and if you miss, you don't."
On going forward the rest of the season:
"What we're talking about doing is finishing strong. We're right there. There are some things we have to clean up and do a better job of. Tonight, I thought our execution offensively and defensively in the last three to four minutes should have been better. But that's really it. We're talking about playing at a higher level and finishing strong and we have to keep trying until we get it right."
