St. John's University Athletics
Pregame Quotes: BIG EAST Tournament
3/5/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 5, 2012
Queens, N.Y. -
St. John's Assistant Coach Mike Dunlap
On Preparing Freshman Players:
"We have been able to show factually that we are resilient. I think Coach Lavin has done a great job. Inserting him back in here today was great pop for us. We've said that all along, I've been very consistent in highlighting that when coach moves back in it reloads the gun. When he comes on site, it allows everyone to move back in to their normal shirt. It will allow me to do more film, work, Rico to do more player development and we can wear the jacket we were hired to do."
On Shot To Win The Big East tournament:
"Why not? We are only concerned to the Pitt game. It really comes down to if we are able to get the guys up to it. The only thing we are concerned with is how we perform against Pitt with our effort levels. It's just being smart in the area of transition; in particular, the missed baskets. We've been turning the ball over at a high rate; we did it against Pitt, and we did it against Rutgers. We tried to work on things today to do better with missed basket transition."
On The Pittsburgh Loss:
"Pittsburgh did a great job on the boards and obviously that was glaring. Moe being our best defensive rebounder, it will help us. Also we have to have others do better in that area. Also I thought we were just awful defensively in that game in terms of our effort levels, which is unusual for us. So against Rutgers the defense spoke for itself. It kept us in the game where our offense wasn't very good."
On Having Injury-Free players
"Number one is always conditioning. Number two is coach Lavin brought Yoga into the system. We stretch extensively. Third is luck. We've had our fair share of luck to get there this year. You go to bed at night with that as a worry, especially when you have limited resources as we've had. The last thing we need to add is we have some tough guys."
Freshman Guard Phil Greene
On A Possible BIG EAST Tournament Run:
"We've thought about it a lot the past week. Once the BIG EAST Tournament starts its 0-0, once the ball goes up we're even. We are going to come out, play hard and take it one day at a time. We are going to come out and surprise a lot of people. We are trying to get to the NCAA Tournament, and we have a lot of faith in each other."
On Shortened Bench In the Postseason:
"We've been through it for half of the season, so we can use some of the things to our advantage such as our speed and quickness. We are usually faster at all five positions, so we have to get after the ball on defense and attack the boards."
Why People Should Believe In St. John's:
"We play hard. We are six deep, but we play with heart and we're going to give it everything we've got. Sometimes teams look at us and take us lightly, but when they do that it puts an extra chip on our shoulder and we come out even harder."
On This Team's Possible BIG EAST Tournament Hero
"You never know with us because we have six talented players and each given day anyone could step up. We'll have to see."
On Pittsburgh Rematch:
"I want to play them again. We didn't get after it and didn't really compete that day. It's going to be a different story and a different game tomorrow."
Freshman Swingman Sir'Dominic Pointer
On What To Expect For The BIG EAST Tournament:
"I expect to win. We are one of the fastest teams in the BIG EAST. We've been playing well lately. If we play like we did against UCLA, DePaul and Notre Dame; not slowing the ball down and play our game, we should be fine."
On New Experience Of BIG EAST Tournament:
"We will be very excited to play, since it's all our first BIG EAST Tournament, but I feel we are going to be ready. I think if we come out and play hard we'll be alright."
On Possibility Of Moe Harkless Winning BIG EAST Freshman Of The Year:
"I think he deserves it. He's playing hard all year, playing a lot of defense, he's a double-double guy. He's been playing his heart out all year, and I think he deserves it."
