St. John's University Athletics
Pregame Quotes: St. John's vs. Rutgers
1/8/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 8, 2013
Head Coach Steve Lavin
On the growth through two BIG EAST games:
"When you have a young team you know that the growth is not going to be a straight climb, there are going to be peaks and valleys. Coming into the year I was aware of that. Each practice and each game is a learning opportunity. From that standpoint our team is making progress. I've been in this business long enough to know that this would be the most difficult season of my coaching career, but I enjoy it because I like the group we're working with because of the upside of where this basketball program can go."
"With each practice we get a better sense of our personnel and how to best utilize it, and our players gain a better sense for what our expectations are. They're learning about the challenges of the highest level of college basketball."
On learning from close games, both wins and losses:
"You need both. The school of hard knocks is a tough way to learn, but when you look at the growth of a team, oftentimes, there are some tough losses. My first year, even though that was an older team, they had never been to an NCAA tournament or had any degree of success at St. John's where as this team is a young team that hasn't had any major degree of success at the college level, so it's different. However, that [2010-11] team in January lost five of eight games. At one point we played eight straight ranked teams, but I could tell we were getting better. This year, in that Villanova game, I could tell it was a breakthrough game. That was the best game we've played all year, and we were still in the game even with JaKarr Sampson only having two points. That's when I knew we were getting better as a team. I think we improved as a team the most in that 14-day stretch from the end of the UNC Asheville through to the Cincinnati game. We lost two consecutive games, yet I think we had some of our best growth of the season in that stretch."
On avoiding a letdown against Rutgers:
"That won't be a problem, because for starters Rutgers just beat Pitt, plus the returning players lost at Rutgers last year and Rutgers has a strong record. Our players look at the roster and they know the players because they've gone up against them during their high school and AAU experiences. With this group, there's never been a case where we've overlooked somebody. I think there's times that we don't execute well or we have poor stretches of play, but it's never the case that we don't take someone seriously."
On the benefits of getting a win over a ranked team so early in conference play:
"I mentioned to the kids that there are those opportunities that present themselves where you can get a signature victory. Often times, those can be momentum shifts, but if you don't sustain it, it's a letdown. That game is behind us, we learned some valuable things and we addressed four areas of concern coming into that game and we were able to handle all four of those areas."
Sophomore guard/forward Amir Garrett
On the effect the Cincinnati game had on the team's confidence:
"It boosts our confidence a lot. The fact they were a Top-25 team gave us a lot of motivation. It helped us believe that we can beat anybody. It boosted us up and as a whole brought us together."
On the lessons learned from the Cincinnati game:
"We learned we have to play hard all the time. In the BIG EAST you play someone good every night, you can't take any games off. After the loss to Villanova, we came back motivated for the game against Cincinnati and knew we had to improve on some stuff. We got ourselves ready, and we won the game."
On what to expect from Rutgers:
"They beat Pitt, so they are coming off a high just like us. We have to come out and play with a lot of intensity because they are going to be hyped up. It's going to be a good game."
On his role with the team:
"I'm comfortable with my role. Coach [Lavin] does a very good job of making lineups and putting people in that produce a lot. He switches up and sees what combinations are good for each game. Whether I come off the bench or start, it doesn't really matter because I'm comfortable doing both. Whatever Coach [Lavin] wants that's what is best for the team, and I believe that."
Sophomore guard/forward Sir'Dominic Pointer
On the win over Cincinnati:
"That was a big win for us. Losing to Villanova in a close game was tough because we knew we should have had that one, but it was good motivation to win the next one."
On facing Rutgers:
"Last year I didn't really know about the rivalry. I knew it was a rivalry game, but I didn't know how intense it actually was. There was a lot of talking, a lot of pushing back and forth. The game is going to be a tough one for us."
On motivating the first-year players:
"You have to let them know that every team in the BIG EAST is going to come ready to play no matter what. You can lose to any team in the BIG EAST if you don't come out ready to play. I tell them to come out ready to play for every team no matter who it is. They are starting to understand. The process should be kicking in that they have to come out every game and play hard."
On what JaKarr Sampson showed with his performance against Cincinnati:
"It showed me he's capable of bouncing back. His first game of the year he struggled, and then bounced back with a good game. His ability to bounce back quickly as a freshman tells me he's a good player, and he'll be ready for every other game from now on."
