St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 106, Humboldt State 39
11/4/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Nov. 4, 2013
Head Coach Steve Lavin
Opening Statement:
"There were some positives tonight. I was pleased with our team's willingness to share the basketball and find the open man. Our challenge now is to prepare to face a top-20 Badger team in a hostile environment."
On player minutes:
"We didn't want any injuries. I unloaded the bench the best I could, but the kids that didn't get in are either redshirting or considering doing so. I just didn't want to run the risk of injury and losing a player before Wisconsin on Friday."
On thoughts of the team following the exhibitions:
"Part of the fun and part of the concern is that there are a lot of unknowns with this team, but I like our personnel, makeup and upside."
On following the two exhibition games:
"I don't think there are many coaches that are ever pleased with their teams' performances at this time of year. There's never enough practice time and you're always facing the dilemma of trying to implement your system yet work enough on fundamentals. Teaching kids how to play is time consuming. We need to improve on all fronts but there are definitely some positives to build on."
Junior Guard/Forward Sir'Dominic Pointer
On playing a team-high 29 minutes:
"Coach is looking for me to lead and he wants me to play a little point guard every once in a while. He says to go out there and work on my ball handling and make sure everything is calm. We need to share to ball and make sure everything is under control. In games like that, a lot of people get injured so he said to make sure everything is calm and keep the tempo down."
On learning from the previous game:
"We figured out that we have to play hard against whoever we are playing. It doesn't matter if it's Wisconsin or San Francisco State. We have to play hard every game and continue to get better as a team. We have to keep the pressure on from the beginning of the game since last year we started a lot of games down and had to fight back into it. When we fight back into it, we lose all of our energy and the other team goes on another run. If we can start out fast, we can stay in a lot more games this year. We are a lot deeper this year too so that will help."
On how ready the team feels for Wisconsin:
"We need a couple days to get back our focus. For the first game of the season, our energy is going to be up and we are going to be ready for them. We just have to go out and play hard."
Redshirt Senior God'sgift Achiuwa
On what it feels like to be back in the mix:
"I'm really excited and happy to be back. I really happy to be able to assist them in any way I can."
On how ready the team feels for Wisconsin:
"We have three or four days to sharpen our skills and what we need to do. We have time to watch the tapes and videos and learn their plays. After those few days, we will be able to come up to speed and play them. It's good to have some days to rest before we play them."
Humboldt State Head Coach Steve Kinder
"The experience was great. It was top notch competition and a top notch atmosphere coming out here to New York City. We feel like we didn't represent our basketball program as well as we would have in the past with other teams. We're a little short-handed right now due to multiple injuries but there are no excuses. Going forward, we're not going to see kind of players that St. John's has and we're not going to see the kind of coaching that Steve Lavin brings. Therefore, we'll be much more competitive and we're looking forward to that because these exhibition games are great experiences for us."
