St. John's University Athletics
Pregame Quotes: St. John's-Syracuse
2/8/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 8, 2013
QUEENS, N.Y. -
Head Coach Steve Lavin
On the player's reacting to their recent success:
"The goal of any college basketball player or coach is to be able to participate in one of the world's greatest sporting events: the NCAA Tournament. Having the opportunity to do something special in March is what we all dream of. When I came to St. John's and recruited these players, the objective was to go dancing in March. It's natural for our players to aspire to that, and we're very clear on an annual basis that the goal is to make the tournament. The tone I always set is the deliberate, incremental approach. They are a young team, and I don't want to change the fact that they are who they are. We recruited a very special group. We know we're young and have a long way to go. I really enjoy working with this group. I want players that aspire to do special things."
On Marc-Antoine Bourgault:
"[During the recruiting process], I was impressed with not only his shooting, but his playmaking and the fact that he didn't force the game. At times that has been a challenge because we want him to be more aggressive in hunting his shot. I trust his basketball intellect to not force, but if he doesn't have a more aggressive mindset he ends up guarding himself. In the BIG EAST, if you pass up a good shot, another one might not come around. I want to keep planting the seeds that he has the green light; he's here to shoot and when he does it helps our team."
On Phil Greene IV and the team taking care of the basketball:
"Phil, considering the injury he's playing with, he's had a remarkable run. Even when he's had droughts offensively, his defense, ball-handling and leadership have been such a stabilizing force on this team. We don't take him for granted, but there are times because he's that quiet warrior, his contributions can go underappreciated. Taking care of the ball in this league is critical because the margin for error is so razor thin. You can't afford to have empty possessions. When teams go on runs against us, it's a combination of turnovers and a few missed shots. Teams in this league feast on your turnovers because it gives them open court opportunity. A lead can suddenly vanish in a flicker because this is a high-level conference with great athletes. You know you're going to have some turnovers, but you just try to limit them."
Junior guard Marc-Antoine Bourgault
On dealing with not getting a lot of minutes early on:
"It was tough because I didn't come to St. John's to play five minutes a game. I kept working and played hard in practice. Coaches kept telling that my time would come and to be ready for the opportunity."
On why he chose to come to the United States to play:
"I could have stayed in France to play professionally but that wasn't what I wanted. I wanted an education, and I had a chance to go to college. Now I'm playing for one of the best programs in America and will have a great degree at the end."
On how he views himself as a basketball player:
"I'm a shooter. I have a high IQ on the court and see the floor real well. I pass well, play defense and grab rebounds too."
Freshman forward JaKarr Sampson
On what this team can do against Syracuse:
"I'm capable of thinking we can win. Our coach and coaching staff has been doing a good job of getting us ready for this game and getting us ready for a physical game because it's going to come down to rebounding. We need to rebound because we are great stopping teams on defense but we need to come away with the ball after that stop."
On how Syracuse is different than other teams:
"They are bigger, that zone causes a lot of problems for teams, and they play well together. They are the best team in the conference right now."
On Marc-Antoine Bourgault:
"He has had more confidence as he has gotten more minutes and been able to shoot the ball more. He's always been able to shoot the ball, it's just been him knowing he can shoot the ball and take those shots and knock them down. He's figuring that out so that confidence has been coming along."
