St. John's University Athletics
Pregame Quotes: St. John's vs. No. 8/10 Villanova
1/9/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2014
Head Coach Steve Lavin
On the long break between games:
"The practices are good because we get to do the drill work and focus on certain areas that we want to emphasize on both sides of the ball. As a result it gives you a chance to improve offensively and defensively."
On sharing the ball as an emphasis at practice this week:
"Good offensive basketball includes sharing the basketball and making the extra pass. It's an indication that you are in rhythm offensively, as assists are an important ingredient to doing good things at the offensive end of the floor."
On deciding a starting lineup:
"Something that I have learned from my mentors is that it is a privilege, not a right to play college basketball. You have to earn it every day through your approach. The kids know, as always, that you earn it with what you do on a daily basis in practice."
On JaKarr Sampson:
"JaKarr has had a great week of practice, probably the best three consecutive days of practice in his career."
On Rysheed Jordan:
"He tweaked his ankle last week so he has been hampered by that, but I don't expect it to keep him out of competition. I like his overall trajectory of where he is headed at this stage in his career. There is real optimism there in terms of his potential."
Junior Guard Phil Greene IV
On the importance of Saturday's game:
"It's very important. You don't want to get down 0-3 in this league, so we're going to go back to the drawing board to make it happen on Saturday."
On the long stretch between games:
"It's really tough because that's all you can think about until the next game. We have to keep looking past that and look forward to Villanova on Saturday. We can't dwell on it. In this league, there are a lot of good teams so you can't dwell on just one loss."
Junior Guard/Forward Sir'Dominic Pointer
On practice this week:
"It's been really intense. We are in last place in the league, so there is a sense of urgency right now that we need to get a win. Sharing the ball has been a focus of practice. We have to put the ball in the basket and at the same time keep them from doing it."
On the long stretch between games:
"We have that long time to prepare for [Villanova]. It could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing, but for us so far it has been a good thing. We have to just come out and play our game. We have to get back to our winning ways."
On Saturday's game:
"Every game is a must-win, but we're down in the league right now so we need to win to get back up. I want to see a mature team out there who is ready to play. We recruited a lot of good players so I want to see those recruited players ready to play."
On the versatility of the team:
"It's good to have on any given night a guy that can light it up. On most teams, when you stop the leading scorer, you win the game. On our team, if you stop D'Angelo, we can still win the game. I would rather have that."
Junior Guard D'Angelo Harrison
On the importance of Saturday's game:
"Every game is important. We're anxious and ready to play. We've had a week off so this has been good for us. We've had a good four days of practice, so we're going to be ready."
On sharing the ball:
"Myself included, we take bad shots. We have a lot of players that can make shots so we shouldn't be doing that anymore."
On the Georgetown loss:
"That's not the way that St. John's plays. We respect them for the way they played and for the way they executed, but that's not us."
On the possibility of upsetting Villanova:
"We're the kind of group that we feel that we can beat anyone. If we beat them it would be because we know we are capable of beating these types of teams. It wouldn't be an upset."
