St. John's University Athletics
Pregame Quotes: St. John's vs. Creighton
2/7/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 7, 2014
Head Coach Steve Lavin
On the team's recent play:
"From the halftime of the Georgetown game forward, the team has made strides in each practice and game. We didn't experience the breakthrough right away but we could clearly see that we were playing a high level of basketball. Since that game our team has been on a steady climb in terms of confidence, chemistry and performance."
On the team's approach to defending Creighton:
"Our focus in the first game was on shutting down the rest of the team, and the tradeoff in that was [Doug] McDermott was going to get more points than he normally gets. We were able to hold them to 20 points under their season average and gave ourselves a chance to win, but unfortunately we came up short. He hit a really tough shot and we would have liked to apply more pressure on that shot."
On the play of Chris Obekpa:
"Chris has put in the time and worked on his game, and we are starting to see that pay dividends. He has a more aggressive mindset on his catches and he's doing the work before receiving the ball as well, carving out space and position. He's an excellent passer but now his first look is to score and, if covered, then to look for cutters or to fan the ball back out to the perimeter."
On starting off games well:
"It's been a combination of the incremental growth of the team over the course of a couple of weeks along with an increase in Rysheed Jordan's confidence level, which has helped the team. There's both individual and collective growth that is taking place and most recently that has allowed us to get off to some good starts."
Junior Guard/Forward Sir'Dominic Pointer
On facing Creighton:
"The thing about Creighton is that they are another team in our way. We were on a little run before they beat us, and now we are on a little bit of a run again. We want to get them back to keep and protect our home court advantage."
On guarding Creighton Senior Forward Doug McDermott:
"The first game he got a lot of open shots from the outside. We just need to communicate better and make it hard for him to score. He's a real good shooter who can score from the outside and inside, and he's 6-foot-8 so that makes him an even bigger threat."
On the effect of the teams' first meeting:
"We have to come out fast. Currently we are playing with a great rhythm and doing well. In the Creighton game we started off slowly and picked it up in the second half, but in the last two games we've started off fast from the start and that's what we have to keep doing. That's how we are going to contend in the BIG EAST."
Sophomore Center Chris Obekpa
On defending Creighton:
"We try to play great team defense. We just have to play disciplined and play with what they give us. We defended the rest of their team pretty well last game so we just need to do the same thing."
On his confidence at the offensive end:
"It's something I have been working on all summer and all season with the coaches. The coaches and my teammates have helped me a lot with it as well and keep telling me to be aggressive. I'm just trying to relax and play and keep it going from there."
