St. John's University Athletics
PREGAME QUOTES: St. John's Men's Basketball vs. Wagner
11/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
St. John's Head Coach Chris Mullin...
On his emotions returning to Carnesecca Arena as the St. John's head coach:
"I'm excited. It's rare at 52 to do something you've never done before. We've been practicing and practicing, so it's time to get the season started. It's going to be a nice feeling to come home and be back in a place that meant so much to me and my development as a player and person."
On the two exhibition games:
"It was my first experience [as a head coach] and I think we all learned a lot in the contrast. We're at the development stage as a team and a program, so we really have to focus on ourselves, our habits and the attention to details."
On how the team is preparing for Wagner:
"Yesterday we had a good practice, very detailed. We went over a lot of different things preparing for tomorrow and we'll do the same today. We're really focused on the task at hand, really focused on preparation."
On managing the game from the sideline for the first time:
"I hope I get better each day like the players. The second time out I was better than the first time. I ask the same of myself as I do my players, to be diligent and have daily improvement."
On what to tell the young guys to expect in their first intercollegiate game:
"We try to prepare them in practice, but a lot of this you have to go through together."
Graduate Student Guard/Forward Durand Johnson...
On what the team learned from the exhibition games:
"We know that we're going to get every team's best shot every game. [Opposing] teams are going to be coming at us hard knowing that Chris Mullin is our coach and we're St. John's. It doesn't matter to the teams coming in [who we are], they want to win. So our sense of urgency has definitely changed a lot. We're competing harder in practice and focusing on defense a lot more."
On his advice to the younger guys heading into the season-opener:
"The energy level is different. I explained to the younger guys that it's going to be a battle every game. We have to be ready, play together and do it on the defensive end first because that's where it starts."
Graduate Student Guard/Forward Ron Mvouika...
On his feeling of opening the season:
"We're excited to get started. We're not worried about the preseason anymore. From now on these games count. We're ready to compete and ready to play."
On how the exhibition loss to St. Thomas Aquinas has helped the team:
"When you lose by 30-points to a DII team, it's never really good to swallow or think about, but I think that game will help us in two months when BIG EAST play starts. We got that game out of the way, it didn't count, and now everybody [on the team] knows what we're about to face all season. That [game] was something that didn't look good, didn't feel good, but now we know what not to do."
