St. John's University Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: St. John's vs. Butler
2/6/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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St. John's Head Coach Chris Mullin...
On his thoughts about the game:
"We got off to a pretty good start. It looked like there was some carryover from the Xavier game and then we just totally fell apart. I'm not quite sure why, but I saw some fatigue. That's something teams go through. As well as [Butler] played, I think we helped out quite a bit."
On the team transitioning after tough losses:
"They haven't [had trouble transitioning after a loss]. We deal with each day as it comes. We've actually been good with that, believe it or not; it just hasn't shown in the win-loss column. I've been pleased with their effort."
On the importance of veteran leadership:
"Ron [Mvouika] and Durand [Johnson] have the most experience and they're winding down their careers. The young guys are getting their experience and taking their lumps, but also learning what winning players and teams do. There is stuff you could take from these games."
Graduate Student Guard/Forward Ron Mvouika...
On why it's tough to stay consistent:
"I think our mind was in the right place. We were trying to build off the Xavier game and like coach said, we did in the first 12 minutes. I don't know if it was mental fatigue, but we just collapsed and couldn't find a way to stop the bleeding. We have to let that one go and flush it out."
On his thoughts about the game:
"We give Butler credit, that's a great team but I think we shot ourselves in the foot. We kind of mentally broke down. If we were to maintain the way we played the first 10 minutes, we have a great game. Butler did play great, but we beat ourselves down."
Butler Head Coach Chris Holtmann...
Opening Statement:
"That was a good effort from our guys. Obviously playing St. John's at our place a couple weeks ago was a real challenge in a lot of ways and they made it very difficult for us. I think our guys understood that and came in with the right approach so we feel good about it."
On defending the paint:
"I think we just tried to challenge [St. John's] around the rim and we had good sound walls up. We fouled too much. They got to the foul line way more than we would have liked them to. Some of them were foolish fouls on our part. We tried to challenge them with solid play."
On Chris Mullin's first year:
"Obviously my first year in the BIG EAST was last year, and it just comes at you in waves. One after the other after the other. Obviously Chris knows he's bringing in a heck of a recruiting class it sounds like. I think he's done a terrific job. You look across the board at how hard his kids play and I watched the Xavier game that was down to the wire the last five minutes. When you look at who [St. John's] is recruiting, we know there's going to be some tremendous battles in the future here."
On Roosevelt Jones' Triple-Double:
"I didn't know he had an opportunity for a triple-double until Michael Lewis mentioned it to me. Once he mentioned it to me, we didn't want to go too far out of character, but that's such a rare accomplishment for a kid. You really want your player, if he has the opportunity, to achieve that. In some ways I left him in longer than I would have liked to. But listen, that's a very difficult thing to accomplish, especially in college basketball."
Butler Junior Forward Roosevelt Jones...
On the triple-double:
"I have to give credit to my teammates. They made shots when I gave it to them, so I give all my credit to them for helping me out on that."
Butler Freshman Forward Kelan Martin...
On the defensive play of late:
"We know that everything counts now. Every possession means something so we have to bring effort every game. Our offense is going to be there, but we need to be high energy on defense, grabbing loose balls and rebounding."
On the bench play:
"Throughout practice and during the game, Coach told the bench to be ready and that he would need every guy. Everyone played well off the bench and they brought high energy with rebounding and defense."
