St. John's University Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: St. John's vs. Providence
3/4/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Recap | Final Stats | USATSI Gallery 
| Photo Gallery
St. John's Head Coach Chris Mullin...
On his thoughts on the game:
"No energy, no pop. We looked like we were sleep walking. It's always that balance of being prepared, being rested and being sharp. We have to do a better job."
On his message to the team after the game:
"I told them after the game we try to keep you prepared with the scouting report and film, and doing the right drills and having the right offense in, but at some point it doesn't matter and you have to go play and compete. ... Having a performance like that on that floor, you hope will wake you up."
On Shamorie Ponds making a good case for BIG EAST Freshman of the Year:
"Absolutely. No question; I don't think there is a question about it. That was a career-high in points and he's played probably 20 better games than he did today. That just shows you how well he's played. He's a really good scorer but his game is really about everything else. He's always going to get his points but when he's sharp and moving and active on defense, that's when he becomes really special."
On the team's inconsistency:
"Much like teaching new habits and breaking old habits [playing inconsistently] is probably one of them. It doesn't take away from the improvement we made. Part of improving is being accountable for each and every game, each and every practice. We talked about it. We'll take a day off, have two good practices and come back and get ready to play Wednesday."
On the mindset heading into the BIG EAST Tournament:
"I don't really think the theme will change. We just played Georgetown, they're a heck of a team; it was a good game. Without being redundant, I just [want us to] come to play with passion and energy. We'll have two good practices and hope we have a nice energetic game on Wednesday night."
Freshman Guard Shamorie Ponds...
On what the team needed to do for most of the game:
"I thought we weren't active on the ball defensively. They were just getting where they needed to go, and we didn't give any resistance."
On snapping their three-game home winning streak:
"They just threw the first punch at us and we couldn't recover. They got a big lead and it was hard for us to get over the hump."
On possibly getting tired near the end of the season:
"For me, I don't believe I'm worn down. I just try to keep getting better every day."
On the team's poor shooting in the first half:
"I mean, it's going to happen. We're going to miss shots, but we just have to do all the other things to stay in the game. We only had four field goals in the first half, but we also didn't do all of the other stuff to win the game."
Junior Guard/Forward Bashir Ahmed...
On having only six team assists for the game:
"I think today, we didn't play with enough energy. Coming out of the gate, we missed some shots and we just kept thinking about those shots. Like Shamorie said, we weren't doing all of the other things, we weren't getting loose balls, we didn't play hard enough, and we didn't move the ball around enough."
