St. John's University Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: St. John’s vs. Saint Peter’s
St. John’s Head Coach Mike Anderson and Junior Vince Cole spoke with the media after Wednesday’s 76-75 win over St. Peter’s to open the season
St. John’s Head Coach Mike Anderson
Opening statement…
“First of all, let me say that Saint Peter’s and Shaheen [Holloway], I thought his team came in well-prepared. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and that is the thing about that first game; you don’t know how your team is going to come out. True to form, I thought our guys came out and played a little lethargic. I thought we didn’t match their intensity early on. In the second half I thought we came out, played well and took an eight-point lead, then of course I thought we had some miscues. We got some offensive rebounds and then we were able to convert some three-pointers because the best time to hit a three is when that ball goes inside and comes back out. This is going to be a great lesson and teaching moment for our guys in terms of the effort that you have got to play with no matter who you play, you cannot look at the names on the jerseys and think the team is not good. They are well-coached, played hard, and had nothing to lose and everything to gain and you saw some loose balls and tips that went in for them. I think they were five-for-six in the first half from three-point land, so everything that they shot it seemed like it went in. I think the biggest thing was that we made our free throws, and of course, we saw that going down the stretch we got some stops and Vince [Cole] scored the last five points, a big shot, and then at the end did a decent job of making them take a tough shot and we were fortunate that they didn’t put it down.”
On the team’s effort tonight…
“I think our guys played hard. I think nerves were going. With that being said, we don’t have time to cry about a win, we have to learn from it and we will learn that you have got to come out and up the intensity. This is such an unconventional season. You open up at home and are grinding and now you play someone other than yourselves and you have no fans and I didn’t think we played with a lot of energy. So, the lesson is that we have to learn to create our own energy and I thought our defense was lacking a bit. You also have to understand that we have a lot of new pieces, so we are trying to put those pieces together. I am never going to knock our guy’s effort, I thought Saint Peter’s played well, they shot over 50% from the field. Like I said for us, we shot well from the free throw line and had a size advantage, but I didn’t think that we took advantage of it because we missed a lot of layups. When you let a team hang around, all of a sudden it starts to become a game and they begin to believe, and they believed.”
On the newcomer’s performance…
“It is early on, but I think that we did bring in some guys that fit what we want to do well, and those guys are talented. It is just one game, we will see what happens the next game, but we are going to need all of these guys. When you look at our team you talk about depth, and we are going to need guys like Rasheem [Dunn], we are going to need Greg [Williams Jr.], we are going to need Marcellus [Earlington] we’ve got to get Josh [Roberts] going, as athletic as he is. Again, we are just finding out what we have in our basketball team. This team is going to be in search for its identity, but I like what those guys bring to the table. I thought Dylan [Addae-Wusu], you know, it may not show up in the stats but I thought his toughness and grit, touching balls, guarding some bigger guys, I thought he did a good job out on the floor. We are going to get some more guys playing well and when they were thrown right out there in a game setting with no exhibitions, we will learn from it.”
On Vince Cole’s first game…
“Lately in practice he has been playing a lot better than he was early on. I think that part of it was his conditioning and getting his strength back from his injury, so it was good. He comes in as a guy that can get buckets and he did that tonight. He was, I think, five-for-six from the three-point line, so he is a guy that can not only shoot the three but create his own shot. You have to have offense, I mean, you can play defense until you are blue in the face, but we have to have guys that can put it in the basket, so I thought that it was a good outing for him.”
On how much easier winning tonight can make tomorrow’s game against La Salle…
“We will find out because, as I said, it is a quick turnaround and we had some guys expend a lot of energy. Rasheem [Dunn] needed some stitches, so I need to get in there and figure out what is going on with him and some other guys. Tomorrow we play a team that has some tape and hasn’t played a game, so they are going to come out with the same kind of energy. You always want to play coming off of a win, you feel much better about yourself. We faced some adversity, and that is what I like about it, we had some [adversity] right in the first game because we were down four with 17 seconds and we found a way. We found the right guy and he made the play and then we made a stop at the other end so to me it is a case of whether we can apply it to La Salle because it is a quick, quick turnaround and we are going to have to play a lot better. The guys coming off the bench are going to have to play a lot better.”
On how his team responded to playing without fans…
“I am sure if the fans were here they would have willed us maybe ten more points, who knows. But it was different, and so that is why as a coach you have to take it into consideration, but I always say that when guys take the floor you have to leave it all out there especially when somebody comes into your house. We have got to understand that we have to create our own energy whether it be here, on the road, or at Mohegan Sun Arena and I think that is going to be the lesson. What I was really thrilled about was Julian [Champagnie] who didn’t have a chance to play today, he was on the sideline working almost as an assistant coach. He was really talking with these guys, showing some leadership and the guys responded to it so I was really encouraged by that.”
St. John’s Junior Guard Vince Cole
On the last play of the game…
“First off, all credit to Posh [Alexander] on the steal, cause without him that play wouldn’t have happened and Coach [Anderson] felt like we looked defeated. Really, the game didn’t go our way the whole game. We just had to pick it up that was really it, Greg [Williams Jr.] made a good pass and I knocked down the shot”
On playing his first game for St. John’s…
“Just playing in New York is something I have always dreamed of and everybody has always wanted to hit a big shot, but I can’t take a lot of credit for that because without my teammates and without Posh [Alexander] or Greg [Williams Jr.] making that pass to me I really can’t get anything.”
On how he felt heading into the game…
“Definitely not nervous. I mean, you think about it for a little bit, but I have been playing basketball my whole life. This is what I really love to do and I work on it every day. I really try hard to perfect my craft. It’s really not a nervous thing, just a different level, and you have to work hard every night and you really have to pay attention to the other team. I really give credit to Saint Peter’s because they played a great game, but I was not nervous.”
On the play of Posh Alexander…
“He is a dog, that is the perfect way to describe him, he is a dog. He does that every day, him playing like that on offense and defense is never surprising just because that’s how we play at St. John’s, that’s how Mike Anderson coaches. So just Posh [Alexander] making that play, it’s a regular thing.”
On where St. John’s had the edge tonight…
“Just digging deep. We run a lot of situations in practice where we work on being down a lot and just trusting each other and playing hard and just having grit. When you have grit, you don’t really worry about the rest. You work hard, have grit, that’s it.”
On his confidence ahead of the final shot…
“[I had] a lot of confidence. I shoot a lot of jump shots daily and it’s just another jump shot I don’t look at it as a game winning shot, I just look at it as repetition. I do it a lot, so I should have the ability to do that and make it a lot of times.”
Opening statement…
“First of all, let me say that Saint Peter’s and Shaheen [Holloway], I thought his team came in well-prepared. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and that is the thing about that first game; you don’t know how your team is going to come out. True to form, I thought our guys came out and played a little lethargic. I thought we didn’t match their intensity early on. In the second half I thought we came out, played well and took an eight-point lead, then of course I thought we had some miscues. We got some offensive rebounds and then we were able to convert some three-pointers because the best time to hit a three is when that ball goes inside and comes back out. This is going to be a great lesson and teaching moment for our guys in terms of the effort that you have got to play with no matter who you play, you cannot look at the names on the jerseys and think the team is not good. They are well-coached, played hard, and had nothing to lose and everything to gain and you saw some loose balls and tips that went in for them. I think they were five-for-six in the first half from three-point land, so everything that they shot it seemed like it went in. I think the biggest thing was that we made our free throws, and of course, we saw that going down the stretch we got some stops and Vince [Cole] scored the last five points, a big shot, and then at the end did a decent job of making them take a tough shot and we were fortunate that they didn’t put it down.”
On the team’s effort tonight…
“I think our guys played hard. I think nerves were going. With that being said, we don’t have time to cry about a win, we have to learn from it and we will learn that you have got to come out and up the intensity. This is such an unconventional season. You open up at home and are grinding and now you play someone other than yourselves and you have no fans and I didn’t think we played with a lot of energy. So, the lesson is that we have to learn to create our own energy and I thought our defense was lacking a bit. You also have to understand that we have a lot of new pieces, so we are trying to put those pieces together. I am never going to knock our guy’s effort, I thought Saint Peter’s played well, they shot over 50% from the field. Like I said for us, we shot well from the free throw line and had a size advantage, but I didn’t think that we took advantage of it because we missed a lot of layups. When you let a team hang around, all of a sudden it starts to become a game and they begin to believe, and they believed.”
On the newcomer’s performance…
“It is early on, but I think that we did bring in some guys that fit what we want to do well, and those guys are talented. It is just one game, we will see what happens the next game, but we are going to need all of these guys. When you look at our team you talk about depth, and we are going to need guys like Rasheem [Dunn], we are going to need Greg [Williams Jr.], we are going to need Marcellus [Earlington] we’ve got to get Josh [Roberts] going, as athletic as he is. Again, we are just finding out what we have in our basketball team. This team is going to be in search for its identity, but I like what those guys bring to the table. I thought Dylan [Addae-Wusu], you know, it may not show up in the stats but I thought his toughness and grit, touching balls, guarding some bigger guys, I thought he did a good job out on the floor. We are going to get some more guys playing well and when they were thrown right out there in a game setting with no exhibitions, we will learn from it.”
On Vince Cole’s first game…
“Lately in practice he has been playing a lot better than he was early on. I think that part of it was his conditioning and getting his strength back from his injury, so it was good. He comes in as a guy that can get buckets and he did that tonight. He was, I think, five-for-six from the three-point line, so he is a guy that can not only shoot the three but create his own shot. You have to have offense, I mean, you can play defense until you are blue in the face, but we have to have guys that can put it in the basket, so I thought that it was a good outing for him.”
On how much easier winning tonight can make tomorrow’s game against La Salle…
“We will find out because, as I said, it is a quick turnaround and we had some guys expend a lot of energy. Rasheem [Dunn] needed some stitches, so I need to get in there and figure out what is going on with him and some other guys. Tomorrow we play a team that has some tape and hasn’t played a game, so they are going to come out with the same kind of energy. You always want to play coming off of a win, you feel much better about yourself. We faced some adversity, and that is what I like about it, we had some [adversity] right in the first game because we were down four with 17 seconds and we found a way. We found the right guy and he made the play and then we made a stop at the other end so to me it is a case of whether we can apply it to La Salle because it is a quick, quick turnaround and we are going to have to play a lot better. The guys coming off the bench are going to have to play a lot better.”
On how his team responded to playing without fans…
“I am sure if the fans were here they would have willed us maybe ten more points, who knows. But it was different, and so that is why as a coach you have to take it into consideration, but I always say that when guys take the floor you have to leave it all out there especially when somebody comes into your house. We have got to understand that we have to create our own energy whether it be here, on the road, or at Mohegan Sun Arena and I think that is going to be the lesson. What I was really thrilled about was Julian [Champagnie] who didn’t have a chance to play today, he was on the sideline working almost as an assistant coach. He was really talking with these guys, showing some leadership and the guys responded to it so I was really encouraged by that.”
St. John’s Junior Guard Vince Cole
On the last play of the game…
“First off, all credit to Posh [Alexander] on the steal, cause without him that play wouldn’t have happened and Coach [Anderson] felt like we looked defeated. Really, the game didn’t go our way the whole game. We just had to pick it up that was really it, Greg [Williams Jr.] made a good pass and I knocked down the shot”
On playing his first game for St. John’s…
“Just playing in New York is something I have always dreamed of and everybody has always wanted to hit a big shot, but I can’t take a lot of credit for that because without my teammates and without Posh [Alexander] or Greg [Williams Jr.] making that pass to me I really can’t get anything.”
On how he felt heading into the game…
“Definitely not nervous. I mean, you think about it for a little bit, but I have been playing basketball my whole life. This is what I really love to do and I work on it every day. I really try hard to perfect my craft. It’s really not a nervous thing, just a different level, and you have to work hard every night and you really have to pay attention to the other team. I really give credit to Saint Peter’s because they played a great game, but I was not nervous.”
On the play of Posh Alexander…
“He is a dog, that is the perfect way to describe him, he is a dog. He does that every day, him playing like that on offense and defense is never surprising just because that’s how we play at St. John’s, that’s how Mike Anderson coaches. So just Posh [Alexander] making that play, it’s a regular thing.”
On where St. John’s had the edge tonight…
“Just digging deep. We run a lot of situations in practice where we work on being down a lot and just trusting each other and playing hard and just having grit. When you have grit, you don’t really worry about the rest. You work hard, have grit, that’s it.”
On his confidence ahead of the final shot…
“[I had] a lot of confidence. I shoot a lot of jump shots daily and it’s just another jump shot I don’t look at it as a game winning shot, I just look at it as repetition. I do it a lot, so I should have the ability to do that and make it a lot of times.”