St. John's University Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: St. John’s Men’s Basketball at Indiana
St. John’s upperclassmen Julian Champagnie, Stef Smith and Head Coach Mike Anderson spoke to the media after a 76-74 loss at Indiana
St. John’s Head Coach Mike Anderson
Opening statement...
“I thought [Indiana] came out with great energy. The crowd got into it. They punched us in the mouth early on. We were fortunate to get into halftime only 12 down. They were making shots. They were rebounding. They were scoring at will. I thought we played on our heels. I thought we came out, and our intensity picked up on defense. We sped the game up, and it gave us a chance. I told our guys we didn’t lose that one; we just ran out of time. They made plays. They made big plays going down the stretch. ... We didn’t get what we wanted [on the last possession]. At the same time, we had a chance.”
On losing Montez Mathis for the game...
“He’s one of the starters. He’s one of the more physical guards. He’s a guy that can make plays off the bounce. I think [one of] our first made buckets was him getting in the lane and scoring, and he knocked the three down. The thing I love about this team, though, is somebody [else] stepped up. We had other guys step up. I was really proud of our freshmen. They came in, and I thought they gave us some really great minutes. We always talk about our bench being the strength of our team.”
On the last play of the game...
“I thought the spacing was bad. I thought if Julian [Champagnie] stayed down, I thought [Rafael] Pinzon had an opportunity to get in the lane and make a play for him [Champagnie] or make a play for himself, either try to get a foul or get to the basket. It was only a two point game, so that’s something we have to work on. It’s a new team.”
On the team’s performance...
“I thought we sped the game up. I thought we did a good job of attacking the basket. In the first half, we stayed on the perimeter, so what do you do when you stay on the perimeter? You shoot jump shots. I thought, in the second half, we got their guys in foul trouble. We got ball movement, and then we were on the attack. We had guys making plays, swinging the ball [and] skipping it. I thought Stef [Smith] really played well in the second half for us. [He] kept us in it. We have to continue to work and get guys comfortable and playing whether it’s at home or on the road. The biggest question you always [ask] is: does your game travel? I have some film, and we’ll see the things we need to continue to work on. The first thing I told those guys [was] I like the gut check. It was a gut check at halftime, and [they] responded. They responded in a positive way. We didn’t get the results we wanted, but it’s something we will continue to build on.”
On Julian Champagnie...
“His development continues. In his offseason, he went through the process of finding out what he needed to work on. He has worked on it, and he is bringing it to the game. I thought this was one of his best games at St. John’s. From offensive and defensive [perspective]. He was at the front of the press, the back of the press, rebounding, blocking shots, loose balls, making big shots, making free-throws. He left it on the floor, and that is what you expect from your leader. He has a chance to have a tremendous year and I think he has the type of team that he can be that leader. He is drawing a lot of attention, but he is not just trying to do it by himself, I think that is the beauty of it.”
Junior forward Julian Champagnie
On what the team will take from this game going forward…
“We fought, we fought extremely hard and I am so proud of the guys and coach [Mike Anderson], everyone is proud of each other. Even though we didn’t come out victorious, we will go ahead and learn from this we are onto our next game.“
On playing at Assembly Hall…
“It was a fun experience I wouldn’t take that away from it, it was tough. The climb back felt good honestly, the crowd was on their feet a lot but we were also able to quiet them down. It was good to be able to do that, but that end of the day we weren’t able to come out with the win.”
On the last play…
“I turned around and there were three people standing there including one of our guys, so the [last shot] felt a little forced. At the end of the day, we have to go back and watch film, we’ll learn from this. It sucks that we lost but we have a lot of games to go. We will go back and watch this then make our adjustments.“
Graduate student guard Stef Smith
On Julian Champagnie scoring 32 points…
“He played great. You see on the stat sheet he had 32 big points. We were struggling offensively, he stepped up and took the challenge and his leadership is huge for us, as we get further into the season we are going to understand who can do what. We will figure out what spots he needs to get the ball to, it’s our third game, we’re still in November, but we just have to learn from this experience and move forward as a unit. There’s going to be guys like Montez [Mathis], Posh [Alexander] and Joel [Soriano] who have nights like Julian [Champagnie] had, we just need to move forward as a team and continue to share the rock.”
On playing in tough environments…
“I’ve had experience playing in great environments, [playing] at Kansas and in the [NCAA] Tournament against Florida State. The biggest thing is to just lock in and block out all of the outside noise, especially at the free-throw line you have to lock in and focus on what you have to do. We knew it was going to be a tough crowd. We had to stick together and we fought back in the second half. I’m really proud of the way we played in the second half and we have to watch the film and see what we can improve on.“
Opening statement...
“I thought [Indiana] came out with great energy. The crowd got into it. They punched us in the mouth early on. We were fortunate to get into halftime only 12 down. They were making shots. They were rebounding. They were scoring at will. I thought we played on our heels. I thought we came out, and our intensity picked up on defense. We sped the game up, and it gave us a chance. I told our guys we didn’t lose that one; we just ran out of time. They made plays. They made big plays going down the stretch. ... We didn’t get what we wanted [on the last possession]. At the same time, we had a chance.”
On losing Montez Mathis for the game...
“He’s one of the starters. He’s one of the more physical guards. He’s a guy that can make plays off the bounce. I think [one of] our first made buckets was him getting in the lane and scoring, and he knocked the three down. The thing I love about this team, though, is somebody [else] stepped up. We had other guys step up. I was really proud of our freshmen. They came in, and I thought they gave us some really great minutes. We always talk about our bench being the strength of our team.”
On the last play of the game...
“I thought the spacing was bad. I thought if Julian [Champagnie] stayed down, I thought [Rafael] Pinzon had an opportunity to get in the lane and make a play for him [Champagnie] or make a play for himself, either try to get a foul or get to the basket. It was only a two point game, so that’s something we have to work on. It’s a new team.”
On the team’s performance...
“I thought we sped the game up. I thought we did a good job of attacking the basket. In the first half, we stayed on the perimeter, so what do you do when you stay on the perimeter? You shoot jump shots. I thought, in the second half, we got their guys in foul trouble. We got ball movement, and then we were on the attack. We had guys making plays, swinging the ball [and] skipping it. I thought Stef [Smith] really played well in the second half for us. [He] kept us in it. We have to continue to work and get guys comfortable and playing whether it’s at home or on the road. The biggest question you always [ask] is: does your game travel? I have some film, and we’ll see the things we need to continue to work on. The first thing I told those guys [was] I like the gut check. It was a gut check at halftime, and [they] responded. They responded in a positive way. We didn’t get the results we wanted, but it’s something we will continue to build on.”
On Julian Champagnie...
“His development continues. In his offseason, he went through the process of finding out what he needed to work on. He has worked on it, and he is bringing it to the game. I thought this was one of his best games at St. John’s. From offensive and defensive [perspective]. He was at the front of the press, the back of the press, rebounding, blocking shots, loose balls, making big shots, making free-throws. He left it on the floor, and that is what you expect from your leader. He has a chance to have a tremendous year and I think he has the type of team that he can be that leader. He is drawing a lot of attention, but he is not just trying to do it by himself, I think that is the beauty of it.”
Junior forward Julian Champagnie
On what the team will take from this game going forward…
“We fought, we fought extremely hard and I am so proud of the guys and coach [Mike Anderson], everyone is proud of each other. Even though we didn’t come out victorious, we will go ahead and learn from this we are onto our next game.“
On playing at Assembly Hall…
“It was a fun experience I wouldn’t take that away from it, it was tough. The climb back felt good honestly, the crowd was on their feet a lot but we were also able to quiet them down. It was good to be able to do that, but that end of the day we weren’t able to come out with the win.”
On the last play…
“I turned around and there were three people standing there including one of our guys, so the [last shot] felt a little forced. At the end of the day, we have to go back and watch film, we’ll learn from this. It sucks that we lost but we have a lot of games to go. We will go back and watch this then make our adjustments.“
Graduate student guard Stef Smith
On Julian Champagnie scoring 32 points…
“He played great. You see on the stat sheet he had 32 big points. We were struggling offensively, he stepped up and took the challenge and his leadership is huge for us, as we get further into the season we are going to understand who can do what. We will figure out what spots he needs to get the ball to, it’s our third game, we’re still in November, but we just have to learn from this experience and move forward as a unit. There’s going to be guys like Montez [Mathis], Posh [Alexander] and Joel [Soriano] who have nights like Julian [Champagnie] had, we just need to move forward as a team and continue to share the rock.”
On playing in tough environments…
“I’ve had experience playing in great environments, [playing] at Kansas and in the [NCAA] Tournament against Florida State. The biggest thing is to just lock in and block out all of the outside noise, especially at the free-throw line you have to lock in and focus on what you have to do. We knew it was going to be a tough crowd. We had to stick together and we fought back in the second half. I’m really proud of the way we played in the second half and we have to watch the film and see what we can improve on.“