St. John's University Athletics
PREGAME QUOTES: St. John’s Men’s Basketball vs. Kansas
St. John’s Head Coach Mike Anderson and junior wing Julian Champagnie spoke to the media ahead of a showdown with No. 8/7 Kansas at UBS Arena on Friday
St. John’s Head Coach Mike Anderson
Opening statement…
“We are excited to open UBS Arena and go up against an outstanding Kansas team. They are one of the top teams in the country. Bill Self is a great coach, a hall of fame coach. I’ve known Bill for many years and he does an outstanding job with his basketball team.”
On the excitement around the BIG EAST-Big 12 Battle contest...
“I know our guys are excited about it. I think it’s a great challenge. A great opportunity to put our team out in front of our fans. [We want] our fans to come to a great venue, and hopefully [they] can create an atmosphere. … For us to have this game at this time, it’s a good test for us. We had a chance to go on the road to play Indiana and we came up a couple of points short. Now we get another opportunity to go up against an outstanding Kansas team.”
On the team’s readiness for this game...
“For the first time in long time, we had everybody in practice yesterday. [Rafael] Pinzon got a chance to practice coming off the procedure he had. It was good to have everybody in practice. ... I think our guys are excited about it. There are some games where a coach has to say ‘we have to get ready.’ With Kansas coming in, a coach doesn’t have to say that. Every game’s a big game, [but] they know this is a big game too. It’s an opportunity for us to see where we are.”
On the team’s progress...
“I’ll know more after this game. … Our bench is a big-time component of what we do. In the last few games, I haven’t seen that. Of course, injuries had a lot to do with that.”
On keys to the game versus Kansas...
“We’re going to need everybody on board. I know that. We’re going to need to defend. Kansas is a team that [likes] to get out in transition. They have great size [and] guard play. We have to defend and keep them out of the lane. That’s where they really do their work. One thing about Kansas teams is they are not going to beat themselves. We are going to have to step up our productivity defensively and offensively as well.”
Junior forward Julian Champagnie
On the team’s readiness for tomorrow...
“I think we’re ready for it. We’ve been talking about it all week after the last game and how we’ve been excited for the game for a while now. A big game on the schedule, but you know every game is a big game on the schedule. We have one more day of practice which is today and then shootaround tomorrow to really dial in on some little things that we got to fix up.”
On what he expects out of the team…
“I don’t know if you remember but on media day, I said that we’re gonna run through walls for our fan base and our team, so you can expect that. … We’re gonna play hard, we’re gonna make mistakes, every team does, but we’re gonna play through it. We’re gonna have a positive mindset and we’re gonna run through brick walls to try to win this game tomorrow.”