St. John's University Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: St. John’s Men’s Basketball at Xavier
Red Storm Head Coach Mike Anderson and junior wing Julian Champagnie spoke with the media following an 86-73 win at Xavier on Wednesday
St. John’s Head Coach Mike Anderson
Opening statement...
“Our guys, they get all the credit. They came out with an unbelievable force on defense. I thought the defense triggered our offense. We had multiple guys make plays. Obviously, Julian [Champagnie] was in rare form. I thought we did a good job of putting him in position to be successful, and of course we got our spark plug, which is Posh [Alexander]. It was a welcomed sight to see him on the floor. I thought that fed into our basketball team. I can’t say enough about our guys coming off the bench. I thought the fatigue was a factor in this game, so our guys get all the credit. They finished the task at hand. It was a team effort [particularly with] sharing the basketball. We talk about playing for each other, 24 assists on 34 field goals. It was good effort against a pretty good basketball team in Xavier. They don’t lose many games [at Cintas Center], so we had to come and win it.”
On the return of Posh Alexander....
“Posh is one of the faces of our team. … I think our guys feed off him from the intensity and the energy. He’s a leader. He leads through effort. I think he had four assists. As a team, we had almost 30 deflections. That just tells me we were flying around and getting to the ball. Not only that, when you think about transition basketball, I thought our defense was really good. ... You see guys stepping into shots, attacking the basket. That’s our basketball team.”
On Joel Soriano's versatility...
“He’s a great passer. I think the more we give it to him, it allows him to do some of the things he can do. To add on that, I thought he had a tremendous influence on the defensive side. He had four blocks in the first half. I bet if you look at the second half, there were a lot of shots that he changed the trajectory. He played a really complete game for us tonight.”
On Tareq Coburn’s performance...
“He’s getting more confident and trusting himself. He’s been playing the defensive part of it. It was just a matter of time before he started breaking out and making shots. I thought the second shot he made in the first half was a big shot. Then you think about the [rebound] that he picked up [for a layup] and enabled us to keep the lead in the second half. I thought that was big. He’s an older guy, so he knows what it’s all about. He can impact this team, because teams have got to honor him knocking shots down. He was big for us tonight.”
Junior forward Julian Champagnie…
On the team’s offensive efficiency tonight …
“We got out and ran. That was the biggest thing. We were able to get out and run the floor. Some shots fell, we hit some three [pointers], obviously. We attacked the basket, that was our thing today. We got to the [free throw] line and just closed out.”
On having Posh Alexander back in the lineup…
“Posh {Alexander} is our point guard. He’s our floor general, without him it’s a little hard to get up-and-down [the floor]. The way we want to play is his pace, every day. Having him back was huge. He pushed the pace, played some great defense. I’m really proud of him, honestly. We are really thankful for the way he played today.”
On Tareq Coburn contributing 13 points off the bench…
“That’s what we expect from Tareq [Coburn] and everyone who comes off the bench. It doesn’t have to be in scoring. Today, he scored the ball really well and played really good defense. That’s what I expect from Tareq to be honest. He does it every day in practice.”
Opening statement...
“Our guys, they get all the credit. They came out with an unbelievable force on defense. I thought the defense triggered our offense. We had multiple guys make plays. Obviously, Julian [Champagnie] was in rare form. I thought we did a good job of putting him in position to be successful, and of course we got our spark plug, which is Posh [Alexander]. It was a welcomed sight to see him on the floor. I thought that fed into our basketball team. I can’t say enough about our guys coming off the bench. I thought the fatigue was a factor in this game, so our guys get all the credit. They finished the task at hand. It was a team effort [particularly with] sharing the basketball. We talk about playing for each other, 24 assists on 34 field goals. It was good effort against a pretty good basketball team in Xavier. They don’t lose many games [at Cintas Center], so we had to come and win it.”
On the return of Posh Alexander....
“Posh is one of the faces of our team. … I think our guys feed off him from the intensity and the energy. He’s a leader. He leads through effort. I think he had four assists. As a team, we had almost 30 deflections. That just tells me we were flying around and getting to the ball. Not only that, when you think about transition basketball, I thought our defense was really good. ... You see guys stepping into shots, attacking the basket. That’s our basketball team.”
On Joel Soriano's versatility...
“He’s a great passer. I think the more we give it to him, it allows him to do some of the things he can do. To add on that, I thought he had a tremendous influence on the defensive side. He had four blocks in the first half. I bet if you look at the second half, there were a lot of shots that he changed the trajectory. He played a really complete game for us tonight.”
On Tareq Coburn’s performance...
“He’s getting more confident and trusting himself. He’s been playing the defensive part of it. It was just a matter of time before he started breaking out and making shots. I thought the second shot he made in the first half was a big shot. Then you think about the [rebound] that he picked up [for a layup] and enabled us to keep the lead in the second half. I thought that was big. He’s an older guy, so he knows what it’s all about. He can impact this team, because teams have got to honor him knocking shots down. He was big for us tonight.”
Junior forward Julian Champagnie…
On the team’s offensive efficiency tonight …
“We got out and ran. That was the biggest thing. We were able to get out and run the floor. Some shots fell, we hit some three [pointers], obviously. We attacked the basket, that was our thing today. We got to the [free throw] line and just closed out.”
On having Posh Alexander back in the lineup…
“Posh {Alexander} is our point guard. He’s our floor general, without him it’s a little hard to get up-and-down [the floor]. The way we want to play is his pace, every day. Having him back was huge. He pushed the pace, played some great defense. I’m really proud of him, honestly. We are really thankful for the way he played today.”
On Tareq Coburn contributing 13 points off the bench…
“That’s what we expect from Tareq [Coburn] and everyone who comes off the bench. It doesn’t have to be in scoring. Today, he scored the ball really well and played really good defense. That’s what I expect from Tareq to be honest. He does it every day in practice.”