St. John's University Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: St. John’s vs. Pace
St. John’s Head Coach Rick Pitino spoke with the media after an exhibition with Pace
St. John’s Head Coach Rick Pitino
Opening Statement…
“It would have been a crime if we came back and won that game because [Pace] deserved the victory from the opening tip to the last second. Nobody likes to lose, but exhibition games are exhibition games. I really was excited for Pace and the way they played every phase of the game to beat us. It wasn't our injuries that lost the game, it was Pace’s great play. I’m really happy they won and I’m glad we did not come back against them because they deserved this victory and we did not. A much smaller team dominated us on the backboard and that can’t be. If I asked for anything for a Christmas present, it was this loss. … We learned a lot about what we need to work on tonight and that’s what exhibition games are for.”
On Pace…
“Their offense was based on taking us one-on-one on the bounce, because they had seven assists in the game. It was all one-on-one basketball and we couldn’t keep them out of the middle, which was really disappointing. Besides the rebounding, it was the one-on-one defense that worked for them.”
On where St. John’s fell short…
“At the beginning of the game, we were moving the ball great, had wide-open threes and passed the open threes up for a two. In the second half, we took bad threes and we played like 14 guys who have never played together. Obviously, we played very well against Rutgers, but here is the thing about college basketball, you always see teams with lesser names beat teams with bigger names and if we don’t learn the lesson that anybody can beat us, then you won’t succeed. We have learned now that Stony Brook can come in here and beat us. We learned that today. We now know how much better we have to get.”
On the importance of playing in exhibition games…
“Look nobody played well, but that's a learning lesson. You want to learn in exhibition games. We learned a lot from Rutgers and we learned a lot from tonight, that's what’s important.”
On what he hoped to accomplish in this game...
“I was hoping we would be better from the Rutgers game and we weren’t. Now a lot goes into play with that. When you play against these teams, they play like it’s the national championship. When I came off the court, they were screaming like they just won the national championship and it was so much fun for me to see that for them because they earned it. They deserved it, they were well-drilled, well-coached, so that was fun to witness from my end. I really enjoyed that aspect of the game, watching them celebrate like that because they executed so well. It was tough to watch that rebounding [effort]. We rebounded like a high school team. Now we’re small, obviously without Joel [Soriano], it’s a big factor. Our guards know they have to rebound and they didn’t tonight. ”
On the effort tonight...
“I thought their effort was extraordinary and ours was ordinary. A veteran team knows if you don’t make shots, you win it at the defensive end. We weren’t making shots and rather than saying, ‘Ok, this is the night we got to win it on defense,’ we didn’t do that. The effort is always going to be decent, but the offensive execution tonight was awful.”
Opening Statement…
“It would have been a crime if we came back and won that game because [Pace] deserved the victory from the opening tip to the last second. Nobody likes to lose, but exhibition games are exhibition games. I really was excited for Pace and the way they played every phase of the game to beat us. It wasn't our injuries that lost the game, it was Pace’s great play. I’m really happy they won and I’m glad we did not come back against them because they deserved this victory and we did not. A much smaller team dominated us on the backboard and that can’t be. If I asked for anything for a Christmas present, it was this loss. … We learned a lot about what we need to work on tonight and that’s what exhibition games are for.”
On Pace…
“Their offense was based on taking us one-on-one on the bounce, because they had seven assists in the game. It was all one-on-one basketball and we couldn’t keep them out of the middle, which was really disappointing. Besides the rebounding, it was the one-on-one defense that worked for them.”
On where St. John’s fell short…
“At the beginning of the game, we were moving the ball great, had wide-open threes and passed the open threes up for a two. In the second half, we took bad threes and we played like 14 guys who have never played together. Obviously, we played very well against Rutgers, but here is the thing about college basketball, you always see teams with lesser names beat teams with bigger names and if we don’t learn the lesson that anybody can beat us, then you won’t succeed. We have learned now that Stony Brook can come in here and beat us. We learned that today. We now know how much better we have to get.”
On the importance of playing in exhibition games…
“Look nobody played well, but that's a learning lesson. You want to learn in exhibition games. We learned a lot from Rutgers and we learned a lot from tonight, that's what’s important.”
On what he hoped to accomplish in this game...
“I was hoping we would be better from the Rutgers game and we weren’t. Now a lot goes into play with that. When you play against these teams, they play like it’s the national championship. When I came off the court, they were screaming like they just won the national championship and it was so much fun for me to see that for them because they earned it. They deserved it, they were well-drilled, well-coached, so that was fun to witness from my end. I really enjoyed that aspect of the game, watching them celebrate like that because they executed so well. It was tough to watch that rebounding [effort]. We rebounded like a high school team. Now we’re small, obviously without Joel [Soriano], it’s a big factor. Our guards know they have to rebound and they didn’t tonight. ”
On the effort tonight...
“I thought their effort was extraordinary and ours was ordinary. A veteran team knows if you don’t make shots, you win it at the defensive end. We weren’t making shots and rather than saying, ‘Ok, this is the night we got to win it on defense,’ we didn’t do that. The effort is always going to be decent, but the offensive execution tonight was awful.”