St. John's University Athletics
QUOTES: St. John’s Men’s Basketball Pregame Media Availability
St. John’s Head Coach Rick Pitino, as well as guards Daniss Jenkins and Jordan Dingle spoke with the media ahead of Monday’s contest against Michigan at Madison Square Garden
St. John’s Head Coach Rick Pitino
On Monday’s contest against Michigan …
“This is an exciting game because Michigan is a lot different than last year. I think they are a lot better in terms of the way they are playing. Sometimes you can have more heralded basketball players, but they are not as good as a team. This Michigan team is very talented, very deep in the frontcourt, their four-man is great, their three-man is tough, their five-man is tough, their point guard is tough. It’s a very, very good Michigan team that we are playing, and we are going to have to play a lot better. We played really hard against Stony Brook, but we are going to have to play a lot better to beat a team like Michigan. … [Our team is] going to be very excited, obviously, playing in The Garden. Michigan is going to be very excited to play in The Garden. It’s going to be a great game with two teams that have a lot of talent on this court. Michigan, for the second game of the season, it’s a pretty special game.”
On playing at Madison Square Garden…
“It’s like what [San Antonio Spurs Head Coach] Gregg Popovich said the other night, ‘It’s the world’s greatest arena’. I think you hear so much about it growing up, you understand that, whether its Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, whether it’s LeBron [James], whether its coaches, they all feel it’s the world’s greatest arena. It’s been advertised and billed that way. There have been so many great games I’ve watched there. I actually signed my scholarship papers [to play at UMass] after watching Marquette play when they turned down the NCAA Tournament and played in the NIT. I signed my scholarship papers after the game on the floor of Madison Square Garden. It’s always special and rightfully so. It deserves the distinction of the world’s greatest arena.”
On the team’s progression since the Stony Brook game…
“We showed them the positives and the negatives. We call it the good, the bad and the teaching points of the game and there were 40 clips, which is a lot. Of things that did not go right in the Stony Brook game, we did a lot of good things in that game. We have six days to get ready for a much different team. Stony Brook was much better than a lot of opening games. They were very talented and I was very impressed with them. That was a very good opener. This is a killer second game and we have to play a lot better on the glass, a lot better defensively, although we did a lot of really good things defensively.”
On the starting lineup…
“If you asked me the least most important factor about going into a basketball game, it’s the starting lineup. I would venture to say that we are going to change the starting lineup probably 10 times out of 25 to 30 games, so I put the least emphasis on who starts. You will know what I think of the players in the last five minutes of the game when the game is on the line.”
On how he evaluates his players…
“I’m not going to hold the past on these guys. I tell them all the time, I am not going to judge the fact that they lost at Penn, Harvard, VMI, or St. John’s. I won’t hold that against [them] and I’m not going to hold them in high esteem because of the great numbers [they] had. I’m going to judge you, not on the past, I’m going to judge you on what you do every day in practice. That's who you are in my eyes, not who you were. I judge them not by reputation, but what they are doing now for me.”
St. John’s guard Jordan Dingle
On the Madison Square Garden atmosphere…
“I can only imagine it's going to be electric. I can see there is a lot of excitement building up about us playing there and just behind us this entire season. I think that it’s really going to come to a head on that stage, the bright lights of Madison Square Garden playing Michigan, who has a really great team this year. Then obviously playing for the coaches that the two teams have as well.”
On the team’s preparation for Michigan and the Charleston Classic…
“I would say for myself personally, I have been pushed harder than I have ever been pushed before and [Coach Pitino’s] done a great job in preparing us for something like this. Also, we have been going at each other for five months now without having the opportunity to play against other people. We are excited about each and every game we get to play. The coaching staff did a great job of recruiting people who really do love the game and are fans and are students of it. Four games in seven days seems like a dream to all of us.”
On playing in front of a large crowd on Monday…
“I try not to think too much about that. I'm excited that there’s something for the New York fans to really look forward to. I’m excited that they are excited about us performing this season. But, as far as the crowd capacity, that doesn't really go into too much how I prepare for a game or any of us really. We are focused on what it is we need to do between the lines. It’s an incredible honor and blessing to be able to play in Madison Square Garden on the floor where so many amazing players from all different sports have played. When Monday night comes, and all the other games we have, we are focused on what we need to do in that 40 minutes we are on that court. Anything outside of it, is just noise.”
St. John’s guard Daniss Jenkins
On visiting Madison Square Garden on his tour of St. John’s…
“I did take a tour through Madison Square Garden and once I saw it, I was sold. I was definitely sold. I was already sold before that, but once I saw The Garden I was definitely sold. For me, they have so many important features to it that you don’t even know until you are inside of it. That was my first time being inside of The Garden on my visit. The biggest thing that stood out for me was how they have the best thing that happened on that day goes up inside of the arena. Say if someone had 45 points or something like that, if you do something special on that day you get to go up in that arena forever. So, let’s say we play there on Monday, if we do something special that hasn’t been done on that day, then one of us or hopefully [all of] us will go up in the arena.”
On senior captain Joel Soriano…
“Joel is very dominant. … I always told him, ‘If you set a good screen, we should be able to get a good shot up every time’. I will keep saying that throughout the entire season because [our opponents] have to give up something. It makes the defense react to something. I always tell him, if you roll hard, you’re going to get someone else a shot. If they stop me, I get the shot as long as I keep making those reads. That’s really the key.”
On how much can be accomplished in the six days prior to playing Michigan…
“Physically, you really can’t get much better, but mentally we can get a lot better. This week, I just wanted to make sure we were locked in and focused going into the first game against Stony Brook. Right now, that is the challenge being mentally locked in and focused, knowing every little detail on our scout, every little detail about their personnel. That’s really the key to playing for Coach [Pitino], that he really tries to get us to understand, because like I said, physically, if someone jumps high or if someone runs fast, you can’t do anything about that in six days. But mentally you can get a lot better and get prepared for a team.”
On the biggest difference between Stony Brook and Michigan…
“Honestly, every game and every team that we play is a big game. We don’t really get caught up looking into Stony Brook, because I will tell you one thing, our coaches do a great job of telling us about the team we are about to face. We felt Stony Brook was a very good team going into that game. Our practices were very intense and they told us numerous times how they could beat us. We were ready and we were the hunters in that game. Every game we want to hunt no matter who it is. We go into every game, no matter who we’re playing, like they can beat us on any given night. It’s basketball.”
On Monday’s contest against Michigan …
“This is an exciting game because Michigan is a lot different than last year. I think they are a lot better in terms of the way they are playing. Sometimes you can have more heralded basketball players, but they are not as good as a team. This Michigan team is very talented, very deep in the frontcourt, their four-man is great, their three-man is tough, their five-man is tough, their point guard is tough. It’s a very, very good Michigan team that we are playing, and we are going to have to play a lot better. We played really hard against Stony Brook, but we are going to have to play a lot better to beat a team like Michigan. … [Our team is] going to be very excited, obviously, playing in The Garden. Michigan is going to be very excited to play in The Garden. It’s going to be a great game with two teams that have a lot of talent on this court. Michigan, for the second game of the season, it’s a pretty special game.”
On playing at Madison Square Garden…
“It’s like what [San Antonio Spurs Head Coach] Gregg Popovich said the other night, ‘It’s the world’s greatest arena’. I think you hear so much about it growing up, you understand that, whether its Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, whether it’s LeBron [James], whether its coaches, they all feel it’s the world’s greatest arena. It’s been advertised and billed that way. There have been so many great games I’ve watched there. I actually signed my scholarship papers [to play at UMass] after watching Marquette play when they turned down the NCAA Tournament and played in the NIT. I signed my scholarship papers after the game on the floor of Madison Square Garden. It’s always special and rightfully so. It deserves the distinction of the world’s greatest arena.”
On the team’s progression since the Stony Brook game…
“We showed them the positives and the negatives. We call it the good, the bad and the teaching points of the game and there were 40 clips, which is a lot. Of things that did not go right in the Stony Brook game, we did a lot of good things in that game. We have six days to get ready for a much different team. Stony Brook was much better than a lot of opening games. They were very talented and I was very impressed with them. That was a very good opener. This is a killer second game and we have to play a lot better on the glass, a lot better defensively, although we did a lot of really good things defensively.”
On the starting lineup…
“If you asked me the least most important factor about going into a basketball game, it’s the starting lineup. I would venture to say that we are going to change the starting lineup probably 10 times out of 25 to 30 games, so I put the least emphasis on who starts. You will know what I think of the players in the last five minutes of the game when the game is on the line.”
On how he evaluates his players…
“I’m not going to hold the past on these guys. I tell them all the time, I am not going to judge the fact that they lost at Penn, Harvard, VMI, or St. John’s. I won’t hold that against [them] and I’m not going to hold them in high esteem because of the great numbers [they] had. I’m going to judge you, not on the past, I’m going to judge you on what you do every day in practice. That's who you are in my eyes, not who you were. I judge them not by reputation, but what they are doing now for me.”
St. John’s guard Jordan Dingle
On the Madison Square Garden atmosphere…
“I can only imagine it's going to be electric. I can see there is a lot of excitement building up about us playing there and just behind us this entire season. I think that it’s really going to come to a head on that stage, the bright lights of Madison Square Garden playing Michigan, who has a really great team this year. Then obviously playing for the coaches that the two teams have as well.”
On the team’s preparation for Michigan and the Charleston Classic…
“I would say for myself personally, I have been pushed harder than I have ever been pushed before and [Coach Pitino’s] done a great job in preparing us for something like this. Also, we have been going at each other for five months now without having the opportunity to play against other people. We are excited about each and every game we get to play. The coaching staff did a great job of recruiting people who really do love the game and are fans and are students of it. Four games in seven days seems like a dream to all of us.”
On playing in front of a large crowd on Monday…
“I try not to think too much about that. I'm excited that there’s something for the New York fans to really look forward to. I’m excited that they are excited about us performing this season. But, as far as the crowd capacity, that doesn't really go into too much how I prepare for a game or any of us really. We are focused on what it is we need to do between the lines. It’s an incredible honor and blessing to be able to play in Madison Square Garden on the floor where so many amazing players from all different sports have played. When Monday night comes, and all the other games we have, we are focused on what we need to do in that 40 minutes we are on that court. Anything outside of it, is just noise.”
St. John’s guard Daniss Jenkins
On visiting Madison Square Garden on his tour of St. John’s…
“I did take a tour through Madison Square Garden and once I saw it, I was sold. I was definitely sold. I was already sold before that, but once I saw The Garden I was definitely sold. For me, they have so many important features to it that you don’t even know until you are inside of it. That was my first time being inside of The Garden on my visit. The biggest thing that stood out for me was how they have the best thing that happened on that day goes up inside of the arena. Say if someone had 45 points or something like that, if you do something special on that day you get to go up in that arena forever. So, let’s say we play there on Monday, if we do something special that hasn’t been done on that day, then one of us or hopefully [all of] us will go up in the arena.”
On senior captain Joel Soriano…
“Joel is very dominant. … I always told him, ‘If you set a good screen, we should be able to get a good shot up every time’. I will keep saying that throughout the entire season because [our opponents] have to give up something. It makes the defense react to something. I always tell him, if you roll hard, you’re going to get someone else a shot. If they stop me, I get the shot as long as I keep making those reads. That’s really the key.”
On how much can be accomplished in the six days prior to playing Michigan…
“Physically, you really can’t get much better, but mentally we can get a lot better. This week, I just wanted to make sure we were locked in and focused going into the first game against Stony Brook. Right now, that is the challenge being mentally locked in and focused, knowing every little detail on our scout, every little detail about their personnel. That’s really the key to playing for Coach [Pitino], that he really tries to get us to understand, because like I said, physically, if someone jumps high or if someone runs fast, you can’t do anything about that in six days. But mentally you can get a lot better and get prepared for a team.”
On the biggest difference between Stony Brook and Michigan…
“Honestly, every game and every team that we play is a big game. We don’t really get caught up looking into Stony Brook, because I will tell you one thing, our coaches do a great job of telling us about the team we are about to face. We felt Stony Brook was a very good team going into that game. Our practices were very intense and they told us numerous times how they could beat us. We were ready and we were the hunters in that game. Every game we want to hunt no matter who it is. We go into every game, no matter who we’re playing, like they can beat us on any given night. It’s basketball.”