St. John's University Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: St. John’s Men’s Basketball vs. Boston College
St. John’s Head Coach Rick Pitino met with the media following the Red Storm’s 86-80 loss to Boston College on Sunday at Barclays Center
St. John’s Head Coach Rick Pitino
Opening Statement…
“When we are up 10, coming out of the timeout, I said ‘look they are going to come with threes. We have to stop the three and get out and get your hands active.’ They made three threes in a row. We are not going to win until we get committed to defense and this group is not. It’s partially our fault, we recruited offensive basketball players, trying to teach [older players] about defense, and it cost us tonight. When you take all the offensive rebounds and the fact that they shot [52.9 percent]. They were scoring almost every time down the floor. [Our players] are trying to win with offense and you can’t win with offense. We are very disappointed. With a 10-point lead, you have to play great defense and we didn’t and we paid for it. We are pressing like I want most of the time, but the half-court defense is such a disappointment.”
On the team’s defense…
“We have good enough athletes, but defense is a matter of will. You have to want to play defense. If you make a change and tell a guy to blitz and he stays behind him, it’s frustrating. But the first year is all frustrations, that’s what you get. It’s not young players not being committed to defense, it’s the entire team.”
On the tonight’s game…
“It’s very difficult. When you have a 10-point lead, you are not supposed to lose it. It’s been difficult from the summer until now with defense. It’s a broken record. Give a lot of credit to Boston College, they made a lot of good shots down 10. You have to give credit to them as well.”
On Daniss Jenkins getting into foul trouble…
“It’s like a ship without a captain when he goes out of the game. That is a problem because he plays defense and he plays offense. Now, he should have distributed the ball better tonight on certain plays driving to the basket, but he didn’t. But he gives 100% effort on defense.”
On bouncing back after giving up the lead…
“We came back and had a four-point lead, but we continually gave up the three, when in the first half I think they were 1-for-6 from the 3-point line. My guys were told in every timeout that they do this. They were down eight against Richmond and came back to win by eight or nine. They were told and we kept backing up and giving up threes.”
Opening Statement…
“When we are up 10, coming out of the timeout, I said ‘look they are going to come with threes. We have to stop the three and get out and get your hands active.’ They made three threes in a row. We are not going to win until we get committed to defense and this group is not. It’s partially our fault, we recruited offensive basketball players, trying to teach [older players] about defense, and it cost us tonight. When you take all the offensive rebounds and the fact that they shot [52.9 percent]. They were scoring almost every time down the floor. [Our players] are trying to win with offense and you can’t win with offense. We are very disappointed. With a 10-point lead, you have to play great defense and we didn’t and we paid for it. We are pressing like I want most of the time, but the half-court defense is such a disappointment.”
On the team’s defense…
“We have good enough athletes, but defense is a matter of will. You have to want to play defense. If you make a change and tell a guy to blitz and he stays behind him, it’s frustrating. But the first year is all frustrations, that’s what you get. It’s not young players not being committed to defense, it’s the entire team.”
On the tonight’s game…
“It’s very difficult. When you have a 10-point lead, you are not supposed to lose it. It’s been difficult from the summer until now with defense. It’s a broken record. Give a lot of credit to Boston College, they made a lot of good shots down 10. You have to give credit to them as well.”
On Daniss Jenkins getting into foul trouble…
“It’s like a ship without a captain when he goes out of the game. That is a problem because he plays defense and he plays offense. Now, he should have distributed the ball better tonight on certain plays driving to the basket, but he didn’t. But he gives 100% effort on defense.”
On bouncing back after giving up the lead…
“We came back and had a four-point lead, but we continually gave up the three, when in the first half I think they were 1-for-6 from the 3-point line. My guys were told in every timeout that they do this. They were down eight against Richmond and came back to win by eight or nine. They were told and we kept backing up and giving up threes.”