St. John's University Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: St. John’s Men’s Basketball at Georgetown
St. John’s Head Coach Rick Pitino, Jordan Dingle and RJ Luis Jr. met with the media following the Red Storm’s 90-85 win over Georgetown on Wednesday at Capital One Arena
St. John’s Head Coach Rick Pitino
Opening statement on postgame comments Sunday and tonight’s game…
“I went home and didn’t think it was any big deal. I thought everyone blew it all the way out of proportion. These guys have heard a lot worse in closed quarters. I went home and talked to my wife and came back and said to my staff, ‘Any of the guys upset?’ and they said a couple of [the guys] feelings are hurt. I immediately went to the team and told them I love you guys, I would never want to embarrass you, but it’s my bad. I’m at fault. I should have never mentioned anybody by name, I didn’t mean it. I was trying to talk typical clinic talk like I do. The slowest player in the NBA is [Nikola] Jokić; he can’t move laterally. Some of the greatest players I've coached can’t move laterally. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but I should have never ever mentioned the names. I’m a veteran coach. I tell every young coach in the business, show class when you win, show class when you lose, give the other team credit. I’ve been really frustrated this year for a number of reasons but understand something, I recruited [Jordan Dingle]. I recruited [RJ Luis Jr.]. My staff did not recruit these guys; it was all me. [Jordan’s] dad called me, and I said ‘Done, I want him’. RJ, I wanted him, thought he was going to great. [Chris] Ledlum, I wanted him. It was all me. And I’m very proud to have them, but I totally apologize to them for doing that. … I wasn’t ripping them, that wasn’t my intent, but words matter. I just want to briefly say, my guys are the most important thing. My family and my players, outside of breathing air, they are the most important things in my life. That’s why I'm still coaching today. They are the air that I breathe, and I love them dearly. I would never want to embarrass them or hurt them. A couple of them certainly were, but they went out yesterday and had the best practice of the year. I’m real proud of that. We came tonight and played great offense. [Dingle and Luis] were terrific. Real proud of the win. … I also want to apologize to any St. John’s fan because they have treated me like royalty. If any of them were taken back, I apologize as well. And some of you in the media who cover us, I want to apologize to you, because you didn’t need to mess with this nonsense, you just want to talk basketball. … That’s behind us. I’m real proud of our guys, we have a tremendous game coming on Sunday against a great team [Creighton] that’s playing great basketball. We needed to win [tonight]. We did a lot of great things tonight on offense. … Our motto in the timeouts was don’t play to lose. Play to win. Don’t milk the clock, go score. That’s exactly what RJ did, he was brilliant driving to the basket. Jordan was great tonight at every phase of the game with his steals, shooting the ball with his midrange, passing. He was great tonight. Real proud of these two guys as well as the other guys. This was a great win for us.”
On slowing Georgetown’s late run and winning on the road…
“Every basketball team has runs. The good thing is they made tough shots and we never stopped punching the basket and that’s the key to winning a close game on the road. Look, I'm sure you all recognize in college basketball as opposed to the NBA, someone mentioned to me about UConn today, they are 0 for their last 21 on the road against ranked teams, and they are great. They are extremely well-coached, they are great. You take away nothing from them, they won a championship. What you take away is that it is extremely difficult to win on the road. When you get a road victory, I don’t care where it’s at or who you are playing, it’s a great victory.”
On Simeon Wilcher’s play tonight…
“I thought it was a big lift. I thought [Daniss Jenkins] was losing it a little bit after that play. When you get a double technical you get a foul so then [Daniss] had three and I said to Sim ‘Play great man, I need you.’ and he did. I will say this about Sim, he has been playing great in practice. Here, we have to win this game going into a big game on Sunday and here I put him into the game. Not [Nahiem Alleyne], him. That’s how much confidence I have in him. He made a big shot, made big plays. I worry a little bit on defense a little bit, off the ball, but he did a very good job so I’m really confident. I think he can play more minutes than he even did tonight, he only played about seven minutes. I’d like to get him 10-to-12 minutes for the remainder of the season.
St. John’s guard Jordan Dingle
On the last few days with Coach Pitino…
“All of us know Coach [Pitino]. We know how much he loves us, cares about us and how much he cares about winning. I don’t think guys took [his comments] too much to heart but there was a lot of talk about it obviously. But I think it brought us closer together as a unit. We love each other and all we have is all we got. All we have is all we need. I think when we played today, we were a lot more connected. We played with a lot more energy and we had a lot more fun. Joel [Soriano] was amazing in practice the other day and [RJ Luis] has been a lot more vocal picking us up. So, when guys start doing that and we’re having more fun as a group, I think we play a lot better.”
On what it what it means when Coach Pitino says to play not to lose…
“I think it's a good reminder every single time. It’s a little hectic towards the end when teams go on runs like that. Give credit to them they are very talented. It’s just a reminder to not play with fear of losing a lead. We just got to keep being aggressive and keep doing the things that got us the lead. It calms the storm a little bit and it helps us get back to doing the things that got us up in the first place.”
St. John’s guard RJ Luis Jr.
On what it's like fighting off another team in a close game…
“This might sound crazy but it’s a little exciting, the back and forth. Just trying to focus, get a stop and get back on defense. Basketball is a game of runs so you can’t get too low when they go on a run. You just have to stay poised.”
On Coach Pitino telling him to not play to lose…
“Just can’t be scared of the moment. I feel like at times in the last couple of games when we had a big lead, players became a little hesitant by trying to play too perfect. Just play basketball like how we started in the first half. It was a good back-and-forth. Georgetown put up a tough game. As Coach Pitino said, it's good to get an away win, so on to the next one.”
Opening statement on postgame comments Sunday and tonight’s game…
“I went home and didn’t think it was any big deal. I thought everyone blew it all the way out of proportion. These guys have heard a lot worse in closed quarters. I went home and talked to my wife and came back and said to my staff, ‘Any of the guys upset?’ and they said a couple of [the guys] feelings are hurt. I immediately went to the team and told them I love you guys, I would never want to embarrass you, but it’s my bad. I’m at fault. I should have never mentioned anybody by name, I didn’t mean it. I was trying to talk typical clinic talk like I do. The slowest player in the NBA is [Nikola] Jokić; he can’t move laterally. Some of the greatest players I've coached can’t move laterally. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but I should have never ever mentioned the names. I’m a veteran coach. I tell every young coach in the business, show class when you win, show class when you lose, give the other team credit. I’ve been really frustrated this year for a number of reasons but understand something, I recruited [Jordan Dingle]. I recruited [RJ Luis Jr.]. My staff did not recruit these guys; it was all me. [Jordan’s] dad called me, and I said ‘Done, I want him’. RJ, I wanted him, thought he was going to great. [Chris] Ledlum, I wanted him. It was all me. And I’m very proud to have them, but I totally apologize to them for doing that. … I wasn’t ripping them, that wasn’t my intent, but words matter. I just want to briefly say, my guys are the most important thing. My family and my players, outside of breathing air, they are the most important things in my life. That’s why I'm still coaching today. They are the air that I breathe, and I love them dearly. I would never want to embarrass them or hurt them. A couple of them certainly were, but they went out yesterday and had the best practice of the year. I’m real proud of that. We came tonight and played great offense. [Dingle and Luis] were terrific. Real proud of the win. … I also want to apologize to any St. John’s fan because they have treated me like royalty. If any of them were taken back, I apologize as well. And some of you in the media who cover us, I want to apologize to you, because you didn’t need to mess with this nonsense, you just want to talk basketball. … That’s behind us. I’m real proud of our guys, we have a tremendous game coming on Sunday against a great team [Creighton] that’s playing great basketball. We needed to win [tonight]. We did a lot of great things tonight on offense. … Our motto in the timeouts was don’t play to lose. Play to win. Don’t milk the clock, go score. That’s exactly what RJ did, he was brilliant driving to the basket. Jordan was great tonight at every phase of the game with his steals, shooting the ball with his midrange, passing. He was great tonight. Real proud of these two guys as well as the other guys. This was a great win for us.”
On slowing Georgetown’s late run and winning on the road…
“Every basketball team has runs. The good thing is they made tough shots and we never stopped punching the basket and that’s the key to winning a close game on the road. Look, I'm sure you all recognize in college basketball as opposed to the NBA, someone mentioned to me about UConn today, they are 0 for their last 21 on the road against ranked teams, and they are great. They are extremely well-coached, they are great. You take away nothing from them, they won a championship. What you take away is that it is extremely difficult to win on the road. When you get a road victory, I don’t care where it’s at or who you are playing, it’s a great victory.”
On Simeon Wilcher’s play tonight…
“I thought it was a big lift. I thought [Daniss Jenkins] was losing it a little bit after that play. When you get a double technical you get a foul so then [Daniss] had three and I said to Sim ‘Play great man, I need you.’ and he did. I will say this about Sim, he has been playing great in practice. Here, we have to win this game going into a big game on Sunday and here I put him into the game. Not [Nahiem Alleyne], him. That’s how much confidence I have in him. He made a big shot, made big plays. I worry a little bit on defense a little bit, off the ball, but he did a very good job so I’m really confident. I think he can play more minutes than he even did tonight, he only played about seven minutes. I’d like to get him 10-to-12 minutes for the remainder of the season.
St. John’s guard Jordan Dingle
On the last few days with Coach Pitino…
“All of us know Coach [Pitino]. We know how much he loves us, cares about us and how much he cares about winning. I don’t think guys took [his comments] too much to heart but there was a lot of talk about it obviously. But I think it brought us closer together as a unit. We love each other and all we have is all we got. All we have is all we need. I think when we played today, we were a lot more connected. We played with a lot more energy and we had a lot more fun. Joel [Soriano] was amazing in practice the other day and [RJ Luis] has been a lot more vocal picking us up. So, when guys start doing that and we’re having more fun as a group, I think we play a lot better.”
On what it what it means when Coach Pitino says to play not to lose…
“I think it's a good reminder every single time. It’s a little hectic towards the end when teams go on runs like that. Give credit to them they are very talented. It’s just a reminder to not play with fear of losing a lead. We just got to keep being aggressive and keep doing the things that got us the lead. It calms the storm a little bit and it helps us get back to doing the things that got us up in the first place.”
St. John’s guard RJ Luis Jr.
On what it's like fighting off another team in a close game…
“This might sound crazy but it’s a little exciting, the back and forth. Just trying to focus, get a stop and get back on defense. Basketball is a game of runs so you can’t get too low when they go on a run. You just have to stay poised.”
On Coach Pitino telling him to not play to lose…
“Just can’t be scared of the moment. I feel like at times in the last couple of games when we had a big lead, players became a little hesitant by trying to play too perfect. Just play basketball like how we started in the first half. It was a good back-and-forth. Georgetown put up a tough game. As Coach Pitino said, it's good to get an away win, so on to the next one.”