St. John's University Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: ST. JOHN’S VS. AUBURN
St. John’s Men’s Basketball Head Coach Rick Pitino and senior forward Sadiku Ibine Ayo spoke to the media after falling to No. 21 Auburn, 85-74, at the Players Era Championship in Las Vegas
Head Coach Rick Pitino
On what shifted the momentum…
“The big play was the underneath out-of-bounds play. We just let them lob in for the layup and we missed four free throws in a row and the momentum swung. But, overall, out upperclassmen didn’t have a good night shooting the basketball.”
On the preparation for Auburn…
“It’s really not knowing scouting, not knowing they’re a slap-down team. We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for them and we told our guys they were a team that was going to attack the basketball.”
On the road trip…
“We’re going home 1-2, and we would’ve like to go 2-1, so it was a disappointing trip. We’ve got to regroup against a very good Ole Miss team now that we’re 0-2 against the SEC.”
On his mindset…
“I take it one day at a time. I’ve been through this before. Defensively, we have a lot of work to do. We can get there, but it’s going to take a different mindset. Scoring is not the ultimate; it’s defense, and you have to buy in.”
Senior forward Sadiku Ibine Ayo
On learning to win together…
“We’ve just got to stay focused and learn how to win together as a team. We’ve got a bunch of new guys and we’re still figuring out how to play with each other. At the end of the day, we’ve got to win.”
On losing a late lead…
“It’s good that something like this happened early [in the season]. We’ll learn from it and get ready for the next game.”
On closing out victories…
“We’ve got to learn how to win. Winning is the most important thing, and once we do that, we’ll start getting a lot of wins this season.”
On what shifted the momentum…
“The big play was the underneath out-of-bounds play. We just let them lob in for the layup and we missed four free throws in a row and the momentum swung. But, overall, out upperclassmen didn’t have a good night shooting the basketball.”
On the preparation for Auburn…
“It’s really not knowing scouting, not knowing they’re a slap-down team. We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for them and we told our guys they were a team that was going to attack the basketball.”
On the road trip…
“We’re going home 1-2, and we would’ve like to go 2-1, so it was a disappointing trip. We’ve got to regroup against a very good Ole Miss team now that we’re 0-2 against the SEC.”
On his mindset…
“I take it one day at a time. I’ve been through this before. Defensively, we have a lot of work to do. We can get there, but it’s going to take a different mindset. Scoring is not the ultimate; it’s defense, and you have to buy in.”
Senior forward Sadiku Ibine Ayo
On learning to win together…
“We’ve just got to stay focused and learn how to win together as a team. We’ve got a bunch of new guys and we’re still figuring out how to play with each other. At the end of the day, we’ve got to win.”
On losing a late lead…
“It’s good that something like this happened early [in the season]. We’ll learn from it and get ready for the next game.”
On closing out victories…
“We’ve got to learn how to win. Winning is the most important thing, and once we do that, we’ll start getting a lot of wins this season.”