St. John's University Athletics
PREGAME QUOTES: St. John's at Creighton
St. John’s Men’s Basketball senior forwards Zuby Ejiofor and Dillon Mitchell met with the media on Thursday afternoon prior to Saturday’s contest at Creighton
Senior forward Zuby Ejiofor
On Ruben Prey’s impact and growth…
“He definitely stepped up in a much bigger role. It’s something I see every day in practice. He was free-flowing, doing the things he knows he’s capable of doing, knocking down shots and using his physicality. It was good to see him out there.”
On playing alongside Ruben Prey…
“When we’re on the court together, we’ve obviously produced pretty well. He’s a great player and an even better person, and I get to witness those same things in practice every day.”
On the frontcourt’s physicality…
“I feel like we complement each other and make each other better every day. As a frontcourt, we’re doing a better job rebounding the basketball and imposing our will and physicality more than we did at the start of the season.”
On lineup flexibility…
“Coach [Rick] Pitino says it all the time, it’s interchangeable. Everybody on this team handles the ball one through five, and that gives us a lot of versatility.”
On veteran leadership…
“It’s always good to build continuity with guys who’ve been in the system and understand what it takes to play at a championship level. You could see that comfort out there, especially late in the first half.”
Senior forward Dillon Mitchell
On initiating the offense…
“Coach [Pitino] has emphasized that throughout the season, just handling the ball and making plays myself.”
On sharing point-forward role with Bryce Hopkins…
“Me and Bryce being able to handle the ball and bring it up, get the offense going and get straight into our movement is definitely an advantage.”
On offensive flow and versatility…
“A lot of things run through me and Bryce when it comes to movement and cuts, so us starting the offense ourselves helps everything flow.”
On using a three-big lineup against Butler…
“We wanted to go with a bigger lineup for rebounding. It made things easier defensively because we could switch three through five.”
On rebounding emphasis late in games…
“One of our struggles has been rebounding the ball late in games, so that was the main focus going into Butler, finishing plays and controlling the glass.”
On flexibility and team identity…
“There are so many different lineups we can go with. It’s all about personnel and knowing what the other team does well. That’s one of the strengths of this team.”
On lessons learned from the loss to Providence…
“It came down to attention to detail, execution late, finishing plays, rebounding the ball and locking in defensively.”
On Ruben Prey’s impact and growth…
“He definitely stepped up in a much bigger role. It’s something I see every day in practice. He was free-flowing, doing the things he knows he’s capable of doing, knocking down shots and using his physicality. It was good to see him out there.”
On playing alongside Ruben Prey…
“When we’re on the court together, we’ve obviously produced pretty well. He’s a great player and an even better person, and I get to witness those same things in practice every day.”
On the frontcourt’s physicality…
“I feel like we complement each other and make each other better every day. As a frontcourt, we’re doing a better job rebounding the basketball and imposing our will and physicality more than we did at the start of the season.”
On lineup flexibility…
“Coach [Rick] Pitino says it all the time, it’s interchangeable. Everybody on this team handles the ball one through five, and that gives us a lot of versatility.”
On veteran leadership…
“It’s always good to build continuity with guys who’ve been in the system and understand what it takes to play at a championship level. You could see that comfort out there, especially late in the first half.”
Senior forward Dillon Mitchell
On initiating the offense…
“Coach [Pitino] has emphasized that throughout the season, just handling the ball and making plays myself.”
On sharing point-forward role with Bryce Hopkins…
“Me and Bryce being able to handle the ball and bring it up, get the offense going and get straight into our movement is definitely an advantage.”
On offensive flow and versatility…
“A lot of things run through me and Bryce when it comes to movement and cuts, so us starting the offense ourselves helps everything flow.”
On using a three-big lineup against Butler…
“We wanted to go with a bigger lineup for rebounding. It made things easier defensively because we could switch three through five.”
On rebounding emphasis late in games…
“One of our struggles has been rebounding the ball late in games, so that was the main focus going into Butler, finishing plays and controlling the glass.”
On flexibility and team identity…
“There are so many different lineups we can go with. It’s all about personnel and knowing what the other team does well. That’s one of the strengths of this team.”
On lessons learned from the loss to Providence…
“It came down to attention to detail, execution late, finishing plays, rebounding the ball and locking in defensively.”