St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Drexel
St. John’s Men’s Basketball Head Coach Rick Pitino, senior forward Babacar Sane and senior guard Quinn Ellis spoke to the media after the Red Storm’s 81-52 exhibition win over Drexel
Head Coach Rick Pitino
Opening statement:
“I really love our upside, but we’re behind on our fundamentals. You would rather have outstanding talent that needs to learn how to play than a little bit of talent that’s fundamentally sound. We have a lot of improvements to make, but I was impressed with how hard they played defensively and did a lot of good things.”
On Quinn Ellis’ first game…
“He played like a veteran. Everyone else was hunting for shots, nobody understood that you have to make the defense work, tire their legs out, make them run into screens. Quinn understood that, but nobody else did. That’s why he is a great player without scoring.”
On how good Babacar Sane can be…
“He can be a great one. But, he’s older and for him to not be as fundamentally sound at his age is not great, but because he’s such a good guy and he wants to learn in the worst way, he’ll get better.”
On players off the bench doing good things…
“Theo [Edema] is going to be a good player, and so will Lazar [Stojkovic]. Reed Bailey right now really understands how to play. Now Reed and Quinn [Ellis], they get how to play. They don’t hunt shots. They move the basketball really well.”
Senior Forward Babacar Sane
On playing with Quinn Ellis…
“It’s amazing to play with Quinn. His ability to find you, get you open shots. I always tell him, every assist he makes for me is one dollar. Like tonight, he got me three assists, I owe him three bucks when we get back to the locker room.”
On playing with this group of players…
“It’s 12 new guys. It’s a new group, we got some time to settle in with each other, and I think Coach [Pitino] has done an amazing job. He’s on us every day, like you saw in the timeout, he’s not going to give you minutes if you are lacking on effort and lacking on hustle on both ends of the floor.”