St. John's University Athletics
ST. JOHN’S VS. UCONN BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP QUOTES
St. John’s Men’s Basketball Head Coach Rick Pitino, senior forwards Zuby Ejiofor and Dillon Mitchell, graduate student guard/forward Bryce Hopkins and senior guard Oziyah Sellers spoke to the media on Saturday after defeating UConn, 72-52, in the BIG EAST Championship.
Head Coach Rick Pitino
On the program’s rise over the last three seasons …
“You know, last night I had a big treat because every time I step on the floor at Madison Square Garden I think of something that has happened in my lifetime, and last night I drafted a local product from St. John's Bishop Auckland, Mark Jackson, and he was here at the game, he's here at the game tonight. He was my Rookie of the Year, second year made the All-Star team.
So it was such a thrill for me because it brought back so many incredible memories of him flying a plane every time we scored into the press. And to have Mark here means a lot to me because it's the past.
And now we fast-forward to the present and there's so much history with St. John's and we brought it all back in three years, not only with a high ranking, but the first time in history of the school to win back-to-back regular season [titles], back-to-back tournaments. But I told the guys in the locker room, I said, The one thing I always want -- obviously you want -- every coach wants to see the team get better and to peak at the right time. But I want to see the individuals get better. And these four guys all got a lot better as the season went along.
Zuby has gone from a guy that came in without a lot of confidence to now one of the great leaders in the game that I've ever coached. Bryce Hopkins has got significantly better, and I told Dillon [Mitchell] and Bryce going into this, If you guys don't dominate, we can't win this game. And they both played unbelievable.
Oziyah's been consistent from the summer to now, gotten a lot better defensively, but they have all gotten significantly better at latter stages of their careers, which is great for our coaching staff. And for me personally, being a New Yorker and seeing the thrills of our fans and seeing the thrills of the team means a great deal to me to be a small part of this whole thing.
So I'm really, really proud. I know Louie is looking down on us with great pride. Joe Lapchick's looking down on us with great pride, and I'm really, really impressed by all of them.
With 12:30 to go in the game, I had to take a timeout -- I had to waste a timeout, which infuriated me with these guys, and I said to them, You are fatiguing. Don't let this clock run out. You've got to keep the pressure on them offensively. Johnnies don't get tired. Johnnies don't get tired. I took Zuby out right before that, and he said to me, Coach, at eight minutes I'll kill. Bring me back in. And he did.
They all played a lot of minutes in this tournament and didn't fatigue, and at that point they just turned it around and dominated the game once again against a very good Connecticut team, very good. We held Mullins without a three-point shot at halftime. These guys played great. I don't know what was better, the defense, the offense, or the attitude.
So I'm real proud of all four of you guys. You're tremendous young men as well as being great basketball players, and you've all gotten significantly better, which is what every coach wants.”
On the team’s response after the loss to UConn earlier this season…
“Well, we talked about it, and I told 'em, I said, Look, my Louisville team lost to Providence by 32, and we went to a Final Four. We lost to Notre Dame by 31, and we went to an Elite 8. I said it's meaningless. It's meaningless.
Now, what's meaningful is how you come out against Villanova. You can't do anything about that loss, but you can do something about the way you come out against Villanova. And true to form with the character of these guys, they came out and I think won by 32 points against a very good Villanova team.”
On the “starving dog” mentality to start games…
“You know, we never mentioned revenge because we have so much respect for Connecticut. We just talked about championship. This is the championship. It doesn't matter who we're playing, it's a championship at stake. You guys get a chance to be a part of history. It's a championship. It's another night to get better and improve. And we did. We improved every single game and we got better. Remember, we were struggling come back against Xavier, come back against Butler, come back against Seton Hall. We're always trailing. And we came out, the ball went up and three straight nights we didn't relent at all. That's a great sign offensively and a great sign defensively going into the tournament.”
Senior Forward Zuby Ejiofor
On his emotions walking off the floor…
“Who was crying? He was crying. See, I told you about that. I told you. I saw that tear.
See, this is why I won't be doing nothing. I can't even show emotion no more.
Anyway, man, it was just bittersweet. Obviously, like I've said pretty much all year, we've had a target on our backs and we had to battle through adversity all season. Nobody believed that we could get to this moment but us. Everybody in the locker room and these guys, they earned it. They earned it. This is what they came here for, and we accomplished a few of the goals that we set out to do.”
On making key plays during the second-half run…
“Every time I go out there I just try to compete at a high level and do whatever it takes to come out successful, on the defensive end, on the offensive end, and do whatever it takes, like I said, to come out with the win.
But these guys, they competed all game, and they understood the assignment. We had to set the tone early against UConn because they're such a great program. So we set the tone early like we did pretty much all tournament, but we had to be resilient to come out with a win like this and these guys did that.”
On carrying momentum into the NCAA Tournament…
“Just carry the momentum that we have with this tournament to the NCAA tournament. But all you can do is just approach each and every day in the best way possible, practice, compete at a high level like a champion that we are, and we await to see who our next opponent is. But like I said, we're just going to enjoy this one tonight and regroup sooner than later.”
Graduate student guard/forward Bryce Hopkins
On whether the journey made transferring worth it…
“A hundred percent. I feel like the biggest thing for me is I'm just extremely blessed to be back healthy playing basketball at a hundred percent. I feel like that's the biggest thing. We have a great team right here. I'm in a great group of guys that I love going to work with every night. So, you know, this is some momentum that we can build on running into the tournament, and I just love playing with these guys.”
On his emotions after the win…
“It means a lot. We put in so much work, starting in the summer, and we're still putting in a ton of work right now, and it's just so rewarding that all the work we put in in the summer and all the long days, the long nights, the ups and downs, it paid off. We're not done yet. We have a lot more to go that we want to achieve, but this is definitely rewarding right now for sure.”
On getting multiple teammates involved early…
“For sure. We know what Zuby brings to the table and we all play off of that. But when everybody else is clicking as well, I feel like we're just that much harder to guard. Everybody's building their confidence when they see shots falling and it just means a lot for all of us to just go out there, have the extreme confidence playing off of one another.”
Senior guard Oziyah Sellers
On what lesson he would tell a young player watching St. John’s…
“It might sound a little cliché but to just never stop working. Me being from California, coming out here, it wasn't for any reason -- I mean, for no reason. I wanted to come to win a championship and that's what I had as a goal ever since June. So to be in this position and to win it feels great, it feels amazing, and we're not done yet.”
Senior forward Dillon Mitchell
On hearing Zuby Ejiofor say he wanted to win for the new players…
“Yeah, we talked about it earlier until the year just our goals coming in. Zuby, Sadiku, Ruben all the guys that were here last year just talked about the accomplishment of winning the Big East, not only the conference, the regular season, but also the tournament. And then seeing when they hung the banner up, they got the rings, it's unreal, and it's something that the new guys want to be a part of. And we preached it from the jump what our goals were, it's a long season, and we got to take one game at a time and 40 minutes at a time. But now to accomplish something that we had early June, it just, it's just a big testament to what we have put in every day on day-to-day basis.”
On the program’s rise over the last three seasons …
“You know, last night I had a big treat because every time I step on the floor at Madison Square Garden I think of something that has happened in my lifetime, and last night I drafted a local product from St. John's Bishop Auckland, Mark Jackson, and he was here at the game, he's here at the game tonight. He was my Rookie of the Year, second year made the All-Star team.
So it was such a thrill for me because it brought back so many incredible memories of him flying a plane every time we scored into the press. And to have Mark here means a lot to me because it's the past.
And now we fast-forward to the present and there's so much history with St. John's and we brought it all back in three years, not only with a high ranking, but the first time in history of the school to win back-to-back regular season [titles], back-to-back tournaments. But I told the guys in the locker room, I said, The one thing I always want -- obviously you want -- every coach wants to see the team get better and to peak at the right time. But I want to see the individuals get better. And these four guys all got a lot better as the season went along.
Zuby has gone from a guy that came in without a lot of confidence to now one of the great leaders in the game that I've ever coached. Bryce Hopkins has got significantly better, and I told Dillon [Mitchell] and Bryce going into this, If you guys don't dominate, we can't win this game. And they both played unbelievable.
Oziyah's been consistent from the summer to now, gotten a lot better defensively, but they have all gotten significantly better at latter stages of their careers, which is great for our coaching staff. And for me personally, being a New Yorker and seeing the thrills of our fans and seeing the thrills of the team means a great deal to me to be a small part of this whole thing.
So I'm really, really proud. I know Louie is looking down on us with great pride. Joe Lapchick's looking down on us with great pride, and I'm really, really impressed by all of them.
With 12:30 to go in the game, I had to take a timeout -- I had to waste a timeout, which infuriated me with these guys, and I said to them, You are fatiguing. Don't let this clock run out. You've got to keep the pressure on them offensively. Johnnies don't get tired. Johnnies don't get tired. I took Zuby out right before that, and he said to me, Coach, at eight minutes I'll kill. Bring me back in. And he did.
They all played a lot of minutes in this tournament and didn't fatigue, and at that point they just turned it around and dominated the game once again against a very good Connecticut team, very good. We held Mullins without a three-point shot at halftime. These guys played great. I don't know what was better, the defense, the offense, or the attitude.
So I'm real proud of all four of you guys. You're tremendous young men as well as being great basketball players, and you've all gotten significantly better, which is what every coach wants.”
On the team’s response after the loss to UConn earlier this season…
“Well, we talked about it, and I told 'em, I said, Look, my Louisville team lost to Providence by 32, and we went to a Final Four. We lost to Notre Dame by 31, and we went to an Elite 8. I said it's meaningless. It's meaningless.
Now, what's meaningful is how you come out against Villanova. You can't do anything about that loss, but you can do something about the way you come out against Villanova. And true to form with the character of these guys, they came out and I think won by 32 points against a very good Villanova team.”
On the “starving dog” mentality to start games…
“You know, we never mentioned revenge because we have so much respect for Connecticut. We just talked about championship. This is the championship. It doesn't matter who we're playing, it's a championship at stake. You guys get a chance to be a part of history. It's a championship. It's another night to get better and improve. And we did. We improved every single game and we got better. Remember, we were struggling come back against Xavier, come back against Butler, come back against Seton Hall. We're always trailing. And we came out, the ball went up and three straight nights we didn't relent at all. That's a great sign offensively and a great sign defensively going into the tournament.”
Senior Forward Zuby Ejiofor
On his emotions walking off the floor…
“Who was crying? He was crying. See, I told you about that. I told you. I saw that tear.
See, this is why I won't be doing nothing. I can't even show emotion no more.
Anyway, man, it was just bittersweet. Obviously, like I've said pretty much all year, we've had a target on our backs and we had to battle through adversity all season. Nobody believed that we could get to this moment but us. Everybody in the locker room and these guys, they earned it. They earned it. This is what they came here for, and we accomplished a few of the goals that we set out to do.”
On making key plays during the second-half run…
“Every time I go out there I just try to compete at a high level and do whatever it takes to come out successful, on the defensive end, on the offensive end, and do whatever it takes, like I said, to come out with the win.
But these guys, they competed all game, and they understood the assignment. We had to set the tone early against UConn because they're such a great program. So we set the tone early like we did pretty much all tournament, but we had to be resilient to come out with a win like this and these guys did that.”
On carrying momentum into the NCAA Tournament…
“Just carry the momentum that we have with this tournament to the NCAA tournament. But all you can do is just approach each and every day in the best way possible, practice, compete at a high level like a champion that we are, and we await to see who our next opponent is. But like I said, we're just going to enjoy this one tonight and regroup sooner than later.”
Graduate student guard/forward Bryce Hopkins
On whether the journey made transferring worth it…
“A hundred percent. I feel like the biggest thing for me is I'm just extremely blessed to be back healthy playing basketball at a hundred percent. I feel like that's the biggest thing. We have a great team right here. I'm in a great group of guys that I love going to work with every night. So, you know, this is some momentum that we can build on running into the tournament, and I just love playing with these guys.”
On his emotions after the win…
“It means a lot. We put in so much work, starting in the summer, and we're still putting in a ton of work right now, and it's just so rewarding that all the work we put in in the summer and all the long days, the long nights, the ups and downs, it paid off. We're not done yet. We have a lot more to go that we want to achieve, but this is definitely rewarding right now for sure.”
On getting multiple teammates involved early…
“For sure. We know what Zuby brings to the table and we all play off of that. But when everybody else is clicking as well, I feel like we're just that much harder to guard. Everybody's building their confidence when they see shots falling and it just means a lot for all of us to just go out there, have the extreme confidence playing off of one another.”
Senior guard Oziyah Sellers
On what lesson he would tell a young player watching St. John’s…
“It might sound a little cliché but to just never stop working. Me being from California, coming out here, it wasn't for any reason -- I mean, for no reason. I wanted to come to win a championship and that's what I had as a goal ever since June. So to be in this position and to win it feels great, it feels amazing, and we're not done yet.”
Senior forward Dillon Mitchell
On hearing Zuby Ejiofor say he wanted to win for the new players…
“Yeah, we talked about it earlier until the year just our goals coming in. Zuby, Sadiku, Ruben all the guys that were here last year just talked about the accomplishment of winning the Big East, not only the conference, the regular season, but also the tournament. And then seeing when they hung the banner up, they got the rings, it's unreal, and it's something that the new guys want to be a part of. And we preached it from the jump what our goals were, it's a long season, and we got to take one game at a time and 40 minutes at a time. But now to accomplish something that we had early June, it just, it's just a big testament to what we have put in every day on day-to-day basis.”