St. John's University Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: NCAA TOURNAMENT SWEET 16 ST. JOHN’S VS. DUKE
St. John’s Men’s Basketball Head Coach Rick Pitino, senior forward Zuby Ejiofor and senior forward Dillon Mitchell spoke to the media following the matchup against top-seeded Duke on Friday night, 80-75
Head Coach Rick Pitino
Opening statement…
“Thank you. As far as the game is concerned, we felt we had to win the 3-point line in a big way to have any shot at this game, and we did. We were up ten, we could not stop bully drives, bully drives, bully drives, bully drives, four, and we could not stop it, which is a credit to them. Our guys played with great heart. They made some defensive mistakes down the stretch, but that's a credit to them. We had our moments in the game. We fought hard all season. We're all very disappointed we didn't have a chance to win a National Championship, but that's a credit to Duke.”
On whether spacing and shot selection impacted rebounding…
“No, it was we had to win the 3-point line. It was our only chance to beat them. But if you break the game down, I just watched the last 12 minutes because we just sat in the room. It was just the drives to the basket that we could not guard. Duke has been doing that to a lot of people. Our guys gave a valiant effort. You can see how disappointed they are. We believed we were going to win this game. We're all very disappointed. I told our guys, look, I've been in this situation before. You trained all year like you trained in the Olympics. Our frontcourt was 18-for-31 offensively, but you're at the podium right now and you've got a bronze medal around your neck because you won the Big East regular, Big East Championship, and you got the bronze medal. It's not as good as a gold, it's not as good as a silver, but you won the bronze, and you should feel very, very proud of that.”
On what it means to see his players emotional at the podium…
“This team was one of the most unique teams I've had in 52 years. Never one argument amongst the players, impossible summer and regular season. Not one potential fight or somebody getting upset at somebody. I've never seen that in my 52 years. They were just the greatest kids in the world. They wanted to win so badly. They were willing to do anything to try and win. I'll never have a team like this again with that type of attitude. I may have some good teams, but never, ever again with this type of attitude and just incredible people. My heart breaks for them right now”
On how challenging it is to play the last game with his senior players…
“It's hard, but I'd like to believe that Duke has come back many times. They're a great basketball team. We could not defend them. That's why up ten did not last. That's why we couldn't defend them. We played a great first half. We answered the bell on every punch. And in the second half, we just could not guard certain things they ran to the basket. If we could have, if we were a little bit bigger and more physical there, probably could have made a difference, but we did not. There's no regrets about that, just great feelings for the team. You can see how much it hurt them. They certainly will not play again together. That's the difficulty about a new team potentially. We'll all take some time off and just look back, I think each and every day, as we have in the past, with great pride in what they did, the fight that they had, the people they were. Then we all take some time off because it's much needed. Thank you all for the support.”
Senior forward Zuby Ejiofor
On his emotions after a difficult end to his career…
“Obviously pretty disappointed. I felt, like Coach said, we had a couple moments, we had opportunities down the stretch to be able to come out with the win, but little mistakes here and there with our coverages, and they were able to exploit us with some mismatches and stuff like that. So obviously disappointed. Fell just short of the Elite Eight and our chance to go to the Final Four. One heck of a year, but yeah, pretty disappointed.”
On what he wants fans to remember him by…
“Yeah, just a competitive player on the court, but my character is something that I pride myself on the most. To all the St. John's nation, I appreciate you guys over the past three years just embracing the player”
Senior forward Dillon Mitchell…
On the difficulty of getting stops late in the game…
“Just making mistakes that you can't have at this time of the year, not listening to Coach. You can't have mistakes like that at this time of the year, and it cost us. It cost us the game. It cost us our season. It's just disappointing.”
On the specific defensive breakdowns late in the game…
“Both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively. They were in the zone, and we didn't run what we were supposed to run. We were messed up, not getting to our stops. Defensively just not making the right switches, not doing the right things on the defensive end. Just both sides of the ball, making mistakes
Opening statement…
“Thank you. As far as the game is concerned, we felt we had to win the 3-point line in a big way to have any shot at this game, and we did. We were up ten, we could not stop bully drives, bully drives, bully drives, bully drives, four, and we could not stop it, which is a credit to them. Our guys played with great heart. They made some defensive mistakes down the stretch, but that's a credit to them. We had our moments in the game. We fought hard all season. We're all very disappointed we didn't have a chance to win a National Championship, but that's a credit to Duke.”
On whether spacing and shot selection impacted rebounding…
“No, it was we had to win the 3-point line. It was our only chance to beat them. But if you break the game down, I just watched the last 12 minutes because we just sat in the room. It was just the drives to the basket that we could not guard. Duke has been doing that to a lot of people. Our guys gave a valiant effort. You can see how disappointed they are. We believed we were going to win this game. We're all very disappointed. I told our guys, look, I've been in this situation before. You trained all year like you trained in the Olympics. Our frontcourt was 18-for-31 offensively, but you're at the podium right now and you've got a bronze medal around your neck because you won the Big East regular, Big East Championship, and you got the bronze medal. It's not as good as a gold, it's not as good as a silver, but you won the bronze, and you should feel very, very proud of that.”
On what it means to see his players emotional at the podium…
“This team was one of the most unique teams I've had in 52 years. Never one argument amongst the players, impossible summer and regular season. Not one potential fight or somebody getting upset at somebody. I've never seen that in my 52 years. They were just the greatest kids in the world. They wanted to win so badly. They were willing to do anything to try and win. I'll never have a team like this again with that type of attitude. I may have some good teams, but never, ever again with this type of attitude and just incredible people. My heart breaks for them right now”
On how challenging it is to play the last game with his senior players…
“It's hard, but I'd like to believe that Duke has come back many times. They're a great basketball team. We could not defend them. That's why up ten did not last. That's why we couldn't defend them. We played a great first half. We answered the bell on every punch. And in the second half, we just could not guard certain things they ran to the basket. If we could have, if we were a little bit bigger and more physical there, probably could have made a difference, but we did not. There's no regrets about that, just great feelings for the team. You can see how much it hurt them. They certainly will not play again together. That's the difficulty about a new team potentially. We'll all take some time off and just look back, I think each and every day, as we have in the past, with great pride in what they did, the fight that they had, the people they were. Then we all take some time off because it's much needed. Thank you all for the support.”
Senior forward Zuby Ejiofor
On his emotions after a difficult end to his career…
“Obviously pretty disappointed. I felt, like Coach said, we had a couple moments, we had opportunities down the stretch to be able to come out with the win, but little mistakes here and there with our coverages, and they were able to exploit us with some mismatches and stuff like that. So obviously disappointed. Fell just short of the Elite Eight and our chance to go to the Final Four. One heck of a year, but yeah, pretty disappointed.”
On what he wants fans to remember him by…
“Yeah, just a competitive player on the court, but my character is something that I pride myself on the most. To all the St. John's nation, I appreciate you guys over the past three years just embracing the player”
Senior forward Dillon Mitchell…
On the difficulty of getting stops late in the game…
“Just making mistakes that you can't have at this time of the year, not listening to Coach. You can't have mistakes like that at this time of the year, and it cost us. It cost us the game. It cost us our season. It's just disappointing.”
On the specific defensive breakdowns late in the game…
“Both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively. They were in the zone, and we didn't run what we were supposed to run. We were messed up, not getting to our stops. Defensively just not making the right switches, not doing the right things on the defensive end. Just both sides of the ball, making mistakes