Quote Center: St. John's Postgame vs. Georgetown
COURTESY OF ST. JOHN’S RED STORM ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
St. John’s Head Coach Chris Mullin…
On if it’s been challenging to build chemistry with this team:
“I don’t think so. We’re 15-5 and quite frankly I think Georgetown played a hell of a game. They made some tough shots. They got their confidence up and it carried them. The last five minutes of the game I thought we played great complementary, unselfish, hustling defense. We had a couple of tip-ins that could’ve tied the game. Would have liked to play a little bit better in the first half. These [BIG EAST] games are all tight. They all come down to one or two possessions. The flow of the game is going to come and go. Georgetown may feel like they should’ve won by 20. We’ll regroup and play well for the rest of the season like we have.”
On the team’s perimeter defense:
“I think you’ll look at some of [Georgetown’s 3-point field goals], and they made some NBA threes that we played them pretty close. Sometimes good offense beats good defense. That’s the difference in this game. [Georgetown] made 13 threes. There were a few that I thought were tough shots. I thought they played a really good game. I think we didn’t play our best but with a minute and a half left to go, we were in pretty good position to take the lead but we didn’t. That’s the way sports are.”
On the opportunity the team has these next three games:
“These are great opportunities. What else would you rather do. We’re gonna go to Creighton and play in a packed house. [Should be] a close game. We’re gonna go to Duke. I haven’t been there since 1981 when I visited there so I’m excited about that. Then we play Marquette, one of the best offenses in the country. What else would you rather do than that? If you’re not excited about that, jeez. Every day is an opportunity.”
St. John’s guard Shamorie Ponds…
On where the team stands after today’s loss:
“I don’t know honestly. I think we have to regroup and get back to our winning ways.”
On what’s changed over the last two weeks:
“I have to look back at the film. I feel like as a team we’re parting ways. We’re not as together as we were in the beginning.”
On processing where the team is now after starting the season 12-0:
“I wouldn’t say we’re desperate. Like Mustapha [Heron] said, we have to take it one game at a time. We know that we have a tough three-game stretch coming up. We know that we can win these games. We just have to get back to winning ways.”
St. John’s guard Mustapha Heron…
His thoughts on the sequence with the unsuccessful tip-ins to tie the game:
“We were fighting back and playing hard. We tried to get the tip-in. We couldn’t. That’s definitely a shot that we’ll live with when taking because we know we can make that shot. We make that shot and it’s a different game.”
On how the team will approach the rest of the games this season:
“One game at a time. We’ll try and win every one. We go to all of these different places and we’ll pay attention to the scout. Pay attention to what we have to do and play our game.”
On if the last possession should’ve produced points:
“Yeah it should’ve. At the end of the day, it doesn’t come down to one possession. We came out in the first half and we had some spurts where we were just going through the motions. We put ourselves in that position so that one possession is what it is. It could’ve gone either way.”