Quote Center: St. John's Pregame vs. Seton Hall
St. John’s Head Coach Chris Mullin
On how he thinks Shamorie Ponds will perform on Saturday…
“Just play his regular, good game and be aggressive offensively. He has to be alert on the defensive end, push the pace and be a pest on defense.”
On what has been different from Shamorie Ponds play lately…
“His pace has been a little off. That is it.”
On importance of tomorrow’s game…
“We are both 7-7 [in the BIG EAST], so it is a big game. … All of the chatter and all of that stuff [doesn’t matter], we have to go out and play tomorrow at 8 p.m.”
On the BIG EAST rivalry with Seton Hall…
“We have to go out and play, so it becomes something for you guys to talk about. All of our energy has to be placed on going out and doing what we need to do to win tomorrow’s game.”
On spending extra time with Shamorie Ponds…
“Yeah, we always spend time in the gym. The guy has played great basketball for three years. I’m not worried or concerned about him. He is going to go out and have a great game tomorrow night. Why wouldn’t he? He has had way more great games [than not in his career].”
On Shamorie Ponds’ confidence…
“He never lacks confidence.”
On Marvin Clark II coming off Wednesday’s game at Providence…
“He has played a lot of good games for us. He will be fine. Everyone is allowed to have a bad game. … It is over.”
On the importance of getting off to a good start tomorrow night…
“We talk about playing for 40 minutes, but there are going to be games that you have to adjust.”
On how the first meeting with Seton Hall ended…
“It’s in the past. There is nothing you can do about that.”
On his expectations for the team tomorrow night…
“I expect them to play great. It’s what they do. They are resilient and they show up to play.”
On competing inside a full Madison Square Garden…
“It’s awesome. [There is] nothing like MSG and nothing like that atmosphere in the world.”
St. John’s Guard Shamorie Ponds
On his expectations for Saturday’s game with Seton Hall…
“Go out there and get a win. They beat us at their home, so we are going to go out and try to
On if there is more motivation for this game…
“There is motivation for every game. They beat us and that’s the only motivation we need.”
On the energy inside Madison Square Garden…
“It is “The World’s Most Famous Arena.” If you aren’t pumped up, you aren’t ready to play. We have to get a win in front of our home crowd.”
On the opportunity to get back in the win column on Saturday….
“It is huge. Especially, on our home court. ... We need to go out there and fight, play our game, have fun and let the crowd have a show.”
On last four games of the regular-season…
“These four games are big. … We take it one game at a time.”
On what fan should expect from the team tomorrow…
“Play hard, have fun and hopefully get the win.”
St. John’s Forward Marvin Clark II
On Shamorie Ponds…
“We have to find a way to get him going early through the highs and lows of adversity. Coach Greg [St. Jean] worked with us after practice on getting extra shots. We have to shoot it out and get ourselves going. We know that tomorrow is going to be a crazy night because of Senior Night. We are going to bring our energy and compete. Two things about Shamorie are if he’s down, he’s never down for too long and he never disappoints his hometown. He’s playing at his home [Madison Square] Garden with 19,000 strong. I know he’s going to bring it.”
On Seton Hall…
“They are not going to come in here and forfeit their season. We have come in and play hard.”
On Senior Night emotions…
“It’s going to be different and bittersweet for sure. I have my whole family, my mom and five siblings, coming [to Madison Square Garden] for the first time. I know they’ll be more emotional than me because it’s a whole different atmosphere. This is going to be the first time my mom is going to see my play at my home arena and third time in college.”