COURTESY OF ST. JOHN’S ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT:
St. John’s Head Coach Mike Anderson
On tonight’s game…
“Our guys came out with a sense of urgency and I believe we kept that sense of urgency throughout the game. Guys came off the bench to give us some quality minutes. It was good team win. We did a much better job of taking care of the basketball.”
“I was proud of our guys just coming in and playing with a sense of urgency on defense and offense. I think that’s the biggest thing I saw.”
On the team’s style of play…
“I think it gets you to play instinctively when you play that way. Even in our last game, I thought we played hard, we just didn’t play smart. We had six assists for the whole game. That’s not our type of team. Today, we were a lot better in terms of ball movement, sharing the basketball and guys not playing a whole lot of minutes. I think it puts you in attack mode and we want to play in attack mode. Defensively, not letting people get comfortable, make the game chaotic. At the same time, offensively, we want to make them expend a lot of energy guarding us. We did a much better job of tonight in that department.”
On if Rasheem Dunn will be inserted into the starting lineup…
“Obviously, to me, he is a starter. Whether he comes off the bench or starts, it doesn’t matter. The most important thing is minutes. I think that’s what you have to look at. … They key is getting quality minutes and what you do with those minutes, but you can see how he just impacts our basketball team. He’s a threat offensively. He’s tenacious on defense. He’s like a little lightning bolt out there, as a matter of fact when you talk about the type of player he is. He’s a team player.”
On the team being ready for the Basketball Hall of Fame Tip Off Classic this weekend…
“Ready or not, it’s the next test. It’s the next test on our schedule. All it is, is it’s getting you prepared for what’s going to take place in BIG EAST play. … This is going to be a neutral site against a very, very good Arizona State team that has a lot of returning players. But my guys will enjoy this to midnight and then we’ll get ready for Arizona State.”
On Julian Champagnie…
“He continues to get confident. That’s going to be important because he’s a guy, one of those stretch forwards that can stretch the floor for us. He can guard a guard. He can switch out on a big. Getting his confidence growing only makes us a much better basketball team.”
St. John’s Guard Mustapha Heron
On rebounding from last game…
“I think we cleaned up exactly what we needed to clean up last game, which was turnovers and our defense. We had I think eight turnovers by the end of the game, they had 18. …. We had 12 turnovers in the second half last week, so I think that we focused on cleaning that up and trying to clean up our defense and both were really productive tonight.”
On what coach was like in the huddle after Columbia scored several times at the start of the second half…
“I don’t think he was angry; it was more just trying to motivate us to continue what we were doing and not change what got us the success in the first place.”
On playing tough teams this weekend on the road in Connecticut…
“It will be a great challenge. We’re looking forward to it. Taking a look at the teams that are going to be out there this weekend starting with Arizona State, you know, definitely have some history losing to them last year. But like coach just said in the locker room before we came out here, ‘it’s a new year this year.’ We’re coming in with a new mindset, preparation is going to be a little different and I think we’re going to be ready.”
St. John’s Guard Rasheem Dunn
On the difference from this game compared to the last game…
“I think we bounced back from the Vermont game. We just approached the game differently coming off a tough loss. We just had to take our anger out on an opponent, not that Columbia is a bad team, they’re a very good team. It was just a tough loss that we dealt with and we felt like we had to bounce back.”
On how he feels about coming off the bench…
“Starting, on the bench, it doesn’t really matter to me. The way coach plays and the way coach’s style is, everybody plays. Me coming off the bench, I just got to pick up the starters and continue to apply that pressure and continue to motivate my team and do what we do.”
Columbia Head Coach Jim Engles
On St. John’s…
“I thought St John’s played great. They played focused basketball. They really physically dominated us at times on the glass.”
