St. John’s Head Coach Mike Anderson
Opening Statement…
“We all know that conference games bring on a different mindset. I thought our guys brought the intensity. I talked about taking the sense of urgency up many notches, and I thought we did that from start to finish. Defensively, that was probably the most consistent effort against a team [this season]. They shot a lot of threes. They made some, but I thought we contested quite a bit and ran them off the line. It was a good team effort. The guys that came off the bench gave us some quality minutes. We shared and took care of the basketball from start to finish. We played with space and the ball was moving. We played the game the right way. I think the game rewarded us with a win in conference play against a DePaul team that’s going to scratch and claw.”
On the win…
“I thought we played the game the right way. We defended and we shared the basketball. I thought, in the last few games, our tempo has been mid-tempo. Our energy levels were different today. I think there was a sense of urgency too. We talked about getting better and getting the bad taste out of our mouths with what took place [at Iowa State]. I thought that game was very similar to a conference game, so maybe that helped us in this one. I was proud of our guys. Our students and our fans were outstanding. There was great energy in the building and we fed off of it.”
On David Jones…
“I saw a composed guy. I thought he played the game the right way. He didn’t force things, he was engaged defensively and rebounded the ball. I thought he took another step in the right direction in terms of what we’re asking of him.”
On Posh Alexander…
“When I was watching him, I thought he had an impact on the game without even making a jump shot. Everybody gets caught up in the jump shot, and he’s going to make shots. I’m not worried about that. Let’s talk about some of the other things. Let’s talk about how he led this team. The shots will take care of themselves. He works on it enough. I believe in him and he believes in himself.”
Senior center Joel Soriano
On the team’s 12-0 run to start to the game…
“After our performance at Iowa State, we wanted to pick it up a little bit, build off that and just be better as a defensive squad and on our offense. We emphasized a lot of moving the basketball and buckets in transition. When we move like that, it is beautiful basketball.“
On the team’s 9-1 start this season…
“We take it one game at a time. We are trying to work on the things that we have struggled with at the beginning of the season. We are not going to be the same team that we are now come March. We just want to take it game by game and keep getting better with each win.”
Junior forward David Jones
On how it felt to play against his old team…
“For me, it was a regular game. I went to that school last year. My coaches and teammates told me to just play my game. Even though they were my old teammates and coaches, I was just trying to win today.”
On playing with Joel Soriano…
“He’s a seven-footer, weighing [255], we have to take advantage of Joel. We play inside and out, and that worked out for him and for us. We did that today and that’s what we need to do every game.”
