COURTESY OF ST. JOHN’S ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT
St. John’s Head Coach Mike Anderson
Opening statement…
“Let’s give Villanova credit tonight. They came out knocking down shots. We got off to a pretty good start and I thought they settled in. I think their experience showed. We had a bunch of layups that we missed and you can’t miss layups. When you’re not shooting the ball well, you can’t miss layups and I thought we did. Those were kind of backbreakers and then I thought it trickled into our defense. It just seemed like we were a half step slow to wherever they were. They took advantage of it and that’s what good teams do. They’re one of the top 10 teams in the country and there’s a reason why, so let’s give them credit. I thought we’d come and play a lot better, but that’s basketball in the BIG EAST.”
On the team’s play tonight…
“This team here doesn’t have a whole lot of margin for error. I’ve said that from day one. A lot of things have to go right, but let’s not take away any credit from Villanova. I thought [Collin Gillespie] did a good job of controlling the tempo. They made open shots. They did whatever they wanted to do. I think from a learning standpoint we’ve got to have short-term memory. Every game we’ve played this year, we’ve had our chances.”
On Mustapha Heron’s play of late…
“You’ve got to remember he’s coming off of an injury. I thought the last three games you could kind of see him get his pop back. … He had some open looks and just couldn’t knock them down.”
On Villanova…
“They have a lot of guys who are versatile that can go off the dribble. I didn’t think we played the type of defense we were playing all year long. I thought they were able to offensively do what they wanted to do and when the doubles came they were smart enough to take advantage of it and kick it out and guys made shots. They were poised. They’re experienced guys. You look at the guys that were making shots, [Collin] Gillespie, [Saddiq] Bey. … I thought that [Villanova] did what they needed to do. They controlled the tempo.”
St. John’s Guard Rasheem Dunn
On his performance tonight…
“I think I was just ready to play. … That’s how I’ve always played, just being in attack mode. In the first half, we didn’t come out and attack and we were settling for a lot of threes. … I just tried to attack and I was converting on a lot of those [around the rim].”
On tonight’s performance…
“I just feel like today we didn’t play our best basketball. We didn’t play our best defense that we normally play. Villanova is a great team.”
Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright
On St. John’s…
“We played a good team, a good, tough defensive team that is going to win a lot of games in this league. I was proud of how we handled their pressure. They can get after you. They have great quickness. Their pressure is organized. It’s tough to handle.”
