“I think this was his best game. He always plays really well here, but I think this was his best game he’s ever played just because he didn’t settle to be a shooter. I thought he was aggressive, I thought he was getting to the rim and I thought he did a phenomenal job on Champagnie, obviously, because Julian’s one of the best players in the league and to have him shoot the night he had, that’s a pretty good compliment.”
On St. John’s offensive play calling for Julian Champagnie:
“He scored 40 games in a row with double-digit points, so I think they’re doing a pretty good job with him. I didn’t have to guard him, you could probably ask Myles.”
On Ike Obiagu’s defense and Jared Rhoden:
“Ikey’s been, ever since we got him back, it’s been a huge difference maker in the way we play, the way he protects the rim, and I think he’s really rebounding the basketball better than he did earlier in the season. Jared’s shooting is a direct correlation to us not running the same stuff we were not able to run in December for a ton of reasons. We played two Big East games with seven guys, but no big men, so we couldn’t run the stuff we were running. And then we got away from that, and it’s been hard to — we didn’t have much practice time — it’s been hard to get back into a rhythm offensively, and some of the things we’re running, he’s getting stuck with the ball late in the shot clock and he’s having to take some tough shots. So I think his struggles are a little bit kind of like our struggles. We’re not as smooth as we were before the COVID pause.”
On Bryce Aiken:
“I have no updates on Bryce.”
On St. John’s pressure defense:
“I can’t talk for Mike, but I think Mike’s stuck a little bit in the same situation we’re in. As much as you’d like to press — he’s playing Champagnie 38, Posh 33, Wusu is playing 30 minutes. It’s hard to press that much and be able to play on the offensive end. We went back and watched last year’s games against them — I think they pressed more than anyone the year before that — to see the press offense we had against them. I think he his minutes balance was much more even within ten guys. Champagnie’s playing 38 minutes and he’s playing really hard. I think Julian’s improved his game tremendously. It’s hard to ask him to press and then come back and be a high-level scorer. I still think they’re a very good defensive team, even when they’re not pressing, because they switch and because Posh is such a good one-on-one defender. I think we’re a little fresher, we’re coming off a bye week and they played at Creighton Wednesday night, and then played at noon here. The way the schedule’s set up now because of all the rescheduling, we’ve gotta play Monday at 9:00 and I’ve gotta play Marquette Wednesday at 8:30 on one day’s rest. Unfortunately, I think you’re going to run into teams that are going to be a little more tired than you were, and I think that’s a big benefit.”
On Alexis Yetna:
“I think Lex has kind of found a groove of what Big East basketball’s all about. He’s doing a lot of junkyard dog work, he’s doing a lot of things — I think he’s playing very well defensively, he’s rebounding the ball really well, I’d like to see him be a little bit more aggressive in the post at times, but I think he’s playing like a typical high-level Big East player.”
On Kadary Richmond:
“I thought Kadary was phenomenal. He obviously got tired in the second half, but I thought he took better care of the ball in the second half even though he was missing shots. He was getting at the rim, he was putting pressure on their defense, and not turning the ball over, I thought was key because it kept them out of transition.”
On surprise of winning despite an off shooting day:
“Yeah, I’d be pretty surprised, Zach. You ask questions that answer themselves, that’s why I love you! Every time you’re at a press conference, you ask a question and it’s like…I thought Myles Cale and Alexis Yetna played phenomenal. I thought Tyrese Samuel started to play like Tyrese Samuel did before he got COVID and obviously was stuck in Canada for 13 days, so I think the addition of Tyrese playing at a high level with Lex and MC being aggressive and doing what we had to do to win the game, we’re not going to win very many games going 5-for-30 (Richmond and Rhoden). I think you’ve gotta get other guys to step up, and defensively, I thought Ikey and Tyrese down low were really, really good, and obviously when you hold one of the best players in the league to a 3-for-14 night, it almost balances out.”
On Monday night’s game at Walsh Gymnasium:
“Jerry, I haven’t really thought about it, to be honest with you. You can call me tomorrow. I’ll think about it on the bus ride home, if you don’t mind. I just haven’t — they’ve been great all year, they’re going to be great on Monday, we have a great student section — but I just haven’t really thought about the Walsh game and how we’re doing it because I haven’t really talked to anybody about it.”
On building momentum in next two home games:
“Well, we need to. Obviously when you’ve been on the road…how many games have we played? Five of our — thanks, Jerry, you have all the stats today — five of the seven have been on the road, so you’ve gotta win home games. Home games are huge, so to Jerry’s point, having an all-student game is kind of cool. I thought about it, there’s your answer.”
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