By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)
“I thought their pressure was phenomenal. I thought they did a great job getting after Kooks (Kadary) early, and I thought their tempo was much, much different than it was the other night, it kind of got us on our heels early and they just did a good job of really coming after Kooks.”
On St. John’s personnel:
“I think putting Aaron Wheeler in makes a huge difference, just because of his length. I think he’s a difference-maker. With him, Soriano and Champagnie out there, that’s a big front line and you can get those guards to come after you. I thought Wheeler and Soriano have done a great job in both games of really not giving up anything easy out of their press. To me, Wheeler was the biggest difference in the game, and then Mathis hits a couple of threes, which obviously, that’s not what he’s known for. We cut it to nine twice in the second half and Mathis hit a three in the corner, and that was kind of a backbreaker right there, then we turned it over and they scored. But I think Aaron Wheeler, the way he’s playing right now, he’s a tough matchup.”
On his postgame message:
“We don’t have much time, Adam. We’ve gotta practice tomorrow and get ready for Marquette. This was what I was afraid of on Saturday, with one primary ball handler, Kooks was going to be a little tired. The effort he gave on Saturday was phenomenal, the effort he gave today was great. It’s just he had to do it a lot, and so sometimes you have to have a short memory.”
On St. John’s pressure and rebounding:
“I think what caught us off guard a little bit was their pace, to be honest with you. They played much faster than they did Saturday, and I think their pace offensively kind of caught us off guard, and then just kind of got us on defense and then their pressure — like I said, we beat their pressure early a couple of times — Wheeler and Soriano were terrific around the rim. They didn’t foul, they didn’t give anything easy, they made everything difficult. When those guys are playing that big and that long, they’re tough.”
“Well, we watched film at halftime. That was our total lack of effort on the rebounding, to be perfectly honest. That’s the major disappointment, I just thought we didn’t give the effort on the rebounding that we had in the first game.”
On the atmosphere inside Walsh Gymnasium:
“I don’t like playing here. It’s almost like it fits them perfect, they play at Carnesecca all the time, it’s a bandbox. But it is what it is, you have no control over the schedule. Our home crowd at the Prudential Center’s really good. We get like, 9,000 people for a Big East game, so that’s 8,000 less people that were there that would have been there. We don’t practice up there, I think that’s the first time we’ve been up there in about three months, so I’ll take the Prudential Center.”
On what disappointed him most:
“I just thought our effort on the rebounding side really disappointed me most. I thought we did a great job rebounding. If you look at the first four or five possessions Posh got in, he got three offensive rebounds, two putbacks, a foul. That changed the momentum of the game, missed shots and then Posh goes in there. And we did a phenomenal job on him the first game, we boxed out, we made sure we had a body on him. But again, I thought their pace that they played at offensively kind of got our matchups not great, but I thought our effort rebounding was terrible.”
On the difference in Posh Alexander:
“I don’t think there was anything different. I think Wheeler was the biggest difference. I thought defensively he ran and trapped the first half, he was a nuisance all night long, especially defensively. I think Posh plays good every game. Just because he had an off night the other night, we kept him off the glass, I thought that was the biggest thing. You look at some of his made field goals, where’s he at? He’s 7-for-12, he has four offensive rebounds from buckets. That’s a big difference.”
Thank you for this, lets go Johnnies!
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