“I thought we played hard, not smart. It’s funny, man…every time we play at home, we’re a different team and I don’t know why. Like, on the road, obviously you gotta be more together, but on the road, no one cares about who gets what here. The game plan was simple, St. John’s is a really good team, obviously very well-coached, but we knew they were gonna clog the lanes up and we had a bunch of drive-and-kicks that I thought could have been easier shots we could make, and we just didn’t do that tonight. I thought that was a big difference, but I thought we played hard, but not smart.”
Did he like the looks Seton Hall got?
“Some of them. I thought we had some really good ones in the first half. The second half, I thought we had about two or three of them, but we could have had a lot more. Guys were forcing shots, taking tough twos instead of just driving, kicking, coming to jump stops and kicking it out. We watched it at halftime, we watched it before the game, we watched it yesterday. I knew that they were gonna play that way and we just didn’t cash in. You go from having 16-17 assists the last couple games to today, having eight or nine because we just weren’t popping the basketball.”
On making a run in the Big East tournament:
“I don’t know, Adam. That’s all the experts with that. But I thought with this team, it’s shown that we can play with anyone, right? We just gotta finish games out or do the little things, but yeah, this team is funny because this team don’t like doing things easy. They like doing things the hard way, so now they gotta go to New York and earn it, and take it. That’s what it is. I’m obviously disappointed, an unbelievable opportunity tonight, but we just didn’t do the little things to cash in.”
On opportunities while Zuby Ejiofor was on the bench:
“I’ll be honest with you, it was like the first game. Obviously he played really well, he’s a big-time player, he got 21. But it’s like the first game, he got in foul trouble and the kid (Ruben) Prey, the first game, he played very well against us and this game, he played very well against us. I thought they got some easy points, I thought we did a really good job in the half-court defense, I thought our half-court defense was really good, but they had some runouts and we had some bonehead plays on defense just like, what are you doing? But he’s a good basketball player and good players come up with big games. I thought he had a good second half.”
On Najai Hines and Budd Clark:
“I thought he was solid. I give Najai a lot of credit. It came down to right before the game that he was gonna play. Budd wasn’t supposed to play, you gotta give credit where credit is due, he wasn’t supposed to play at all but the doctors, trainers, everything — he didn’t do nothing for two days — this morning, he tried to do the walkthrough and I was like, ‘big dawg,’ and he’s like, ‘I’m playing.’ I was like, ‘no you not, it’s a gametime decision,’ and he told me he felt good and he wanted to do it. Those are the type of players you want on your team, both of those guys. Both those guys didn’t do nothing for two days, and to come out and play the way they both played, they both gave us a lot of energy and gave us everything they had to try to win this game.”
On outrebounding St. John’s:
“That’s what we talked about the last two days, keeping (Dillon) Mitchell, (Bryce) Hopkins, and obviously Zuby off the glass. Obviously, I thought we had control of the first game and the last eight minutes, they imposed their will and hit the offensive glass. This was a big thing and give credit, they got all the 50-50 balls tonight, every last one of them. Our guys were trying to run out instead of getting the possession, and I think that was the difference. They made a couple threes off that. Those are the little things you gotta do to win games.”
On playing at 2:30 in the Big East tournament:
“I don’t know. I think the only good thing right now is for Budd, Najai and Twin — he got hurt today — these guys get some time to rest. The 2:30 start, I guess, is what it is.”
On St. John’s under Rick Pitino:
“I mean, he’s a Hall of Fame coach for a reason. He’s very good at what he does, his coaching staff is good, they don’t get a lot of credit like they should. Obviously, I want to give him credit because he’s a great coach and he’s very supportive of me, always, he’s always been very supportive of me and I’ve been very supportive of him. But what he’s done in a short period of time is very impressive.”
On his message to the team entering the Big East tournament:
“I just told them in the locker room: We don’t like making things easy. We like making things difficult, making things hard, so now we gotta go in there and take it. The way you do it is preparing the right way. I think we’ll find out who we’re playing tomorrow afternoon or something like that, we’ll just go and prepare, and get ready, try to get as healthy as we can and just go in there with a different mindset. It’s a one-game series, we gotta get past the first game and then kind of go from there. I just want to give…the crowd was great tonight, I think they came out tonight and it was great. I think too many St. John’s fans, though, to tell you the truth. The crowd was great tonight, they tried to get behind us and we tried to give them everything we got, but I just want to say I feel awful for the seniors because I always want to get them a win on senior night. It’s a big thing for me, it’s our last game here at home. I think all our fans should be encouraged, the team gave them everything they have, everything. They played their tails off, their butts off, this team just continues to keep battling, and I think that’s a great sign for us all. I’m pleased about that. I’m sad about the loss, but pleased about the way this team carried itself the whole year. I’m looking forward to next week.”
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