Published: November 16, 2006
NEW YORK
St. John's Head Coach Norm Roberts
On tonight’s game:
“We didn’t play very well obviously. Give them a lot of
credit. Maryland played really well. They shot the ball
well. They got second shots and they got us spread out.
We were lackadaisical with the ball. They are a very good
team. They beat us hard on the boards. We just have to
do a better job and we just have to get better. We know we
have a long way to go. We know that. We have to come
back tomorrow and be ready to fight.”
On the team’s defense:
“We just have to stay focused. I thought we lost
focus. We didn’t finish plays. They got some run outs
and scored. We tried to go too fast. Our guys have not
been in that environment much this year. It is a new
environment for us. We just have to get back to basics.”
On Maryland’s defense:
“They did a good job. They are long. They get their
hands on the balls. We have to be strong with the basketball
and make really crisp passes. We didn’t do that. We allowed
them to get confident.”
On the level of play in the ACC:
“My guys played against the Dukes (of the world). They
know about the ACC level. Tonight was just a bad night for
us. When we are good we are all good together. When we
stink, we stink. We know we can play better but it is
early. This is a great tournament. We just have to come
out tomorrow and play solid.”
On bouncing back tomorrow:
“The one thing that is good about our guys is that they don’t
point fingers at one another. They know we didn’t do it
together tonight and we will get better. We are going to move
on. We know we can’t get it back. Now we have to focus
on playing another great team because there are two great teams
(Michigan State and Texas) playing right now. Hopefully we
will compete and get after it.”
Lamont Hamilton
On tonight’s game:
“I think we came out and got into an up and down game with them
which is their style. A lot of their players hit a lot of
threes and got a lot of second chance opportunities. We just
didn’t come out ready. I think it was pretty embarrassing to
lose like this on national television.”
Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
On tonight’s game:
“It is something you don’t expect. The beginning of the year
you are working hard, practicing and trying to get to a certain
level. I thought we were a very good team on November 16
tonight. I think two things characterized us so far:
the willingness to play really aggressive defense and making the
extra pass on offense. We did both of those things in the
first half. I think St. John’s missed some shots that they
normally make. It shows promise for our team. It shows
that we can play at a certain level if we do the right
things. We will have a tough game tomorrow night whoever we
play so we have to put this one away and move on.”
On the young guys on the team:
“I thought our young guys especially (Greivis) Vazquez and (Eric)
Hayes did a good job especially shooting the ball in the first
half. Their backcourt is probably the best backcourt we have
played so far. It is kind of a building block.”
On playing in Madison Square Garden:
"They got this game tonight so they know they can play in the
Garden so now you have that in the back of your mind. You can
tell the character of players playing in a building like this,
especially Madison Square Garden. I told our guys before the
game that every college basketball player should have the
opportunity to play here. It goes back to my BIG EAST days at
Boston College. It is a little different atmosphere. It
is unique.”
On the start of the game:
“We don’t start real big, we start quick. (Ekene) Ibekwe
and James Gist are both really quick players. Obviously with
some of St. John’s bulk, I thought they would post us up. We
were really quick tonight to start the game for some reason.
We were able to break a lot of things in transition and when we
didn’t have it we were smart enough to get into our half court
set.”
On Ekene Ibekwe:
“He has been playing like that in practice. He had a really
good summer. He played in Japan in the World games for
Nigeria. I think that he was trying too hard (in the
games). Sometimes you should just stay with what was working
in practice if you are working hard and playing well. He did
that tonight. He did a good job.”