Published: January 23, 2007
St. John’s Head Coach Norm Roberts
On tonight’s game:
“It was a terrific game. Notre Dame did a great job in
the second half and shot the ball well. I thought we played
well in the first half. We played so hard. In the
second half we just could not get a shot to go down for us.
We had a bunch of lay-ups and bunnies but the kids showed a lot of
toughness and stuck it out. Larry made that three and that
got us back on the right track. We got back (to being)
aggressive. I am really proud of the guys because they really
stuck together.”
On the improvement of his
team:
“I think they are working harder. I think they are
understanding each other more. I think they are understanding
me a little better. I think they are understanding what we
have to do to win. We have to play extremely hard, we have to
do the little things, we have to be fundamentally sound which we
aren’t all the time but when you play that hard you have an
opportunity to win.”
More on the improvement of the
team:
“I am coaching the same way. They are seeing it. What
makes your team good or better is when they start echoing what the
coaches are saying. That is what we are doing now. That
means they are coaching themselves. I think we are doing a
better job now.”
On Larry Wright’s game winning
shot:
“We have a lot of confidence in Larry shooting the ball. I
thought Mason is a better passer than Larry. Ultimately we
wanted to feed the post and get it to Lamont. Give Notre Dame
credit, they wouldn’t let us give it to Lamont inside and when we
did, Lamont did a great job of passing the ball.”
Freshman Guard Larry Wright
On his game winning shot:
“I am really not surprised that coach put me in because he knows
what I can do. He saw what I did in high school. He
trusted me and put me in that position and I just took advantage of
it. It felt real good. When it left I kind of knew it
was good. When it went in I was shocked.”
On being a freshman:
“I honestly don’t know any better. Right now, I just play the
game the way I know how to.”
Senior Foward Lamont Hamilton
On the improvement of the team:
“I think the win against Syracuse was a big accomplishment
and the team realizes what we are capable of doing. This is
what we should be doing in the beginning. We are going to try
to stick with it.”
On tonight’s game:
“I think we got off to a better start than we had in the beginning
of the season. There are a lot of teams in the Big East with
similar records, sort of neck and neck, so each night you have take
it serious. Every game matters. We take one game at a
time.”
Junior Guard Eugene Lawrence
On tonight’s game:
“We are satisfied with the win against Syracuse but that is
behind us. We just came out against Notre Dame
(tonight). We have to stay focused and stick with what got us
here.”
Notre Dame Head Coach Mike
Brey
On tonight’s game:
“That was a heck of a Big East game. We are disappointed we
didn’t steal it. I think it would have been a steal on the
road especially how we played in the first half. We gave
ourselves a chance and (Larry) Wright hit a big shot for them. We
just didn’t want (Lamont) Hamilton to beat up on us anymore because
we didn’t have many answers for him early. That group that
played the second half for us I am proud of. They battled and
fought and gave us an opportunity.”
On the first half:
“We had some costly turnovers. I thought turnovers at key
times hurt us and broke our rhythm offensively. Second half
we did a better job of that. That and (Lamont) Hamilton hurt
us.”