Quote Center: St. John's Postgame vs. Georgia Tech

COURTESY OF ST. JOHN’S RED STORM ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE"

St. John’s Head Coach Chris Mullin…

On how the comeback win defines his team:

“We talk about adversity all of the time. When things go your way, you just go with the flow. When things get funky, it’s important for our guys to rely on each other. We talked about that when we were down 16. Strategically, you may change a thing or two but as a team, you have to take it one possession at a time and play good defense. Momentum flipped their way at the end of the first half, we were tentative on defense and they shot 60% to close out the half. Our defensive stops really changed the game. We maintained our defensive posture and ran the open floor well on offense.”

On their press defense:

“Our press has been solid. You have to give Georgia Tech a lot of credit. They ran that clock down and they played off the dribble. They played a solid 30 minutes of basketball, both offensively and defensively. At any level, any time you give another team confidence, they’ll give you a tough game every time.”

On the team’s defense in the second half:

“We started the game like that. We took away their first, second, and third options. When the shot clocks goes under ten seconds, it’s about playing good one-on-one defense. We have good one-on-one defenders but they’re not going to get stops every time. We did a better job contesting and getting rebounds in the second half.” 

On the advantage of playing neutral-site games early in the season:

“We get something out of every practice and film session. Games like this will come back to help us. When you have a situation like this to come back from a 16-point deficit, our guys did a great job regrouping and they all stepped up when they needed to. When you look back on it later in the season, I think it will be very valuable for our guys.”

Junior guard Shamorie Ponds…

On the comeback win:

“I think we got off to a great start but then at the end of the half, they punched us in the mouth. We just had to respond.”

On the team’s early struggles:

“I don’t think the zone gave us trouble. They definitely played great in zone. We were relaxed, the ball wasn’t moving and it hurt us.”

On overcoming a 16-point deficit:

“It’s a brotherhood. From game one, we’ve played well together, even if we were down big. Staying together has been a big key for us.”