Quote Center: Big East Teleconference #2 (St. John's)

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

St. John’s Head Coach Chris Mullin…

On applying lessons learned from the last game at Villanova:

“That’s a broad question. I think [Villanova] had nine or ten offensive rebounds. Some of it is partly [not] boxing out. Partly the ball bounces a strange way sometimes. The two games we lost, we’ve won games very similar to them. Even at the end of that game, we had a turnover. We were down three and we opted not to foul. The ball went off the backboard and [Villanova] got the 50-50 ball near the sideline. We had [a day] off yesterday. We’re going to have a nice practice today and a good practice Friday and get ready for DePaul. We’re not looking too far back and see all the details.”

On why the ball stopped moving late in the Seton Hall and Villanova games:

“I don’t know. We get off to a really good start sometimes. I thought we got a little relaxed and we thought we were going to get those shots all night. In both instances you have to give the other team credit. They played good defense. Villanova likes to play a small lineup. They have some good defenders. It’s a combination of that and us not moving the ball like we should have at the end. You can’t short change DePaul’s defense as well.”

On closing games better offensively:

“We’ve played a lot of close games and we’ve done a good job in some and obviously in two we haven’t. We’ll try and do better, honestly.”

On the impact of his transfers this season:

“Historically at St. John’s we’ve always had transfers. It may be new to some other schools. It certainly isn’t new for St. John’s. We’ve had guys like that and a lot of times they come in with a lot of maturity, more experience and probably a little more open-mindedness, because they’ve been somewhere else. They’re more open to making things work at their next destination.”

On the key to stopping Marquette’s Markus Howard:

“I think a lot of luck actually. We had a nice game plan. It sometimes doesn’t always work against a kid like him. If he gets hot, he’ll make shots even if you play good defense on him. So we caught him on a good night. I’ll give us some credit, but good offense beats good defense all the time and he’s an incredible scorer.”