COURTESY OF ST. JOHN'S ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT
St. John’s Head Coach Mike Anderson
Opening statement…
“That’s a tough one there. ... I thought in the first half we played pretty good basketball and we had zero turnovers. … We ended up with 12 turnovers. ... The weird thing about it is that we get after each other from a pressure standpoint each and every day. Just not making the right decisions at the right time.
“Give [Georgetown] credit, they made some plays down the stretch. We didn’t make those plays. … Even the last play, 10 seconds was a lot of time, you’ve got to make a play. It’s a tough, tough loss, but our guys have been resilient throughout the year and we just have to find a way to bounce back.
“[Omer Yurtseven] obviously made some plays for them going down the stretch. But I can’t say enough about our inability to take care of the basketball. … I’ll take the blame on that. I thought I had them ready but evidently, I didn’t. We kind of shook the lineup a little bit and I thought that was really good. I thought we were good defensively, but you’ve got to take care of the basketball. I thought we started to play on our heels once we were up.”
On the last possession…
“We had it all set. I thought [Rasheem Dunn] had an attack to the lane, and he had a handoff with LJ [Figueroa] coming across. LJ had just made a shot for us so we had him set up to take a shot. The key was to be in attack mode. I thought he was going downhill and just lost the ball.”
On pressing during the last possession…
“It wasn’t even designed to be a trap. That’s what I’m saying, just making the right decision. It was just to make them work so they just don’t come down and pound it in there, so I thought that was a bad decision on our part to go and trap.”
On the lineup size on the final possession…
“We were trying to get people down there with him, but he’s smart enough that even when we had people coming at [Omer Yurtseven], doubling up, he was kicking the ball out. … He’s a pretty good basketball player. If you watched the game, I thought we had him guessing where we were coming from and we did a good job. … He’s a good player.”
On Georgetown down the stretch…
“I thought their energy went up because they were scoring and I thought we played on our heels. That was the difference. … I just thought we played on our heels and sometimes that is playing not to lose. When you start playing not to lose that's what takes place and I just thought we were not in attack mode.”
On if he should have pressed Georgetown earlier in the second half…
“We don’t want to be predictable. I thought the game went as scripted. We made them use players. I just thought in the second half we didn't continue with the pressure that we were applying, and then we start turning the ball over and that negates a lot of things that you're doing.”
On the changes in the starting lineup…
“First of all, I thought our guys came out and played with great energy. I thought our defense was connected. I thought offensively we had great ball movement. I thought even the guys that didn't start came off the bench and gave us some quality minutes. Every now and then you have to shake it up and that’s the biggest key. … I thought they did the things that I needed them to do. Our biggest hurdle has been finishing. We’re in position. We got to finish. Some of that can be a lack of guys being in those situations. We’ve been in enough situations now that hopefully we’re gaining experience. All of our games have come down to the little things and not the things that take place at the end. Our inability to make the right decision continues to be what we call attack mode.”
St. John’s Guard Rasheem Dunn
On what happened on the last play…
“As you all know, [the game] doesn’t come down to one possession, but obviously I couldn’t step up and make the big play that my team needed me to do. Things happen and that was just one of the mistakes that I could’ve prevented.”