Nov. 25, 2007

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

- St. John's Head Coach Norm Roberts
Opening Statement:
"I give FDU a lot of credit, they really shot the ball well. We knew they could shoot it, we had seen it on film, but it's a little bit different when you see it live. They can really really score the ball and they have three guys that can do it. We kind of got into a game at the beginning where we're scoring, they're scoring and nobody is really playing any defense. I thought our guys did a great job of coming out in the second half and really locking in defensively and understanding that in order to win the game you have to guard. We did a better job of that, and a much better job of rebounding. I thought we got the ball inside when we needed to and a lot of guys stepped up and made plays."

On the smaller line up:
"They started spreading us out and Eric Hazard can really shoot, and we were over committing. We needed to get quicker feet out there, we needed to change and disrupt their flow. With that quicker line up we were able to do that. We haven't had that type of versatility in the first three years that I've been here. Hopefully, it will be even better when [Anthony] Mason gets back. It allows us to play smaller line ups, bigger line ups. We can do the smaller line up with D. J. Kennedy and Paris Horne if we have to."

On Eugene Lawrence's assist numbers:
"As you get older the game slows down to you, so the game is probably slowing down a little bit for him. He's making some better decisions than he's done in the past. He also has some better guys handling the ball. That takes a lot off of you. D.J. can handle the ball, Paris can, Malik [Boothe] can, Larry [Wright] has gotten better at handling the ball. In the last few years its just been Geno handling the ball and making great passes. He's making the simple plays and he's got a few more weapons that he has around him that he hasn't had before, that are finishing plays."

On the feel for the team at this point:
"I think we are getting better. Every game that we play, we want to hopefully say, that we got a little better at something. I thought today we had to deal with some adversity and we had to fight through it and we really had to turn up the juice defensively and make some plays. I think it is a step in the right direction. We just have to continue to get better and better. We're young, we're going to make mistakes, but even though we make mistakes let's do it as hard as we can and let's play with passion and energy and I thought we did that in the second half."

Senior Guard Eugene Lawrence
On his thoughts about the team's first half defensive play:
"We got too content with hitting our shots so we kind of fell off of our pressure, which led them to hit shots, so I was a little disappointed. I think we weren't playing up to the full potential and capabilities that we know we have."

On picking up the tempo of the game in the second half:
"Coach showed us from the side they were trying to spread us out. We went with a smaller line up tonight which gave us faster feet, which helped speed them up a little bit. In the first half we over helped too much. Eric Hazard [on Fairleigh Dickinson] got a lot of open looks in the first half, with real good uncontested shots because we were over helping on the penetration. Coach told us that. In the second half we did more bluffing and staying with our man so they couldn't get more clean looks."

Sophomore Guard Larry Wright
On the change in tone after the halftime:
"When we went into halftime, coach told us we needed to step up our defensive pressure because we were just going back and forth scoring and there really was no defensive pressure. They were shooting the ball great. We just stepped it up in the second half, picking each other up on the defensive end a lot more."

On his thoughts about the team's first half defensive play:
"I was sort of disappointed. We weren't rotating well enough to the shooters. We knew who the shooters were and we weren't getting a hand up, we weren't pressuring the ball. In the second half we really picked it up."

Freshman Forward Justin Burrell
On the change in tone after the first half:
"When we went into halftime, coach told us we needed to step up our defensive pressure because we were just going back and forth scoring and there really was no defensive pressure."

Fairleigh Dickinson Head Coach Tom Green
Opening Statement:
"If this was a 20 minute game, I'd be a lot happier. Obviously the game is 40 minutes and we didn't play 40 minutes worth of basketball. I'm not sure what Norm said at halftime, but he could probably bottle it, write it down and sell it to about 330 other Division I coaches and I certainly would buy a copy of whatever he said."

On preparing for tonight's game:
"We thought our zone defense would be effective. It was effective for the first 20 minutes of the game and then they started picking us apart. In the second half it came down to good shot selection for St. John's which brought us out of our zone and forced us to play man to man and from then on their talent out-played us."

On guarding Eugene Lawrence and Larry Wright:
"We knew they were very talented and knew they were very capable shooters. We didn't defend them as well as we thought we could. Defense has been a problem with us all year long."

On defending Justin Burrell on the glass:
"Justin's a very good athlete and he has a great career ahead of him. I'm not sure if there was anything we could have done to defend him. Five of his rebounds were offensive; we should have done a better job at blocking him out. He's a very good athlete and he's going to get his share of rebounds throughout the course of the year."

On preparing his team for the future:
"We have to start playing better team defense. We can't expect to give up 92 points and win too many games. We've only won one game this year so we definitely need to step up that part of our game."