Quote Center: St. John's Postgame @ No. 11/12 Xavier

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

St. John's Head Coach Chris Mullin…

On whether 82 points might have been enough for a win:
"It's been a tough stretch for us. We've actually played some pretty good basketball and have not gotten a win for it, but we just have to keep plugging away. I'm proud of my guys' performance. It's really just a matter of sticking with it, hanging tough, staying together, and I'm pretty confident we will turn."

On if St. John's has found its way without Marcus LoVett:
"I'm pretty transparent and evaluate how we play. For the most part, we played pretty well. In conference we haven't gotten a win yet, but five of the seven games we played pretty good basketball. We have to be honest with that, we were trying to clean things up to help us out for the next game, but I thought tonight was a hell of a game. [Xavier] played great too. Look at their shooting numbers, it was a pretty phenomenal game, and they came out on top. Congratulations to Chris Mack too for his record-breaking win. I actually knew Pete Gillen very well, he coached high school in my neighborhood back in the day. Congratulations."

On where the program is in the building process:
"Again, its the oldest cliché in the book, but we go one day at a time. We really do. It's really handy when you get in this predicament, but if you live that way it's not a cliché. Like I said, good performance, but not good enough. We will stay positive, keep fighting, and it'll turn."

On Justin Simon's night:
"I think it was just his whole approach. He was aggressive. He made a mistake here-and-there, but he also did not let it affect his next decision. Justin's a very talented kid, and I was hard on him about just being aggressive. I'm not worried about him, or any of my guys, making mistakes. We practice, we do scouting reports, and all of that to prepare, but in the end I want them to go play and be aggressive. Each and every guy. [Simon] had a phenomenal game, but I really think it was his approach. He just came out in attack mode, and stayed there all night."

On coaching against Chris Mack and Xavier:
"I think they are one of the most aggressive teams that we play. Both on the offensive end and defensive end. They're very physical and aggressive. I think they play with confidence. I like their style of play. I like their players. They play kind of a throwback style, very aggressive. I think they have a great team and he's a great coach."

Redshirt sophomore guard Justin Simon…

On having a career night:
"To me, that doesn't mean much to me personally. I was just trying to do everything I could for my team to get the win. We couldn't quite do that. Xavier is a good team. Credit to them, they played really well tonight. Scoring that many points is not really my game, but whatever my team needs me to do is what I'll do."

On whether the team needed him to score:
"Coach [Mullin] told me to be aggressive, don't worry about the mistakes I make, just to play hard, have fun out there, and I feel like I was doing that."

On if playing at Cintas Center is a tough environment:
"We love the adversity, the crowd against us, being the villain, so I mean I love away games. This is really a tough arena to play in. The crowd got really loud at one point, but that really didn't affect our play. It's amazing atmosphere. Amazing environment."