Quote Center: St. John's Postgame @ Georgetown
COURTESY OF ST. JOHN’S RED STORM ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
St. John's Head Coach Chris Mullin…
On struggling to close out close games:
"This was as extreme as it gets. We fouled a three-point shooter, then we went to the line with a chance to go up four, and then the next three [Marcus Derrickson] made. … I don't know what to say about that."
On whether or not to foul Marcus Derrickson on the tying three in overtime:
"Ideally, yes. Not coming out of a timeout, it's kind of hard to get these guys' attention on the way up, but ideally yeah. I love to foul in that situation. Once that guy gets behind that three, on the way up the court ideally, but again sometimes it's hard to relay that message not coming out of a timeout. Philosophically, yeah I like to foul in that situation. No question. Do you do it earlier? Yes. What happens after that, who knows, but philosophically that's what I like to do. We couldn't get the message over there coming off the free throw. [Marcus Derrickson] just made a highly-contested shot."
On Georgetown running a lot of offense through Jahvon Blair:
"He gets a lot of shots. He's got the second-most field goal attempts on the team, so that's the guy they go to. He made some three's tonight."
On what was the defensive plan on Marcus Derrickson:
"We tried to battle him in the post. [Marcus] and [Jessie Govan] are really good in the post. We tried to fight him off the post, and apply help when needed. They made some big plays. Our guys for the whole night battled pretty well. Tough ending for us."
On whether it's tougher to be optimistic as the losing streak grows:
"Right now, for sure. Right after this tough loss it stings. Again, some things we can clean up. It's a test, it's definitely a test. We got to keep battling, work through it, believe in each other, keep the faith, stay diligent, and we'll get there."
On whether the team is staying cohesive during the tough stretch:
"Yeah. Again, right after the game it stings. It's tough. We'll regroup, look at the tape, analyze it with a clean mind, and then move onto the next game."
On Georgetown:
"They are in good shape. They have two big guys who are really good. They have some young guards coming along. They play a good style. If they can bang threes like that, they'll be in good shape."
On Marcus Derrickson scoring a majority of points in overtime:
"They were feeding him and Govan heavy doses down in the post, and I thought we did a pretty decent job. We had some guys foul out in overtime, so we got deep into our bench. Just have to give him credit, he made some shots."
On battling with a short bench:
"Again, I think the effort has been there for most of our games. Execution has been the thing, especially in a game like tonight."