PREGAME QUOTES: St. John’s Men’s Basketball vs Seton Hall
St. John’s guard Daniss Jenkins and forward Chris Ledlum met with the media on Friday ahead of the Red Storm’s matchup with Seton Hall on Sunday at UBS Arena
February 16, 2024
St. John’s forward Chris Ledlum
On the importance of earning a win on Sunday versus Seton Hall…
“Definitely. I think it’s not just the Seton Hall game, I think every game from here on out is obviously a must-win. We are going to take it one game at a time. I think we are going to approach it as a team as every game is a must-win.”
On Coach Pitino’s quote that the team expects to win its last six games …
“I kind of just take it as that this is what we are supposed to do. We have been in a lot of close games, games we should have won. Obviously, that’s how basketball is but I know we have the ability to do it and now we just have to go out there and do it.”
On if the team is lacking confidence late in games…
“I don’t think that’s ever something that’s on our mind. I think we just have to do better at closing games, obviously, and making sure we stay focused on the task at hand.”
On coming up short in close games…
“It is obviously upsetting and frustrating, but I’ve been playing basketball long enough to know stuff like this does happen. This does not mean our season is over, we control our own destiny. …As a team, we know that we can play with anybody, and we can beat anybody, so when we lose games that we are in control of, it’s definitely frustrating.”
St. John’s guard Daniss Jenkins
On the team’s second-half struggles…
“You know, it's really not about pointing to anything. I just really think it’s about competing for 40 minutes. It’s kind of easy, energy is high, emotions are high when you start the game in the first half. You know, if you don’t come out to play in the first half then you don’t have any shot at winning. It seems as the game goes on we lose that edge. I don’t want to say we get tight or anything because I know we don’t get tight. To me, it’s just that we aren’t competing for 40 minutes, we are just not doing it for a full game, maybe half a game or just 10 minutes. It’s like three to four minutes in the second half where we let a team go on a run. If I had to point to anything it's that. It’s like a three to four-minute span where we let the game get away from us in the second half. Even though it may still be close, we may only be down two or three or even one, but we still let the other team take the momentum from us in the second half. That’s the thing that is frustrating for us because we are controlling the whole game and then there are like three to four minutes where let the momentum shift and we can just never get it back.”
On having the mindset to win the next six games…
“In a basketball season, you don’t even want to lose any games. So, our intentions were to win out even before the Marquette or the Providence game. We were looking at the schedule and we were like ‘ok, we can kind of hit our stride,’ but, we lost those close games. The goal was always to win as many games as possible before March. It’s not like there is pressure because it’s been pressure the whole season. We know St. John’s is ready to win, we are ready to win. We are ready to make our mark in college basketball and be looked at differently. We all have had this goal in mind the whole time. Coming into these last six games it’s not like ‘oh ok now we really have to win’. We have been saying that since we played Villanova at The Garden. We knew every game since then was a must-win. So, it’s not really like a mindset change. … We have had this mindset for a long time. We’ve been looking at our schedule, we looked at the games that we lost early on and we said the games we really needed to get, which is every game. We go into every game expecting to win, that’s who our coach is and that is who we are. I try to tell the guys and myself, this is what I go by, you can’t worry about tomorrow until you take care of today. I don’t want to think about the past and I don’t want to worry about the future. You just have to be where your feet are at each and every day. We try to get better each practice before these last six [games] and we are just going to lay it all on the line. For these last six, we are going to lay it on the line for 40 minutes and I believe we will be on the right side of the win column.”
On the development of the team…
“Everything in life you have to be patient for. In basketball, you can’t rush trust and things like that. It’s not even about rushing. I know some people are saying we are running out of time, but you never know what could happen in these last six games. The men’s basketball team, we know what’s going to happen. We really don’t worry about any of that. We come in and work hard every single day. We’ve got the greatest coach in college basketball, we have a great staff and we all go hard for each other. We come in every single day and we are just working to reach that goal we have since we started playing this year. We knew what our challenges were, we knew what adversity we were up against. Now, it’s just about who wants it more these last few games, that’s really all it's going to come down to with our team. … You can come out and play yourself into the tournament. Just as you can lose yourself and be out of the tournament. You can win yourself into the tournament, so we are right where we want to be.”
On if the team is losing confidence…
“No, actually not. Look at the teams we have lost to. How long has that Marquette team been together? How long have some of those UConn [players] been together? Coming off a national championship. Providence has been together. We have a brand-new team. These are guys who have never played together before. The frustrating part is we know all that and we are still in the game to win it. That’s the only frustrating part. It’s not like we lose confidence. Why would you lose confidence just because you lose? Losing, you just know what you need to work on and what you need to be better at and we just have not corrected those things yet and sustained that consistently. That’s the only frustrating part. We know how hard we work every day at practice. We show it in the games, we just don’t show it for 40 minutes. That’s the only thing, there is no need to lose confidence. We all know how hard we work and we know who we are. It’s about doing it for 40 minutes and making that the standard every game with that effort level. If we play every game with the effort, we just played Providence for 40 minutes, I know we will be fine.
HALL
SJU
