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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2009

Norm Roberts

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

Marquette 74
St. John's 45

COACH NORM ROBERTS: Give Marquette a lot of credit. They played very well. We played like a tired team. We had some opportunities early, didn't make shots.
They capitalized on it and then we hung our heads a little bit when we shouldn't but it's all a maturation process with our guys.
We know we've got a lot to learn and to get better, they've got veteran guys, seniors, and they made plays when we didn't.
I thought we got some good looks early and we didn't capitalize on it. They took it better.
JOHN PAQUETTE: Questions, please.

Q. Coach, how soon did you see possibly the mental fatigue of your team in the first half, particularly the first six, ten minutes?
COACH NORM ROBERTS: The score was close, 13-6 or 5 or something like that. We had some bunnies, had some easy shots inside and they just missed them. We just missed them and they came down really where they hurt us was on the glass and usually we hurt other people on the glass and long shots, long rebounds, they were a little bit quicker to the ball than we were at times and they scored mainly early on second shots and, you know, that's uncharacteristic of us but we give them a lot of credit. They really got to the glass and did a good job.

Q. Norm, you know, I know that even in defeat you have shown a lot of -- you felt a lot of positive things about the way your guys played, the effort.
Are we at a point for the St. John's program where effort is not enough yet, not enough anymore where there has to be some sort of production and results?
COACH NORM ROBERTS: I think there's been production this year and just like I told my team, I'm not going to let one game dictate what happened this year. We've had a decent season. We worked through a lot of things, toughness things. We worked through a lot of things with injuries. Today was their day.
They just made shots, shots that Paris Horne and D.J. Kennedy made last night, they didn't go in today. Those things happen and they took advantage of it but we've got to learn as a team to be more mature which we will and be able to deal with those things and fight through it and I thought we tried to but when things didn't go well for us, you know, they got out to a lead and they've got some really good players, I mean (Jerel) McNeal, half the shots he makes are unbelievable with guys right on him, he's falling down, he's making them and Wesley Matthews played very well for them and (Lazar) Hayward is one of the better players in the league, so, you know, they made the plays and we didn't but there's nobody going to tell me that things aren't bright, things aren't bright and we're moving totally in the right direction. I love my guys, I love the attitudes they have. I love how hard they try.

Q. Going into the off-season now to work for next season, will you be taking what you did yesterday, which was a lot of good things and throughout today's game, will you want to accentuate what happened yesterday?
COACH NORM ROBERTS: We learn from every experience. Do I dwell on the negative? I don't have time to do that. That's not my job to dwell on that. We move on. Just like when we do good things, we move on, too. We don't dwell on that, either.
So I think our guys know they've got the taste of playing in the tournament, gotten a taste of playing against high level people and doing well and we got to learn from that. That's what Jerel McNeal did, that's that Wesley Matthews did.
It's a process and that's what Paris Horne will do, that's what D.J. Kennedy will do. We'll get to the off-season, little bit of time off and then get in the off-season and get after it and get better.
I said that now people know that D.J. Kennedy and Paris Horne are good players so they're going to guard you. Now you got to develop your games. You got to make your games even better. You got to get stronger in the weight room, all that stuff. All our guys know that. They'll work hard.

Q. Norm, just from talking to some of your guys including Paris and D.J. in the locker room, things they said were, you know, to explain the first half, were not mentally ready or maybe a little bit of fatigue.
In your mind, why do you think the first half went the way it did and did you have any idea it might be going that way from what you saw before the game?
COACH NORM ROBERTS: No. I think we missed shots. We missed shots early and we kind of got down and then when you're playing against a veteran team, you know, it's similar to the situation we played DePaul earlier in the year and when we were at DePaul they weren't making shots early and we were and I kept saying to our guys we got to get them right now because they're not mentally in it. We're going to have a chance to get them.
Okay. That happened to us tonight. We didn't make shots. We kind of got down and they took advantage of it and, you know, we had a couple of plays there that we needed to make and we didn't make them and they did and sometimes it goes that way. You hate for that to happen but it goes that way.
JOHN PAQUETTE: Questions for the players.

Q. What's going through your guy's minds early in the game when you're having so much trouble getting shots to fall and especially knowing that that could be the way that your season ends?
D.J. KENNEDY: I mean we had a few games this season where we wasn't making shots early. I mean as -- we started off like that a few games. We just kept trying to fight through it like we thought eventually we'll make shots because we work hard and shoot a lot in the gym everyday.
So, being a shooter and a player you can't keep working on the negative. Hopefully they will drop. They weren't dropping today the shots we took so it was just -- got to give Marquette, a lot of credit. Veteran team. They walk away with a W today.

Q. Both of the players, guys struggled this year but I know you're less than an hour away from the game being over.
Have you thought about how much potential you guys could have next year, all you guys are coming back, getting (Anthony) Mason back next year, maybe a certain high school player, we'll see, but have you thought about that for next year?
PARIS HORNE: Yeah, just a little bit. This program is up and coming and we got a lot of talent coming back and we're going to take this loss and go back and work hard and get better.
D.J. KENNEDY: We felt before the season started we felt we were great players. A lot of people didn't realize how much talent we had on this team. Throughout the season a lot of teams realize we have a lot of great young players on this team and we was able to show them. Next year they'll be ready for us. We've got to develop new things for our game and come back next year stronger.
JOHN PAQUETTE: Anything else? St. John's, thank you.

End of FastScripts

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