La Salle vs. Penn Quotes
Senior Center Steve Zack
On his big night:
“It’s just getting the ball in the right place. It wasn’t really anything really, just the flow of the game.”
On the balanced scoring:
“We all know we can score the ball. Our main focus right now is on our defense. We gave up 67 points tonight. Everyone knows they can score; we are all Division 1 players. It’s just we are really focused on our defense right now.”
On rebounding from the 0-4 stretch:
“I think the biggest part of our success is we had never played basketball together. We had three guards and then brought in three new guys. That chemistry is really starting to click. We know where each other are going to be on the court. When the ball comes in we know exactly where Jordan will be spotting up for three or other guys cutting. That chemistry is really starting to click and that will really help us going into Atlantic 10 play.”
On the team’s rebounding success:
“Its very important. If you are giving up second chance rebounds, if you aren’t closing out the possession with a rebound than you are giving them another chance to score on you. Obviously our main focus on getting defensive rebounds is big. Our guards’ crash, and our big guys do what we have to do in the paint. If all five guys do it we do a good job rebounding.”
Redshirt Sophomore Jordan Price
On Steve Zack and Jerrell Wright producing and opening up the offense:
“When they are playing better and getting baskets in the middle it opens things up. The guards go down and they double, and things open up for the guards, Cleon [Roberts] and the other guards to hit threes.”
On the balanced scoring attack:
“We are in the gym every day. This is nothing new to us. We knew this moment would come and it’s good that we are shooting the ball well going into Atlantic10 play.”
Head Coach Dr. John Giannini
Opening Statement:
“I am pleased although it’s the opposite of what most of our press conferences here are like, where we struggle on offense and are terrific on defense. Offensively we obviously did a good job with the exception of some turnovers. Defensively, they were really a challenge for us. They shot 52% from the field and that is something that is really going to bother us. That is really our identity, we like holding people in the 30s [shooting percentage] that’s our formula for winning, to play great defense, hold people in the 30s and not turn the ball over. We actually deviated from that formula today and that’s not a good thing for us. If we give up 50% from the field and turn the ball over we are not going to have a great year in the A-10. They challenged us and we were fortunate to have a great offensive night. We played hard, turned them over and I am pleased with the outcome.”
On players coming out of their shells:
“I don’t know why a player who takes thousands of shots a day would practice it but doesn’t want to shoot it in the game. I think I said after the Temple game, our offense is strange and I have no explanation for that. But Cleon has been shooting it more readily and better. He still didn’t take a shot today that he could have. The guy today that really had a break through game in that way is Amar Stukes. We have been begging Amar to be more aggressive because he is a very good player. I have compared him to Tyreek Duren which is pretty high praise in term of his potential impact. Because of his unselfishness and hesitating to be aggressive, I don’t know if everyone could see that. Tonight it was easy to see and we look for more of that from him. He played great defense too tonight. He is a great player but he needs to be more aggressive.”
On the offensive and team rebounding:
“I think Rohan Brown could be under noticed in this game. When he was in he got four offensive rebounds in 11 minutes. If I play him a little bit more he is on track to get 15 or 16 offensive rebounds a game. The point is his productivity is terrific. We expect Steve and Jerrell who are preseason all-A-10 to give great performances. They are big and strong physical guys so they should be great rebounders. Those guys had 12 of the 16 between them and that’s because Rohan is such a hard worker and tough kid.”
On having five guys in double figures:
“I just want the open guy to get the ball and have the confidence to shoot. We never talk about getting someone the ball, I’ll give you one expectation, getting the ball to Jerrell Wright is smart. Outside of getting the ball down to Jerrell, which can be difficult because everyone knows they have to stop him, getting the ball to the post is harder than getting it to a guard. Outside of getting the ball to Jerrell by design we just want to play team basketball and get the open guy the ball and be confident.”
“The ball finds a guy like Jordan. You don’t have to design plays for them. The ball finds them, their teammates find them. Their teammates know who can do some terrific work. They have confidence in them and themselves. The ball always finds your best guards. Big guys it’s a little tougher because you have a defense designed to stop them and they can dribble the ball up the court even though a lot of them would like to try.”
