La Salle - St. Bonaventure Quotes
Coach Giannini
Opening Statement:
“Today we beat a very good that has been playing very well. It was a great effort. The two things that we haven’t been very well has been our defense and rebounding. You win the rebounding margin by 14, with Jordan (Price) getting 10 which is tremendous and Tony (Washington) getting 12 which is tremendous. We take three charges and hold them to 37% from the field. This is what we should have been doing and plan on continue to do a better job of. The kids played very hard, and we got better. We haven’t been playing this way but did today against a good team and we want to keep doing it.”
On playing small:
“We have four guards so we have one big guy. It’s the nature of our personnel. It’s not something that’s a game plan; it’s what required of our personnel. It’s the way I like to play and the way our good teams have played in the past. We have to get back to it. We say we only have two positions on our team, guards and big guys. When we have the four guards out there we want them to help each other get shots. Today was great.”
On Yevgen Sakhniuk:
“His shooting percentage fell tonight, he only went 2-of-3 today, he is shooting .735 on the year. He hasn’t been feeling well all year, our training staff is working with him. He got fatigued and we couldn’t leave him in as long as we would like to. Every time he touches the ball we think he is going to score. I was fascinated by his banked in free throw. That was something I have not seen before. We have seen him get baskets and score and drive, but the banked in free throw was a new strategy.”
On the defense:
“We do a lot of switching and in this game we tried to keep the right matchups. We tried to keep Cleon and Jordan on 12 (Denzel Gregg) and 21 (Dion Wright) and tried to keep our smaller quicker guys on 3 (Marcus Posley) and 10 (Jaylen Adams). I think our guys did a great job. I think they all did a great job. Maybe with this team we aren’t as interchangeable as we thought we would be. We stuck with the better matchups. They still communicated and switched at times. They did exactly what we asked them to do”
On the loss from St. Bonaventure perspective:
“This is an old school from Bob Knight era thing, its very hard for people to play well especially on the road after a big win. Remember Butler came in here after winning on College GameDay at the Buzzer against Gonzaga and we got them. Its human nature. When you beat George Washington at a packed Reilly Center it’s hard to maintain that. We did outrebound them by 14 and held them to 37% but I think we had a lot to do that. Now that is something we have to try to do. Good teams win and keep winning. That is what every team wants to do. Sometimes after big ones teams do overlook a team.”
On Tony Washington:
“Tony is a big part of our future. At this point we think about two things the next game and next year. I am thinking about George Washington and how guys progress. Tony is a huge positive in that area.”
Jordan Price
On the pick-and-roll:
“I feel like our three ball opened it up. Our guards were hitting threes and open shots so they couldn’t help as much on the wing. When that opens up its just you and the big man off a screen. That makes it easier.”
Cleon Roberts
On answer St. Bonaventure’s runs:
“We have been in that position before. A lot of times when they make their runs we just have to keep our heads. Eventually we grew from that.”
