Duke Postgame Discussion

Wow....real happy for the team especially Evans who stepped up HUGE today.  Great all around game by everybody especially Hardy Brownlee and Horne.  Also need to mention Boothe who did a great job with the press.

Also helps when Duke can't make a shot!

we just played a great game. regardless of how bad they played.
Its a great win on so many levels because this team strives on confidence and momentum and when players like boothe and evans can come in and do their job were a better team.

in order for us to win there needs to be certain things happen. hardy and brownlee have to hit shots, burrell has to board, and we have to create more turnovers than we give up

Few random thoughts....

Great, Great win for the program and Big East. 

Brownlee and his ball handling made a huge difference and as a Pf was a huge mismatch against the Duke big men.

Lavin had a great gameplan knowing Duke would extend defensively and implemented great back cuts. 

Why Coach K continued to extend defensively ill never know.  OUr athleticm and interchangable players was not a good matchup.  We were beating them off the dribble all day. 

Great job against the press.  So many easy hoops. 

Great job by the team particularly Sean Evans and his 5-5 from the floor (and refusing to dribble when he had an opening in the open court).

Back on the bubble, hopefully the team gets some confidence and finishes out this season strong.

Great gameplan by the staff, everything seemed to work. Evans was fantastic

What a great win.

I'm sooo glad we attacked their pressure in the 2nd half...played real smart and made good choices between backing it out and attacking.

Stj didn't play a perfect game.... but damn near close to it...... biggest win since hatten sinks those free throws

Back on the bubble for sure, but as easily as we got on we can fall off if we dont bring like this against Rutgers. Now that we won this one the RU game is equally or more important to get.

This was a program changing win.  Forget the GTown, WVU and ND game.  This is what can catapult us to the next level.  These kids looked amazing.  I was at the game and this game was never really close.  We made duke look like they never even wanted to be there.  Our fans and myself included, get so high and low like the consistency of this team but if this team cant build off this victory than they truly dont deserve any accolades the rest of the way. 

We may still be on the bubble(in my mind not) but they just have to go 9-9 in the conference and a win in the tournament and on selection sunday we can expect an tournament bid.

We were so much more athletic and quicker than Duke today! The team played great today especially on the defensive end. Yes Duke could not hit a thing but we were running at them every time they went to shoot!

A big win that will help our resume come Selection Sunday but first we have to take care of business down the stretch starting with Rutgers!

On another note the Garden crowd was absolutely outstanding today!

Great win for the team.  Congrats to Sean Evans especially I have been on his case all year about terrible play but he stepped up today.  This team is a roller coaster and I am hoping we still have a shot at the tourney but I still have this terrible feeling that the losses to Fordham and St. Bonaventure are going to comeback and bite us in the ass. Need to keep this thing going and pick up a conference win against Rutgers next.

-Coach Lavin said that they tried to push out their 2-2-1 press. He felt that they didn't push out their press as much as they should against Georgetown.

-He talked about the crowd and said he felt that it was good that the players were finally getting rewarded for yeoman's work. He wants them to keep coming here and looking at the team's improvement, which may or may not show in wins and losses.

-He said that he enjoyed his time broadcasting, but he missed actually "participating" in upset wins and particularly road victories.

-Lavs talked about the odds of playing eight straight Top 25 teams are infinitesimal.  He said they've played the #2 strength of schedule and had an RPI of 27 entering the game, but needed to keep winning and not let Rutgers be a trap game before heading to UCLA next weekend. He felt that this was their fourth big win of the year-after WVU, Georgetown, and ND. He thinks they're a NCAA team, but need to keep winning.

-Lavs said Coaches Keady, Wooden, and K were the three coaches he reached out to and tried to learn defensive approaches from as a young coach.

-He said they went after the players hard after the Georgetown loss. First video, then weights, and finally brought them back on the court. Nearly five hour practice.

-Coach K deemphasized the importance of the game vis-a-vis ACC vs BE. He felt that this was simply about SJU and Duke.

-Coach K felt SJU played beautifully today, that they passed the ball very well, and that their two best players, Hardy and Brownlee, played like their best players today. He said he didn't want to take away from St. John's win, but felt that his program didn't compete-until it was too late. He talked about his players' faces being blank and not being talkative.

-Coach K talked about how St. John's was able to get into the lane against every type of defense (zone, press, man) that they threw at them. He talked about the matchup problem that Brownlee caused as a guy who plays the 4 or 5 for SJU, when he's a 3.

-Coach K felt that they were more athletic than Duke and tried to exploit that today. He mentioned that he thought Coach Lavin was a good coach and did a good job at UCLA, a very difficult place to coach.

That was awesome. The best win I've ever seen at the Garden.

home from the Garden

This is how it must feel in heaven

My throat is raspy now and voice will be useless tomorrow.  Glad to see more red at the Garden and More Redmen fans standing to support the team.  I must say I did not expect this--i said to my friend right before tip off that a 15 point game (loss) would be respectable.  I got the final difference right and thank goodness I got the winner wrong in my pre game prognostications.

I feel so happy for the lads watching them give it all and getting respect and support from the crowd.

one last item--on the subway platform I over a father telling his son not to worry but Duke would win the next time.  i bit my tongue as I wanted to say not in New York!

By far one of the best SJU games I've EVER watched.  Great win fellas.

manbearpig was doin cartwheels down to penn station after the game. that was awesome.  manbearpig did ppl see security mess up some of those kids who tried to storm the court. i saw a couple of kids get laid out. im no lawyer but lawsuits maybe?

Lavin quotes:

On Duke's defense:" We've seen teams that press and against Louisville we didn't handle the ball really well. I though today we were crisp in our judgements; we were prudent with decision making at the end of breaking their press, whether it was sitting down for a jump stop,  making that extra pass, probing or investigating for the open man. With their pressure, through the years, they unnerve opponents. Over the years, the reason that they've been so successful and have won national championships is because they have a great coach, they have great talent, they have a system or style of play the unnerves opponents; they get you discombobulated. And then off your turnovers and quick shots, they're off to the boat races. But because we were patient and played well in two gears and didn't turn the ball over and then utilized good judgement, we were able to execute well."

Lavin on showing emotions on the sidelines:
"You're caught up in the emotion of the game and wanted St. John's fans to come to the party in terms of supporting the players on the court. Because we've had this arduous stretch of games with eight Top 25 opponents and losing five out of six. At that moment it was just wanting to jumper cable the crowd, but also bring some energy for our players, because they deserved a pat on the back and some appreciation for the Yeoman's effort and the cohesive brand of basketball they'd been playing up to that point in the game against the defending national champion."

K quotes:
On today's game: "They had a great game plan. They have had outstanding games this season and this was one of them. In order to beat them today, we would've had to shown up and compete at the level we normally compete at. As a program, we did not show up to compete...We may not have beaten them anyway because they played really well. Hardy, Brownlee, those kids were terrific."

On the loss:" They got into the lane when we were in the zone against them. They got into the lane when we pressed them, They got into the lane when we didn't press them.  They got into the lane when we played man. It's not an x and o thing today. I felt we were not ready to compete, we had blank expressions on our faces and guys weren't talking and that's my responsibility. Our program didn't do well today and that's all of out responsibilities."

Looking ahead:"We are just trying to get better. Hopefully, we can use today as a positive in trying to get better...I try to coach so that we are at our best in March and we have a chance to win a championship, so all of these games are important because they lead to that. I'm not minimizing any game, but we want to win championships and we have won a lot of them and we'll see if we're going to be able to compete this year for one."

manbearpig did ppl see security mess up some of those kids who tried to storm the court. i saw a couple of kids get laid out. im no lawyer but lawsuits maybe?

Yea, A lot of students got tackled and choked by security and i got punched in the face by one of them but still got on lol

Lavin on team's pressure defense:
"All year we've pressured and depending on opponents, we'll trap and, in particular areas, we'll be more aggressive. One of the big points of emphasis was in our 2-2-1, we wanted to get up the floor and extend more. Against Georgetown we felt we gave them too much distance so they were comfortable, they were window shopping over the top of our press and window shopping over our man-to-man and half court zone defense. And that was evident during the game, it was evident during our film study on Thursday after the Georgetown loss. So we recommitted ourselves in practice in preparation for this game against Duke to ball pressure. And that aggressiveness is a good thing for our team."

I'm not going to lie, I didn't think we had a chance to win this game, but I'm sure I wasn't alone in those sentiments.

They just played great, everything went as planned.

- Beat the zone perfectly
- Excellent spacing, especially in the 1st half on offense
- great ball movement
- Tremendous equal effort from more than 5 guys.
- Hardy, Brownlee, Paris, DJ, Burrell, and most surprisingly Evans, played like Seniors should.

very happy about the win, I hope this serves as motivation and a stepping stone. Can't over look Rutgers next. Great win.

We should have the back pages tomorrow.