St. Rose Player Quotes
Jonny Flynn, Fr., G.
The close game:
“We got ourselves into a ball game. One thing Coach always stresses to us is to never get down on yourself. You find out who’s really here and for what when you’re down or the game is close. It’s easy to play when you’re up by 20. Our leaders, like Arinze and Eric, took over, and even Josh Wright on to the bench when we were down. It just shows the kind of leaders we have on our team when we were struggling. ”
The importance of having the upperclassmen in this game:
“They have been here. They have veteran experience. The freshman like me, Scoop and Donte haven’t been in games like this at the collegiate level. So, just to have that veteran experience telling you what to do in certain situations like the time-outs is always helpful.”
The goods and bads of having a close game in the first game:
It’s always good so when it comes to Big East games, you know how to win a close game. There are a lot of great teams in the Big East, so when you have close games playing a game like this teaches you what you need to do to win a big game.”
The pass off the backboard to Paul Harris:
“That is just bringing it back to the high school days. Paul and I used to do that all the time back in Niagara Falls. Just to get that one out of the way is good.”
Donte Greene, Fr., F
The differences in his play in the second half of the game:
“It wasn’t necessarily about how many looks I had. Eric didn’t really have a good first half and I picked up in the first half. In the second half, Eric came out and played well. So you go to the hot man. In the first half most of the shots came to me and in the second half they went to Eric and Arinze, our captains.”
His first impressions of playing in the Carrier Dome:
“It felt great finally playing in the Dome in front of the Cuse fans. I love my Cuse fans. It was good. I had fun.”
The learning experience gained from the close score in the first exhibition game:
“Well, it was our first game not playing against each other. The score really shouldn’t have been as close as it was. We need to really work on our defense. Defense is the key really. We’re fine on offense, we just need to improve on our defense and rebounding”
Eric Devendorf, Jr., G
Whether he thought the young players learned from this game:
“Definitely. They’re going to learn. We’ll go through it in practice and Coach is going to tell them. They’re going to be alright, I’m not worried about them.”
His thoughts about the Jonny Flynn alley-oop to Paul Harris:
“It was an exciting play. It got the crowd into it. It was good.”
The overall performance of the freshman:
“They’re great talents out there on the floor. They know how to play basketball. That’s all that counts, really. As the season goes on, they’re going to progress and we are going to progress as a team.”
The advantages and disadvantages of playing a close first game:
“It’s good for the freshman to get out there and get a feel for things. There’s a lot of bad things out there and a lot of good things. We’re a young team, but we’re a very talented team. You can see both sides of it out there today. As the season goes on I think everything will come together.”
Paul Harris, So., F
His and Eric’s leadership on the team:
“We’re kind of the experienced guys, even though I’m only a sophomore. I’ve been here one year. The young guys are very talented, though. Jonny Flynn had nine assists, Donte Greene had 16 points, and Antonio Jardine played well of the bench too.
The close game:
“We have been playing against each other so much over the last three weeks and we haven’t played another team. That’s all it was.”
