WEDNESDAY’S quotes from Georgetown, Saint Joseph’s, USC & San Diego State

Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing – “Our goal here is to win, like every other team. We’re going to play a very good San Diego State team that’s very talented. They have a lot of guards that can go downhill and make plays, so we have to work to stop them. It’s an East Coast vs. West Coast match and should be a fun one. We’ve been doing fine so far in the season. We’re 2-1, I wish we were 3-0, but we’re just looking forward to the opportunity of playing against these teams here. We feel like we’re trying to make adjustments everywhere at this point. Our main goal is to make sure our team is where it needs to be when the Big East starts, and San Diego State will be a great team to play against.”

Saint Joseph’s coach Billy Lange – “The season has been going about we expected. We’re still in the process of learning each other, but I’m encouraged by the group. I like their competitive attitude and we’re learning about what it means to play for Saint Joseph’s right now. This tournament provides a few opportunities for us to advance in that. Just being connected with coach John Wooden and learning about him and what he stood for is stuff we can talk to our team about. And the competition we are going to play in USC, Georgetown and San Diego State is going to be great for us. Some of the things we are focusing right now are learning how to be united on offense and making sure that we’re competing in every possession. USC rebound the ball really well and are great in transition, so we’re going to need to do a good job in rebounding the ball and getting back on defense.”

San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher – “It’s kind of a Conference tournament feel. Our depth helps us in situations like this. If we do run in to some fatigue, we’ve always had a deep bench with players who are capable of not only coming in and playing up to the level of the starters, but sometimes beyond that level. Fresh legs are important, and we’ll have plenty of those this week. Patrick Ewing has done a great job with that team (Georgetown). He’s got a lot of new pieces, like we all do this time of year. I know they dropped their opener, but they’re playing better basketball (now). They shoot the ball, and they have good point guard play and obviously, Georgetown with Patrick, you’re going to have good bigs. They’re very balanced and they can hurt you in a lot of different ways. They’re going to press us a little bit, predominantly play us man to man and present great challenge to us Thursday night. We’re thankful to have an opportunity of playing like Georgetown in such a good event as the Wooden Legacy. Hopefully, we get a great Aztec following, where we can fill the building with Aztec fans and that will obviously give us our best opportunity to win the game.”

USC coach Andy Enfield – “We’re up to a good start in the season and just had a nice road trip which has been a great experience for our players as they had to go and play in front of some wild and crazy fans. We keep getting better as a team. We have a lot of experience and players who are coming back from last year and four talented freshmen. We do have a new team this year, but we have enough core guys that got a lot of experience and were very successful over the last two years. Saint Joseph’s like to shoot a lot of three pointers, so we have to guard the three-point line really well. They also have an excellent point guard, who distributes the ball really well and can also score himself. He’s a stat-sheet stuffer, so we have to guard him. It really doesn’t matter who the favorite is, you really have to go, compete and play and we’ll be ready to play over the next two days.”