University of Memphis Athletics
Post-Game Quotes
Nov 30, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 30, 2009
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Oakland Head Coach
Greg Kampe
Opening Statement
"There is nothing good to say about tonight. The last part of the first half and early in the second half it was a close game, but after that they decided to start to play really hard. They defended the heck out of us, and we couldn't do anything, and they took the ball from us like it was candy. This is a learning experience for our team, but there is not a whole lot of good that I can see out of us tonight."
Talk about the offensive style and how Memphis was able to change the tempo in the second half.
We did a good job of it until the last 15 minutes or so. We tried to press up when we were down by 18 instead of walking the ball up, and we started running and then the game got into a running game, and we were dead after that. Physically, they just manhandled us inside, took the ball from us and outlet and dunk. That's why we don't want to run with a team like this. That's why you want to walk it up and play slow with them. Once the game was in trouble we had to try to start running with them, and you saw the results after that."
Talk about the defensive pressure that Memphis put on Keith Benson.
"We couldn't get the ball to him in the first half. He only had two shots in the first half and they doubled him every time he touched it. They doubled him big on big. We didn't do a good job handling the double, and he didn't do a good job handling the double. We did a little bit better job early in the second half and we got him more shots as the game went on. There was a lot of physical play early in there, and he has got to get stronger. It is a great learning experience for him. "
Memphis Head Coach
Josh Pastner
Opening Statement
We're 4-1, and that's strictly because of three reasons: The players; we win because of the players. It has nothing to do with coaching. Secondly, we've got great assistant coaches. They've done a great job with the scouting report and getting guys together. And thirdly and most importantly, our sixth and seventh man, the fans. They've been unreal. They have just come out and supported, and they've rallied around the team. The reason we are 4-1 are those three reasons.
On defeating Oakland by 31 points
They're good. I just think we played really well. The words that we used all week at practice was scrap, grind and compete. We put the knee pads on because against Central Arkansas I felt in the second half we didn't do a good job of winning the 50-50 balls; winning the loose ball battle. So we put the knee pads back on and went back to work with two-a-days.
I think Oakland is very well coached. They're coach (Greg Kampe) has won over 400 games. That's a lot of wins. They've got good players. They have Keith Benson who is a pro prospect. They have Johnathon Jones who led the nation in assists last year. We just happened to get after it defensively because we scrapped, we competed and we grinded.
On what went well in the game
Coach Willis Wilson did a great job with the scout. Obviously, Coach (Glynn) Cyprien and Coach (Jack) Murphy helped him out as well with the scout, but Coach Wilson was the lead scout. (It was a) great game plan by Coach Wilson.
Secondly, the bigs played great. I mean Will Coleman and Pierre Henderson-Niles did such a super job. After the game, they asked me to come on the TV. I said you're crazy. Bring those two guys. They need to talk to Pierre Henderson-Niles and Will Coleman. Those two are the ones that need to be on talking because of the job that they did. Between those two guys there was nine blocks. The pair had 18 points and you had 14 rebounds between the two guys. And they looked good together. I was proud of those guys.
Our scout team did a good job preparing our guys too. They did a good job making sure of running stuff. Again, we competed, we scrapped and we grinded.
