University of Memphis Athletics
Postgame Quotes
Jan 15, 2011 | Men's Basketball
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Memphis (13-4, 2-1) 77, Marshall (12-5, 1-2) 61
January 15, 2011
FedExForum (Memphis, Tenn.)
Memphis Postgame Quotes
Memphis Head Coach Josh Pastner
Opening Remarks
Well, first of all I want to say this. It was a tremendous effort from this team. It was a tremendous effort from the defensive end. That was a good Marshall team. We played good defense, and we rebounded the basketball. I think they were plus six on the rebound average, and we were plus 10 on the glass. We have gotten a lot better in the area of defensive rebounding.
Bottom line is that was a team effort. The team stepped up with every single guy that played stepping up and giving us great minutes, great energy and just played hard. We defended and rebounded. We shared the ball, and we shot 51 percent, and part of that is we had 20 assists on 29 made field goals because we attacked the paint. Forty points in the paint to their 26; that's a big difference in the game. We shot 57 shots and 48 of them from within the three point arc.
I was very, very proud of these guys and the effort they came out with. That was a big win, and it's a great win for us. We enjoy it now and get back to work in the next day or two to get ready for a good Southern Miss team.
After the described lack of effort by your team at SMU, was this game a statement game?
The effort in Dallas, the first 10 minutes of each half was fine because we were smashing them. It was the last 10 minutes of each half where the effort was poor. As we have discussed on and off the air, there are some times you think you play well and all of a sudden it's gone.
I was proud of our guys for starting out well and finishing well. There wasn't a lull today, and this is probably the first game where it was start to finish without any gray area in between. It was a very black and white game meaning that it was flat out energy, effort, defense, grinding out, defensive rebounding, sharing the ball and paint touches from the start to the finish. There wasn't a lull between and wasn't any gray area. I was proud of that, and I was proud of our team and our guys.
Again, this is a win and we enjoy it now and embrace it, and from there we have to get back to work for Southern Miss next week.
Marshall Head Coach Tom Herrion
Opening Remarks
We were thoroughly out-played, and that is obviously disappointing. We played uphill. We were really poor defending, and rebounding has got to be our staple. We didn't meet either of those (goals) especially in the first 20 minutes of the game.
Memphis is an outstanding team. They played at a very high level, and we didn't respond. Then when we did, we panicked a little on offense. We turned it over too much, that led to break-outs and some poor shot selection. But give Memphis a lot of credit.
On being out rebounded by Memphis
That happened because of their aggressiveness and their want for the ball. They played big and strong. (Will) Coleman was a big presence; this was obviously his biggest game of the year by far. He stepped up like a senior should. But we didn't compete. We didn't battle. We weren't flying around out there. We were standing up, and we were a little slow-footed today.
They(Memphis) were the aggressor and we were retreating. We were on our heels way too much. Obviously, that is thoroughly disappointing and unacceptable.
About cutting Memphis' lead down to 10 points, but not being able to take the lead
Once you are in that situation, you have to play perfectly on both ends of the floor. We were putting so much pressure to get every stop defensively. And we did much better defensively in the second half, holding them to 40 percent. But they shot such an astronomical percentage in the first half. The margin was just too big.
I thought we didn't get enough stops. We got it to 10, but to make it a two-possession game, you have to get every stop and every rebound. We didn't get the job done.
What stood out to you about Memphis' freshmen?
Whether they are freshmen or not, I knew that we were playing against a talented team. They were really locked-in, and they came in with great energy. They went inside early and got in some foul trouble. But they pounded the ball into the paint, and they touched the ball off of the dribble well.
