University of Memphis Athletics
Postgame Quotes
Jan 26, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 26, 2011
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Memphis (16-4, 5-1) 77, UCF (14-5, 1-5) 61
January 26, 2011
FedExForum (Memphis, Tenn.)
Memphis Postgame Quotes
Memphis Head Coach Josh Pastner
Opening Statement
We are 16-4, and I want to say this is a great win for our guys. I am so proud of our defensive effort against a good Central Florida team. Coach Donnie Jones has a well coached team.
The only thing I can say for us is a couple of things that we need to be better at and what I thought was a lack of effort the last minutes of the game. They got 22 offensive rebounds and beat us on the boards, and that was due to us kind of letting our guard down. As I was telling our guys after the game, we have to put two halves together, and we can't do that when we are up a bunch, like we were early this year in November and December. We started thinking we could play showboat or individual basketball instead of Memphis basketball. That is a maturity thing and one of those things of growing. We will take that as a positive because it gives us something to hammer on the next few days.
When you get up six or eight, you have to stretch it to 20, and when you get up 20 you have to stretch it to 30, and once you get up 30 you have to stretch it to 40 points. That's part of keeping discipline and keeping locked in. That's just part of using growing and having the maturity of understanding that.
With that being said, we won the game and I was so proud of our defensive effort. There were things I thought we had slippage on late, but that's something we will get better on. Overall, I was proud of our points in the paint, 52-36. We had 10 assists and four turnovers in the first half, too many turnovers in the second half along with too many offensive rebounds given up. Those were the two issues we have to get better on. We had some great looks from the three point line even though we were 5-of-21. They were great looks, but we just have to make them.
You had a closed door meeting with Will Barton after dismissing the team. What was the discussion?
We just had a good talk. I benched him the last eight minutes, but he played so well. He got real fancy toward the end, and he let his guard down instead of staying focused and understanding the value of each possession and how important that is. Part of that is him having to mature and grow in those areas and simulate those situations. Whether the lead is 20 or two, he has to play with the same mindset, and that is so important. I talked to him afterwards and said, "Hey, you had 17 points, six rebounds, two steals, but you had three turnovers. Your turnovers were unforced errors. You have to be better about that and you let your guard down. If you do that in a game where you are down six or eight points, that's the difference between winning and losing." I am trying to have him understand the value of each possession. He has to grasp that.
UCF Head Coach Donnie Jones
Opening Remarks
Give Memphis credit. Those guys are very talented. They are really playing well, and offensively they have the ability to score in spurts. And we had turnovers in the first half.
We come in at half time and we had 10 of them (turnovers), and that led to 15 or 17 points. That was the difference in the first half.
What we wanted to do with our game plan was to mix it up with some man (defense) and some zone (defense).
We wanted to get the ball inside and establish the low post. We got the ball into Tom (Herzog) and got his confidence going a little bit. Then we substituted, and I thought we got away with what we were trying to do.
We had some tough, quick shots, which gave us run outs on the other end. And we turned the ball over.
We tried to create some havoc in the second half. We tried to get out and press and run. We tried to make some things happen there. We had some success early on (in the season) by doing that. Maybe we have got to get back to that. If we get guys to play hard, then that is what we will do.
We just haven't been able to get guys to get out of their comfort zone. Over the last four or five games now we will have four or five guys who will play hard, and then we will have one or two who are taking plays off.
We just have to continue to breathe confidence into this team and build on some good things. There were some good things that happened tonight. We just have to keep working.
What positives do you take away from this game?
I thought that Tom (Herzog) got some good buckets. Early on he was able to score. I thought that we got some good minutes from P.J. (Gaynor). I thought he came in and gave us some good energy. We are going to start playing him at the small forward spot.
I thought David (Diakite) rebounded the ball well tonight. I thought he got in there and did some good things.
And Keith (Clanton) played well early on. He has just got to shoot the basketball. A lot of times he is just catching it and looking to drive, instead of just catching and shooting. He had a bunch of wide-open shots.
With that, I think that we have got to just continue to build and get back at it.
