University of Memphis Athletics
Postgame Quotes
Feb 16, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 16, 2011
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Memphis (20-6, 8-3), UAB (18-7, 8-4) 58
February 16, 2011
FedExForum (Memphis, Tenn.)
Memphis Postgame Quotes
Memphis Head Coach Josh Pastner
Opening Statement
It doesn't matter how you win. There is no such thing as a pretty win, good looking win or fun win. There is no such thing as a bad win, no matter how it looks. Winning is fun, winning is great and we just beat a good team. UAB is a good team, and they are well coached. I said it before and I keep saying that Coach (Mike) Davis deserves C-USA Coach of the Year.
Hey, this is our 20th win, and what a great job by the Tigers. Another great job, and we keep the 20-win (season) streak alive for Tiger Basketball. We lead the league in field goal percentage defense, and we were second coming in to this game in three point percentage defense. We held them to 35.7 percent from the field, so we held them to eight or nine percent below their average of 44 percent. They shoot 34 percent from the three point line, and we held them to 23.8 percent. We held them about 11 percent below their average, and again this shows you that our defense is pretty good.
Our defense at the very beginning of the year, including the exhibition games, we were pretty good. In the middle stretch, we just hit a lull and weren't real good at taking away the three. That was one of our pet peeves and we weren't real good defensively. We have gotten better and the numbers prove it. If you look at conference statistics, we are the best in the league right now and that's why we are winning games. Now we have to keep it going and it has to be on defense.
(UAB) hurt us on offensive rebounds and on second chance points. We had 15 turnovers, so if you put that with the offensive rebounds, they had that is 28 extra possessions for them. We did the same thing up there when we play them. The other thing is we missed eight free throws. We didn't close the game very well even though we had some chances. That's why you just never know. We got some key stops and rebounds.
I felt Chris Crawford and Charles Carmouche did a tremendous job on (Jamarr) Sanders. Our bigs did a good job on hedging, and when we were doubled on the ball screens we did a great job. Aaron Johnson is a good player too. I thought Joe (Jackson) and Antonio (Barton) played well and I thought Wesley (Witherspoon) gave us good minutes and hit some buckets for us when we needed them. I thought Tarik (Black) struggled a little bit around the basket, but he hit some big shots late and got some big rebounds late. I know we didn't get as much time for Will Coleman, but he had a big contested shot late in the first half.
This was a bit of a crazy game with all the missed close range shots. What happened with that?
Well, first half we missed so many short shots. Layups, point blank shots, we just missed them. D.J. (Stephens) had that fast break that we didn't convert after he stepped out and we had some turnovers we didn't convert because we didn't catch the ball. Charles Carmouche had some unbelievable looks that just didn't go in. We missed some short shots that were just unbelievable. They were kicking our butts in the beginning of the second half when they were up 40-33. We were down seven and made a storm back, and we took the lead. We locked up defensively and we were able to get the W.
UAB Head Coach Mike Davis
Opening Remarks We just did a poor job with timing, clock management and we threw lob passes in transition. You should never throw a lob pass in transition. There is no reason to ever do that on the road, just come down and set up.
The one thing we talked about was taking control of the basketball. We had 14 turnovers, and eight of them never should have existed.
We just did a poor job of coaching these guys tonight. You just don't do that (turn the ball over) on the road, in front of a big crowd. We had a lot of really bad possessions both offensively and defensively.
Ovie (Soko) and Tony (Anthony Criswell) showed up. They did way more than we expected them to do.
You can't take anything away from Memphis, but we should have won this basketball game. This is just another game that we should have won.
We have lost three games in this conference that we should have won. We should only have one loss in conference play right now, but unfortunately we have four losses. It is simply us not focusing on the right things all of the time. We have to want it every possession.
About Memphis defending Jamarr Sanders tightly
Jamarr just has to understand that he has got to take shots when they are there. You aren't going to always have the right shot, sometimes it is just the best shot.
As a shooter, you have thousand-one, thousand-two to shoot it. You don't have thousand-one, thousand-two, thousand-three, and thousand-four to shoot. You just have to catch and shoot. That is what shooters do. If it isn't there, pass it.
Every time he had the ball he trapped it. Throw the ball back, pass the ball, move and cut. It can't be a dribble, dribble because they (Memphis) aren't going to let you dribble on them.
About UAB's points in the paint
They battled down there, 30 points from those guys. We needed that, but we just have to get more guys to step up on the road for us.
I am really disappointed because this is a game we should have won. This is now two games back-to-back that we should have won. We will just go back, watch the film again and get better. But we can't give up easy baskets.
