University of Memphis Athletics
Memphis Men's Basketball Quotes vs Cincinnati
Jan 15, 2015 | Men's Basketball
Recap |
Box Score |
Notes |
Joe Murphy Photo Gallery 
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Photo Gallery
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Memphis Head Coach Josh Pastner |
Overall Thoughts...
"It was a great win. All credit goes to the players. They were just terrific. Our staff, the assistant coaches were great for us. I was really proud of our young men. I thought they played well. They had a hit-first mentality tonight. We knew we would have to make some shots and hit some threes. Avery really came through for us and hit some big shots. Kedren hit one that got him going and Markel hit one in the first half. Avery hit some big ones though. What can you say about Austin Nichols? He had 17 points and eight rebounds to go along with three assists. I'm really proud of him. I thought Kedren Johnson was excellent. He played 34 minutes and gave us 13 and five. Trashon came in and had some big rebounds in the second half. I thought we really fed off the toughness of Calvin Godfrey. His toughness and his warrior-like mentality was infectious. It spread throughout the team. I was proud of his play. I thought everyone gave us really good minutes. I thought our defense was really good. I thought our defense has been really good all year long and our defense was really good tonight. We've been a very good defensive team. Cincinnati's a pretty good defensive team too. Overall, this is a very good win."
On the improvement of the team...
"We're getting better. There's going to be highs and lows and peaks and valleys throughout the season. We knew this was going to be a transitional year; a rebuilding year. We've had some lows and some peaks along with some highs and some valleys. I'm hoping that all the lows and the valleys are gone. It's a fun win. It's a great win. I'm really proud of this team."
On playing the same five guys the entire second half...
"I felt comfortable that they were rolling. I did that against Houston. I'm a guy that believes unless a group is dead-tired, I'm not going to mess with the rotation if those five are playing well. If a group isn't playing well, I'm going to find a combination to fix it. That's just how I've been over the six years. That's just how I am. I believe if we have a good group, we have to let it roll. I felt our intensity from wire to wire was incredible. I give a lot of credit to Calvin Godfrey on that because he brings that toughness."
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Senior Forward Calvin Godfrey |
On the win...
"I won't say it was the peak, we still have a few games left, but it's definitely one of the top nights so far. I definitely enjoyed the team and the environment tonight."
On his mental toughness...
"The coaches instilled in me that last year we got punked. They didn't want that. They came to me with the toughness stuff, so I had to spread it along the team. Everyone picked it up and played their part."
On playing defense against Cincinnati's Octavius Ellis...
"It wasn't a personal vendetta to just go out and stop him, but it was doing whatever I had to do to help my team get the win tonight. If it was frustrating him, which clearly it was, then I had to do it."
On Kedren's performance...
"It was awesome. I've seen glimpses of that in Kedren, so it's not like I didn't expect it from him. I just wanted to see him put it all together in one game and tonight he did that. I'm glad it showed tonight, because we needed him."
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Junior Guard Kedren Johnson |
On Austin Nichols
"He is one of the best hand-eye coordinated big men I have ever played with. He's awesome."
On the team coming together...
"I'm just getting a better feel for where my guys are going to be on the court, having trust and knowing where they're going to be without having to look too much. We're just continuing to practice.
On Cincinnati...
"We just thought of it as another game. We didn't look into the ratings, the media, or anything like that. We just tried to focus on playing our best. We came to win."
On staying positive through adversity...
"That's how you have to go about life. You have adversity, you will always have things going on, and it's never going to be a perfect day. You just have to stay positive or your other option is you have is to be miserable all the time. I chose to stay positive."
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Cincinnati Associate Head Coach Larry Davis |
Opening Statement...
"It's simple. You turn the ball over twenty times; you are not going to win. You can't give up twenty possessions where you don't get a shot up and probably four or five of those were easy layups, something that we can't guard. Then we gave up a total of 17 layups, either offensive or defensive rebounds or post shots. They only scored 63 points. They should've scored only 45 on us, if we are doing what we're supposed to do."
On team performance...
"The press was working. The problem is in the first part of the game we weren't going down there, we kept turning the ball over. We couldn't score. We would get it point blank and turn it over, get the ball up on the rim and couldn't get it in. Again, if you give another team twenty more possessions than you, it's a miracle that they didn't score more than 63 points. They shot a fairly high percentage. If we continue that, we'll struggle to beat anybody."
