Memphis Men's Basketball Quotes vs UCF

Jan 17, 2015 | Men's Basketball

Jan. 17, 2015

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  Memphis Head Coach Josh Pastner

Opening Statement...
"First of all, just give so much credit to our guys. I thought their effort plays were just outstanding, just tremendous effort plays in all parts of the game. We didn't shoot well from the free-throw line, but we had so many second and third opportunities because of our effort off of the glass. I thought that we were so good defensively in the first 27 minutes of the game. They were shooting the best in the conference at 38 percent from the three-point range, which is the best in The American, and we held them to 16 percent from the three. If it wasn't for that kid who hit that three at the end of the first half, they wouldn't have hit a three at all.

We held them to 22 percent from the field. The first seven minutes of the second half, we were unbelievable. Then the last 13 minutes, we started celebrating a little too much. We didn't get back on defense and build the wall. We were celebrating, and then towards the end they went small and we got spread out a little bit.

Our principles defensively are shrinking the floor and all five guys guarding the basketball. We want to have the floor shrunk, really shrinking it. We want the allusion for the ball handler that it's really crowded. We want to be high up the floor, not even with the guy up the floor and in the passing lane to where it looks crowded. We did a poor job of that the last 10 minutes, and they did break us down and hurt us on that.

Anyways, it was a great win for us. I loved our energy and effort. This was a dangerous game because we came off of a great win on Thursday versus a Cincinnati team who's known around as one of the toughest team's in the country. I really felt our toughness and our intensity was really good. It's a quick turnaround though. In less than 36 hours, you're playing a conference game. In that time, teams have let downs. You're playing a really good UCF team, but I felt that we really had great energy from the tip. We were locked in.

I'm just really proud of the guys. When you're talking rebounding 53-24, that's strictly on energy and effort. That's a plus 29 on the glass and we had 25 offensive rebounds. Fifty-eight points in the paint, and I love 21 assists on 38 made field goals. We only had 13 turnovers, which was good. Pookie Powell, eight assists one turnover. Trahson Burrell, five assists, one turnover and a double-double, 11 points 12 boards. We had five guys in double figures."

On Pookie Powell playing against hometown team UCF...
"I'm really proud of him. I talked to him last night and today and told him this isn't Pookie Powell verses B.J. Taylor or Adonys [Henriquez] or Daiquan Walker or Brandon Goodwin or any of those guys. It's not that. I said I know you know those guys because they are from your area. This is Memphis versus Central Florida, and all that matters is the win, and you have to play the right way. I'm really proud of Pookie for the right way that he played. He continues to get better. By the time he is a senior, he's really a freshman because he is going to get his year back based on academics, he's going to be a monster. He's going to be really good. I'm just really proud of him."

On Austin Nichols and Avery Woodson injuries...
"I thought Austin was a bit winded there at times, but he played so many minutes, 36 hours before against Cincinnati. He'll be fine though. We just held him out for precautionary reasons. Avery has some blurred vision, but he'll be fine. Our trainer, Brad Anderson, told me to hold both guys out, so we held both guys out. That's that."

On upcoming week of play...
"I really thought our guys played well. Everyone gave us great minutes. Everyone had great energy and intensity. I love that type of game. I'm proud of our guys on that home stand. We go into a big week because we are at Tulsa and at Tulane. Tulsa is first place undefeated. Obviously, I haven't watched any film on them so I will start on that tomorrow. We know that they are a very good team. We're going to have to play great defense. It should be a great game on Wednesday."

  #2 Junior Forward Shaq Goodwin

On coming off the bench
"It doesn't really faze me. Whatever coach tells me to do. If he wants me to start; if he wants me to come off the bench, that's what I do."

Memphis held UCF to 22 percent shooting in the first half. What was Memphis doing defensively?
"Following our game plan. We knew they would have those key shooters, so we keyed in a lot on them in the first half. It kind of slipped away on us in the second half. They went on a little run in the last couple of minutes. But we really followed our game plan throughout the entire game."

  #40 Senior Forward Calvin Godfrey

What do you credit this recent spark in your game?
"I just want to credit it to the team, for keeping me motivated and keeping me pushing throughout the first half of the season. As you all know, it was frustrating for me. My team stayed confident with me, and everybody believed that we could do better. So now I just want to give them everything I can ever time I'm out there on the court."

What get into the team in the second half with 60 points and 63.2 percent from the field?
"That first half got into us. We wanted to make sure we continued that. There wasn't any stopping from the first half. That's how it is going to be for the rest of the season now."

How much fun is it when everything is working like that as a team?
"It's absolutely fun. We had to learn each other early on in the losses, and we've been using that as motivation to push us through the rest of the season. Now it's just fun to see it all come together."

  #0 Junior Guard/Forward Trahson Burrell

What has been the difference in the team over the last three games ...
"I would say our intensity, especially. Our intensity in practice bleeds over into the games. And our focus, we do scouting and everyone is locked in. I just feel our intensity is way higher than at the start of the season. I think we realize for us to win, we need to be together. We need to be cranked up. We need to be high-motor guys."

About the intensity at the start of the game ...
"I think that bleeds over from our last game. Our last game we had good intensity too. I feel it just a carry over. Once you start playing good, it's like a streak. We just plan to keep the streak going. "

  UCF Head Coach Donnie Jones

What was your message for your players after the game?
"It was toughness. We just didn't play with enough toughness tonight. Give Memphis credit. They came in, and they've been playing better and better, and their athletes just played much more physical and stuff and beat us on the glass. Rebounding is just effort, and tonight I didn't think we did a great job at all of competing for balls. Second shots really beat us."

Do you think the quick turnaround really hurt you?
"I think it always plays a little bit of a factor in it. You have young guys understanding how to put back-to-back games together. I thought the hardest thing for us is that we couldn't get ourselves back in the game because we kept letting runs happen. I thought offensively we didn't share the ball. I thought tonight we played selfish as a team. Any time you have those things happen, it's hard to win."

What types of looks were you trying to get from Dylan Karell and Shaheed Davis?
"I was just trying to find somebody that could help us, you know? I just went down the line and kept trying guys, hoping somebody could get going and bring us some life and energy. Justin [McBride] was in there for the most part. He got us nine points and nine rebounds, and I thought defensively he competed. But other than that we didn't have anybody in the frontcourt to just rebound the balls. It made it very hard for us."

What did Memphis do defensively that made it difficult to shoot?
"Well I think defensively they did a great job of defending our pick-and-rolls. They played very physical with our big guys, which made it hard. And we weren't able to get to the paint. I know we got fouled a lot, but we weren't able to get a lot of drives and kicks to get some shots off. They made it difficult. They jammed up the paint very well tonight. Their length, their athleticism and their physicality really bothered our guys tonight."