Memphis Men's Basketball Quotes vs East Carolina

Jan 28, 2015 | Men's Basketball

Jan. 28, 2015

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  Memphis Head Coach Josh Pastner

Overall Thoughts...
"Every time a team hits a three against us, I lose a little piece of me. It's dangerous. I thought there were two ways East Carolina could beat us: 1. If they hit a lot of threes, which they did, and 2. If we turn it over a lot like we've done in the last few games. They shot 48 percent from three, but we only had six turnovers. We were sixth in the country in three point defense coming into this game. That will drop a little bit after tonight.

We took care of the basketball. We had 19 assists on 28 made field goals. We won tonight via our offense. This game reminded me of when we played ECU a couple years ago when we were up 21 and just rolling. They hit four-straight threes and it became a five-point game late. We ended up pulling away late, but we found a way to get the W."

On East Carolina's hot shooting...
"When Michel Nzege went down, it allowed them to play better because it slid their number two to the three spot. Caleb White slid to the four and they played with four shooters on the court. That helped them open up some things on the court. They sized down and hurt us on that. Terry Whisnant hit some tough shots. He hit six threes against Tulsa, six against SMU and five against us. That's 17 threes in the last three games. This was a really good win. Austin Nichols was again tremendous, going 21-and-5 with two blocks. I thought Nick King had a good first half, but he hit two big buckets in the second half when it was a four point game late. His 15 footer was big and his short corner shot was important. Trahson Burrell had a good game. He played well for us. He hasn't been playing well, but I thought it was a good performance from him. We found a way to win and we took care of the basketball. Avery Woodson had five assists and only one turnover. This was a good win."

On Shaq Goodwin...
"Shaq has to play big for us every time he steps on the court. Every game that we play is a big game. There are no games that are gimmes. Every game is big and we treat every game as a big game. That has to be our mentality. There's no doubt that Shaq is a big time part of what we're trying to accomplish. He's capable of being a big-time player. He's been a little up and down, but I believe he is going to break out of it. There couldn't be a better time for him to break out of it than this Saturday against Gonzaga.

  Junior Guard Kedren Johnson

On how the team got the win...
"It felt like it took a second to get amped up and get our energy going. We executed well and were very smart with the basketball. We took care of the basketball. That's what helped us to the win."

On East Carolina's shooting...
"They're a good shooting team. They hit a lot of tough shots. They banked in some shots and knocked some down with hands in their face. Give East Carolina a lot of credit."

On the mindset going forward...
"We just have to take it one game at a time. We need to stack up wins and just have good energy in the locker room."

  Junior Forward Shaq Goodwin

On the injury...
"I rolled my ankle the first twenty seconds into the game. I stepped on someone else's foot and couldn't go back in the rest of the game. I'm fine to play Saturday. We are looking forward to playing Gonzaga."

On Gonzaga...
"They added a player from Kentucky so they have the same back court from last year. I know they are a talented team. They have a talented coach who wins 80 percent of his games. We are just looking forward to having a good contest on Saturday. We are looking for the place to be packed. I heard the gym is crazy so we are just looking forward to the opportunity."

On the opportunity to play at Gonzaga...
"It's an amazing opportunity to be there. They are a top five team with one of the best coaches to coach the game. With their RPI and all of that stuff comes into play with this game. We are just looking forward to getting there and playing on Saturday night."

  East Carolina Head Coach Jeff Lebo

On simulating the press...
"We did pretty good against the press I thought. We had a couple of turnovers against it, and we had to change our press offense a little bit. We had to put our guards back there, which keep you from getting the ball out really quick. It keeps your better ball handlers handling it for the most part. Our transition offense I thought was pretty good in the second half. We got some transition threes. We pushed it, and they had a hard time getting back to our shooters."

On the Memphis Tiger program...
"They are a good team. They are tough to beat here. They don't lose too many games in here. They beat Cincinnati in here, but they've lost a couple of games in here. They are a different team. Without [Shaq] Goodwin in there, they can play the two bigs in there and he's a good player. They had to go a little bit smaller. We maybe forced them to play a little bit smaller because we were small. We were shooting it pretty well, but they are a talented team. They are young, trying to replace four senior guards from last year. That's hard to do. You just don't do that very easily. I think Nichols is probably one of their most improved guys. I saw him last year a little bit, but they are playing through him right now. Everything is trying to get the ball to him, and when he gets it, something good is going to happen. He can shoot it, put it on the floor and he can really pass it. He's a terrific player."