University of Memphis Athletics
Memphis Basketball Postgame Quotes
Dec 20, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 20, 2005
Memphis Head Coach John Calipari
"Some of you would say Rodney scored a bunch of points, but let me tell you what Rodney did -- he defended. Late in that game, he did not get beat on the dribble one time. Chris (Douglas-Roberts) did not get beat on the dribble one time."
"At halftime, Paul Millsap got off because they beat us on the dribble and we had to help. It was Sheldon Williams (Duke) all over again. Drop it to him and he dunks balls. We were getting beat in the second half, they shut it down. We were sloppy. We don't know how to use the clock. We turn it over too many times. But we're 9-1 and that team (Louisiana Tech) is going to win a lot of games."
"There's no one to this point that has played a better schedule than us. No one. But we still have Gonzaga, Purdue, Texas, Middle Tennessee, Winthrop and Tennessee left, so it's not going to get any easier. We'll go home for three days, and then we'll come back from the break get started again with the rest of the season. I'm proud of these guys."
Louisiana Tech Head Coach Keith Richard
"There were two things we needed to do well coming into this game. Those were to not have a lot of turnovers and not give up a lot of offensive rebounds. And we give up 27 turnovers and 23 offensive rebounds. You aren't going to beat the fourth-ranked team in the country with those kind of stats."
"Rodney Carney played like an All-American, and he is an All-American. That is a wing player there now."
"They are very, very talented, probably as talented as any team we have played against in the last eight years. They are long and athletic, and there are a lot of them -- a whole lot of them. But, more importantly, and this was a point that I tried to make with our team at halftime, I think they play with tremendous energy from the opening tip. And we had a lot of players out there that were star-struck for 10 or 12 minutes into that game, including some returning players. To me, Daevon Haskins was the only one that was really playing early in the game. That energy is a feather in Memphis' cap, and it is also the type of thing we can learn from -- the type of energy that you have to bring from the opening-tip to the end -- to go beat a really, really good team."
