Memphis-CBU Post Game Quotes
Nov 12, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 12, 2007
Memphis Postgame
November 12, 2007
Exhibition
Christian Brothers 35
#3/3 Memphis 90
Memphis Head Coach John Calipari
I liked what I saw in the second half. I liked Joey's (Dorsey) effort in the second half. The first half was just that coolness that we cannot compete at the level we want to with him doing that. He came back in the second half and it is one of the first times I've seen him change during the game. He was like, "Okay, I'm going to do it the right way." He clogged up the middle. He guarded his man. He helped his teammates, and all of a sudden they couldn't score a basket. The rest of us did our thing, but he was the difference maker.
I thought that constant pressure and the constant attacking wears anybody out. They are going to be a good team. What's amazing again when you have teams like Christian Brothers going out and beating people right now you'll say this was a good one for us. We wanted to have that mindset leaving town here to really take that intensity. I told them that they have to play defense almost desperately, which is what we've historically done here. It's almost like you're desperate to stop them; you're desperate to get the ball; you're desperate to dive on the court. But we haven't seen that since we started.
This last week and really this weekend I got kind of mean. I got mean for the reason that we've got to start changing. We were fine in October. We were a November team in October. Now we've got to be a December team in the middle of November and we weren't. There were still some things today in the first half that I was just so aggravated about because again you're not worried about this game. You're worried about are we doing the things we're going to have to do to compete with the people we're going to have to compete with. In the first half, I would say no; second half I would say yes.
Christian Brothers Head Coach Mike Nienaber
I thought we played pretty well in the first half. We've had a lot of years where maybe where down by 20 something at the half. I thought we executed pretty well. I think in the second half when it started unraveling I didn't think we fought very hard. I didn't think we played with the same kind of poise as we did in the first half. We got a lot of good looks early, and just didn't make any shots. When you look back on the years where we played them closer, we made shots. Tonight we got some open looks and missed several layups. We missed some wide open threes. To even make it close we've got to make those kinds of shots.
I told Cal at halftime this is probably the fifth or sixth time we've played them in the last five or six years. I'll tell you just from my standpoint they seem better than any team we've played. They've been good other years. Last year obviously they were an Elite Eight team, but I'll tell you, I just think their fire power and just overall, I think they're scary. I think they're a notch above what we've played against.
