Memphis-Arizona Post Game Quotes
Dec 30, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 30, 2007
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Memphis Postgame Quotes
December 29, 2007
Game 11
#17/18 Arizona (9-3) 63
#2/2 Memphis (11-0) 76
Memphis Head Coach John Calipari
It was a good win. Hats off to Kevin (O'Neill). He was amazing. I knew what he was doing. He was calling timeouts before TV timeouts. He was trying to stretch the game and make it longer. He was trying to get his guy more breaks. Then I got mad in the second half because, you guys know I don't call timeouts very often, but the game was getting very erratic. But every time I called a timeout it played into their hands because it gave them a rest. And I said, (Chase) Budinger, this kid just stepped back and banked one on us.
So I was happy. We defended. In the second half they made a ton of shots. Shawn Taggart came in and did some great stuff, which is what we didn't have before. I thought Andre (Allen) and Willie (Kemp) came in and really lifted the team, which is what we need them to do. Derrick (Rose), you know he's really young, when (Nic) Wise kept ripping him down low, and when he rips you down low three times you've got to know the fourth time he's going to rip him down low. He had six turnovers and they were all the same one. What you do is you don't show him the ball you just show him shoulders and he doesn't know that yet. We'll work on that this week to just get him to understand.
That's why you play games like this. I wanted to see what Kevin (O'Neill) would do. He just put two guys in the middle of the lane. This is all good for us. That's why we play these games. You want to play I told Jerryd (Bayless) before the game I really wanted to see him. I watched him on tape and I wanted to see him play in person. I'm disappointed that he didn't play, but their team did whatever they had to stay in the game and give themselves a win.
Arizona Coach Kevin O'Neill
We did not execute in the first half for a long period of time. We had a make shift lineup in, and then we had three consecutive times where we missed a dunk or a layup. We had an opportunity to cut to a two possession game late and we did not do it. We played them on their court with their crowd, and that is a tough thing to do.
It is unfortunate we lost but injuries are part of the game, and they beat us and that is no excuse. They beat us and that is all there is to it.
We played without three starters the whole first half, and that is tough to do. We still had it at a 10 point game. We had a couple of opportunities to make plays, and we didn't. Unfortunately, it just didn't happen for us tonight. What we have to do is get ready for some home games now and start the Pac 10.
