Memphis-East Carolina Post Game Quotes
Jan 09, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2008
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Memphis Postgame Quotes
January 9, 2008
Game 14
East Carolina (6-8, 0-1) - 58
#2/2 Memphis (14-0, 1-0) - 99
Memphis Head Coach John Calipari
They came out of the gate like Ohio State did against LSU. When I watched the first five or seven minutes I was like, `This team is pretty darnn good.' But what we do to you over a period of time is just wear you down. We aggressively come at you, and that creates fouls. So, you know we just kept coming and coming, and eventually it made it hard.
What you saw today for the first 10 or 12 minutes will be every game we play. Matter of fact, there is going to be some where we are going to be down because they're going to make more shots than East Carolina did. East Carolina played well its just who's going to be able to do that against us for 40 minutes? It will be somebody. There will be teams that do it to us, and we're going to have to figure out how to win the games at the end.
Is it tough to get more flow when they created 18 fouls in the first half?
No, we were fine. The best thing for this team is whether you put one or two guys out, we're still good. So you're not at the mercy of any guy on this team, so it's great for us. If a guy decides it's a tough day for him, sit there, figure it out and cheer for your team. We move on. In the past here, one or two guys did that, and it was torture.
These guys are working so hard at their individual stuff; it's all showing. You see Pierre's (Niles) confidence level, Jeff (Robinson), Doneal (Mack), Willie (Kemp) and Andre (Allen). Think about Willie and Andre's game right now. Think about it, he (Andre) was two for 15 to start the season from the three, and maybe that's from the foul line. Now you're looking at him, and he was better than he was a year ago. He was good last year, and he's better right now.
East Carolina Coach Mark McCarthy
In the first half when we did enough of the things that we needed to do to compete with them, there were two things that were problems. The first of them being 17 offensive rebounds I think in the first half. The problem is when you get offensive rebounds you're close to the goal, so now we're talking about getting fouls and then shooting 30 free throws. I don't know what we shot in the first half; we shot 13 in the first half. In all reality, it's about them rebounding the ball offensively and driving the ball up the goal so hard. We knew what they were doing, but stopping them is another thing. They have a lot of great weapons.
In the second half, we didn't execute offensively. We turned the ball over; we took some bad shots, and that led to easy baskets in transition. They got some in the first half, but not as many. We actually outscored them from the field in the first half, and I felt like we did a lot of things that could keep us competitive in the game. But in the second half, we weren't really competitive.
I think they scored on nine or 10 possessions in a row to start the second half, and some of it was them; some of it was us. I think when we turned the ball over we hung our head a little bit, and you can't hang your head much for them. They finish quickly on the other end.
I think the main thing was that we got exposed to some areas that we knew were issues. We've had trouble with teams that really drive it in the past. We've had teams that have really hurt us on the offensive glass in the past. Those two things were just really glaring against a really good team.
They do a good job at creating their situation; the way they drive it. When they catch it they're shooting it or driving it. When they drive it they can finish or make plays. They're just very, very talented. They have a lot of answers for whatever you do.
