Memphis Basketball Postgame Quotes
Dec 20, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 20, 2008
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Memphis Head Coach John Calipari
Opening Statement
"It was hard to watch. I was just groping to find five guys that would play. I thought Roburt Sallie, with what he did, earned some minutes. Roburt maybe moved by about six guys on the team. I was just begging guys, and told a couple of guys `I will take you out if you don't shoot,' not `if you miss, I am taking you out, if you don't shoot, I am taking you out,' and they still didn't shoot.
"They weren't playing us, so when guys were saying they were covered, they weren't playing us. We just had to shoot jumpers. We just spent two days shooting the ball, and we will spend tomorrow shooting the ball. Roburt Sallie will get more time now. We had some other guys that just didn't perform.
"What I would tell all of you is that I am still trying to figure out this team. So, instead of getting on those guys, this is about me trying to figure out who's who. And, that is all I am trying to do right now. There is no need to say veterans this or freshmen this or middle guys this or this guy that. I am just trying to figure out what are we, what kind of team do we need to be and how do we need to play to win. I have not figured that out yet, obviously. But, we've been here before. We were 7-3 a two years ago and went on a winning streak. But, the difference was, guys never pointed fingers, they got hungry and they went back to work, and they went and played. This team just seems a little shook, and they shouldn't be."
On the team's chemistry
"We didn't have good point guard play and we were a little ragged. We can't blame Wesley Witherspoon because he has played two, three games, five games at the point. We played Antonio (Anderson) here some, we played Willie (Kemp) here some. You are searching for someone who can bring this thing together, and that has been a problem. What happens is you are not playing that well, and you are not that sure of yourself, and then no one else is helping you make an easy play or do something easy, and it just compounds things. What I told them is, `if you are afraid because you don't believe you are good enough, you are wrong.' I said, `I believe in you. You wouldn't be here if I didn't think you were a good player. So, if you are looking at this thinking you aren't good enough, it's not true.' We've got guys who are starting to be invested in it, and now it just takes time."
Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim
Opening Statement
"Well, I thought our start wasn't so great. But, you know, our guys have been resilient all year. We've been behind five or six times early. Memphis got off to that hot start. I started thinking `this team can't shoot?' But, they did come back to reality. They're going to get offensive rebounds because they have guys in there. I thought we didn't really capitalize when we did get a rebound. When we got fast-break opportunities, we didn't finish very well. They threw a couple passes away, and we missed a couple layups. We really need to capitalize on those. But, our guys have been resilient all year. We've fought hard. We've played well at the end of games. We've come back five or six times at the end of games. Even at Cleveland State, we came back from five down with a few seconds to go. We've battled hard all year."
On Jonny Flynn's performance
"Jonny Flynn, this was his biggest night. He's struggled a little bit the last couple of games, and tonight he stepped up early and kept us in there and made a couple big plays, along with several great passes at the end. You know, we just battled hard for the entire game. This is a tough place to play; it's a great arena. I just thought our guys hung in there and they weren't going to be denied, even though they missed a lot of free throws again. We're going to go to the basket and hopefully we'll start making those free throws. But, it was a great effort by our guys. Memphis was running 10 guys at us. It would have been very easy for us to get tired, but this was our fourth game in eight days. And, we've had two hellacious games in those eight days."
