Memphis vs. Tulsa Post Game Quotes
Feb 27, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 27, 2008
Memphis Post Game
February 27, 2008
Game #27
Tulsa 67
2/3 Memphis 82
Memphis Head Coach John Calipari
That may have been our first best half of basketball. I was really encouraged and I think the bench was terrific. It was a lot of stuff we took out of it. We got a little sloppy in the second half. I give Doug (Wojcik) credit. They were not going to just go away. They did not care what the score was; to hold them to 18 points in the first half was tremendous, and out of those 18 they got five in the first minutes. They got 13 points the rest of the half. Did we sustain it? No. We made some subs and there were a couple of guys that didn't perform really well.
What happened against Tennessee was that we never moved the ball more than three passes in the second half. Three was the most and that was only five times. We went back to what we did early in the season which was three or four drives unless you have something. We're not taking quick threes. We're not coming down and taking that first one. That's not on the kids, that's on me. This is how we're going to play it, it just looks better.
Tulsa Head Coach Doug Wojcik
We started the game great, and we really went after them. I thought we got a little tentative and didn't believe, and they stunned us a little bit. Not many people are going to beat them when they shoot it as well as they did from the three. You've got to give something up against them. The dribble drive is something that is always a problem because they're going to get you in foul trouble with the dribble drive. So we decided to give up the three ball. Coach (Bruce) Pearl said the other day at halftime when they were 8-for-20, "Hey, they're not going to beat us from three."
I'm really proud of our guys in the second half. We scored 48 points in the second half; outscored them 48-39. We were really trying to cut it 12. Guys were really doing a good job, and quite honestly you talk about the moral victories of it all, it doesn't feel good sitting in the first half when you're getting your butt kicked. We really came out and played well in the second half.
We come back here in two weeks. We've always had trouble scoring in here and today we shoot 44 (percent) from the field; 39 (percent) from the three; score 67 after a dismal first half. We're going to build from this and go home and get on that bus and get ready for Marshall Saturday night.
He (Ray Reese) played great. It was discouraging because he had three fouls at halftime. Then Rod (Earls) goes down with the knee, so now you're down to three guards for the most part if Ray had gotten into foul trouble. He came through it; didn't foul out, and then Rod's knee is okay. I'm really proud of them.
I thought Jerome (Jordan) showed some decent things there. We'd like to see him be more aggressive, but keep in mind the strength of Joey Dorsey. It's just a real issue for Jerome. It's just the way it is right now, but in two years it probably won't be an issue. (Shawn) Taggart continues to play really well against us. He really does. He hurts us and scores on us. Sam (Mitchell) had very good post defense on him and (Robert) Dozier, and they made tough shots over him.
