Post-Game Quotes
Jan 17, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2009
Recap | Final Stats
MEMPHIS - 1/17/09 Post Game Quotes
UAB (10-7) 68 Memphis (14-3) 81
Head Coach John Calipari
Postgame Quotes
Opening Statement
I'm happy that we won. We still have the same issues. When we were down by 11, I don't like putting guys back into the game with two fouls, but I had no choice. We were going to lose by 20. I go to Tyreke (Evans) and said, please jump stop kid. Do not leave your feet.
I'm trying to sub him on every defensive set and then with 2:30 to go I pushed it and we got back in the game. Whatever happens, happens, and we'll walk off the court that way. That's why I didn't put him back in. Basically what that said to me was, we're losing.
Willie Kemp is a lesson for all of our players. He owned his performance. He finally owned it. He stopped looking at this and that. He owned what he was doing. Then he began to change and what he did down in Tulsa, he did it defensively first. He did it with unbelievable defensive effort and drive. And, he did it with two great shoot arounds and warm ups today and the Tulsa game. Today, he kicked in his offense a little bit. He had one play that I wish he wouldn't have made when he just drove in and threw up a ball. Short of that, he had 14 points, three assists, no turnovers, and two steals. Now all of the sudden Willie is that guy that we all knew he should be. I'm proud of him, but he had to own his performance and stop thinking that it was something else. Now we have a couple of other guys that have to own their performances. Then you can change.
When the game gets to be roughhouse, we have guys that really struggle and they have to figure out, how do I play in a roughhouse, NBA, professional style game where it's professional and it's going to be roughhouse. How do I play in a game like that? We have to figure it out.
How do players own their performances?
Well you have to own your performance. When you're playing poorly and you're shooting poorly and you're playing timid, you have to own it and say I am. You have to change it and you can't let it be that way. Then, you spend extra time and work on yourself. Confidence is demonstrated performance. That's how you build confidence. What that means is that you go on the court and demonstrate that you can play and you build your own confidence. We have some guys right now that aren't demonstrating performance and are not playing particularly well. I'm just grabbing anything to get five guys out there that will fight and scrap and battle, and play tough. Whoever it is, I'm leaving them in the game. This is the first time since 1995 that I left a guy in for 40 minutes. And I'll do it again next game, and I'll do it again next game every game Antonio (Anderson) can stay out there, I'll leave him in there.
You went to a small lineup and it was a big move in this game.
At one point they went back big, and I said I don't care what they do, we're not scoring and obviously it's not helping us defensively. I don't care we're staying small and that's what that is.
Tyreke had 12 points in that last stretch of the first half.
It was crazy. He wanted to stay in and he just didn't understand that with his importance to this team, I can't leave him out and get him a third silly foul because now we'll lose the game in the second half.
UAB Head Coach Mike Davis
Opening Statement
"Well, our guys came out of the gate and played hard. We had an 11 point lead at one point, and I'm proud of my team and the effort they gave."
Last year when your team played Memphis at home, it was a blowout. How proud are you of your team for doing much, much better this season?
"Well, we definitely played better. We're a more mature team now. It just didn't go our way. We got a bad break here, a bad call there and it just didn't work out. But we just kind of wore down as the game went on. I don't think Robert Vaden scored a point in the second half, and I don't think Aaron Johnson scored a point the whole game. Lawrence Kinnard got into foul trouble and had to sit on the bench for the majority of the game. But our guys fought and played hard. "
You had a chance to really get some distance between your team and Memphis in the first half. What happened?
"Again, I thought we played and defended really well. We just didn't make the open shots when we needed to. We had some open looks and some opportunities to attack the basket, but we just weren't able to take advantage of them. "
Were you pleased with your team's shot selection tonight?
"Yeah, I'm pretty pleased. Channing Toney knocked down some shots. But you have to drive the basketball, especially against a team like Memphis when you're on the road. I thought we had one little stretch there where our shot selection wasn't very good because you want to try to drive inside. But overall I thought we did a pretty good job."
