Memphis/Marshall Post-Game Quotes
Jan 07, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 7, 2009
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MEMPHIS - January 7, 2009
Marshall (7-7, 0-1 C-USA) 28 29 - 57 Memphis (11-3, 1-0 C-USA) 35 45 - 80
John Calipari
Head Coach University of Memphis
Opening Statement
"You know, we turned up the defense in the second half, and that was good. But, the way we started the game, we just can't start games that way against elite teams. I mean, we were lucky that we weren't down ten. Then, we made a couple plays; I think Antonio made a three pointer to end the half, which was a big play to stretch it out a little bit and give us some breathing room because the second half started the same way. They shoot a ball and we get absolutely pushed out of the way and they get an offensive rebound over our big people and they score. We have to show toughness, and we can't give teams hope by getting shoved and pushed around. We have to offensive rebound. We have to defensive rebound and fight back. But again, we're one of the better defensive teams. We didn't guard the middle pick and roll, and they kept scoring on it. Other than that, we only created nine turnovers. I mean, we only caused nine turnovers. Again, we didn't turn it over either. Tyreke played poorly, and we still win, which means he can play poorly and we can still win."
They weren't a big team. Was the difference simply effort?
"Yeah, I mean, all the 50-50 balls, they got. They hustled. See, what I'm telling everyone, especially the newcomers, is that these teams have an opportunity to beat us for the first time in a couple of years. I guess, you know, we did some things today that were good, but if you look at it, when they went man to man we started getting points. Teams are not going to play us man to man very often. We did some good things. We added some different things to the offense, different rhythms and different motions to get us into it."
Donnie Jones
Head Coach Marshall
Opening Statement
"Memphis has a very good basketball team. Their defensive intensity wore us down in the second half offensively. We tried to rest some guys in the first half, but we expended so much energy trying to stay in the game. Memphis just kept rotating five in, five out, and five back in again. We just didn't take very good care of the basketball tonight. We had some shots. We had some good shots, but we were (3-17) from the three point line. We have to make threes against this team. We had some good looks, but they didn't go down. Chris Lutz is a guy that we're fighting for. His confidence is rattled right now, but he has to find a way to come into games and make some shots. I thought he had some good looks. We just have to make shots. I have all the confidence in them, but we just have to keep working. We're going to get better and we have another chance to prove it against East Carolina on Saturday.
You weren't sure if Markel Humphrey could even play this week, but he came out and led your team with 14 points.
"We need him to be able to be a leader for us. We haven't practiced him all week in order for him to get healthy. We're going to continue to rest him the right way so he can continue to get his energy much like we did last year. It is important that we have our core of guys be healthy for us because we're so young come out and do things for us. We just have to continue to work and grow."
