University of Memphis Athletics
Post-Game Quotes (Memphis 98, LeMoyne Owen 68)
Nov 03, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 3, 2009
Recap | Final Stats
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -
Memphis Head Coach Josh Pastner
Q: Opening Statement
COACH PASTNER - I thought LeMoyne-Owen was good. I told everybody that that's Jackson State. The only difference is Jackson State's guards are 5-11, 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 and their post men are 6-9, 6-10, so this was a good game for us. I thought Coach (William) Anderson's team ran some really good stuff. They were good. They had really good guards, really good guard play.
I think Christian Brothers is going to be tough. Everyone here knows they are extremely well coached, and they run some really good stuff, so that's not a gimme. In anything in life, winning is hard. Winning is not easy. The parity among college basketball these days, there are so many good players spread throughout the country. It's hard to win. We'll have another battle on Monday, but I thought tonight was good.
We started out slow. That's probably been our Achilles heel since the first day of practice to now has been our start. I told our guys if we have to tape up and go live on game days we need to do that to get a better start because we cannot start like that, otherwise against Jackson State we'll be down 15. Against Christian Brothers we'll be down 20. That can't happen, so that's something we have to improve on.
Q: On the new players and their contributions
COACH PASTNER - Elliot (Williams) played well. He had a good stat line. He had 24 points, six rebounds, six assists, two steals, but he had four turnovers; too many turnovers. His stat line needs to be like that. That's how Wesley Witherspoon needs to be, close to a triple double. Wesley and Elliot Williams need to be on triple double status. Those are the type of lines that they need to be getting.
Wesley Witherspoon and Will Coleman started out slow. I thought their shootvaround was slow, and that's how they started. Basketball is simple; life is simple. How you practice and how you play is habit. It's what you do on an everyday basis. The great ones--Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, whatever it may be--they practice at such a high rate, at such a high motor. That's what they have to learn. Wesley started out slow, and then his second half he really came on and had six rebounds. But he needs to play that way the entire game as does Will Coleman.
We allowed LeMoyne-Owen to shoot over 40 percent, and that can't happen. It can't happen if we want to win at a high level.
LeMoyne-Owen Head Coach William Anderson
Q: Thoughts on the game
COACH ANDERSON - I thought that early on we did a good job staying with Memphis. I thought that Josh (Pastner) did a good job. He has a very disciplined team, and we didn't stay disciplined on our defensive concept and our offensive concept. Memphis being a Division I, top 25 team, they exploited that. I'm proud of the way our guys played the first 16 minutes. I thought Memphis did a good job of maintaining their composure and playing through it and coming out and getting a good victory for them.
Q: During the first 16 minutes of the game, what was going well for you?
COACH ANDERSON - We were getting good looks off our initial looks. We were maintaining on the rebounding. We rebounded I thought pretty well at first, but the size that Memphis has at every position, especially (Wesley) Witherspoon playing at forward, he's 6-9, we just didn't have an answer for that. They were a lot bigger than us, and they were able to control the boards the last four minutes of the half and get some easy buckets throwing it out long in transition. I think that really changed the game once they realized they were bigger than us. I think we kind of made them mad a little bit, and they come out and pushed us around a little bit. We weren't ready for their physicality. We didn't match them in that four minutes, and I think that was the difference in that half.
