Memphis/Tulane Post-Game Quotes
Mar 07, 2009 | Men's Basketball
March 7, 2009
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Post Game Quotes
March 7, 2009
Tulane 26 21 - 47
Memphis 35 39 - 74
Head Coach John Calipari
Opening Statement
Did senior day exceeded your expectations?
Yes, and wow, it was great to see Chris Douglas Roberts come down. He said, "I couldn't miss this. I have to fly back tonight, but I could not miss this. We just saw Joey (Dorsey) Chris Massie in Houston and Derrick (Rose) in Dallas. It has been great for these kids.
Is this one of those deals where you don't know what you have until it's gone?
I know. I know when these guys leave, I know. When you talk about team leadership, I thought Robert Dozier was tremendous, especially how he played at the end. That's the guy I want to be coaching the rest of the way. He just came out of nowhere.
Was it Dozier's play that kick-started things in the last ten minutes?
I would say that was one of them. I also thought that Roburt Sallie was just as effective and I left him in. When we went zone, I took Tyreke (Evans) out and I just left him out for the last five or six minutes. He kept looking at me like are you going to put me back in, but I said "You're good."
What do you have to do to get Tyreke (Evans) a little bit sharper for the post season?
He'll be fine. I have to sit down with him and have a talk with him to explain how it is going to be from here on out. This is all new to him. He's a freshman and he doesn't have any idea what he's in for. Neither does the rest of the team. What I'm worried about is in the last few games now that we played just well enough to win. You see them huddle out there with nine minutes left and they're telling each other as a team, okay let's go. You can't do that against a really good team. You'll be down by 20, or you'll be really close and a really good team will continue to make plays. Now all the sudden you're down four and you panic and your season is over. At this point, when you lose, it is over. In our tournament, if we lose, then its over. In the NCAA Tournament, if you get into it and you lose, it is over. We have to get back to that vicious play for 40 minutes. We also have to get better bench play. I thought Wesley (Witherspoon) and Roburt (Sallie) were good today. We have to get Willie (Kemp) and Pierre (Henderson-Niles). We have to get all of our guys to step up and play better.
Head Coach Dave Dickerson
Opening Statement
The problem that Memphis presents to everyone in our conference is that we're not used to playing against two guys being 6-9 and 6-10 with long arms. (Tyreke) Evans is probably the best player in our conference had ten rebounds and got a double-double tonight.
What is the next step for you and your team?
We have to take the energy that we achieved from thirty minutes of that game and take it back to New Orleans and reinvent ourselves because when you lose at this point, you're out. We want to get that chance to extend our season. I really like the effort that our guys brought tonight. I thought our guys really battled and showed great character.
