Memphis Basketball Quotes vs Oral Roberts

Dec 20, 2014 | Men's Basketball

Dec. 20, 2014

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  Memphis Head Coach Josh Pastner

Overall Thoughts...
"First and foremost, I was so proud of our guys efforts on the glass and so proud of our effort with the 50/50 balls. Even toward the end, we were diving on the floor. I thought our defense was good. We held them to 33% from the field and 20% from three and we were +14 on the glass. The improvement that Pookie Powell has made in terms of playing hard is incredible. Him sticking his nose in there and grabbing rebounds and making winning plays is really helping this team. He made big-time winning plays today. I'm so proud of the improvement and the progression that he's made. He's got to continue it, but he came up with 50/50 balls and rebounds today. His defense was excellent. I've seen where he's come from and I couldn't be more proud."

On who he was pleased with....
"I thought D'Marnier Cunningham did a nice job too. I can't express my elation toward Pookie on the way he played. I'm not just talking offense; I'm talking ability to come up with rebounds and hard-nosed plays. Austin Nichols was excellent defensively again. He had unbelievable timing to come up with those eight blocks. Avery Woodson did a great job. Early in the first half there was a loose ball and he put his body out there. He sacrificed his body to come up with that ball. I'm really proud of Avery. Nick King gave us some good minutes. He had some good hard-nosed rebounds. I thought Chris Hawkins came in and gave us some good minutes. There was that one sequence in the second half where he, Austin and Trashon were all over the glass offensively. D'Marnier gave us good minutes by using his speed. He made some nice plays. I thought Kuran Iverson did a really nice job defensively. Calvin Godfrey gave us some good minutes in the first half as well. You look at our stat line, I'm proud of our guys for what they did from the free throw line. We had 13 assists on 26 field goals. We tied a school-record with 15 blocks. I'm extremely proud of our defense. We still scored 78 with the drought. We're getting better. We still have a lot of work to do. There's going to be highs and lows with this team, I'm just hoping the lows are gone. We're a game-by-game team. We have two days to get locked back in and ready to play Tuesday night.

  Sophomore Forward Austin Nichols

On holding ORU to 34% shooting...
"That's one of our keys before the game is hold them to under 40% shooting. We did a really good job of that the whole game. They have some good combo-guards and shooters. I think we did a really good job of containing their offense."

On scoring off turnovers...
"When we can get any turnovers and execute on the offensive end, that's really key for us. If we can do that every game, that'll be big."

On rebounding...
"I think we did a really nice job of rebounding tonight. We have to keep it going. I think we've been doing pretty well on the rebounding the last few games, we just have to keep it up."

  Junior Forward Chris Hawkins

On his role...
"My role is to be a great offensive rebounder and an energetic defender. I'm an energy guy. I play off my momentum and what I can do for my team. It's essential for me to come out and help the team."

On the play of Pookie Powell...
"Once your point guard has confidence, it trickles down to everyone else. We're comfortable now. I feel like we're getting into a groove."

  Sophomore Guard Avery Woodson

On his shooting...
"I feel like I'm in good shape. I have to realize I'm not going to make every shot, but I just have to keep shooting and trust the process."

On playing four games in seven days ...
"We're in great shape. Coach Evarist (Akujobi) does a great job with us to make sure we do a little bit of conditioning before every practice. We have to credit him for that.

  Oral Roberts Head Coach Scott Sutton

On the game...
"I'm disappointed in our effort. I didn't think we fought very hard. We didn't fight them. To win a game like this, you have to display a great amount of toughness, and toughness comes in a lot of forms. One of the biggest ways is to get in there and block out against big, strong athletic players. For us to give up 17 offensive rebounds and also toughness is finishing shots. Our inability to make shots around the rim, it just killed us. It killed us in the first half. I give them credit though. [Austin] Nichols was terrific blocking shots, but I thought we went in there soft. We didn't go in there with much toughness and against a shot blocker, you have to take it right at him, go through him and we didn't do that. I think Memphis is playing much better. Obviously, they are very talented. They did a good job on our shooters. They smothered Bobby [Word]. We have to do a better job of half court offense of executing and getting some clean looks for some of our guys. We fought back in the game though. We had it down to three and then it was a five or six point game. We had about three or four possessions where we fouled, they missed a free throw but got an offensive rebound and scored. We go down the floor, Brandon [Conley] throws a flat pass across the court, they run through it and next thing you know instead of maybe it being a four or five point game, it's up to twelve or thirteen. We could never get back in the game."

On team's inability to get anything going until under 10 on the shot clock...
"We were out of sorts. I think Memphis' defense has been pretty good this year because they are long and they do a good job. They were holding their opponents to around 60 points a game. We attacked them and got some easy looks. We came out the second half and ran some plays and got some layups. Brandon [Conley] got a dunk. We just didn't execute very well the rest of the half and a lot of it has to do with them. You block 15 shots, you're doing a great job protecting the basket. I'm just disappointed. We told them that they were a good shot blocking team. [Austin] Nichols is a great shot blocker. You have to take it right to him, and we didn't do that."