University of Memphis Athletics
University of Memphis
(12) Colorado State
Tigers Meet Media Ahead of Colorado State Game
Mar 20, 2025 | Men's Basketball
Head Coach Penny Hardaway
Q. You've been around a lot of great players and you coached other great players, curious how PJ has made you a better coach and/or a different coach?
PENNY HARDAWAY: Yeah, that's a great question. PJ Haggerty has made me a great coach because a lot of his God-given ability comes in to play a lot out there on the court. When he takes over a game, that's not on me. That's this his God-given ability.
Putting him in position is all I have to do and he takes it from there. That's how he's made me a better coach because no matter what any coach says, and a lot of coaches do say this, that you're only as good as your players. You have good players, you're going to look great and he's made me look great because of that reason.
Q. You talked about having such a short time to prepare. How do you deal with that when you have injuries and stuff up in the air?
PENNY HARDAWAY: I think because we took care of business in the conference tournament that we prepared ourselves much more to be ready to adapt to anything because we had a week off before we played. So now the short turnaround, even though we knew we were playing Colorado State, we really had a lot of time to put in a lot of stuff because we had already worked on ourselves. Usually it's working on us and then the other team, we worked on a ton of things that we knew we were going to need for the Tournament, not knowing who we were going to play.
So we did get a lot of work on Colorado State, which helps because you have to understand who they are.
Q. When you say you have to understand who they are, can you expand on that? What does that mean? And second question, obviously you guys had so much to overcome with guys going down, that was where the edge was and winning the conference tournament and things like that. Now that you're here obviously the goal is to win but where does the edge go from now?
PENNY HARDAWAY: Yeah, I think when I say you have to know who Colorado State is, they're a well-oiled machine, and they have so many options on these different motions that they run. We ran the offense before, so we're familiar but they do some really nice things in their offense and it's not an everyday team that you play that has all these different actions and motions. So you need the time.
We put the time in. Again, we're familiar enough with the offense, but they have such dynamic players that you have to get that ingrained into your guys' head that this is a totally different game than we played all year, and me and my staff have been doing a good job of that even though we still have to play the game, we should be prepared for what they're going to do.
And the edge is just wanting to be the best. We have seen this happen so many times over the years the NCAA Tournament, even the rankings of teams, we want Memphis to be mentioned in the same breath as all the top teams around the country, and that's the edge that we play. Then these guys also wants to leave a legacy. They want to do things that other teams in the past haven't done.
Q. When you have, as you've been looking at the matchup with Colorado State, what do you see as far as the front court matchup, specifically the front court matchup? How do you see that playing out, do you feel like you guys might have an advantage there?
PENNY HARDAWAY: Well, obviously we have Moussa and Dain, who are really good bigs and they have really good bigs because their system, they're smaller, but they're tough. They play the game the right way. They're going to make everything very difficult on you.
So we're going to go into the game tomorrow and do what we do, whether it's throwing it inside or whether it's our guards doing what they do. Then we're not going to adapt or adjust to them from our point of view, Dane and Moussa will get the ball inside and then we'll see what they do.
You would like to say Dane being larger and Moussa being larger that we have a height advantage and we can try to take advantage of some things, but you have to see how the flow of the game is working and that's how we're approaching it.
Q. What did you think of Tony Madlock's bunch the other night? Did you get a chance to watch that?
PENNY HARDAWAY: Yeah, I did, I watched it, it was pretty cool because I mean just making the NCAA Tournament was history and to get a win on top of that.
We're proud of our brother, me and Tim Duncan talk about it all the time. We all come from the same soil, man, in Memphis and we all had dreams and wanted to achieve certain things, and to see it happen live at Alabama State with Tony is, man, that's just a blessing. That's all God, because we couldn't have dreamt this. We wanted this for one another where we are now and where he is, but you can't dream this stuff up, man, it's pretty good. That's what March Madness is all about.
PJ Haggerty, Dain Dainja, Colby Rogers
Q. Colby, two-part question, first how is your anticipation for your first game, and also the second part is how do you see your role changing if your guys that are injured are not able to play?
COLBY ROGERS: Extremely excited. It's my first time here and I've been in college for a little minute. So it's everything I've kind of worked for and dreamed of.
I think my role is kind of the same. I think it's just as a team we just got to kind of make a collective effort to do whatever it takes to win and just go about it like that.
Q. You were a part of a Baylor team that won a National Championship and now you're in the NCAA yourself and kind of being the lead guy. What have you been able to communicate with PJ and Colby, the other teammates that have never been on the floor what to expect?
DAIN DAINJA: Just the little things, the things you work on in practice. Defending and rebounding, all the stuff we work on in practice, just translating over here in this tournament.
Q. PJ, consensus All-American, has that sunk in? What does that feel like? Fulfilling?
PJ HAGGERTY: Yeah it's a blessing. But I'm just the same guy. Just trying to advance in the Tournament.
Q. PJ, you'll have a matchup with Nique Clifford, who is a phenomenal guard himself. What have you seen from him and what makes him such a good guard?
PJ HAGGERTY: I mean, we watched a little film on 'em, I see where he averaged 19 and 10 rebounds, so it's kind of impressive. But just sticking to our principles, just guard him, contain him, things like that.
Q. Dain, I wanted to ask you about the matchup, what have you seen as far as like since you started prep on Colorado State, what have you seen? What do you feel like you can exploit within that matchup?
DAIN DAINJA: Within what matchup, with me and the other guy's big? I definitely feel like I can use my speed and my quickness on him, for sure. I haven't -- we'll watch some more film on him today, but from what I've seen I can definitely use my speed and my strength, for sure.
Q. PJ, what excites you about playing Colorado State?
PJ HAGGERTY: What excites me? It's an opportunity in the NCAA Tournament and that's the most excitement I could get from being here, yeah.
Q. A lot of folks are picking Colorado State to upset y'all. Does that give you any kind of edge or what?
DAIN DAINJA: I feel like at the end of the day we're just here to do our jobs. We know who we are, the media and all that, we don't really pay attention to that. They're going to see at the end of the day.
Q. Colby, I don't know if the Clifford matchup will be your or Dain's. What do you think analytically is the way you're going to go with this?
COLBY ROGERS: I think that's a coach's decision but whatever they ask me to do I'll do it. I think that's more of a game plan decision with the coach and stuff like that.
But I think as a team all five of us will have to key in on him, it's not going to be a one-on-one island type of thing. It has to be a collective effort. I mean, he's a good player.
So I think it will be kind of a team thing and then at the end we'll probably switch matchups on him throughout the game, so we'll see.
