University of Memphis Athletics
Memphis Basketball Postgame Quotes
Jan 13, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 13, 2005
Memphis Head Coach John Calipari
"They (the players) have worked so hard and made great investments now. Guys are coming early to practice. They are making investments in the season and their own individual play. I thought Rodney, Darius, and Anthony Rice were all outstanding offensively. I thought all of our big guys did what they had to do to play Diener and Novak. They screened, they helped, they switched out and just did a fabulous job."
"The biggest thing for us is offensively, we're taking better shots and creating better shots, which means we're shooting a higher percentage and we're scoring more. We're good enough defensively. We just haven't been good enough offensively."
"The things we worked on in practice, we did in the game. We executed. They really concentrated. They know something is at stake now and they're not worried about just themselves. Now it's about the team."
Marquette Head Coach Tom Crean
"Turnovers were the story of the game; they really were. Sixteen in the first half; 25 in the game. And then just some mental errors. I always felt we'd get back into the game with scoring, but they were so athletic and so determined tonight. Give John credit; give his staff credit and his players credit for the way they came out. When you commit 25 turnovers in the game, it's going to be awful hard to beat anybody home or away."
"They're a very capable defensive team. They're one of the better defensive teams in the league, and we saw why tonight with all that length and athleticism. I was really impressed with the way we continued to battle. We got it down to five and then made a couple mistakes at the free throw line."
"I give the referees credit. They went to the camera and checked it. They were in complete control. That's a final four officiating crew tonight. No doubt about it. They handled it, end of story."
