March 10, 2006

SEMIFINAL 1: (1) Memphis 68, (4) Houston 54

Memphis Quotes

Head Coach John Calipari

"I was so proud of Rodney Carney today. It would be so easy for Rodney to play for himself right now. It would easy for him to just go out and do it himself. I grabbed Rodney and said `you are defending and we will try to give you some shots. Rodney said I am fine. At one point in the second half I asked if you want me to run something to get you going and he said I am fine. He defended and blocked shots today. Four blocks shows how far he has come and what he means to the team. "

"Joey Dorsey in the second half played great. Why can't he do that all the time? If anyone knows what I can do to get him to play like that all the time I wish someone would tell me in the hallway. It is unacceptable when you are going half speed or jogging back. When he plays the right way, which he is capable of doing, we have a post game."

Shawne Williams really did well today. He rebounded and got to the line. It was a good win. Houston is 20-9 and could have beaten us twice. They should be an NCAA tournament team. Tom Penders has done a great job and I hope things fall so they get invited to the NCAA Tournament."

"We threw it inside and dunked it in the second half and it is hard to turn it over. "

Memphis Player Shawne Williams

"I was struggling a little bit and had to stay after practice and work on my jumper. Coach told me to keep shooting it."

"We came out at half and we were a little tired because Houston would take the shot clock down to the end. When we got up 10, and kept feeding the ball to the post and getting dunks, we put the nail in the coffin."

Memphis Player Joey Dorsey

"I did not prepare myself well for the game, but in the second half my intensity was a lot higher and I had to get rebounds to help the team."

Houston Quotes

Houston Head Coach Tom Penders

"It was a hard fought, grinded out basketball game much like the first game we had here last weekend. Memphis is one of the few teams in the country that has similar quicks to us. They also did a really good job on their defensive end, and in the second half, getting the ball in to (Rodney) Carney and converting. We just kept coming up empty, and empty and empty. You can't beat good teams when you're shooting 25 percent. To beat a great team like Memphis you have to shoot at least 40 (percent) and play great defense."

"We had a lot of great looks. When we were up by 10-0, we missed six or seven pretty good looks. We just didn't put them away when we had the opportunity to. Memphis started to tighten the screws defensively, and John's (Calipari) a good coach. We didn't convert from transitions; open shots, open threes. We wanted to get a lot of open looks for Ramon (Dyer) and Jahmar (Thorpe), and we did but they missed some shots they normally knock down. (We wanted to) try to take the pressure off of our backcourt early. We just never really got going. We had great looks. We had some really outstanding looks in the first half. We had to shoot 40 percent or better, and we didn't do it."

Houston Player Oliver Lafayette

"Memphis is a talented team; one of the best teams we faced all year. They put big guards on you so you can't pull up and drive. They take everything on the court. They're a good college team. If we would have made some of our shots, it would have been a closer game."

Houston Player Ramon Dyer

"We got the shots we wanted, we just couldn't knock them down in the first few looks. We got it to the guys we wanted to get it to, it just wouldn't fall. It was one of those nights."