Dec. 22, 2007

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Memphis Postgame Quotes
December 22, 2007
Game 10

#5/4 Georgetown (8-1) 71
#2/2 Memphis (10-0) 85

Memphis Head Coach John Calipari

We scheduled a game on December 22 because we're trying to learn about our team. But if you win it's a huge game. That's why it was. We won it with defense. We executed offensively the best we executed all year. I didn't go to the benches that much because to be honest with you some guys were breaking down defensively. The second thing was they had it rolling. They were just on a roll, and I was going to let them run it out. I was pitching a pitcher that probably needed to come out in the seventh inning and I said I'm not taking him out because he's pitching a no-hitter.

We're counting on Willie (Kemp) and Andre (Allen) and Doneal (Mack), and Shawn Taggart has got to be better. How about Pierre Niles. He's just got to get his body right and I'll play him. But he's got to get his body right. He went in and looked at me and said, "If (Joey Dorsey) doesn't want to get balls coach, I'll go in and get balls."

I'm proud of them. I'm proud of Chris (Douglas-Roberts) bouncing back. I'm proud of Derrick (Rose) as a freshman. My goodness. I'm proud of Antonio (Anderson) guarding (Jonathan) Wallace exactly as we learned against Arizona a year ago. We kept pressing. Everybody said, "Why did you press; they were getting back." Because I wanted them to play. I wanted them to run. I still think this was the best team that we've played since I've been here.

Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III

What things do you think you need to work on now?
Stating the obvious, we have a long way to go. I think on both ends of the floor to be honest. At the end of the day, I think our offense closed down a little bit and our offense led to a lot of air baskets. We have a lot of good teams (on our schedule) and this team can improve if they need to and will improve.

What was your biggest problem on offense?
It has to do with patience and good shot selection. We'll fix that. When we would make a mistake or a bad decision on offense it would lead to an easy basket to them down the other way. This is something we know we have to address.

In the past couple of games, Memphis hasn't got a lot out Chris Douglas-Roberts.
He's such a good player. You prepare for him to have a game like he did tonight. He can score a lot of different ways. He got into a rhythm today. Guys like that when they get into a rhythm, there's not much you can do. You just have to hold back and hope he misses. He got into his rhythm and then everyone else is still scoring.