March 12, 2006

Memphis Head Coach John Calipari

"We can't get ahead of ourselves. We've got to think a small tournaments at a time. We can't be worrying about end results; just play ball games. The greatest thing about this tournament is it is all decided on the court. The higher your seed, the better your opportunity. But it doesn't mean anything. The games are still decided on the court."

"For us to get a first seed, it just doesn't happen. Well, it's never happened here before. It's hard. There are only four teams that get this. I'm really proud for the respect that the committee has shown toward us."

"For us to get a first seed, it just doesn't happen. Well, it's never happened here before. It's hard. There are only four teams that get this. I'm really proud for the respect that the committee has shown toward us." Memphis Head Coach John Calipari

"It (a first seed) gives you a better opportunity. But the greatest thing is, if you can get by Oral Roberts (you have Arkansas or Bucknell). Those are terrific teams. Whoever gets past that, you're looking at a Pittsburgh and Kansas. Those two are probably thinking they should have been two seeds. You play two two seeds that are four and five. But it's in every region. Every region you're looking around and thinking, `Why is Gonzaga a three? How is Tennessee a two?' That's the great thing about this tournament."

"It's not the uniform; it's not the name on the uniform, it's the bodies inside those uniforms. I like our bodies and we'll be ok. I've been there enough that I can kind of walk them through it. It's really just getting them in the right mindset. We've got to really get these guys to understand to forget the end results. Forget two weeks from now; forget a month from now. Let's just know we're going to improve on a few things on Monday and Tuesday and maybe Wednesday and get down to Dallas and get ready for a tough ballgame on Friday. We'll worry about Sunday if it comes."

Memphis senior Rodney Carney

"I feel we worked hard and deserved to get it (No. 1 seed). We couldn't do no more or no less. I guess our work is paying off and now we're going to have to go into the tournament and see what we can do."

"It's tough bracket. There's no easy bracket out there. I'm sitting there watching to see which one is a hard bracket and all of them are hard brackets. It's going to be a hard-fought tournament."

"No matter what we were going to go play in the NCAA Tournament. You're going to go out and play hard no matter what seed you are. Anybody can win the tournament."

"There's no pressure. As coach said we are going to go out and give it all. We're not going to think about losing. We're going to go out there and play. You can't think about that. If you do, you're going to change it up and go out there and not play well. We're going to have to go out there with a fresh mind."

"I haven't been there (NCAA Tournament) for a while, so it's going to be a different experience than it was before for me. But I can tell this team to go out there and relax and tell them that the intensity of the game is going to be tremendous. Everyone is going to come out and play hard. Every position is hard. We have to go out there and concentrate and really play."

Memphis sophomore Darius Washington Jr.

"It feels great to have a No. 1 seed. We worked so hard and got what we wanted. Now we just have to go out there and take care of business."

"We're going to take it one game at a time. Each game we're going to come up prepared and go out and play our hearts out. Right now we're not looking at each individual team."

"Everything we do, we're trying to carry a tradition. Right now we're the first Memphis team to get a No. 1 seed, and we're going to try and keep going."

Memphis freshman Chris Douglas-Roberts

On getting the No. 1 seed "It's a great feeling. We only lost three games and the teams we lost to were really great teams. We prepared all year long just for this moment. It feels great. You can't really explain it."

On having played many of the teams in the bracket during the year "Every team has gotten better throughout the year. We played most of the teams early in the year when they really weren't as solid as they were later in the year. It's going to be tough."

"Definitely we're more experienced. We're a young team so the more we play the more experience we get."

Memphis freshman Antonio Anderson

"I don't know much about them (Oral Roberts). But everybody is out there trying to win games, so we've got to be ready to play."

"We've got to get past the first part of the bracket that we're in. We can't look forward to Gonzaga or UCLA. We just have to be ready to play in the first tournament."