March 16, 2009

• NCAA Tournament Central
• Memphis-Cal State Northridge Gametracker
• Watch the Game Live With NCAA^® March Madness^® on Demand

Opening Statement

We're really excited. It's a grueling year, especially when you're supposed to win every game by 20 points. We had grueling trips to Gonzaga and it was an exciting but long season. For our team, it's just that we're ready go get this thing going. I'm not going to talk about any other bracket beyond us and the other three teams, Cal Northridge, Cal and Maryland. We know that we have a tough little corner of the world to compete against. All three teams have done well and played well this whole season.

How has your team focused this year on the defensive end and how does that help you?

The last four years, we have really been a terrific defensive team by the numbers. In the last four years combined, we're No. 1 in three point field goal percentage, No. 3 in field goal percentage defense and that might even be a little better now, No. 5 in steals and No. 5 in blocks and that's why we've won so many games over the past four years. This year's team was not supposed to be as good defensively as even last year's team. All of the sudden, about a month ago, people were telling me that this year's team is better defensively and I was saying, "You're out of your mind."

We lost the number one pick in the draft, we lost a first-team All-American and we lost Joey Dorsey who might as well have been Lawrence Taylor. I told them that they were crazy, but the more I watched, the more that I said, "You know what, we're really good."

The only thing that I can tell you is that we're not as rough and tumble, but we're longer. Joey Dorsey was 6-6 and three-quarters and Shawn Taggart is all of 6-10. We replace Derrick with Tyreke and Tyreke is 6-6 with a 7-2 wingspan. Then, all of the sudden Doneal Mack plugs in to where Chris Douglas-Roberts was and is probably just as good, if not a better defender than what Chris was. And they are taking great pride in that. So, now all of the sudden, our defensive numbers are better than what they were a year ago which is pretty incredible stuff.

You keep reloading with incredible freshman each year, is that a cyclical thing?

I think it is a cyclical thing. I think the group that is coming next year could be kind of like the group that came in last year. Maybe not quite to that level, but almost. This group was very good, but not as deep as last year. I said before the season that Tyreke was that one freshman that would stand out. Everybody said well that's because you're coaching him. I thought that way because physically he can do it, and mentally he has the capacity to understand that it's on us. He can deal with it. We're talking about a freshman that's stepping in to the shoes of the No. 1 pick in the draft last year. We're talking about a young man that his dumb coach didn't even have him at point guard to start the year. So, they fired that guy and I came in after nine games and immediately I stuck him at point guard. Here's a kid that never said a word about it. Antonio and Robert Dozier were talking about him yesterday. They just said he's a humble kid. He's quiet. He's great to be around. He's a great teammate, he's unselfish and he can make plays, which they really like. I think it is cyclical, I think he is the best freshman, and I think he deserves the recognition that he's getting by leading a team to the top of the polls where people thought that we were in a rebuilding year.

What are your thoughts about the geographical placement of the top seeds this year?

The first thing is that we have to win games to get to that point and we did that those other years, but I was happy that we had the opportunity to play UCLA on the road, Texas A&M on the road, and Texas on the road the last three years. I was happy that we were still playing. We have to get to that point now with this team. The committee has been fair to us. We've won more games than any team in the last four years, so we deserved the one, one, two, two that we've received. We also have won more NCAA games than anybody that has been in the tournament for those years. So, we've proven them right with the seeding that they've given us, yet they've been fair. The issue becomes with the other non-BCS league teams. Only four at-large got in. Two of them came from the Atlantic 10 and I think they gave Xavier a fair seed at a No. 4, but I've said this from day one. The biggest predictor of you advancing far in this tournament is your seed. That is the predictor so it does matter. It's hard. When you're a non-BCS team, you're going to have to win every game. You can not lose in the first round of your tournament and get a No. 1 seed, it's not happening. There are some walls that are being put up that are going to make it tougher for non-BCS teams. I'm saying that we're fine, I'm happy, we're being treated fair, but as a whole, it has been much tougher for the non-BCS teams now.

What do you know about Cal-Northridge?

I'm watching tape, but I'm not looking at names yet. I'm just trying to figure out a flow of how they play. Let me tell you, they play a great zone, and they play a really aggressive man-to-man defense. Offensively, they open the court up and they're good. Every year, our first game is tough. I can remember Oral Roberts beating Kansas. We play one of those kind of teams that if you don't show, you're getting beat. Even if you do show, you can get beat. Texas-Arlington played us very good last year. We've had those kind of games each year that we've played so we know that this will be a hard one for us.