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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 14, 2019Mike Dunleavy, Sr.Caleb DanielsMemphis, Tennessee Memphis, 83 - Tulane, 68 COACH MIKE DUNLEAVY SR: Yes, obviously disappointed we lost the game. First half for us I thought, you know, we let things get away from us, mainly a lot of loose ball opportunities and some of the turnovers that we made against their pressure, we righted that in the second half. The overall theme for us was the fact that we missed a lot of opportunity baskets right round the hoop that we didn't finish on, that they did. Their bigs were able to shape up and make scores and then, of course, at the end, we cut it back to seven, but we went to fouling and the game got away from us. Q. Coach, you have played this team several times this year. There's been talk in different reports, what has it been like on your end preparing for a Penny Hardaway-coached team? COACH MIKE DUNLEAVY SR: He runs a lot of good stuff. We did a good job on Jeremiah Martin today. He got 43 against us the last time we played here, he had a 41-point game the second half. We did pretty good. He had 21. Probably eight or ten or those, we had a foul. He is a tough customer. His ability to take you off the dribble and how he stretches the floor, it's tough. You know, their size, and I thought their guards made some nice plays and drop-off plays. Parks was 6 for 6 and all layups and 13 rebounds. But overall, I thought they are a well-coached team and things they run, you know, puts pressure on your defense to do things correctly to give yourself a chance to stop the players. Q. Final question: What do you - how are you and your team are able to offer this experience right now? COACH MIKE DUNLEAVY SR: It's been a terrible year, if you don't win a game all year in conference. Part of it is circumstantial. We got caught in a perfect storm. Our starting point guard from the last two years Ray Ona Embo has been out all year. We penciled him in to play 30, 35 minutes a night. We didn't recruit another freshman point guard because we had a transfer, Jordan Walker, who sits one and plays three. Jordan Cornish, he's really a wing player, having to play the point, Caleb would have to play some point for us. Shakwon Barrett, red-shirt freshman played some point for us. That's one of the areas where for the year, we turned the ball over a lot. The good news for us is we had -- we got a lot of freshman with great experience. Three of our freshmen, real freshmen had great experience. They got game experience tonight. Coming into the season, we were ranked 330-something out of 350 as far as experience. We got a lot of freshmen with a lot of good experience this year. A red-shirt freshman, Buay Koka, our seven-footer, who broke his hand, he was starting for us and playing well. Our nucleus of what we have coming back next year is really strong. We will have a major turnaround and I'm excited about who they are and what they have been doing at home in practices and just us to get the depth that those guys will bring to us. THE MODERATOR: Caleb, if I could ask you -- this was a game that was a 23-point game early in the second half and yet you make it a run towards the end, hold them without for a field goal for the last five minutes, what does it say about the character of your team and giving you hope going into next year? CALEB DANIELS: Although we are a bunch of young guys, we just never quit fighting, never give up. You keep playing hard, you don't know where the chips are going to fall. That is something that we have been priding ourself on all year. We just play hard. It doesn't look like that in the record column. For the future, we'll be something special for sure. COACH MIKE DUNLEAVY SR: The growth of our team, being led by Caleb, his jump of game from his freshman year to his sophomore year right now, and the way he's finishing up 19 points today with a whole defense that's geared towards him. He had 36 the other night against Wichita State. The difference is last year having two guys on his team that were NBA players, you didn't see the attention. Now he's had to deal with double teams and traps and guys putting their best defender on him. So, again, I thought he had a great year for us and his growth was, you know, something that for us going forward -- the type of player we know he can be in terms of being able to carry the load, he got some great experience of doing that this year. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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