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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 15, 2019Dexter DennisGregg MarshallMarkis McDuffieMemphis, Tennessee Wichita State, 80 - Temple, 74 COACH GREGG MARSHALL: That was a great college basketball game against two very similar teams. Before I start talking about our team, I want to talk about Temple and my hope is that they will get in. I've been hoping and really prayerful that they will get in all along. They beat us back in early January and we kind of gave them the game. They made the plays that they needed to make, obviously, but we were so sloppy with the basketball with an 11-point lead and a little over three minutes to go, and it looked like it was headed that way tonight. But I really want to say that I hope they get in, they are deserving to get in. That is a quality team. It is really, really hard to guard. Our guys just -- to my left and other guys in that locker room, were tremendous tonight. Markis McDuffie was playing like a man possessed, shooting the basketball, getting to the free throw line and offensive rebounding like crazy. Dexter Dennis was tremendous in the second half. It was a team effort, but we had some wonderful performances by these gentlemen to my left. Q. Coach, in that first half, Shizz Alston was on fire. What were the adjustments you made at halftime? COACH GREGG MARSHALL: Well, my staff just said, look, he's on fire, he had 18 at the half. Samajae was playing pretty good defense but he's one of those players in this league like Markis McDuffie, Jalen Adams and Jarron Cumberland, and Corey Davis that can make shots and make plays even when well-guarded. So we elected to try to eliminate his touches and if we couldn't eliminate them, we wanted to minimize them. And Samajae Haynes-Jones did a wonderful job and everything was based on forcing him to his left hand. He's elite going to his right. Q. It's been quite a turnaround from the first half of the season to the second half of the season. How do you explain your guys' uptake in play? MARKIS MCDUFFIE: It is working hard every day in practice and we want to play better going to February, March, the second half of the year. I knew this team was going to improve because ever since I have been here, we've always got better towards the end of the year and that's because of the hard work we put in and just the focus we have and the -- willing to go that extra mile. Q. Here's a question for both players. Seeing how that game ended in January with a loss, what were your thoughts tonight when the game got two down the stretch? DEXTER DENNIS: We can't give this one away too. In that game in January, we had a lot of unforced turnovers so we kind of kept it up and finished this game. MARKIS MCDUFFIE: It got shaky towards the end. I've been with this basketball team and I've seen an improvement, you know. As a group, we have been getting better so much and that was the second game of the Conference, and we've got extremely much better than that. So I knew we were going to win the game, just us being smart. THE MODERATOR: Can we get your thoughts on the match-up with Cincinnati tomorrow? COACH GREGG MARSHALL: They got us at our place. We didn't play very well. There were some other extenuating circumstances which I will not get into. They kicked us at their place. They are a great team, tremendous athletes, they have a tremendous defense and we'll have to play much better than we played the first two times to win. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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