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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: RALEIGHMarch 21, 2014Michael DixonJoe JacksonJosh PastnerRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA Memphis – 71 MODERATOR: We're now ready to begin the Memphis portion of the press conference. At this time, we'd like to ask Coach Pastner to make an opening statement, please. COACH PASTNER: First of all, I want to recognize the best AD in the country, Tom Bowen right there and our deputy, best deputy AD, Wren Baker. So any interviews those two right there, they're the best in the business. Secondly is I'm very proud of these young men. It was a total team effort. We beat a very good GW team. They're very well coached and have a lot of good players. To be able to win the game and lead the entire game from start to finish is a great thing. This is a player's game. These players to my left and the guys in the locker room made plays. That's why we were able to win the game. Very proud of these young men. We did a good job defensively making some‑‑ taking the three out. 19 assists. We're third in the country in assists. We were third last year in assists. Again, we hat 19 assists on 27 made field goals. We only had 12 turnovers. At the speed that we play at, that's a good thing. Again, back‑to‑back years we've been in the Final Four academics, Journal of Higher Education. Based on academics, APR, everything else, back‑to‑back, Memphis has been in the Final Four of academics. I'm proud of our university, academic support staff of this young membership. We have a great just. Academically, it's under the radar. We got a big‑time university academically. That's it MODERATOR: At this time, we'll open the floor for questions from the student‑athletes. Q. This question is for Michael and Joe. Michael, before you hit the free throws, you made that big three and coaches talked about your ability to make big shots throughout the season. I'm curious what was going through your mind. Joe, you passed it to him. What were you thinking on that play? MICHAEL DIXON: They were in a 1‑3‑1. We saw we had the driving lanes and passing lanes were taken away. Coach told us to come for two jump stops and make the pass. Joe was getting in the lane, so he got in the lane. Two for a jump stop. I was fortunate to be open and knock the shot down. JOE JACKSON: Just the lanes was open on the 1‑3‑1. It was spaced out. We had room to penetrate. I was just trying to make a play for one of my teammates and try to find an open man. Q. Joe, your thoughts, six assists, he hit huge threes for you guys? JOE JACKSON: He played great, kept us in the game early. Chris always makes great decisions. We just play like himself. You know what I mean? Just trying to help the team win, whatever it takes. Getting big stops and steals. It's just what he does. MODERATOR: Right now, we need to get questions for student‑athletes and then we'll come back to get coach. Q. Joe, your coach has taken heat for sticking to you guys. Talk about his belief and conviction that he was going to ride or die with you guys. JOE JACKSON: We're the seniors on the team. I think coach realized that he understands that we all have the same things in common and we try to get to the Final Four. And we trust our coach 110 percent. Whatever decision that he makes, we just try to go out on the court and get victories. And in this tournament, just continue to win and continue to get far. Q. For any one of the players, there's that bracket contest for anyone to pick a perfect bracket and get a billion dollars. During your game, it was down to three brackets from the whole world and they all picked GW. So you guys wiped out the billion dollar bracket contest. Want to see if you have anything to think about that? COACH PASTNER: If Warren wants to donate the billion to our university, we'll take it and use it in good company. Why don't you graduate, we can give it to you. A billion dollars. MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student‑athletes? Gentlemen, you're dismissed. Thank you very much. Congratulations. At this time, we'll open up for Coach Pastner. Q. Josh, we heard their description of that final shot for Michael. I was just curious, did Joe have the option on that play to shoot it himself, or did you want him to kick it to Michael? COACH PASTNER: I called a timeout to get Michael in the game. He was subbed and there was 19 on the shot clock. I didn't like where we were at. I called time out, wanted to get him in. Because he made the shot, it looked like I made the right substitution. If he didn't make the shot, I can go back to this. Players make shots, coach looks good. Players don't make shots, coach doesn't look good. So we drew something up to penetrate, to suck in. I wanted to get Michael the shot and it worked. Q. Coach, can you talk about your second half adjustment, because you guys took a lot of threes in the first half. But when they got in foul trouble, you pounded it inside. COACH PASTNER: We made some adjustments at halftime in trying to get the post moving more. I thought we were a little stagnant. But I want to say this. You know, when you're looking at the negative at times, in the UConn game a few weeks ago, when we lost to UConn at UConn, and we were up three, they missed a shot, got the rebound and got fouled and we went in overtime and lost. As upset as we were, the positive to that is we were in the same situation today and I told the guys in the huddle, I said guys, I told you, this game is going to come back, after this game, it's going to come back to help us in some way, shape or form. By golly, it helped us today, because we said what beats you is a second shot. We were able to switch every screen. We had worked on that after that game. And it actually helped us in winning this game. The second thing, again, losing to UConn the last time gave us a little more practice time to clean some things up that we needed to clean up. And it actually helped us to win this game again today. So sometimes you can look at negative, but then weeks later, it actually turns into a positive. And for us, that happened today. Helped us win the game. Q. Talk about having the four guards on the floor at the end of the game and then the resiliency of this team all year long not to lose back‑to‑back games. You've bounced back after each loss? COACH PASTNER: Our guards, again, you know this. I was going to put a lot of stock in them from the beginning. Heck, in the summer, I remember when I was on vacation with my family, I barely spent time with my family. I was thinking the entire time, how are we going to get the four guards this and that, get the spacing, the playing time, everything else. There have gotten some games where they were really good and games they haven't been good. I said from the beginning I was going to roll with them. I have, and they've won us a lot of games. It's a team effort. Other guys have come up with big plays as well too. I'm just very proud of those guys. I tell you, during my five years here, as a head coach, we've been in some must‑win situations through my time. I can think of so many games where we've come off of a tough game and just based on the city, I mean, that next game's literally a must‑win. That's happened a lot through my time here of just a must‑win situations. Guys have come through. It's not coaching. It's the players stepping up and making plays. I'm very proud of those guys to step up and make plays. Q. Josh, Mike Lonergan talked about how when Armwood picked up his fourth foul and they went to the 1‑3‑1. You guys did a great job in attacking that. Were you confident going into the game you would have success against the 1‑3‑1? COACH PASTNER: We've had good assists because we moved the ball. We're third in the country in assists, which means we're a team that plays unselfish. We moved the basketball. We're third in the country last year on assists. The adjustment in the second half, the post moving against the zone helped move things up against their defense. When you've won over 400 games like he has, you're a heck of a coach. That guy's a big‑time coach and they're a very, very good basketball team. Q. Coach, your thoughts on Austin Nichols' performance tonight and how much more comfortable you think he'll be on Sunday, given that he's gotten a game under his belt. COACH PASTNER: You're going to have nerves in your first game of an NCAA tournament game. He had nerves, but came through in big plays and I expect him to only get better. The way, as much as Austin's played this season and as many‑‑ he started from day one to now, I look at him now, he's no longer a freshman. The amount of minutes he's played and started, he's really a sophomore. MODERATOR: Any other questions? Coach, thank you very much. Congratulations. COACH PASTNER: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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