COLUMBUS, Ohio — Rick Majerus sat down at the
postgame microphone minutes after his Saint Louis Billikens defeated the
Memphis Tigers, 61-54, in the second round of the NCAA tournament and echoed
the sentiments Tigers' coach Josh Pastner stated minutes earlier.
Coaches don't win games. Players win games.
With seemingly every other question posed by the media involving Majerus' plan
of action enacted against eighth-seeded Memphis, he would consistently redirect
the praise back to his players, and always starting with their defense.
The Billikens players deserve an exceedingly high amount of credit after their
performance in the West Region on Friday night. They executed a plan put forth
by Majerus to near perfection, and indeed, it all started with defense. But the
Saint Louis head coach had a plan that was nothing short of perfect for his players. He knew what his team was
capable of, and drew up a plan to which he knew it could master.
"We got back in transition," Majerus said. "We sent four back
and they saw kind of a wall, and we weren't going to get run on. That was our
objective."
Ninth-seeded Saint Louis controlled the pace of the game from the opening tip.
Memphis would look to run, but was consistently stalled by a blanket of blue
jerseys. The Billikens finished with an 11-6 advantage in fast-break points.
"They didn't have anybody on the offensive boards, just one guy,"
Memphis guard Joe Jackson said following the game. "So they basically took
away the fast break, and we played into their hands, just settling for bad
shots."
"Then we wanted to try and take away (Chris) Crawford's threes,"
Majerus followed up. "And we did that for the most part."
Indeed. Crawford, Memphis’ resident sharpshooter, was just 1 for 8 from the
floor, including 0 for 5 from beyond the arc, finishing with just three points.
"Then we wanted to take away (Will) Barton's curls," Majerus said.
"Barton's drives, Barton's stare-down and Barton's change of pace, dribble
start-and-stop."
Conference USA player of the year Barton did pace the Tigers with a respectable
16 points, but they were the hardest 16 points he scored all season.
"I want to give a lot of credit to Saint Louis," Barton said,
fighting back tears. "They played their butts off. It's tough to go out
that way when you know you could have done just a couple more things better and
just stuck to what got you here."
Majerus knew exactly what got Memphis to the NCAA tournament, and his players’ execution
of his plan gave Saint Louis its first tournament victory since 1998.
"It means everything," Billikens forward Brian Conklin said. "It
is huge for Saint Louis University to finally get back to the tournament and
finally get a victory. This is a team that deserves it."
Kwamain Mitchell tied a season high with 22 points to lead the Billikens,
including a 3-pointer as time expired in the first half to tie the game at 23
heading into halftime.
Mitchell controlled the offense for the Billikens all night, frustrating
Memphis with his ability to get to the rim at will.
"He's willing to make those big shots and make big plays for us,"
Saint Louis forward Dwayne Evans said. "He's done it all year and I
wouldn't expect anything different now."
Conklin overcame a career-high eight turnovers to finish with 16 points, and
made it known how big of a victory this was for the Billikens program.
"As a team, we didn't get a lot of credit," Conklin stated.
"But you see Missouri go down tonight and we are the last team in the
state of Missouri left. It speaks volumes to the team we have."
