The Greene Room Live: Day Four in San Antonio

By Staff     Apr 6, 2008

**5:21 p.m.: SAN ANTONIO -** Sometimes it’s strange how chummy things are these days between college basketball stars across the country. With the evolution of the AAU circuit and everyone playing everyone, the whole thing with guys being bitter rivals doesn’t seem to exist much anymore.But Monday night it will certainly up the level of competition. At least if you read into the words of **Mario Chalmers,** that is.Chalmers wanted badly to face Wayne Ellington Saturday night. He got him, and his team won. When asked who he ‘wanted’ Monday night …”I want the whole five,” he said, relaxing in a locker stall, sipping on some cranberry juice (any fan of **The Departed** has to love that one). “I’ve played against all of ’em. I’ve played against Dorsey, Dozier, CD-R, Antonio, Derrick Rose, Shawn Taggart. They’re all good friends of mine, we all want to go head-to-head and just try to get the best of each other.”Chalmers is especially friendly with Douglas-Roberts, even though the two aren’t in the best of contact anymore.”Before I broke my phone and lost his contact information, we used to talk all the time,” he said.Darn kids.The Jayhawk locker room and press sessions were far more subdued in terms of bulletin board material than the brash minutes with Memphis’ players earlier in the day. **Here were some minor nuggets …****_Sherron Collins on the still-lingering theme of ‘pace of play’:_** “It’s a little surprising, a little bit. The question was last night ‘Would we be able to run with North Carolina?’ But I think it should have been the other way around: ‘Would they be able to run with us?'”**_Russell Robinson on Memphis’ clearly evident swagger:_** “I’ve seen the press conference, and they do have swagger. One thing we noticed yesterday when we played against North Carolina – we’ve all got swagger. We all are talented guys, we’ve all been tops in the country, and they just go about their way in telling people about it, we just let our game speak for itself.”**_Russell Robinson on this being his last college game, win or lose:_** “It hasn’t set in yet, but now that I’m thinking about it, this is gonna be the one I show my kids the most, so I’ve got to go out there and perform well, execute the game plan and have fun, most importantly.”**Also from the locker room …**-**Rodrick Stewart** was a popular figure, answering several questions. He said after he was injured Friday, he was asked if he wanted to get an operation right away, but instead he opted to stay with his team in San Antonio. He mentioned how much of a struggle it’s been just to take a shower, having to keep his leg completely straight getting into the stall, then removing the brace, then slowly getting out with the help of a trainer, then putting it back on. He can only put the slightest of pressure on his right leg by touching his big toe to the ground. He also said his recovery period will be 4-6 months, after which he said he still plans on pursuing a pro career.-**Brandon Rush** is pretty close with Memphis’ **Shawn Taggart**, as the two played together at Mt. Zion Academy four years ago. Rush said they’ve talked recently, mostly about taking a vacation to Mexico after the season.**After today, I’m going to pick Kansas to win this one. I’ll say by seven.** The reason being that karma usually tilts in favor of the team that flaps its gums less, and today that was certainly the Jayhawks. KU may not be the greatest right now in terms of colorful in front of the media, but that probably means this team is pretty locked in at the moment.That oughta do it for today. Be back tomorrow, starting early, and we’ll get our score prediction contest going. See you then.Overall, the feeling after leaving the KU locker room was pretty **2:24 p.m.: SAN ANTONIO -** No, it wasn’t nerves keeping Derrick Rose from meeting the media Sunday afternoon. The star freshman, known as a shy guy, legitimately had stomach woes. Junior forward Robert Dozier said it should come as no surprise, though, in a relaxed locker room setting just a little while ago.”He just didn’t eat – You don’t eat and your stomach’s supposed to be hurting … He didn’t eat last night or this morning,” Dozier said. “We’ve been having problems with him, making him eat all this year, so it’s nothing major to worry about … **_He just eats candy and pineapple and syrup._** He never really eats real food. Eating grilled cheese sandwiches, things kids eat. He’s 19, he eats like he’s eight … He needs (a food pyramid). Someone needs to put one up in his room.”Just another intriguing moment in an overall intriguing interview session with the Memphis players and coach John Calipari.Cal started things off by truly holding court at the podium, flanked by four of his players (Rose was the last one to enter, pulled Cal into the hallway and then wasn’t seen again). He had too many golden nuggets to transcribe, so [here’s the full rundown of the day’s opening press conference.][1]As for time with the players the rest of the morning, here’s some of the notable stuff the trusty recorder gathered up …**-Antonio Anderson was asked about the potential of starring** in CBS’ annual [‘One Shining Moment’][2] montage, should Memphis prevail Monday night. He said it’s not one he watches on a yearly basis.”Honestly, you know we really don’t watch that because we don’t got no highlights in the video,” he said. “It’s a great video, don’t get me wrong, but at the same time, all they show is our cheerleaders waving the banner.”**-Anderson was also pretty poignant in talking about the effect losing to Tennessee had** for the Tigers when they were the lone remaining undefeated team in America. You think KU is an underdog right now, just imagine what it’d be like if Memphis had downed Tennessee? Heck, if that were the case, the Tigers might not even be here.”Definitely, that took a lot of pressure off of us,” he said. “We were 26-, 27-0, somthing like that. That type of game was just unreal, man. There was just so much hype built into it. You see the countdowns, and everywhere you stop – at gas stations, on campus – everybody was just questioning you about the game. We all felt so much pressure in that game, we felt that we had to win that game, just being at home. We lost the game, but at the end we learned a lot about ourselves, learned what we needed to do to get better, and we just took it from there. Because if we would have won that ballgame, whatever statements coach had to make, we would have just brushed it off and paid it no mind. But by us losing, we really paid attention and we knew we had to get better.”**-Dozier chimed in on how having six players from major post-graduate prep schools** eases some pressure on big stages such as this one.”You don’t have to worry about anything,” said Dozier, one of three Tigers – all starters – from Laurinburg Prep in North Carolina. “You don’t have to worry about the game being on you, you’ve got players behind you who can back you up, come in and produce … That’s probably the biggest difference from last year. Last year if a guy didn’t produce, we were probably gonna lose.”**-Chris Douglas-Roberts, though, stole the spotlight** and is now officially the media darling of this Final Four. Here’s some of his better quips …**_On his last name:_** “My parents aren’t married, but I guess they felt that I was gonna be somebody, so my dad didn’t want to give up his name, and my mom said ‘I’m definitely not giving up my name,’ so they just gave me both.”**_On going head-to-head with Brandon Rush:_** “That’s my matchup. That’s my matchup for tomorrow. Great players, you just try to make them uncomfortable. It’s not whether or not he’s stoppable or not, I’m just gonna try to make him uncomfortable … I know he has a pretty nice pull-up jumper, so I’m gonna see tonight which way he wants to go, try to stop it.”**_On meeting Jesse Jackson with his team earlier this season:_** “The meeting with Jesse Jackson was unbelievable. We really didn’t know he was coming. Our academic advisor’s name is Jesse, so when coach Cal said Jesse’s coming in, we were all like ‘Who didn’t go to class?'”**_On his team’s ever-apparent confidence level:_** “We’ve been like this the whole years. We’re confident. We’re not supposed to be? I feel we’re supposed to be confident. I know they are. I know Kansas is. I don’t look at it as arrogance, I don’t look at it as cockiness. We’re just confident, and I feel we should be, we deserved it.”**_On showcasing his improved defense Monday night:_** “I’ve come a long way, because strength, you have to add weight. I was 170 at 6-5 (coming out of high school), and I’ve added weight. And you can’t really have great defense when you’re that thin, and you’re that young, really. You really don’t know the defensive strategies, you really don’t know how to move your feet, and you really don’t know how to play defense. This game will really show how much better I’ve gotten on the defensive end because he’s such a great player.”Now gonna head to the KU locker room. Be back shortly.**11:30 a.m.: SAN ANTONIO -** Hello and good morning from the peaceful and serene Alamodome. Now that the immediate afterglow of last night has worn off inside the arena, it’s time to get down in preparation for Monday night. But first, some leftovers from last night …**-Ty Lawson was even more awful last night** when you sit back and really think about how the game played out. Carolina came in averaging 17.1 assists per game on the season. Part of the reason – well, a huge part – that UNC was so successful in transition all year was that after getting numbers, the Heels had been able to go bang-bang-bang with quick passes, setting up easy buckets. The onus for that not happening Saturday falls on Lawson, who had two assists and two turnovers. UNC as a team had seven and 18, respectively.**-It’s still hard to shake the image of Rodrick Stewart** crying from behind the bench in the final moments of that game from memory. This guy is a warrior, people. Yeah, he didn’t play, but a fractured knee cap I would imagine is something that needs immediate surgical attention. He’s toughing it out and waiting until the team’s season is done. Whether anyone wanted to admit it or not, the guy _had_ to be a source of inspiration for teammates. He said he was feeling pain in the knee for much of the second half. It took guts to sit there and watch. I’m going to ask Andrea Hudy today just how odd it is to put off surgery on an injury like that, just to try and gain some perspective.**-Cole Aldrich.** I know it’s probably premature in terms of looking ahead to 2008-09, but with the mass overhaul the KU roster is going to endure, Aldrich is one of the guys who is a virtual lock to be back. Those minutes could be more valuable than we all think right now.**-Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins may have** played themselves into even further consideration for testing the NBA Draft waters this summer. How could scouts on hand not be impressed with what both did in the open floor yesterday? I still say Chalmers is 50-50, but for some reason, I’m still of firm belief that Collins will be back.**-Also, made a couple more additions** to the [paparazzi photo gallery][3], including **Mario Lopez (a.k.a. A.C. Slater, sadly not rockin’ his [Buddy Band][4])**, **Penny Hardaway** and the most intimidating basketball player I’ve ever seen in person – **Memphis’ Joey Dorsey**.**Today ought to be interesting … here’s a schedule: **_**12:00 – 12:30 p.m. -** Coach Calipari and five Memphis starters in interview room_ _**12:35 – 1:05 p.m. -** Memphis players in breakout rooms, Cal stays at podium_ _**1:10 – 1:40 p.m. -** Rest of Memphis players available in locker room_ _**1:30 – 2:00 p.m. -** Coach Self and five KU starters in interview room_ _**2:05 – 2:35 p.m. -** KU players in breakout rooms, Self stays at podium_ _**2:40 – 3:10 p.m. -** Rest of KU players available in locker room_I’ll swing back to the old tube periodically in between the interview sessions, and have plenty for you later in the afternoon. Talk to you in a bit. [1]: http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=48792 [2]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQvKLLHD1hM [3]:

[4]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtMCQeyBWWM&feature=related

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