...During halftime of the UH-Rutgers game, from their NY studio.

I taped it, and did my best to create a word for word transcript (more or less, depending on my hearing and typing skills, and without video, of course):

Narrator: "Memphis' Shaq Goodwin was named Monday as American Player of the Week for the 2nd time, and CBS sat down with Pastner, Shaq and a few of his teammates, to learn more about Memphis' smiling big man."

Pastner: "Shaq can be as good as he wants to be... Tremendous energy and motor, a 'tick tock' as I like to say."

Goodwin: Playing basketball, and in general, I'm just better off being happy, rather than being mad. I try to stay positive throughout the day.

Austin Nichols: "His smile is electric. It really brightens all of our days. When I'm having a bad day at school, or whatever, and I walk in, and Shaq's laughing, it just turns my day around. When we get on the court, and he acts the same way, it allows us to play with positive energy."

Pastner: "He's one of the fan favorites here in Memphis. People love him. He gives off positive energy, and (that's) contagious. He radiates that throughout (the game), with a smile on his face."

Narrator: "Those adoring Tigers fans had high expectations for Goodwin, when he arrived at Memphis as a McDonald's HS AA. But he couldn't live up to the hype that preceded him.

Joe Jackson: "Like most freshmen, you come in real, real cocky and confident, from high school. You've been destroying guys in HS. You're not used to practicing that long every day. You're just not used to giving that much energy every day. It'll wear you down your freshman year, you don't understand. It takes a while to really get your body adjusted to that."

Goodwin: "I was a big fast food guy. I just ate whatever I wanted to eat. I didn't really have a specific diet."

Pastner: "He came here very overweight, out of shape. He didn't have a good work ethic. He wanted to be the last one to come to practice, the first one to leave. He wanted to just do enough to get by, take shortcuts."

Narrator: "Goodwin averaged 9 points per game, the first half of his freshman season. But his poor habits eventually took a toll on his productivity. His scoring and rebounding numbers declined, and he failed to score in either of the Tigers' NCAA tournament games."

Pastner: "We sat down at the end of the season. We had a few meetings. All the meetings were that 'Hey, Coach, I'm gonna, in the end, I'm gonna go two feet in with ya, I'm gonna do whatever you tell me to do."

Goodwin: "I ended up talking to a couple of my friends back home. They were telling me how they noticed I got so much bigger. I really told them, this is what we're gonna do for the upcoming year. I'm gonna lose the weight. So, this summer, I woke up every morning, and went to the track, and did cardio stuff like jumping jacks, or push-ups, every morning, and it worked (big smile)."

Pastner: Shaq, last year, played AT the rim. This year, he's playing ABOVE the rim. Last year, Shaq did it his way. This year, he's doing it our way, and you can see the benefits, and he's really playing at a very, very high level, and he's going to CONTINUE to play at a high level, because we feed off of his energy."

Goodwin: "It's something that came with the weight loss. If you're out there, you're sluggish, you're fatigued, you're not having fun. You don't have the energy, or you can't bring the energy, so, being active, being effective, having energy, becomes the outcome you...??"

Joe Jackson: "He's quicker. He runs the floor way better, and you just feel his presence on the court. He's making good passes, his IQ in the game has gotten better, because of games played in college. It is harder to keep him off the floor, because he does so many good things for us."

Goodwin: "The biggest thing I've learned over the year, I probably know that I can do whatever I want to do, with basketball, with anything I want to do in life. As long as I stay focused, I can do it."

END of FILM

Studio Host: "He's smiling all right... Food is fuel, gentlemen, and changing the eating habits up, and it's equating to better production out on the court, and wins for Memphis so far this year. Overall, Wally, what do you think of what you've seen out of Shaq? He's shooting 63%"

Wally Szcerbiak: "He's been tremendous all year long. All the great players realize that, once you go through a season, the off season, that summer, it's your opportunity to get better. He's invested the time. He's realized, from his freshman year to his sophomore year, what it takes to be successful at the collegiate level, and he is so important to this team down low."

Jon Rothstein: "I think you can't talk about Shaq Goodwin progressing, without bringing up the name Austin Nichols, because Austin Nichols' skill set has totally complemented Shaq Goodwin in the low post. I think this is a PERFECT blend of two young big men. They make up Memphis' foundation, not just for this season, but moving forward.

Studio Host: "All right, we try to move forward as the year goes on, and, back into the NCAA Tournament, where Memphis fans expect them to be. That will do it for us at halftime..."

When you see that big grin on Shaq's face good things are happening for Memphis....

excellent stuff, thanx. wish dood would have shown up in the UCONN game, but ehh whatever

(01-19-2014 03:41 PM)hollywoodtigerhound Wrote:  excellent stuff, thanx. wish dood would have shown up in the UCONN game, but ehh whatever

Yeah, it's hard to appreciate a big smile when your team gets 2 rebounds in an entire half of a home loss. But he's playing well this year overall and has improved greatly over last year.

Thanks for typing all that Triple A.

Thanks.

That's good recruiting material too imho, particularly with the parents.

I suspect, that word leaks out to other prospective recruits and their families that Pastner can get kids' heads straight and do it all without cursing or bullying, and particularly make sure they earn a degree.

I bet Shaq's mom's got a world of good things to say about Josh to anyone who will listen.

What struck me about that piece was Shaq explaining exactly why he hit a wall last season, and why he lost all that weight.

I recall a long debate on here about what happened to Shaq, and why, and who was to blame. That piece makes it pretty obvious who was to blame.

I love all our big men this year. I cant remember when we had four big men that could all score. We need some rebounding and defense, but scoring is there.

Excited about the future


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(01-19-2014 04:31 PM)bobby jo Wrote:  I love all our big men this year. I cant remember when we had four big men that could all score. We need some rebounding and defense, but scoring is there.

Yah but ugh scoring becomes null if you can't defend or pick up the ball, just cancels out what you do on offense. That is why you play for 40mins.

Thanks for this post. It makes you realize that incoming freshman....no matter how much hype there is associated with them...may need to refocus and get their whole lifestyle and mental attitude changed and that can sometimes be difficult job for a coaching staff. We all noticed the change in Shaq's body and a lot of posters attributed it to Frank. However, without Shaq's commitment and discipline, nothing was going to happen.

(01-19-2014 04:23 PM)TripleA Wrote:  What struck me about that piece was Shaq explaining exactly why he hit a wall last season, and why he lost all that weight.

I recall a long debate on here about what happened to Shaq, and why, and who was to blame. That piece makes it pretty obvious who was to blame.

I hope Big Dom is paying attention

BTW, just in case it's not clear, with the lack of video, the tone of this piece was EXTREMELY POSITIVE for Goodwin, and for Memphis, as evidenced by the closing comments of the studio host and both analysts. And Shaq's wonderful smile was evident throughout.

The words by themselves don't seem to translate that point well.