Dorsey unplugged

Dorsey unplugged
Posted by Dan Wolken

Hello from Columbus, Ohio, which is my stopping point before I make the two-hour drive over to Huntington for tomorrow’s game against Marshall.

Yesterday, I approached Joey Dorsey to talk about a topic totally unrelated to his play of late. Yet Dorsey was more than happy to guide the conversation into his own frustrations with recent foul trouble. Beginning with the Georgetown game on Dec. 22, Dorsey has had first-half foul trouble in four of the last five games. Though Dorsey has come back to play well in each of those second halves, that trend does raise some red flags.

“I’m picking up two early quick fouls by going on the perimeter trying to check them guards, then I hold my head down and get frustrated and it’s hard for me to get back in the game,” Dorsey said.

The good news for Memphis is that nobody is noticing too much when Dorsey is out of the game. Robert Dozier has more than done his part inside, and Shawn Taggart has played very well in certain spots, giving the Tigers inside depth they lacked last year. Of course, it also helps that Memphis has played Siena, Pepperdine and East Carolina the last three times out.

“If I want to lead the nation in rebounds, I can’t just play 15, 16 minutes,” he said. “I was so angry at myself for getting the second foul (against East Carolina), and the guy from ECU (Gabe Blair), we’re 1-2 in the conference in rebounding and I wanted o show him he can’t do nothing with me in rebounding.”