Mizzou 81, Oral Roberts 62
12/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Mizzou Head Coach Mike Anderson
Opening Statement:
“When you talk about being efficient both offensively and defensively, I thought this was one of our more efficient games, against a team that we knew was going to come after us. Oral Roberts will do really well in their league. We gave them a bunch of free throws, and they made them, too, but I was really proud of our guys. They had to deal with finals and their schedules… we had a shootaround today that Ricardo [Ratliffe] couldn't even be present at, so there has been a lot of juggling. I was proud of our guys, I thought they came in and really stayed focused on the task at hand.”
On Phil Pressey's first start:
“I thought Phil stepped up to the plate. He was one of those guys that was in charge. I thought our guys did a good job of rallying around him as well. When you come in for your first start in a game of this magnitude, just coming off your first finals, I thought defensively he got after it and the guys had his back. You can see he's got a lot of things you can't teach, and our guys are getting a little bit more familiar with him each and every game. He's got some things to learn, but the only way to learn those is through playing.”
On beating consecutive teams they lost to last year:
“Each year is a different year. Some guys will remember it, but at the same time I don't think it's about revenge. You can't revenge what took place there last year. When we get the chance to play at home, we want to protect our home turf. They're a good basketball team, and all we want to do is get better. Every game is a big game on our schedule. This game was a big game for us for a lot of reasons, and Saturday's game will be big. This is still a young basketball team, and you can see we're still not finishing off games like I would like to. It's a learning process, but now that the finals are over, they're all mine. It can be one-a-days, two-a-days, even three-a-days… I'm sure they're not looking forward to that.”
“I thought Bowers really stepped up his game. That's the guy we're used to… the slashing, tipping in, he was everywhere defensively and made it tough on those guys to shoot. He blocked five shots and altered so many. He started going to get rebounds in traffic, and when guys start doing that then you know they're not only playing aggressively but also physically. They were pushing us around early in the game, and I thought our guys kind of bowed their backs and finally went to work. Back in the neighborhood, if they're going to push you, you've got to push back, so it finally dawned on us that we had to bow up.”
“I thought Ricky was a great spark off the bench. He came in for us and had a great energy. He was everywhere on the floor. I like his energy. It's amazing, when you get one guy like that it's contagious, then the next thing you know you have someone else going sky-high to get a rebound. That's been the thing about our team for the last two years… you know somebody off that bench is going to come and get guys energized.”
Oral Roberts Coach Scott Sutton
Opening Statement:
“Well, I'm disappointed that we didn't play better. We did some good things. We did a good job on the glass - a good job on the offensive glass. Part of that is because we shoot 26-percent, which is just really frustrating. For people who watched the game, or people who didn't watch the game, we got great looks. We got good looks from three, we got good looks from underneath the basket and we just missed so many shots that we normally make. Give Missouri credit, that's how they want to play - they want to speed you up and they try to wear you down and I think that they did.”
On how the game played out:
“If you look at the last six or seven minutes of each half - you know we're up 20-17 with seven and a half minutes left in the first half. We had a lot of momentum going away; and you know they out-scored us by 16 with seven minutes of the first half. And then the second half, we made a couple runs at it, we get it to seven, they push it back up, we get it back down to nine, 59-50, with seven-something left, and we give up 22 points the 7:30 of the game. ”
On what they did:
“We did some good things. Denmon rebounded awfully well. I really thought we fought; we never gave up there in the second half. You know your guards shoot 1-of-21 or 22; you're not going to win games, especially against ranked teams when your guards shoot 1-of-21. ”
On Missouri as a team:
“I think they're a very good basketball team. I think they're certainly a top 20, top 25 team. I think they're still young in some areas. Missing [Mike] Dixon probably hurt them. I think the last two years they'd lost some toughness. I think they'll get there. They just have some young players playing in the backcourt.”
Mizzou Player Quotes
On starting his first game at Mizzou:
"It felt like high school all over again. I came off the bench and got to go out there and play basketball like I know I can."
On the suspension of Michael Dixon:
"In practice, I am the starting point guard on my team, so I do get a chance to play. In practice I am not really worried about what Mike (Dixon) is doing because everybody on this team is equally important. We are just worried about the next game and trying to get better."
JUNIOR FORWARD Laurence Bowers
On his rebounding during the game:
" I don't think I rebounded as well as I could have tonight, but I think in the second half I did pick it up. It does feel good to play a game the way you know you can play. There have been three of four games where I have been struggling, so I kept a positive head about it"
On his improved defense:
"I think Oral Roberts is a good team and they have strong shooters. Coach has been stressing in practice that we need to guard the three point line better, that we need to work on our closing out because a lot of teams have been attacking us off the dribble. We made that a point of emphasis (tonight)."
On how the team needs to prepare for the Illinois game:
"We really need Laurence (Bowers). He is one of the key components of our team. As he continues to get better, so does the team."
On rebounding in the game:
"When you hold a team to 28% there are a lot of opportunities to get rebounds. If your opponents is only making one out of four shots, it is going to give you a chance to get a lot of rebounds. I felt that that was the case in the first half.
