Post Game Quotes
2/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Opening statement...
"First of all I want to address some of the disciplinary situations that have arisen in the past few days. Tramaine Isabell remains withheld from competition. He and I have had ongoing positive dialogue so we're still visiting. Most recently, Montaque Gill-Caesar and Namon Wright are suspended, which happened this morning, for a violation of team policies. I've said this before and I'm going to get this done because the University of Missouri Men's Basketball team has high standards for how its student athletes conduct themselves and I'll reevaluate the situation later. As far as the game goes, I was proud of my guys. We had guys playing all different positions. We did some stuff this morning to try to allow for the absence of the two young men, so I was proud of the way that we thought. Obviously I thought late in the game that we wore out, but you can't give up 70 percent in the second half and win."
On the reserve players stepping up...
"I thought they did a great job because when you have both of the young men who weren't here tonight who are both guards, wingmen, and kind of play the same position. We tried to show DA and Jakeenan some stuff this morning that could try and help us with playing that position. We changed some thingsup a little bit, not a lot because we didn't have much time, but I was proud of them. They've both been struggling and I thought D'Angelo and Jakeenan both came out and played extremely hard. Jakeenan got to the basket and got some rebounds and DA got some tip dunks and that's what we need. The problem that got created especially early was that we didn't do a good job of defensive transition because we normally would have three guys going back and we drive. Deuce came in and gave us some minutes and tried to help out as well."
On any disappointment...
"It's really disappointing as a coach, but obviously part of our job is to win basketball games, but part of our job is to help these guys grow up and help them understand. I've had some great conversations with Tramaine Isabell and I don't know where we're going. I want to win basketball games, but I said this when I was hired, and it's that I'm a teacher. I want to help these kids grow up and if this is the way I can help them grow up whether we win or lose, that's the way I'm going to do it."
On keeping the team encouraged...
"We have to keep grinding and come back tomorrow to get ready to play South Carolina. The great thing about basketball is that you play a lot of games. It's not like football where you have a whole week. We can feel sorry for ourselves until midnight, but then tomorrow we have to get ready to go on the road and play South Carolina."
Sophomore Guard, Wes Clark
On Texas A&M's high field goal shooting percentage...
"As a team, they had great movement and great cuts. Their guards made it difficult for us to guard and we got a fatigued at the end and it showed."
On the pressure that the short bench caused in the backcourt...
"It definitely it made tougher, but we definitely prepared for it. Coach got us ready and it is definitely no excuse for why we lost."
On shooting less in the second half after a strong offensive first half...
"A&M did a great job in the second half playing team defense. They made it a little more difficult."
Freshman Forward, Jakeenan Gant
On the team mentality when A&M went on a run...
"It is always tough, losing by five or losing by 20. It still counts as one loss. It just got rough for us."
On scoring more points this game than the past few contests...
"I guess we were just running more offense."
Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Kennedy
Opening statement...
"I am really proud of our guys for bouncing back, we shared the ball and had many unselfish plays. Missouri played really well, especially in the beginning of the game , and our guys continued to compete."
On Missouri's play in the second half..
"They had to play different defenses and do things they haven't done before. They gave great effort and we were surprised by their zone match up. I thought they did a good job with that, but we made shots and scored."
On getting efficient play from the offense tonight...
"Caruso had 11 assists and we shared the ball. We have guys with good character and just overall good guys , it took us some years to build the foundations we have now and it's good to see it all coming together."
Texas A&M Junior guard Danuel House
On their concerns were coming into this game...
"We were looking to key in on Wes Clark. He had a couple of big threes against us when we were at home and we know he's really a main part of their offense. We wanted to make sure he didn't make any big shots; he still played a great game but we just tried to do our best and we felt like we did a great job with that."
