Mizzou Men’s Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Mizzou 59, Tennessee 55
Mizzou Head Coach Cuonzo Martin
Opening Statement…
“Good win, great crowd, great atmosphere. Two good teams, very similar in a lot of ways outside of them having a little bit more experience being with each other. Teams that make threes and score up on the post. Grant (Williams) is better than advertised when you watch him up-close. His ability to see up the post. He is getting involved unless you are getting upfront or behind him. I think our bigs did a great job trying to make it look tough. It was a great game to be a part of when you come out on the winning side. They are a good ball club.”
On what it means to win after dropping close conference games...
“For our guys, for the university, for our basketball program - yes. For me, it’s just a ball game. It’s a talented team, because they’re in our league, so the most important thing is to protect your home court. So whether a team comes in ranked or not, we have to do everything in our power to take the home court. But for it to be a ranked opponent, I think it is great for our guys and for everyone involved, but for me it’s a job - it’s what we do.”
Mizzou graduate senior guard Kassius Robertson
On winning this tight game after some close losses...
“That was huge. We didn’t shoot it extremely well like some other nights, but we won that game on the defensive end, for sure. We sealed it with some good free throws, but defensively, we locked them down and held them to 55 points. We struggled from three, but we made them struggle from three, too. So that was huge and that’s pretty much what won us the game down the stretch.”
On finishing games...
“This is a huge step for sure. We still have to learn, because we had it at nine points, so we still have to learn to take it from nine to 10 to 20. I think we did a really good job. They went on a 9-0 run, and we really did a good job taking that punch and coming right back. In terms of finishing games, it’s a huge step in the right direction.”
Mizzou junior forward Kevin Puryear
On the importance of the win…
“Big moment for Mizzou Basketball and a big moment for this team. Especially for the guys that are returning. We took a lot of bumps our freshman and sophomore years, so to see our hard work paying off, in addition to all the great players we have now, it is a great feeling. But now is not the time for us to stop. It’s time for us to carry this momentum into our future games and continue to play well.”
About Jontay Porter...
“Very mature and poised player, especially for his age and how young he is. I am really proud of him. Just to see his growth from the time he got here in the summer to now it has been great to see him. The crazy thing is he is only 18 years old and he has so much more basketball to play. So that’s going to be really exciting.”
Tennessee Head Coach Rick Barnes
On Tennessee’s performance during the game…
“We talked about it coming in, and we just started the game going inside and give them (Missouri) credit, I didn’t think Grant (Williams) was really ready to play tonight – what we needed to do. He got tentative posting up in there and his turnovers were big coming out of there - he’d been double-teamed. Even with all that, there was a long stretch in the first half where it went forever and we were horrible at that point in time with our guards just taking bad shots and not really trying to do anything. Overall, again we weren’t consistent and some guys – I thought Kyle Alexander was terrific for us and him going to the bench in the first half affected us. You look down and Grant (Williams) played too many minutes, that had a little something to do with it, Admiral (Schofield), but we need Kyle… I’ll go back what I’ve been saying to you guys and all year – that we need more from John Fulkerson, we need Derrick Walker. I thought he (Walker) gave us good minutes, but you look at our guards – 0-for-7, 1-for-7 and 1-for-6 – that’s a tough night for those guys.”
On what he sees in Missouri this year in comparison to years past…
“I think they’re a good team, I do…I mean I said a year ago that I thought Kim (Anderson) did a great job with them and Cuonzo (Martin) plays different. When you play them you think of their defense – you think of them on the defensive end. I thought we defended them. The one thing they wanted and which we weren’t going to let them get was eight to 10 threes. Overall, we did a pretty good job except for not taking more threes than they did – that was where we settled. I like their team, I do. I think Cuonzo’s done a great job and will continue to do a great job here. I love the Missouri fans – all my times coming up here through the years. I think they’ve got a great fan base and they’ve got a nice team they should really support.”
On his team’s last possession with 14 seconds left and down three points – what they hoped to get out of it and if he was surprised Missouri sent them to the free throw line…
“No we weren’t. It goes back… we wanted to get the ball down the court quicker and we had it set up that it could be a three or could go to the basket but again, we messed around too much in the backcourt and with five seconds of differential on the clock we weren’t going to let them hold it and hope that we could get it back. I thought we did a good job in that situation of forcing a timeout and we had a chance to turn them over and they almost gave it back to us. I wasn’t surprised in that situation, but we just didn’t get it down the floor quick enough. And even then, if we made the two free throws we could’ve extended it a little bit.”
On the game being closely contested at the end…
“I think this is a typical SEC game. I think it is going to be like this all year. I think they’re all going to be hard like this. I don’t think you can go anywhere… I think it’s going to be a grind wherever you go. I think this is the best basketball league in the country and there’s not a coach in this league that can look at his schedule and think, “Well, we can just show up and play.” Last year, it proved it was a really good league. It’s the best. It’s tough because we don’t play everybody twice but it’s just going to be hard wherever you go to play. We need a better performance overall. We told our guys, when we were down 10 that we’re too good of a team and we’re coming back. We had it where we wanted it and then Grant (Williams) made a really tough pass that had been completed a couple of times but Kyle (Alexander) got bumped off there. That was a huge play with all the things that went on during the game and that’s a point in time where you can’t turn it over under any circumstances and we did.”
