Missouri Basketball
1/26/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 26, 2002
Recap?|? Final Stats?|? Notes
Missouri head coach Cindy Stein
On the play of Amy Loftus:
"It's very encouraging. You're going to see more and more of that out of our young kids. I think Colorado is a very difficult team to play with young kids because they run the triangle offense better than any team I've ever seen and if you don't have kids that can make quick adjustments, you're going to get killed. Our young kids had trouble with it. They had trouble in practice with it. Offense will do that, it will pick you apart. They're very smart and they're very senior-oriented."
On learning more from a loss:
"We must be learning a hell of a lot, don't you think? It's really important right now that we keep our heads up. We're playing really good teams and that doesn't mean we're a bad team. The fact of the matter is that Colorado and Texas and Baylor-those are some incredibly talented teams that are going to make a great run in the NCAA tournament. I'm very confident of that. Does that mean that we can't do it? Absolutely not, but we have to continue to do better. We are still in such a learning phase. Those are veteran ballclubs. What we're really going to try to concentrate on is getting better every day. Then we could continue to make a run."
On Colorado's offense:
"You have to give Colorado a lot of credit. You watched Jenny Roulier (score 23). That kid can shoot. A lot of times she made some terrific shots. Nightingale did the same thing. They've got a great inside-outside combination and we're getting there. We had a great inside game tonight, we were just missing the outside part of that combination."
Missouri senior guard Natalie Bright
On her play:
"It's been frustrating. The last couple of games I've had so much defensive pressure on me. I can't even get down the floor without someone getting a hand on me. I really have to work on my shots. I really haven't had to do that the last couple of years, so this year I really have to work for my shot. I just have to learn to hit shots with pressure when it comes down to it."
Missouri sophomore center Amy Loftus
On her career night:
"I was just trying to come in off the bench and help out. If somebody's off, we try to make up for that."
"On the one hand, I'm glad that I was able to come in help but on the other hand we got killed and we've been getting killed the last three games. It's more of a team aspect right now."
Missouri junior guard Kerensa Barr
On her off night shooting:
"I just haven't been playing well lately. I feel good in practice and in warm-ups I always shoot it good. I just haven't been shooting it. I felt like I've been getting pretty good looks, they're just rolling in and out. There's nothing I can do except play through it."
On her streak of 27 made free throws being snapped:
"I don't like missing free throws but it's not like I'm devastated about missing a free throw. It's not that big of a deal. Just because I didn't get one more point on the stat sheet isn't that big of a deal."
On Colorado's defense:
"I really don't feel like this isn't a defense we haven't seen but you have to give them credit. They played hard. I felt like I was getting pretty good looks."
On the play of CU's Jenny Roulier:
"I think she's a great player but she was getting open looks and a lot of that is that my defense wasn't very good but in the second half we started playing better defense and switching up. They run a triangle offense, which is hard to guard, but as the half went on we started to make more adjustments and that helped us out. When it comes down to it, we just have to play better defense."
Colorado senior guard Jenny Roulier
"My teammates were setting me up really well and the opportunity just presented itself. We have a really unselfish team. I don't know about the whole scoring part, I was just open."
Colorado senior guard Mandy Nightingale
"We came out and we knew that most of their scoring came from their guards. We just wanted to stay on them really tight and then our posts could take care of their posts one-on-one."
On the team's recent turnaround:
"I think we just came together and gathered ourselves from those three losses and looked at it on paper and said, 'What do we need to do?' Now, we've hit that roll where we feel comfortable with each other and our chemistry is just awesome."
Colorado head coach Ceal Barry
On the game:
"That was my biggest concern-rebounding, getting on the offensive boards. Barr and Bright have gotten offensive boards, Unrau is a big offensive rebounder. We've got some good rebounders. I think it's one of the biggest differences about our team over the last seven or eight games. In non-conference we were getting outrebounded a little bit. We had 18 offensive boards and I think that made a big difference."
On Colorado's defense:
"We're primarily a man-to-man team. We don't do a whole lot of anything else, we just work hard. We just go out there and work as hard as we can. They're good. We respect Kerensa and Bright. Both of those players are good players."
