Missouri Basketball Quotes
2/9/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 9, 2002
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Missouri head coach Cindy Stein
On the crowd: "I thought it was awesome, an incredible crowd. I thought they were into it, an educated crowd and I know they provided a lot of energy for us throughout the game. That was a huge lift for us but I'm just proud that our kids can experience that type of stuff because it's deserved. I hope we can make it so that it's not just a one-time deal, that this can continue to grow."
On Missouri's first-half play: "We were forcing things on the offensive end, trying to score too quick. We can't have all these one-pass miracles. We have to move the ball a little bit better and become better at it."
On MU's second-half turnaround: "I think the main thing is that we needed to focus on certain things defensively that they were trying to do. We needed to push the ball up the floor on the offensive end. I felt like we were walking the ball up too much. We needed to kind of shove it down their face a couple of times and make them have to play defense."
On MU's defense: "I was pleased with our defense for the most part. I can't say I was very happy with the last five minutes of the game. I felt as though we put them at the line way too much and you can't do that. We were letting them creep in. I felt like we got a little complacent and that's something we will continue to work on."
On Tracy Lozier's game: "Tracy's a very good shooter. It's been unfortunate that she hasn't been able to get on track during the game because she's a very good shooter. She's been working hard at it. Something we've been asking them to do is, if they're off on their shot, to put some more shots in every day in practice and she's doing those things. I think that our team is committed to getting better every day and I think Tracy Lozier is a perfect example of what we're trying to do. She's always the spark on the defensive end, a lot of energy there."
On the play of Amy Loftus: "Amy can do a lot of things for us. Amy's very hard to guard and she's taking her time and reading the defense. Sometimes she hurries herself but when she takes her time she can be very good for us."
On the pressure of playing a rival in front of a large crowd: "I definitely felt like we had the pressure on us but that's what we want. We don't want to be the one that's going to be upset. We want to be the one on top and the one that people are trying to get. We're going to continue to position ourselves for that, not just this season but seasons down the road. That kind of mentality has to be taught."
Missouri sophomore forward Evan Unrau
On the crowd: "I think the crowd was a huge factor. We don't usually have this kind of atmosphere with this many people supporting us. When we made a run, the crowd got behind us."
On beating Kansas: "I think against a team that's 0-11 (in conference, after today's loss Kansas is 0-12 in the Big 12), that's a team you have to beat. And it's a tougher challenge because it's such a rivalry that Kansas is fired up to come in here and play."
Missouri junior guard Kerensa Barr
On Missouri's status in the Big 12: "I felt like you don't get beat by Kansas and you definitely don't get beat by them when they haven't won a conference game. I felt pressure on this game, not only because it's KU and they haven't won any conference games or anything like that, but because we need Big 12 wins right now. We have five games left and we have to go in every game with that must-win attitude."
On getting and keeping the lead: "I never really felt panicked. I always felt like we were in control of the game and if we just kept playing them hard and put pressure on them we'd wear them down and I think that's what happened. At the end of the first half we played well. We made a lot of big shots and Natalie (Bright) made a big shot at the end to have momentum going into the second half."
On her own play today: "Not so much the scoring part, but playing well (as a whole). I felt like I had four bad games and I played all right against Nebraska and then I came back against K-State and didn't play well. Today I felt good out there. I played a better defensive game than I have been playing. I rebounded better than I have been. It's not just a scoring funk, I haven't been playing that well. But I felt good out there today."
On Missouri's slow start: "I think they (Kansas) started out really well. I don't think it was that we started out bad, it was that they started out well. Like Evan said, I think it was nice because we go out on the road and we have 10,000 people cheering against us so it was nice to have all these fans come out and support us. Even if it's the only game they come to for the year, that was a factor."
On the difference between the first and the second half: "She (Coach Stein) talked about a few adjustments that we need to make. She didn't really have to motivate us with a halftime speech. She said that this was our game and we have to go out and jump on them early and that's what we try to do. We try to come out with a lot of energy and that's what she's really been stressing because we haven't been starting out second halves very well."
On Missouri inside-outside combination today: "I've been working in practice a lot on getting it inside and throwing it back out and hitting our post players more. That really helps free things up for the outside whenever our post players are looking to pass back out if we throw it in to them more and have a balanced inside-and-outside attack. Even though our posts might not have scored every time, they made their presence known. I thought they did a great job today."
Missouri sophomore guard Tracy Lozier
On her own game today: "I try to come out and play. That's usually my style of play. More and more as I get out there, I try to get more comfortable."
Kansas head coach Marian Washington
On the game: "We were just talking about some of the ways in which we might have made a difference in the game because 12 points is not a lot of points in the ballgame but I thought they crashed the offensive boards really hard. We came back and did a decent job ourselves with 16 but we gave up too many that they were able to capitalize on. I think definitely that's an area (that could have cost us the game)."
On the MU/KU rivalry: "This young club has been playing for a lot of people. Kansas, it doesn't matter whether we're young or experienced, people come out for the match-up, Missouri and KU have always had a tremendous tradition and there's usually a lot of focus on this game but I don't think it really bothered this team. I don't think it bothered the team. I think we stayed pretty focused and slowed down a few times in our guard play trying to keep some organization out there but overall we played really good defense and then they'd come in on us and get a second shot and those are things we have to fix and I think they can be fixed."
On the play of Missouri's Kerensa Barr: "She did a great job. (Natalie) Bright really stepped up in Allen Fieldhouse and we worked hard to limit her and I thought we did a nice job of limiting her but we certainly didn't do the job on Barr. When you're in situations like this, when your go-to player isn't shooting well or playing well, all the other plays have to step up and we saw that in Barr's play."
Kansas forward Blair Waltz
On playing against high school teammates Tracy Lozier and Wannette Smith: "It was fun. It brought back old memories. I was really upset last time I didn't get to play at Allen Fieldhouse so it was good to get to play today."
