March 14, 2003
MISSOURI
Head Coach Quin Snyder
On the game-winning shot...
"We wanted to hold the ball for the last shot. They (Oklahoma State) started
out not pressing the ball, then they jammed up on McKinney and he did a good
job of getting back. When something breaks down the guys have to play off
each other and Jimmy made a heads-up play by just driving the ball. You get
rewarded for being alert and Travon was urgent and it happened that we got
the break tonight and the ball bounced to us and we made a shot."
On playing Kansas again...
"Kansas is a terrific club and have been as consistently excellent as anyone
in the country over the last few years. If you think back and have seen what
they have been done over the last few years it's remarkable. We have played
them on their level and we haven't been able to win those games but we have
the opportunity to take part in a game like this and we know the level we're
going to have to play if we want to be successful."
Junior Forward Travon Bryant
On the game-winning last shot...
"I knew the shot (from Jimmy McKinney) was going up and I knew he was going
to take it the hole. I knew I just had to get in position to get the rebound
because I knew if it was going to come off it was going off to the side or
the middle and I was right there to put the shot up again."
On playing Kansas for the third time this year...
"It's what we wanted after that Sunday game we knew we had a chance in the
tournament. So, we took it one game at a time and we got in position to go
out there and do something special. We know what kind of game we have out
there tomorrow, we have to go in and execute."
Freshman Guard Jimmy McKinney
On winning the game...
"It felt great winning; we deserved to win. We're looking forward to playing
Kansas; it should be a great game."
Junior Guard Ricky Clemons
On playing Kansas tomorrow...
"Tomorrow is going to be exciting, and we're going to be ready to play. I
think we're going to give Kansas all we've got."
OKLAHOMA STATE
Head Coach Eddie Sutton
On the game...
"For the fans, it was a terrific basketball game. Both teams played their
fannies off. I know we did an excellent job defensively. You look at
(Missouri's Rickey) Paulding, (Arthur) Johnson and (Ricky) Clemons, I
thought we did do a good job with the number of shots they put up, but the
guy that really hurt us was (Jimmy) McKinney. He was the one that, in my
opinion, really did the most damage. I didn't think that offensively, at
times, we executed as well as we should have. I really thought we were in
pretty good shape there even late."
On turnovers...
"Defensively, we played well enough today. We just didn't play well
offensively as we needed to - turnovers. In the first half, they hit us for
two 8-point runs, and turnovers certainly were responsible for some of that.
It's hard to play a good ballclub and turn it over 15 times. That's a lot of
turnovers, and I would say five or six of them were not the result of
Missouri's good defense, just the fact that we turned it over in a careless
fashion. ... The damaging thing is we lost the opportunity to play Kansas,
which we felt like we could play them a good game if we played well, but
Missouri's every bit as good a team as we are, I think everybody knows that,
and the game could have gone either way."
Junior Forward Ivan McFarlin
On loss against Missouri...
"Well, we thought we were going to come out victorious. ... This hurts bad,
but I have to give credit to them; they fought hard. Now we'll just come
back in the (NCAA) tourney and play hard."
On the game-winning shot by Missouri's Travon Bryant...
"He got the ball and I didn't hear the horn. He got it off and when I saw
it, I thought 'That's my man' and he hit it. We should've won. This is hard
because my man hit the last bucket. This will definitely be in my memory for
a long time. We played so hard and tough, and my man got the put-back to
win."
Senior Guard Victor Williams
On the loss to Missouri...
"This definitely was a difficult loss for us today. It was an emotional
game, but we have no choice to get back to work heading into the NCAA
tournament."
On the number of turnovers...
"The turnovers disrupted our offense, and just when we picked up our
momentum we turned it over. You always try to build leads, but instead we
were letting them back in the game."