Dec. 18, 2003
Missouri junior guard Randy Pulley On debuts of Himself and Conley: "I am very excited and just anxious to get out there. My role is just to help lead the team, play defense and push the ball up the court."
"It'll be my first game representing Missouri. I can't even talk about how anxious I'm going to be to play."
On his role with the team: "I'm going to look to push the ball up court and help get easy baskets. We haven't gotten any easy baskets the last couple of games and that's what I can do; make sure the ball gets up the court quick."
On preparation and readiness to play: "I've been able to practice with the team a lot. I've been preparing for a while, now finally I can play so Sunday's the day.
On why he chose to come to Mizzou: "The team was so deep and the coaches help prepare the players. There's a good chance to win a national championship come March.
Missouri senior guard Rickey Paulding On teammate Randy Pulley's impact: "He can handle the ball well; he has good court vision; he does a good job of getting guys the ball. From what we've seen so far in practice, he's a good point guard."
On concern about playing time with the addition of Conley and Pulley: "No, there's no concern at all. Guys know that there are minutes if you do the right things. I'm not selfish about minutes, I'm glad to have Jason come along."
On their [Conley, Pulley] adjustments to playing with their teammates: "I think it's just going to be adjustments to the game situations. We play together all the time in practice, so I think the chemistry is there. It's just a little different going against other teams."
Missouri head coach Quin Snyder On using Conley and Pulley against UNCG: "I think we've kind of have to wait and see. They're going to play. Their more acclimated to our team than people realize because they've been practicing so much. We've been playing so few games that they've had even more work. I think they both can really help us.
On gaining defensive strength: The depth on the perimeter is something that we as a staff are excite about, and its effect on our defense. I think that it's been constant with our team from day one that guys who play defense and rebound are going to play. We've had guys playing a lot of minutes, and it's difficult to defend at the level we want to defend at when you're playing 30-35 minutes a game. I don't think our players our under the illusion that they're [Conley, Pulley] not going to play. The competition is good, and I think our guys have embraced that instead of looking over their shoulders. I don't want them looking over their shoulder, I just want a battle."
On advice for Pulley at the point: "I think the biggest thing for Randy is we've tried to keep it simple for him. I think this is true for Spencer and Jimmy, but I think Randy's got to focus on pressuring the basketball. With his strength and explosiveness, you've got to be just a great on ball defender. The other thing I think he can really do is advance the ball up the court quickly and get in the paint. All those guys, if we don't have something in transition, I want them to get the ball to AJ and Travon and Linas and play off them."
On Conley's ability to be a huge scorer: "Yeah, he can. I don't think there's anybody that's averaged over 25 point in our league in the last 10 years, I would say no to that. But relatively speaking, Jason can score the ball. He'll have opportunities to score the ball."
"I've seen what's been written about him, and there are some pretty nice things. He's been constant with talking about why he came here: to be apart of something and to develop. We've seen him develop a lot already and not just defensively. He's developed offensively, that's from the competition he faces everyday in practice. They'll be chances to score, and I want all our guys to take what comes to them."
On the impacting of waiting to play on Conley and Pulley: "I think that it's impacted both of them, but maybe in a different way. Randy didn't anticipate having to wait until now to be able to play, and that uncertainty for him is probably difficult. Jason's been waiting and looking at the sands in the hour glass for months and months now. I think they're both excited to play."