Feb. 26, 2003

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Missouri head coach Quin Snyder

On the game:

"As a young coach in this league, to prepare a team to play against Kelvin Sampson's team is not an easy thing. Competition brings things out of you that otherwise you have a harder time accessing. Oklahoma brought those things out of our team tonight. I have immense respect for them, their kids and how they play, and their program in general."

On upsetting No. 3 Oklahoma:

"It was a good win. I don't want to make it into more than that, just like I don't want to make too much out of losing to Texas, and some people are doing that. A few people have lost to Colorado. I think the games we've lost have helped us to improve."

On Missouri's defense:

"Those guy miss shots like that. We're fortunate that they missed some shots. We played good defense. We were tenacious defensively. There was a stretch when we had a hard time finishing plays, and that's when they made that run. It would seem like they would get two or three shots each time down. I thought the job we did on the defensive boards in the latter part of the game was really good too."

On Missouri's five turnovers:

"That's been something that's lost us games earlier in the year, that and shot selection. Just taking care of the basketball. There was a stretch where we took bad shots, which are like turnovers, but we corrected it. Our team's getting a little bit better. It's not like we just made a huge jump. We're getting better."

On MU junior guard Ricky Clemons:

"He's got a broken wrist, and I didn't think he was going to play. He told me he had a broken wrist, and I was thinking, 'OK, we'll start Josh (Kroenke) and probably have to play a big lineup some and work on zone. I don't think there was a ever a doubt in his mind that he wanted to go, just a question of whether he was going to have a splint or tape."

On the game's first basket, scored by MU freshman forward Kevin Young:

"That was a big play. Our team needed that play. When you're young and you're a little inexperienced - Oklahoma's been there. They've been in big games with these guys. We've got guys that have been in big games but not been the guys, or guys who haven't been in big games, like Kevin. For him to start the game like that was really important for us emotionally."

Missouri junior forward Travon Bryant

On defensive effort, holding Oklahoma to under 30 percent shooting:

"We've kind of refocused on that over the last couple of weeks. We haven't been playing great defense. Teams have been scoring over 40-45 percent shooting from the field, so this was good for us to get back in it and get back to our principles of playing good hard-nose defense."

Missouri junior center Arthur Johnson

On the win against #3 Oklahoma:

"Coming in we knew what we had to do; we knew they were a good team. They're a top five team that can easily capitalize on your mistakes, so we did what we had to do to stay in the game and win the game."

Missouri freshman guard Jimmy McKinney

On building team confidence with a big home win:

"I won' say it's easy to win at home, but we have more confidence when we play at home. We've got to have that same intensity, that energy on the road. So we've got to go on the road and play like we're at home."

On the crowd:

"The crowd was tremendous tonight. They kept us in the game, and we just kept our composure. The crowd, they were in it from tip off!"

Missouri freshman forward Kevin Young

On the opening play of the game, the dunk:

"I was actually waiting on Clemons to cut off the screen, but nobody cut, so I just came up with my own creative idea."

"That dunk wasn't a matter of being focused; it was matter of wanting to win. I was pumped up at the beginning of the game. We did our little singing routine in the back getting amp, and everybody was hitting the floor, and we had a lot of energy that just carried over to the beginning of the game."

Missouri junior forward/guard Rickey Paulding

On stopping the comeback in the second half:

"I think we really wanted to execute our offense. We could kind of sense them coming back, and we just made big shots."

Oklahoma head coach Kelvin Sampson

On the game:

"We got it up to 37-36, and we were lucky it was there. We didn't play well enough to win tonight."

On Arthur Johnson:

"I thought our post guys did a nice job on Arthur. If I knew Johnson was going to be 7 of 19 coming, that's not bad."

On the loss:

"What was disappointing to me was Missouri played like this game was more important to them that it was to us."

"I don't have any explanation for tonight's game. We just didn't play very well."

"We were in it up to the 3 minute mark, but they made baskets and we didn't."

On Ricky Clemons:

"Yeah, I knew he was going to play."

Oklahoma guard Hollis Price On the game:

"We had shots, but we just missed the shots we normally make. They showed how good they are. Their record is deceiving. Every game is important. Tonight is a let down that shouldn't have happened."

On Ricky Clemons:

"I had a feeling he was going to play. Clemons is a tough guy. He showed it tonight."