March 13, 2003
MISSOURI
Head Coach Quin Snyder
On getting down early ...
"I thought we did a good job of keeping our poise. We knew that they were
going to come out strong and they made a couple of shots, but it didn't
disrupt our poise on the offensive end and we rebounded well; there were
some hustle rebounds and some long rebounds and I thought we did well. Give
credit to Nebraska, but we didn't quit shooting but we had problems with
turnovers, bad shot selection and defensive lapses. I always say that this
is a young team, but we showed some maturity today of not panicking."
On playing Oklahoma State...
"The biggest thing about them is that makes it difficult for us to play.
They're one of the few teams that can jump start there offense by defending.
They have good perimeter defense and they stand out in the passing lanes and
at the same time flood the paint because they're quick and they anticipate
well."
On Arthur Johnson...
"A. J.'s had a tough last few weeks and that can ware your focus, but when
he focuses on rebounding, like I thought he did tonight, he does well. He's
an instinctive offensive player; I don't think he knows that he does some of
the moves he makes, some of them just wow me."
Missouri Center Arthur Johnson
On Oklahoma State...
The last time we went down there we were undermanned and now e've got our
point guard back and we're looking forward to playing them. You could say
we've got something to prove."
Missouri Guard/Forward Rickey Paulding
On being down early in the game...
The main thing for our team was not to get down on ourselves. Then we
handled their shot pretty well. We just needed to get into our game and get
into our offense."
NEBRASKA
Head Coach Barry Collier
On the game...
"I was proud of our team's effort. I thought we got off to a great start.
We played with confidence and really made plays, more than just believing we
could win, creating opportunities, executing on offense and knocking down
some shots, rebounding-wise at the half. You would expect Missouri to come
back and they did a nice job offensively after the first 15 minutes, and
they were just too tough. Johnson and Paulding in particular I thought led
the Tigers."
On Nebraka's quick start...
"At the beginning of the game, obviously it was a focus for us because we
felt that Missouri could certainly jump out and take the lead and try to put
doubt in our minds. By the same token, we wanted to try to create the same
hesitation on their part, and then our guys were able to make baskets and
rebound misses in the early part of the game. I think that you don't win 19
games as Missouri has now done and not have another fight in you, which they
proved that they did. They went for a long time in the middle part of the
first half without scoring. Nate (Johnson) and Andrew (Drevo) both were
fairly successful scoring the ball in all three games with Missouri. Andrew
probably didn't want to say it at the time, just now, but he and Nate were
the focus for us this game. I think Missouri just kept battling and deserved
to have opportunities. I thought they defended aggressively. They kept us
out of getting open shots for the most part, and then further proof of how
good a job-I've said this before about Missouri, they did as good a job
defending us as anybody us all year."
Junior Forward Andrew Drevo
On your overall thoughts...
"We were disappointed not to pull together in the second half. We showed up
today looking for a win and I don't believe that anyone was satisfied with
this loss. However, we did play hard and sometimes the shots don't fall the
way you want. We came out really focused and I believe that it caught them
offguard, but we knew we couldn't keep them on their heels the entire game."
On the drop off of intensity...
"I don't feel that we dropped our intensity because holding a team like
Missouri like we did early on is impressive; however, we knew that
eventually they would make a run. They are a good team and we missed shots
down the stretch. I have to give Missouri credit today."
On Drevo and Nate (Johnson) being open the only two open...
"Nate and I might have taken more shots, but overall we were all trying to
get open looks and take what the defense gave us. The middle was open quite
a bit and we wanted to exploit that."