Missouri-Kansas Postgame Notes
3/15/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 15, 2003
Recap?|? Box Score?|? Notes?|? Photo Gallery
MISSOURI
Head Coach Quin Snyder
On the game...
"I think our team showed a lot of toughness and perservereance. In the first
half it was chaotic with all the turnovers and missed shots and foul
trouble. But we refused to give into that and stayed with our game plan. Our
guys were committed to playing well and it was important that we stay true
to our plan."
On getting a technical foul...
"Sometimes this team needs to see me get emotional; that's something we've
been trying to do from within and were getting it done collectively. In the
huddles or at halftime we try to be emotional but I'm not sure it (the foul)
had an impact on the game."
On how he feels about conference tournaments...
"From my personal expierience it's always been one of the best tournaments.
This is as good a tournament as there is in the country. The games have been
so competitive and I think there are certain elements that can help you or
hurt you. I can recall from my junior year we won the ACC Tournament and
went all the way to the Final Four on the wave of that emotion."
Junior Center Arthur Johnson
On making the run at this point in the season...
"It is just another tournament. It is just the Big 12 Tournament, not the
NCAA Tournament. It feels good though."
On his play down the stretch...
"I just needed to stay strong. I had a tough first half, second half I just
had to fight it. I made some key baskets."
Junior Guard Rickey Paulding
On being able to play Kansas again this season...
"We just stuck with it. Kansas is a great basketball team. They make us play
hard, but we played hard and got the victory."
Kansas
Head Coach Roy Williams
On the game ...
"We're very discouraged, disappointed, upset, you can describe it any way
you want to. I congratulate Missouri. We had three very close basketball
games. The first two we were very fortunate. Today they were more fortunate.
They played better. They played like the team only playing its second game,
and we played like the team that had been playing for three straight days.
One thing that comes to mind as I was walking down here was the number of
block-charge calls made tday. Missouri tried to take a charge. It wasn't
Kansas trying to take a charge. It was the little things. I think they took
four charges and probably got called for a block three or four times. Off
the top of my head as I was coming down here, I think I remember one time
Kirk took one charge, but other than that I can't remember one time we did.
That's the nitty-gritty, that's the guy in the trenches kind of thing you
have to do when you play in tournaments."
Senior Forward Nick Collison
On the loss of intensity ...
"I don't think that we came out with any less intensity at all. It is
disappointing because at this time of year it is important that you come out
and don't play poorly. What we need to do is make sure that we get ready for
the tournament now."
Senior Guard Kirk Hinrich
On your foul trouble ...
"It was tough getting my fourth foul today. I was just starting to play my
game - aggressive and ready. It's tough to watch on the sides because you
want to help and contribute, but you're not able to do so."
Sophomore Guard Aaron Miles
On the loss ...
"It's tough, they made shots and we didn't, they made the plays and our
offense did nothing with it. We didn't play consistently. It hurts because
we didn't get to cut down the net, and it was one of our goals to win the
conference, but hopefully we have six more games and we can win the national
championship."
Junior Forward Jeff Graves
On early foul trouble ...
"Foul trouble was a problem throughout the game, I think I just came out a
little over aggressive. It's not a good feeling because we came in here with
the mindset that we would win, last year we did the same thing, we won the
regular season but we couldn't get the conference tournament, but Missouri
played well, they had a good game plan and played hard and we didn't have
the same mental focus. Hopefully we can turn around and bounce back."
