Nov. 10, 2004

 |  Notes

Opening Statement

"I thought that we were really efficient offensively in the first half. We made a lot of plays. In the second half, our staff made a great adjustment. We just started pushing up and going underneath the screen and roll, I thought we kept getting broken down, I thought that made us more solid. I think we won every four-minute stretch in the second half, and that was because of our defense. It was good to see us play better team defense in the second half."

On Linas Kleiza

"The thing that I talked to him about tonight is guarding. He was terrific offensively, but he wasn't solid defensively, he wasn't disciplined. In the second half, he really was an anchor for us defensively. I thought that Jimmy and Jason Conley were two guys that locked up. Our bigs were really solid defensively. They (Northwest Missouri) did a lot of things with four guys in the paint. This is a good team, they are used to winning. They went 29-5 last year. They did a lot of things offensively that we haven't practiced against or seen."

On Linas Kleiza and Thomas Gardner's scoring

"Those guys were just on. The thing that I liked about it is that I don't remember bad shots. They took open shots, and I think the other guys knew. Last game, it was Jimmy and we found him. Tonight Linas was going and we found him. Thomas really got us going in the first half. With his defense, and that run-out, that dunk was really an emotion turner. If anything, you saw in the second half where guys over-passed the ball. That's one of the things we've been preaching since day one, get your teammates the shot. Tonight Linas and Thomas got good looks."

On the new arena

"It feels like home. I've always said that if you build it they will come. I think it's a fantastic place, we just have to get the glitches out of it. I know there are glitches, we face them as we're still moving in, but people are on top of that. I hope people are patient with the arena ... It is fantastic, and it feels like home.

Sophomore Linas Kleiza

On offensive rebounding ( Six of Kleiza's nine rebounds were offensive)

"First of all, we take a lot of leads, we take a lot of shots, we take a lot of jump shots, so when you do that you've got to go to the boards because there are a lot of possibilities for boards. I just try to be aggressive."

Senior Jason Conley

On Jason Horton

"I love it [ Horton's comfort level as a freshman]. A lot of people would say with him being a freshman and playing the point guard position, which is probably one of the hardest positions on the court, for him to come in as a freshman and take over like he did, that's great."

On Linas Kleiza

"To be honest with you, when Linas gets the ball and he shoots it's hard to go to the glass at certain times. You've got all this energy and he's going in and he's going in and your body just tells you, `you can go to the glass but nothing is going to happen'. He's a great player. I'm just so happy that he chose to come play with us and not anybody else."

Sophomore Thomas Gardner

On expectations

"That's the best thing about our team right now. We're the underdogs. There are no expectations for us right now; we could be a hell of a surprise. We have confidence in each other and our coaching staff, so right now we're just playing a day at a time."

On his role on the team

"I think I'm the emotional and vocal leader on the court. That's something that I've always been able to do, not only does it get me going individually but it gets my teammates going collectively."

On his dunk

"My teammates created that play for me, they gave me the opportunity to get the dunk and the three-pointer. Jimmy (McKinney) made a great defensive play to get me the ball for the dunk."

On creating match up problems for opponents

That's the beauty of the team. You can't double the post because we'll hurt you on the outside and you can't play zone because we really can shoot it well so we create defensive match up problems for their guards and we'll be able to use that to our advantage this year."

On getting comfortable in the Paige

"We're getting comfortable, we're getting real comfortable. We've had practices and we've had games, and it's a great place to play in."