Missouri Coach and Player Quotes
1/22/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 22, 2005
Recap | Box Score
Missouri Head Coach Quin Snyder
Opening Statement:
"I thought we really defended well in the second half physically, we were able to get in that mindset, and that for us is essential. We're a team that needs to start there on the defensive end. I thought that we had a real commitment on the offensive end and kept doing certain things. It's nice to see us knowing where to go with the ball and finding each other. Linas is going inside and people are able to play off him. I saw that effort in us, we needed to have the kind of effort in addition to Linas. I thought we played well today."
On sophomore forward/center Linas Kleiza
"We're better when we're going to him on the block. No question about it, especially because that's when he gets to the line. I think in addition to Linas is our wings, this is the first game I think, that we've had a couple of our wing guys, we've had one guy step up but I don't know if we've had two guys be as aggressive offensively. I say aggressive, I mean not aggressive with our jump shots, aggressive by attacking the basket. Thomas and Jimmy and Conley did that too. He did that with assists he had five assists some of those were from feeding the post. There might be games where Linas takes half a dozen 3's but they've got to come after he establishes himself inside and that's something that he can't do on his own. His teammates tonight did a really good job of finding him."
On Linas Kleiza creating match-up problems
"I think that we thought he's a match-up problem and a lot of times some people have bigger guys, I think that's where he becomes a match-up problem on the perimeter with drives and various things. I think as the game progressed, our guys did a better job of identifying that, they were switching a lot of screens especially screen and rolls, so he ended up a lot of times with a smaller guy on him. It took us a little bit to recognize it, but once our guys saw that we were able to go him. He's effective down there. I thought he was more poised down there too we gone to him in there the last couple games. He still had four turnovers tonight but I thought his decision-making was very good when he had the ball."
On the game
"This is a blueprint of how we need to play. We know that we, sometimes we've got to hang on a little tighter to it, they were really focused on doing that today, I think a lot of that stems from our commitment to each other. To play this way, to attack inside and get to the line, it's not about that one guy making shots it's about a team being focused on finding weak spots against the defense and it's about team defense."
Missouri sophomore Thomas Gardner
On their game plan:
"We tried to go inside-out and put some pressure on their defense. We knew that we weren't going to be able to drive on the first basket because they clogged the middle. So we tried to get the ball in to Linas [Kleiza] making them over-help and Linas did a good job finding teammates and scoring."
On his 3-pointer to end the first-half:
"I was waiting the whole possession. I knew that Jason [Horton] was going to try and create a first step into the paint to try and put pressure on the defense and try and get the last shot. I know he wanted to take the last shot and I was trying to get it earlier, and I just got it. He got it to me at the right time and I was able to knock the shot down."
Missouri sophomore Linas Kleiza
On teamwork to win the game:
"First of all, it's not about me. It's not a one man team. I can't do it by myself. The guys have to pass the ball to me. This was a game that elevated our play. Thomas [Gardner] came out and played well and so did Jimmy [McKinney]. My points are somebody else's points, but that's not going to cut it. We need a team. Everything starts on the defensive end. When we play defense, we have a good chance to win games."
On getting a conference win: "It's big. We've had a couple of tough games that we lost. Our backs are against the wall, but it's nice to get that `W' and get our confidence back. We have to focus on our defense. We have to bring energy and get stops. We feed off our defense. We rebound the ball and run the transition. We have to keep doing that if we're going to keep playing this way. I think we have a chance."
Missouri junior Jimmy McKinney
On winning on the road:
"I think that our backs are against the wall. If we don't want to go home early that's the kind of effort we're going to have to have. I'm pretty sure that no one wants to go home early. We have to be alert and have a lot of energy...I think teams in this conference feed off the crowd. We have great crowds and great fans in this conference and that's what the players and teams feed off, including us. We feed off our fans, but somehow we need to build that and be able to feed off each other."
On today's victory:
"Today was different. We didn't want to lose. I'm not saying we didn't want to lose on Wednesday or the other games that we've lost, but we had a sense of urgency today that we haven't had."
