Missouri Coach and Player Quotes
2/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 16, 2005
Missouri Head Coach Quin Snyder
Opening Statement:
"I think that we talked about really having to defend and rebound to win this game and that's basically what we did and that's why we won. We were too loose with the ball and we had some guys that had great energy on defense and that was good to see. Their zone is different from some of the other zone we've seen and to win without shooting the ball and with a couple guys having an off night, that's a good thing. We've got to get on the road and see if we can get one on the road."
On Kevin Young:
"I think that Kevin's play epitomized what the play of our team has to be. I try to be as positive with our players as I can be, and when you look over the course of the season at some of the percentages and the things that we've done for us to think that we're a good team is not the right mindset. We can be a good team if we play `poor' and that's what Kevin did. Kevin just worked his tail off all night on both ends and really got rewarded for it. He did a great job for us tonight."
On the Texas A&M game being a turning point for Kevin Young:
" I think it is that simple for him, it's doing what he's told. As a coach you want kids to think that you're going to help them be successful and help the team be successful and for Kevin that formula isn't really complicated but it's really important. Just like all our guys, if they aren't thinking it's about any one guy and his performance that's a losing mindset, it's a losing mindset even if you're a really talented kid. When you're a team that's really trying to get better, we really need each other, we need each other too much."
"We're not a Top 10 team. We are what we are and I think that we should recognize that. I think that the Nebraska game was a game where we got to push it out a little bit, but for us to do that, it goes back to playing poor. The things that we need to do to get the lead are things that we don't do and sometimes our commitment to doing those things is really conditional. Should it really matter who starts or not? Those things shouldn't really matter they don't matter to teams that have a single mind and purpose to win. I'm not sure that that matter to our team right now, I use that as an example. I think that we lose sight of who we are when we get ahead or if we get really behind we get kind of shocked into remembering who we are. I thought our energy defensively today was good, we had a couple breakdowns but we worked our defense and I thought that was the game."
Missouri freshman Jason Horton
On the plan going into the second half of the game:
"Just attack the zone and get them off the boards and run. I think we did that for maybe about half the game. I think if we would have done it for the whole game we would have put them away."
Missouri junior Kevin Young
On team play:
"I think we play together and we fight together. There are some mistakes we can't make and when we can control those mistakes we just take a step further. We've lost to some very good teams and we've lost to some very bad teams. We just try to stay together. At Texas A&M they ran us out of the gym and we were breaking apart, but then we came back together."
On playing with energy:
"We have to make our own energy in games. We have to create that energy and Coach Snyder did a good job of getting us pumped up. He always fires us up. It starts with him most of the time which is wrong; the players need to start it out. When you him on the sidelines doing that stuff, creating that energy, it runs off onto us."
On being an emotional player:
"I think I play off emotions. When I get excited, I think my teammates get excited. It just builds energy and that's what I try to do. Maybe you can call me an energy builder. That's just what I try to do."
Missouri senior Jason Conley
On winning two games in a row:
"I didn't think about that. I'm just doing it one at a time, that's how I see it. Each game is its own game and that's the secret for us now."
On being a defensive player:
"It's just like I've been saying over and over again. When I came here I didn't just come here to score, I came here to do whatever it takes to win. If I can take on the defensive role, that makes me feel good. It makes me feel good to have someone say that I'm a defensive player. Everybody knows when I was going through my situation last year the coaching staff was saying that I wasn't playing defense. So it feels great for me as long as we win."
