March 3, 2009
Head Coach Brian Smith:
Opening Statement…
“Obviously looking at the whole season, I challenged this team with a lot of tough dual meets, tough tournaments. We got a lot of wins in dual meets, we had a couple tough losses, but the best thing about this team this year is really the way they've responded to some tougher situations. I feel very confident going into the Big 12's. Obviously it's the toughest tournament in college wrestling with just five teams. Probably 30% of the dual meets were overtime matches. It's going to be very competitive. But with the schedule we've had, I know we're prepared. I feel good about it. It's going to be tough. We have one less qualifier than we've had in the past but I know with the new system we're going to pick up three, four, maybe five of them afterwards too. It will be interesting to see how all that pans out. We just have to take care of what's at hand, which is the opponents that we wrestle.”
On focus for the past three weeks:
“(They're) Just doing the little things they do right, a lot of individual drills. They're working on the things they need to get a little bit better at and just doing what they do best. At this point in the season we don't want to change anything. We want to do what we've been doing. We've had a lot of success. All we did was get them a little rested at the beginning of this break and shorten the practices but they've still been very intense. I'm pleased.”
On the loss to Central Michigan:
“I just asked them to respond. They have to show effort out in the matches. We didn't give our best effort against Central Michigan and that wasn't the team that I had seen all season in practice, preseason and the summer. It wasn't our best effort and I think that they would all admit to that. I expected us to respond the right way, and they did. They have all season.”
On what winning a Big 12 title would mean for the Missouri program:
“Just another step. It's another thing that we expect to do. When we win things, it's not like we go there not to win. We went to the Midlands this year, I expected to win, we fell short. So, I take notes as a coach and try to figure out what we can do better next year to win Midlands. I don't think there's been a male program here to outright win a Big 12 title, so that's a goal of our program every year. But if I had the choice of winning a Big 12 title and taking all 10 guys, I'm taking 10 guys to Nationals. My ultimate goal is to win a National title but if I can have both 10 guys and a Big 12 title, I'll take that.
Michael Chandler (157)
On expectations for the Big 12 tournament and Nationals:
“It's senior year, I'm ready for all my dreams to come true. I'm excited. That means winning the Big 12 title, carrying it over to Nationals and getting a really good seed and winning Nationals. That's the dream around here, that's what we do. We expect All-Americans and National Champions.”
Marcus Hoehn (141)
On what he needs to do to be successful at Big 12's and Nationals:
“Not hold myself back, just let myself wrestle. We work hard all season, since I was five years old I've been wrestling and working hard so why not take these last two-and-a-half weeks I have left to wrestle and show everyone how hard I work and why I deserve to be at the top of the podium.”
On competition at the 174 pound weight class in comparison to 184:
“There's some tough guys at both weight classes. There are two returning National champions at 184, I would have liked to wrestle those guys. But you've got the runner-up, the third, and fourth place finisher and a couple of other finishers from last year at 174 so there's competition there too.”
On what his focus has been:
“Going out there and having fun. Doing what I do best. I really can't control what my opponent is going to do. I can't control anything except for what I do, so I want to have some fun.”
On the win against Iowa State:
“It was really great. After Central Michigan, the coaches came in and told us exactly how it was. I think everybody just stepped up to the challenge and it was good to end on that note. For me, I lost against Iowa State but at the same time I got to see our team come together. We have a shot, all of these guys have a shot to go to Nationals and be All-Americans.”