Feb. 11, 2011

Columbia, Mo. -

Head Coach Mike Anderson
Feb. 10, 2011 Press Conference

 

Opening statement…

“Well we have an opportunity to get back to the court and have an opportunity to play at Mizzou Arena. You want to get that bad taste out of your mouth, especially the second half of the Kansas game, so with that being said we have another opportunity. As I told our guys it's a seven-game season now. Every game is an important game, just like today's practice is very important; we just have to get better. We've got to get more pieces to work for our basketball team. I think we've got some guys going, now we've got to get some other guys going and I think that hopefully that will put us where we want to be. This is a time we really want to start gearing things up for this stretch drive. I was more encouraged than I was discouraged with the Kansas game. You just have to put two halves together against any outstanding team such as Kansas at their place. I thought for the first half we couldn't have scripted it any better, other than having the lead going into half time. This week gives us a chance to have some normality, you know with the wild week during Oklahoma State, with the storm, and then having to go right back on the road, so we have a chance to be at home. Our guys are getting acclimated in school and we have a chance to practice, I think that's important.”

 

On Phil Pressey's influence on the game outside of scoring...

“I think if you watch Phil I think he has a calming force with our basketball team. It's kind of like he's out there in control. I thought the group that started the game the other night really came out and did a lot of good things defensively. I thought offensively we had a good rhythm.”

 

On Phil's attitude about playing at KU as just another game…

“He does it everyday in practice and I think he's one of those guys that's getting a lot more comfortable in what we're doing. He has confidence in himself, and I think what you're starting to see now is that he has confidence in his teammates. And I think they have it in him as well.”

 

On Laurence Bowers…

“I just saw that Laurence had that spark back. I thought he had that spark, he was everywhere, and he was active. He was engaged defensively as well as offensively. He was running the floor, handling the basketball, cutting to the basket and he was finishing. The game before that you could see his rhythm was off a little bit, but I thought in this particular game, that's the Laurence Bowers that we've become accustomed to. And the better he plays the better the team's going to be. We can see the emergence of Ricardo Ratliffe on our team so now if you've got those two forwards along with the guys coming off the bench - Steve Moore and Justin Safford - then I think we're really going in the right direction. When we were at our best, if you recall, we had Leo (Lyons) and DeMarre (Carroll), two forwards that people had to contend with offensively and defensively. I'm just saying that when we get those guys playing well together it makes a big difference.”

 

On Justin Safford being held back by knee…

“I think he just needs some success. I think you know the knee, no question about it that's always going to be something that's in the back of your mind, but confidence I think has a lot to do with it. Of course today he's sick he wont practice today, but I'm just hopeful that he will step in there because we're missing him right now, we really are. We are missing what he brings to the table… his versatility. I just think his experience, his knowledge, defensively just fixing things for us, and he's a tough match-up when he steps out and can knock shots down.”

 

On areas of defense that need improvement…

“At times we're pretty good. For the first half I thought we did a tremendous job defensively. We were active, we were moving. And then we just didn't come up with some of those rebounds that you've got to come up with. Therefore our guards really have to stick their noses in there. When your forwards are out there contesting shots, such as Bowers, I mean he's one of the more active guys in our league in terms of blocking shots, then that means his man is going to have an opportunity to go to the glass and we've got to get some guys in there putting bodies on people. So the finishing part of defense is what concerns me right now. And we've got a good team they're going to do it. So when I say defense, we've got to do the finishing part of defense, which is rebounding.”

 

On Phil being like his dad, Paul…

“I think he just has natural instincts more than anything else. And that just means he's got a gift. It's like he has eyes in the back of his head. He can anticipate and some of the stuff he has, you can't teach.”

 

On Oklahoma…

“I tell you what, they've put some games together and they are playing a lot better. They have some new players, a lot of young players that are inexperienced. But now they've got this experience and they're playing real physical. (Jeff Caple) may not have the numbers, but he has some quality players. You talk about (Steven) Pledger, he's scoring the basketball for them. Cameron Clark, someone we are very familiar with, a highly-touted young player. You've got (Andrew) Fitzgerald down in there and of course we all recognize Cade Davis, he's had some outstanding games. So it's a team that they're going to come and play hard and leave it on the floor. Jeff has them going in the right direction, I mean they played at Texas last night, and we face Texas and Texas is a very good basketball team. So I expect this is going be like every game in our league, it's going to be a tough ball game.”