Mizzou-Kentucky Postgame Quotes
1/25/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Opening Statement...
I appreciate everyone coming out. Kentucky - give them a lot of credit, they are an awfully good team. Jennifer O'Neill is just a special player and does a lot of things real, real well. I thought we played with a lot of toughness tonight; thought we really competed hard for 40 minutes. Our execution at times wasn't where it needed to be, our poise wasn't where it needed to be, but I thought our players really competed hard and played with a lot of toughness tonight.
On defense in second half...
Well O'Neill I thought she hit some tough shots. I thought there was several we felt like we contested pretty dang good, but she is a special player, so she nailed some big shots for them and you know we got a couple fouls that you know were times we didn't need to foul. I think we thought we were getting our hands on a loose ball or tying it up and they got to the free throw line, knocked down their free throws. We didn't shoot the ball particularly well from the free throw line again tonight, but I just think they are a great team and great players make big plays, and going into this game we knew we were going to have to take care of the ball and we were going to have to make shots and you know you can say we shot the ball so much better than we had been from the three point line, but we should of shot it better than we did because we had good looks, they were legitimately good looks. I thought defensively for the most part we did a pretty decent job from the rebounding standpoint. They are a great offensive rebounding team, so did a good job, they got 14 offensive boards and I thought there were a couple of possessions we didn't box out the way we needed to, but overall I thought we did a pretty good job from a rebounding standpoint. I think when you look at it, they had 16 or 17 more possessions than we did it makes it awfully tough, so I would say 16 or 17 more possessions, 22 turnovers, it's hard to win ball games with those kinds of statistics, and we got to knock down our free throws, we had our chances there, we got to the free throw line a couple different occasions and could of kept that game close and we didn't finish at the free throw line the way we needed to.
On Sierra Michaelis aggressiveness...
It's hard because you do, you need her on the court offensively. She can score in a variety of ways, you know she is shooting the ball pretty dang well for us, but just some of those turnovers, you just get going too fast and you just have to slow down and so we continue to watch film with her and we will continue to break it down for her, and she has got to make the adjustment because those are big possessions for us. When you get a couple in a row that adds up in a hurry playing against a great team like Kentucky so she is aware of it. I think this week she had probably worked the hardest she has worked all year in practice, got her scout team back which is a great thing, but she will work at it, it is important to her, she knows we need to clean it up a little bit, so we will continue to teach and mentor and watch film and try to get better from it.
On thoughts about a good offense in first half...
"I think we could have had a little more poise. We would see the open shooter and we would immediately make the pass instead of having a little more poise. But within scrambling out of it, it left a lot of us open on the perimeter, so we were getting shots. (Jordan Frericks) was really crashing the boards for us and made it hard for them to get her boxed out too. They were up in us today, but we were able to get a lot of good looks off their pressure defense too."
On getting good looks but not making all the shots...
"It's definitely very frustrating, you want it to go down. I had a couple I felt like went in-and-out, but it's the next play that's kind of our style. You have to be thinking about the next play. So, I wanted to get back on the defensive end and get another shot the next time around."
On Kentucky's run in the last few minutes of the game....
Gosh, I don't know. It's all kind of a blur now. I mean I know they went on a run there for a while, and then I got in foul trouble and had to come out. It kind of sucked to be on the bench, but I was just trying to encourage my teammates as much as I could. I think we talked with coach, and we missed some crucial free throws right in a row that kind of hurt us and just a couple of careless turnovers. They ended up having quite a few more possessions then we did, and so in many ways we kind of hurt ourselves with our turnovers. I felt like we kept fighting, and I just wanted to finish the game out strong."
Sophomore Forward Sierra Michaelis
On playing a little more aggressively...
"Just the mindset. Getting ready before the game and trying to do my best for the team."
On coach talking about playing more aggressively...
"Yeah, we have had a few good talks."
On finding openings to shoot in the first half...
"I think it was a lot of my teammates just handling the ball, and handling the pressure. Since Kentucky plays such tough pressure, it was easy for my teammates who had pose to find me. I was open, so I would shoot it."
Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening Statement...
"It was a great win for us, on the road against a really hot shooting team today. A team, the way they are constructed really is a challenge to guard, especially the way we were committed to guarding today. Real proud of the players for not losing faith at half time and just sticking with it and just had an outstanding result with the victory with a real tough match up. We are very, very happy this afternoon."
On the balance and production from the players as the game moved forward...
"It was good, because this was a tough team to play because they just do not give you a lot inside. They really pack the lane and make it tough on you. They challenge you to shoot shots in your range but they're wide open and in my opinion sometimes those are the most difficult ones. So I was really proud of our players keeping their poise because this was not an easy game. We really, really made a commitment to go back to pressure defense and our press and sort of feast or famine right now for us and this was a scary game to go back to that because you saw in the first half we caused a lot of problems for them. I just knew this was a tough game. I was so pleased that the players did not get discouraged and just kept battling. I thought the last 10 minutes was our game there. We really played some disruptive defense but made some tough shots and you just have to against a defense like that.
On going back to his previous style...
"I think that this was one of the tougher match ups you will see because they can really spread you out and really make you pay for mistakes in rotation. So I really did think with adding Jelleah back and getting Bria back and with Jaycee's improvement we have 10 healthy players right now and certainty with enough depth I think we have some people that are in fantastic shape and are well conditioned. So the reason I went back to it is because we just were sort of listless at LSU when you look at the tape we can't be that we have to be energetic. The players really worked hard this week and it was a great victory for us.
Sophomore Guard, Linnae Harper
On the lack of offensive shots made...
"Really I think it was just focus. As time was winding down we just tried to make enough shots and move the ball offensively so we could just get some openings and make shots."
On getting back to their defensive mindset...
"I think it is very important; in the past Kentucky has made this name of being forty minutes of dread and suffocating. I think we just need to go back to just practice and repetition, just working on defense so that we come out every game and can play the defense we are capable of playing."
Redshirt Senior, Jennifer O'Neill
On lack of offensive shots made...
"We had to be patient. We got every shot we wanted, we just were not knocking them down. But once we moved the ball more, everybody got an opportunity to score and we actually were able to see what was open."
On when Missouri took a 50-48 lead...
"We just needed to get stops and focus on defense. We were missing a lot of assignments but the good thing was we were playing hard and we were playing through it to cut the lead back down."
On making shots from the 15-20 foot range in the second half...
"Just working out with Tamika (Williams) and (Adeniyi) Amadou. That's as simple as it gets, just putting the work in with them."
On calling for the pace to increase...
It wasn't just me; it was everybody, everybody on the team agreed that we needed to get back to that and that is something we expressed to Matthew."
