Georgia 60, Mizzou 57 - Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Kim Anderson

Opening Statement…
"I thought we competed great. The first half was probably one of the better defensive halves we have had all year, but I think the problem, and this has been a common thread, is offensive. We can talk about how they went on a 17-0 run, but I think the game was lost in the first half. That's the time we had an opportunity to get a lead and make them play from behind and we didn't do that. When you need a bucket, you've got to be able to execute and we couldn't do that for a long time. Having said that, we came back from 16 down and got it to three. We didn't execute great at the end, but we still got it back down to where we had a chance to win. We need to get smarter, but I can't fault Georgia's effort."

On Coming Back from the 17-0 Run…
"I thought we panicked and tried to take the ball to the basket too much. The same things we were doing the first half were the same sets and plays. You have to give Georgia credit because they ramped up. They stopped it and we didn't adjust. That's been a problem; having that guy that can take the basketball and create something for himself or create something for somebody else. The 17-0 run was not good, but I go back to the first half. I think we started the game off 5-0; we turned it over and did something crazy for about four or five possessions. We may not have won the game, but we would have given ourselves a good lead. Obviously, you cannot go six minutes without scoring and expect to win."

On Wes Clark in Foul Trouble…
"It's not very intelligent. I love Wes, but those were two fouls. They weren't very good fouls. He's our most experienced ball handler, so we need him in the game. He is a junior and should understand his team needs him in the game. I was going to put him back in during the first half, but we hung and there and we were actually ahead so I thought we could get through the half. We had three guys with two fouls. That happens in a game, but we have to be smarter. Our defense was really good in the first half and it was really good down the stretch, but it wasn't really good for six minutes."

On Final Minute of Game…
"We were going to try and trap ball screens. We used a foul with 46 seconds left when we're going to play that series out. We were going to try and trap and make them turn it over. We still had a timeout left. We had a play figured out that we were going to try to run. Execution was a problem and they made the play."

On Texas Transfer Jordan Barnett…
"Jordan is a young man who is an outstanding player. He was a great player in high school in St. Louis and won the state championship here at Mizzou Arena. He practiced with us yesterday and was at shoot-around with us today. He can shoot the ball. He's a three-four-type guy. He has played at the highest level with Texas and Rick Barnes. He's got the experience and I'm excited to have him. He's a great man and we are looking forward to working with him."

On Leaders on the Court…
"I think you are looking for a combination of guys. You would like to have Wes Clark and Terrence Phillips and Tramaine Isabell a little bit to take control. Terrence is a guy who is improving everyday, but he's not there yet and neither is Tramaine. Tramaine has improved a lot but, we have to understand that if we get behind by eight you don't just get one shot off for eight points. We finally understood that when we got behind by 16. We got back to three at the end. We finally understood that there is not an eight-point play and we just have to keep grinding back. The same way you got behind is the same way you'll get ahead, two or three points at a time. I hope eventually Terrence and Tramaine can offer that along with Wes." 

Mizzou freshman forward Kevin Puryear

On what the team can learn from this loss…
"I think we made some good progress, some positive steps, but sadly there are no moral victories in basketball, so we'd definitely like to see some increases in the win column. I think we've been playing a lot better basketball than we did at the beginning of the season."

On whether losing towards the end of games is tiresome…
"Yeah, it was looking like the same song. But we're not purposely doing it, falling behind and having mental lapses.  We can't have that, so we just need to be smarter, because I feel like we're playing hard, but not as smart."

On the difficulty of playing against Georgia's Yante Maten…
"He's a big body and a good player. I've said this before, but I like competing against him. He's going to pull the best out of me. I think we did a lot better job in the second half containing him, but we just couldn't keep him off the glass. He played really well on both sides of the ball."

On what the team needs to do to give Texas A&M a good game…
"I think most importantly, we just need to play hard. Knowing personnel is really important. They look like a very physical team and they like to share the ball a lot, so we just need to be on the p's and q's on the defensive end of the ball."

Mizzou freshman guard Terrence Phillips

On whether playing most of the first half without Wes Clark handcuffed the team…
"I wouldn't say it handcuffed us, I wouldn't say it was difficult.  I think it was tied at halftime. I mean, Tramaine [Isabell] came in and he made some plays for us. With things like that, when guys get hurt or guys get in foul trouble, it's a 'the next guy up' mentality. Somebody's got to be there to pick up Wes, to pick up the team."

On how the team tries to get out of scoring droughts…
"I don't really know. I think that this team, we don't have to have one guy that's going to get it for us. We have to play as a team. When we go into those scoring droughts, we have to stay together. We have to execute on offense down the stretch."

On whether it is difficult to learn to finish in close games…
"I wouldn't say it's difficult. With our coaching staff, they get you ready for situations like this. We've got Ryan Rosburg and Wes Clark, and guys that are sophomores who have been here before, so I wouldn't say that it's hard getting through this. You've just got to keep fighting for the guys at the right and to the left of you in this situation."

On the upcoming road games…
"Like KP said and like Coach said, we're getting better. Especially the South Carolina game, we played them close.  We played them really close. Even tonight, we played them even closer tonight. We're getting better. Going on the road here, we're mad. We want to get some wins here, so I think it is a good time for us to go in there and keep fighting for this team."

Georgia Head Coach Mark Fox

Opening statement...
"It was a hard fought game. We anticipated that it would be. I grew up in Big Eight country, so I know how hard it is to come here and win. We told our team that it would be a lot harder to win than the first time we played them and it certainly was. Our kids played really hard and they have improved a great deal in the last two weeks. We felt fortunate to leave here with a win."

On going on a large shooting streak…
"We didn't play well last weekend. I did not think we played very well offensively in practice leading up to the game. I didn't think that we had a very good shoot-around and I did not think our offense was great in the first half. You have to give Mizzou's defense some credit for that. We eventually got back to our own rhythm and were able to make a few shots and build a lead."

On Yante Maten...
"We obviously wanted to get Yante (Maten) some shots and we got him some looks early in the half, but he get a three-pointer and we got three from Kenny Gaines and one from J.J. Frazier. We are at our best when we have multiple guys making plays. That run in the second half is exactly what we had and it certainly started with Yante."

On feelings going into the half...
"I (felt good) because I knew that we would eventually get back into a rhythm we have been playing our last five or six weeks. We did not panic. We tried to stay true to ourselves and it worked out for us."