Mizzou 72, South Carolina 67 - Postgame Quotes

Mizzou Head Coach Kim Anderson

Opening Statement…
"I am really proud of these guys. Three keys coming in were fast breaks, rebounding, and paint touches. We talked about these points the last couple of days. We out-rebounded them. They are so good on the boards and they are such a physical team. They do such a good job rebounding and we were able to out-rebound them tonight and had more second chances because of it. We out-scored them in the paint, which we thought was key. 55 to 37 or something like that. We had 55 paint touches and when we were able to get into the paint, we were able to score points. We limited them, but we were still able to keep them from driving to the basket all the time. A great job by a bunch of guys. We had guys come off the bench and make plays and that's what we needed. I'm proud of these guys. They have continued to work. I thought tonight they were ready. They were focused and ready to play. "

On back to back SEC wins…
"There are probably a lot of firsts, especially since we only won three last year. We won two at the end, but now that you bring it up, yes, it is the first time. These guys have worked really hard. They were unbelievably ready to play tonight and I thought it showed, especially at the beginning, and they didn't panic when they got down there at the end. A couple weeks ago we would have lost that game, maybe by ten points. I think it says something about the maturity level that our guys have gotten to at this point, but we have to keep going. We don't have a lot of time to celebrate. I was really proud of them."

On confidence to win the game…
"We have been close several times. Not a lot, but several. We would play teams fairly even but we would get behind by 10 or 15 points to start the game and come back at the end or whatever. I think the big key is getting off to a good start. I do think they have a little confidence. I think Saturday's game was huge for them. When you lose like nine in a row, guys were down, and I think that game Saturday really helped them come up."

On team growth…
"What we were as team, when South Carolina went to the zone, we didn't just settle for passing the ball around the perimeter. We got the ball in the paint and made some plays. Guys like K.J. moved to the open spot and Terrence found them. Ryan got some shots. If you go back to the Mississippi State game where we just played catch on the perimeter, and that is all we did, you see improvement and Terrence did certainly. I thought Tramaine did too and then Jimmy comes in and gives us five minutes. He's a guy that probably knows what the other team does better than the other team because he's on the scout team. He was out there directing traffic."

Mizzou sophomore guard Namon Wright

On his motivation to get to the glass…
"I just wanted to make sure I blocked out Carrera when the shot went up, and go to the board and get the rebound, which is what I did."

On Tramaine Isabell and Terrence Phillips…
"They were big tonight. Both Tramaine and Terrence stepped up when they needed to. They led us and they made sure they took care of the ball and that is why we won."

On the momentum from the Rally for Rhyan Game…
"I think we piggy-backed off of the game against Tennessee with the energy and the crowd that was present. We played hard today, and we wanted to beat South Carolina after losing to them earlier this season."

On Ryan Rosburg's play…
"When he is playing as well as he is, we have a presence offensively, and it makes it a lot easier for us on the perimeter."

Mizzou senior forward Ryan Rosburg

On how they prepared for the game…
"We know that South Carolina plays very hard. Coach Martin does a good job with getting his guys to play that hard. They are a high-energy team, and we knew that coming into the game, so we tried to use that against them with some backdoor plays, different cuts and different looks."

On his shooting performance…
"The last couple of shots I made were huge. I knew late down the stretch, I needed to make these shots, and it was a crucial part to make them for my teammates."

On the last few minutes…
"I was feeling good and we wanted to win so bad. I told Terrence that he gives me so many dimes I had to throw him one. I felt good down the stretch, we were all clicking and we had so much energy tonight, which is why I think we won."

On his recent production…
"Every game I try to win. If it means me scoring, rebounding, or sitting on the bench cheering on my teammates, I just try to be that teammate. All the scoring has a lot to do with my teammates and them getting the ball to me in great spots."

On the end of game…
"It felt like we expected to win and we knew we were going to win. There wasn't panic in our eyes. We were ready." 

South Carolina head coach Frank Martin

Opening Statement…
"I am really happy for Kim and his kids. I have been in that situation; we've been in that situation a couple years ago, when your kids continue to fight and deal with adversity. Obviously, the win/loss column is something a lot of people on the outside pay attention to, but on the inside you're trying to stay connected with your players to make sure they are doing things the right way. Missouri is definitely doing things the right way. He is playing all freshmen and sophomores and they have battled, so a lot of credit to them for completely outplaying us today."

On South Carolina's start…
"Missouri deserves the credit. We had a great practice yesterday, and it's not like we came out and pouted and moped. We had a good practice, they just beat us. They out-rebounded us and they out-shot us from the foul line. With the game on the line, they were tougher than us to score balls at the rim, we couldn't score, and we couldn't stop them. Give them credit. Do not take credit away from them because they flat out out-played us. They beat us in toughness, beat us to the glass, beat us to the rim and beat us running the court. We just got beat."

On Missouri…
"Give Isabell credit on the way he played the first half, as well as the young man Phillips. He is going to be real good. When you watch them, you can tell that Phillips is a competitor and he is fun to watch."

On Ryan Rosburg…
"I wish my senior center would play with the same urgency that he plays with as their careers are coming to an end. When you are a coach, you compete against all of these teams and you watch the guys on the other teams. When you do things like he is doing right now, he is to be commended for staying the course. No surprise that they are playing very well right now and that he is playing as well as he is. The credit goes to him as well as the staff that has instilled confidence in him. This is the fourth game in a row that he has come out and kicked people's tails, so a lot of credit to him."

On the two games played in the season and the difference…
"There was no difference. They fought us tooth and nail. I said this earlier leading into the game that Missouri has done that to everybody. Except for maybe two games where the other team just made too many shots against them, they do not go away. It is not about the record, it's about the players playing their tails off at this time of the year where a lot of people just throw in the towel. That is called coaching. That is Kim Anderson."

South Carolina guard Duane Notice

On Missouri's shooting…
"Like coach said, there was a lot of plays that we weren't able to make, and that ended up giving the game away. In terms of the shots, we were able to move the ball around. We have a lot of teams that play zone against us so we need to do a good job of penetrating the zone and picking it up."

On Missouri's defense on him…
"We tried to get some other looks and we just weren't able to convert them. We were trying to attack the rim, but we did a poor job on converting our lay-ups. Being a presence inside of the paint is something we have to establish. So looking forward, that is something that we need to capitalize on."