Eastern Illinois 67, Mizzou 64 - Postgame Quotes
Mizzou Basketball Postgame Quotes
Eastern Illinois 67, Mizzou 64
Mizzou Head Coach Kim Anderson
Opening Statement…
“I thought they outplayed us. In the second half, I thought we really struggled to keep them off the boards. You have to give them credit. Not sure why we didn’t have the energy we needed to play this game.”
On the final play of the game…
“I didn’t want to foul because it was a one possession game. Bottom line, we had trouble scoring, so I didn’t want to give them more points. The last 15 seconds, I felt like we had a better chance of scoring without calling a timeout. Obviously, we didn’t execute very well, but we didn’t execute very well the whole game. So that was the thought process that went into it. Terrence (Phillips) got an OK shot, but that’s not really the guy you want shooting. Would I change it if I had to do it again? No, I think I would have done the same thing. I would have hoped we would have executed better.”
On what was supposed to happen on the final play…
“We were supposed to set a high pick and come off the high pick and hit Cullen (VanLeer) or Frankie (Hughes). We didn’t do that, obviously. We dribbled around and jumped up and shot it. Candidly, I thought that was the best chance we had of scoring, rather than stopping the clock, calling a timeout. I didn’t know if they’d change defenses or what. Our best chance of scoring is to not let the other team get set up.”
On having trouble running their offense during the game…
“We had a really good week of practice. We really worked on everything they would do, they didn’t do anything we didn’t think they’d do. For whatever reason we got in the game and we kind of froze up. Guys couldn’t get open, guys didn’t make the right cuts, guys didn’t set the right picks. Why does that happen? We just have to keep working on it. I can blame it on youth, I could blame it on coaching. The bottom line is you have to keep plugging.”
On playing a lot of players in the game…
“I played so many people, and the reason I played so many people was because I was trying to find someone who could contribute. I thought Willie (Jackson) really stepped up and did some good things, K.J. (Walton) did some good things. It’s just a consistency factor we struggle with. A guy plays really well for five minutes and turns it over. I know you’re going to make mistakes, but you can’t make multiple mistakes.”
On the play of Jordan Barnett…
“Obviously he struggled. I think not playing for a year has been tough, but I think he’ll be fine. You sit there and look at his head and try to see what’s inside there. I think there was a lot of indecision, should I shoot, should I pass, what should I do? He made some nice passes. He’s got to get comfortable. We’re trying to play him at two spots and certainly that’s a challenge, too. He could play the wing and also get a mismatch at the four.”
Sophomore guard K.J. Walton
On momentum swings in the game…
“They kept making big plays, and we couldn’t get a stop.”
On the mood at halftime…
“We definitely weren’t satisfied, but we knew we still had a chance to get a good lead and win the game. Unfortunately, we didn’t follow our principles, didn’t follow what Coach told us to do and lost the game."
Freshman forward Willie Jackson
On playing with increased aggressiveness…
“I wouldn’t say that. It was more about not trying to lose on the home floor.”
On having a chance to pull away in the first half…
“The game should have been put away in the first half. Which it wasn’t. To sum it all up. We will get back in the gym tomorrow, watch film and get better.
On Jordan Barnett’s debut…
“I think he played well. That’s his first game back. As he gets started to get going, we are going to be good.”
Eastern Illinois head coach Jay Spoonhour
Opening Statement…
“It was a big game for us. It allowed a lot of our fans and the parents of our kids to come watch, so it was a big game for all of our guys. There was a long stretch in there where I didn’t know if the guys thought they could win the game. We were looking for someone else to do it. Eventually we made a few shots and that was kind of it.”
On confidence they had when the deficit was small despite poor shooting early…
“You do that because it goes all different kinds of ways. It’s been flip-flopped on us before where you say ‘hey you better pick it up’ because things didn’t go the way you wanted or needed to. The guys felt like that if a few shots had gone in, we’d be in better shape. I said to one of the coaches; ‘we’re lucky about four more of those didn’t go in’ because I would not want have a 15-point lead on those guys. There’s no way we would have hung on to it. There’s no chance. So in all honesty, it was probably best that we were where we were. I knew Mizzou would come out and guard. They’re a good defensive team. They’re top five in the country in three-point percentage defense and it’s not a fluke. It’s hard to get those shots, they’re contested and Mizzou plays hard. That was the worrisome thing for us is that they do a good job defensively.”
