Mizzou Head Coach Kim Anderson
Opening Statement…
“Frustrating loss. I thought our guys played hard. You know, early on I thought we had some great looks at the basket and I remember looking at the stat sheet at the first timeout and we were 2-for-12 or something. Kind of been the story of our season lately – more than lately. We did a great job on the boards and I thought we fought them hard. I did think that there was stretch there in the second half where we didn’t do a great job on the boards. Statistically it shows up that we did, but they got some rebounds when they made their run after we made our run. We are a team that doesn’t have a lot of margin for error. We have to play within ourselves and we have to do what we can do and you can’t try to do something that we can’t do. At times, we get into that situation where we try and do something that we just can’t do. As always, I am proud of our effort. We fought to the end. We have to learn how to win games and the only way you learn how to do that is to win one. So, we’ll get back to work and get ready for Arkansas on Saturday.”
On not making shots once again…
“It’s frustrating. I’m frustrated for these guys because we put in an unbelievable amount of time shooting the basketball – especially over break. I just think we’re a group that we don’t have a lot confidence right now and we’re not real tough mentally right now. I think we could be. There’s not a whole lot you can do from a motivational standpoint – you get in the gym and you keep shooting and it doesn’t do you any good to yell at them and say ‘quit missing shots.’ They know they’re missing shots. The only thing I know to do is to keep coming in and keep working. One of these games we’ll have a magic moment and it can be contagious. It’s contagious the other way right now so hopefully we’ll get contagious in a good way.”
On being happy with shooting fewer 3-pointers than the 36 Mizzou took at Georgia last time out…
“Well we intentionally wanted to not shoot as many threes obviously because we don’t have a very high percentage. We wanted to get the ball to the basket. We knew they would block some shots – probably didn’t know they would block 12. I think for us to score; we have to score in different ways. We have to score fast when we can get the ball up the floor. We have to score on rebounds. We have to attack the basket and hope we can either get a layup or get fouled or whatever. The other day – 36 threes is way too many. I thought tonight was better. I sure do wish we would have made more. I thought we had some good looks. I can’t really think of a bad three we took – I’m sure there were one or two in there. I thought we good looks. I thought we had guys who were open, they just didn’t make shots.”
Mizzou sophomore guard KJ Walton
On the team’s ability to get offensive rebounds…
“Like coach said, we have to know who we are. We have good athletes out on the wing. We need to rebound the ball, get more chances and create more points for our team.”
Mizzou junior forward Jordan Barnett
On the concern going into the game of Auburn’s ability to block shots…
“No, we weren’t necessarily worried about that. We figured we would be able to finish and didn’t account for them being that tall and athletic. They got up and blocked shots. We have to pump fake some more, try something different.”
Auburn Head Coach Bruce Pearl
Opening Statement…
“We played 11 guys double digit minutes, so you’re talking about still being in a process of searching. Danjel Purifoy is a real important player for us and his injury has put us in a position where we’re kind of scrambling to find rotations. It was great to get Bryce Brown going again, you can see what kind of offensive player he is and how he helps on the defensive end. And it was great to get Horace Spencer playing a little bit more like he did a year ago. Horace is a good leader in our locker room so the fact that he played and played better I think will be good for our chemistry. Those would be the two guys that probably played more with Danjel being out. We made enough shots, we made enough key plays. We played a good enough defense, our first shot defense was pretty good, our second shot defense was awful. Missouri plays awfully hard. To have 25 offensive rebounds just tells you the kind of effort that those kids are still giving.”
On Mustapha Heron’s key late baskets…
“It was critical. I’ll tell you a quick story. Mustapha went down yesterday in practice, and went down pretty good. It was an ankle but he did it as he was jumping, not landing, and it really hurt. He thought he hurt himself pretty good. He was iced, taped, we weren’t sure if he was going to be able to play. His dad, who is in the corrections business, is a big tough guy, and he told Mustapha to take a bottle of tough pills, tape that thing up and play. Most parents I think would probably say, ‘well, you don’t want to get hurt, he’s got a great career,’ and he does. But that tells you what kind of upbringing he’s had. So early didn’t it look like he was playing on a bum ankle? He couldn’t score, he struggled. But to his credit he’s got great confidence in his offensive game and great rhythm and obviously he made some big plays.”
On making late free throws after struggling much of the game…
“Free throw shooting is a matter of having the right guys at the line. That’s all it is. At the end whether it be Jared Harper or Mustapha Heron or Ronnie Johnson, getting good free throw shooters to the line is the key.”
On who Auburn focused on defensively…
“The biggest concern was (Kevin) Puryear inside. We did everything we could to try to limit his touches. They do a great job with little-big screening and getting him the ball on the block. He was a real focus of our scout, he and (Terrance) Phillips.”
On Auburn’s 12 blocks…
“If you look at the guys that blocked them, Anfernee McLemore, Austin Wiley, Horace Spencer, those are some pretty good, athletic young big kids. Those are two freshmen and a sophomore, we have a very good young core, a young nucleus. Missouri is a little undersized in the post, in the sense that (Russell) Woods and Puryear are both 6’7”, 6’8”, and our guys were just a little taller and good shot blockers. I think part of that is a Missouri got the ball where they wanted a lot. They shot 33 free throws so we fouled them a lot.”
On Auburn answering every Missouri run…
“Whether it was Jared Harper or Ronnie Johnson, getting that middle ball screen and driving and getting to the rim. We have enough shooters out there that makes it difficult when you set that top ball screen with those quick guards. If you come off we have shooters. If you don’t come off our guards could get to the rim. That’s what I was trying to play call late.”
