Mizzou Basketball Postgame Quotes
LSU 88, Mizzou 77
Mizzou Head Coach Kim Anderson
Opening Statement…
“I thought we played good in the first half, as well as we have played in a long time. I though we moved the ball real well. We shot the ball well. We got the ball to the basket, but then at halftime, when we came out I thought the tone of the game changed. I thought it changed at the very beginning, right when we threw the ball away the first possession. Throughout the evening we struggled at the free throw line. We had some opportunities and didn’t take advantage of those. For the most part in the second half, we couldn’t guard the ball. That is something we worked on a lot, obviously they are a very quick basketball team, they can penetrate and make plays at the basket. We kind of got discombobulated with injuries. We didn’t have the big guys we normally have. They were there, they just weren’t 100 percent. We did some good things. I thought we shot the ball better for a period of time. Hopefully we can carry that over to the weekend.”
On anything special in the game plan to get off to a hot start…
“I spent a lot of time watching last year’s game. We felt if we could get the ball moving, we would have a better chance of getting the ball to the basket. Which I thought we did a pretty good job of in the first half. And we made shots, which always looks good when you make shots. I thought that helped us. Then in the second half, they did a better job defensively, I give them credit too. I though we started to panic a little, guys start taking shots that weren’t their shots. We do have a small margin of error, when that happens, we have to be able to react and respond.”
On the decision to not start Terrence Phillips…
“Terrence and I talked a few days ago about it. My idea wasn’t a punishment. I thought maybe he would give us a boost by coming off the bench. I thought that he would have a chance to sit there and study what was going on. I thought he played pretty well, he had eight assists and one turnover. I’ve told you this a thousand times, I don’t care who starts. I thought he responded great. I thought he did exactly what we needed him to do. He gives you a little flexibility when you bring him in.”
Mizzou forward Kevin Puryear
On what changed in the second half…
“I’d say those two turnovers to start that half definitely set the tone for the second half and kind of deflated us. They came down to hit two quick threes. I thought that was pretty much the end and then we played like it. We just really couldn’t climb back to it.”
On how the team can focus on not letting two or three negative plays snowball the rest of the game…
“Of course we are a young team. It just comes down to growing up. Clearly, when people watch our games, we have growing up to do in that aspect. We can’t let two plays determine the rest of the game. That will just get better with experience and being out there playing more.”
Mizzou forward Jordan Barnett
On the team’s struggles from 3-point range in the second half…
“I didn’t think it was anything special necessarily. We just didn’t hit shots. That’s been pretty much the story of the season so far – we haven’t been able to hit shots when we need them and other teams have been.”
On the plan to guard LSU’s Antonio Blakeney…
“Main thing they tried to tell me to do was to keep him in front. They tried to tell me to not let him get downhill on ball screens and stuff and just understand that he is going to elevate and that he is going to take shots and he is going to hit shots, but just continue to defend and stay the course.”
LSU Head Coach Johnny Jones
Opening Statement…
“We were fortunate to come back out in the first four or five minutes of the second half and continue to battle down the stretch. We made the necessary shots that we needed to and we were fortunate that our defense was able to pick up and take it to another level. They missed some shots – they shot under 40 percent in the second half. I was excited for us to have an opportunity to come away with the hard-fought, bounce-back win after the setback we had at home the other night.”
On the adjustments made at halftime…
“I thought they did a great job in the first half of making shots. I thought they came out, punched, played well. Offensively they had six threes they were able to knock down in the first half and they were able to get to the free throw line. In the second half, they only had one three. I thought we defended better and we were able to start knocking down shots. We shot around 55 percent in the second half. Again, holding them to a lower field goal percent was a plus for us.”
LSU Guard Antonio Blakeney
On his performance tonight…
“Just to get a bounce-back win. We took a hard loss, so we had to try and come back and get one on the road. I just go out there and play hard and play aggressive and make plays when I have to. I’m a really good scorer and the offense is good for any good scorer. Just running through the offense, I’ll get open looks.”
