Mizzou 85, North Florida 51
Postgame Quotes
Mizzou Head Coach Cuonzo Martin
Opening statement…
“Good win. I thought out guys did a good job of maintaining focus outside a couple minutes there in the second half. I think one thing we need to do that we didn’t do well tonight was to pound the ball inside. We did a better job in the second half of pounding it inside. We felt like we had an advantage when we got the ball inside.”
On Barnett’s contributions tonight…
“He’s a talented basketball player. That’s what I was saying in previous games. He could walk away with 18-19 points and two to three rebounds and I don’t know if that would be a good game for him. His ability to rebound and slash is big. It’s another part of his game and we need to utilize that.”
On Jordan Geist’s efforts on the defensive side…
“It was good, but I expect that from him. I don’t know about the steals, but I expect the energy he brings on both sides of the ball. He puts pressure on the ball and the other team’s defense by attacking. Defensively, he put pressure on their point guard all night.”
On Reed Nikko’s contributions off the bench…
“I’m happy he scored the ball. The thing with him is that he’s always in the gym working. To have him go out there and have the success he had only helps us as a team. We need that in order to be successful as a team. I’m not surprised with the work he puts in.”
Mizzou senior forward Jordan Barnett
On limiting North Florida’s three-point attack…
“That’s exactly what we wanted to do. They put up over 30 attempts a game and the fact they only hit five against us is huge. We knew they had multiple guys coming in that shot over 40-percent from three coming in. I think we did a really good job of taking away that.”
On his personal offensive game plan tonight…
“I can attack and be more aggressive, but sometimes when my three-point shot is falling I may ‘settle’. I think tonight was a good example of me scoring any possible way I could. I just wanted to be aggressive.”
On Jontay Porter’s impact on the game…
“He’s an extremely mature and smart player for his age. When they were running zone, Jontay was out there and knew where to be. It makes it extremely easy for us guards to find him. He hustles, gets rebounds and is a really smart player. He’s very fluid offensively.”
On Nikko’s impact tonight…
“Reed never surprises me. He’s always ready when we need him. We’re extremely confident in his play. He’s usually a bulldozer down there and that’s what we need from him when he gets in. He did a good job tonight.”
Mizzou senior guard Kassius Robertson
On the keys to Mizzou’s 20-0 scoring run in the first half…
“We were making it tough on them. We game-planned for that three-point shot. I’m not sure how many they hit in the first half, but they only hit five overall the whole game. I’m pretty sure most of those came in the second half. Our 20-0 run was because we forced them to take tough shots. They tried to force it inside and our big guys did a good job of keeping their hands up. It wasn’t working for them. We did a really good job of chasing them off the three.”
