Mizzou 67 Arkansas 56 // Post Game Quotes
Mizzou Women’s Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Mizzou 67, EMU 56
Mizzou head coach Robin Pingeton
Opening statement…
“I appreciate you guys being here. The first thing I want to acknowledge is the tremendous turnout today. It’s a wonderful environment for our team and we appreciate everyone’s support. I knew that this would be a big game. Since we joined the SEC we haven’t been able to sweep Arkansas so it was big for that reason. Even more importantly, I have a lot of respect for the Arkansas program and Coach Jimmy Dykes. That is a good team and that record is extremely deceiving. They have some very talented players and they continue to battle. They’ve been in every game this year except for maybe South Carolina but other than that they have been in every game until the end. It is a team that is very deceiving when you look at their record compared to how they really are. I thought at times tonight we bent and when Cierra Porter went down we all kind of held our breath for a little bit and then we were able to put together a run and got up by 17. After that we lacked a little bit of discipline down the stretch but it was still a very good win against a good team.”
On Mizzou's passing…
“We shot the ball very well. We talked in the locker room before the game started that our motion can be at its best sometimes when we are using limited dribbles. So many times you feel like you have to attack and kick and swing it but I thought we did a great job with our motion and making that extra pass early. We got some really good looks and the kids were able to knock them down for us.”
On morale of the team...
“I love our senior leadership. They are doing a great job for us. The freshman bring so much personality and we have a special sophomore and junior class. They are great kids. They work really hard and they are invested 110 percent. I love their resiliency. Yes it is about basketball but more importantly it is about life lessons and we try to draw a lot of parallels in our program on what we are facing on the court to what that looks like in the big picture of life. It’s a fun group. It is interesting the dynamics on our team because we have a group of girls that are deep thinkers, they like to have their coffee and they like to study. We have a group of girls that are more free-spirited and then we have a couple people who are in that Switzerland mode in that they are right in the middle. It really is a special group and we give a ton of credit to our seniors.”
On offensive screens...
“We knew the screen was an area that we had to continue to work on and get better. We needed to have that sense of urgency to really get your teammate open and on the other hand to have a sense of urgency to have a change of speed and to fight for that shoulder as opposed to coming off that screen action. That is something that we haven’t been great at this year and when you run motion that is really a key component of it. We continue to talk about it and we will watch film and will try to continue to get better at it.”
Senior Guard Lindsey Cunningham
On her hot individual shooting performance…
“It was awesome. I think you guys know me by now. I don’t go out there to try and get this many points or this many rebounds. I just go out there and do what my team needs me to do. They were hitting me tonight when I was open, and it is really cool to know that when it was going up, it was going to go in.”
On the shooting performance of the team after its recent slump…
“We actually talked about this. If you miss the first one, that doesn’t mean you can stop shooting. We just weren’t hitting our shots. I tried to encourage everybody, especially our shooters, to just go out and shoot. Let it fly, don’t overthink it, because I think that is when we are at our best. When you’re open, let it fly, and don’t overthink it.”
Freshman forward Amber Smith
On how her role off the bench influences her style of play…
“Coming off the bench helps me get into the flow of the game. You watch film a lot, but seeing our team playing against another team in real life helps me get into the flow of what is going to happen when I get into the game.”
On her first career double-double…
“I mean my shots were falling, but my biggest thing is rebounding. Coach always tells me to be aggressive, go get us extra shots, and be relentless on the boards. I think I was able to do that tonight.”
Arkansas Head Coach Jimmy Dykes
On the play of the Cunningham sisters…
“They are both really good players. They play really well off of each other, too. They make winning plays, and they are so much more than shooters. They can drive it, make the right pass, help on defense. I personally enjoy playing against them. They make you play.”
On how good Mizzou can be…
“I mean I think they are one win away from being in the NCAA tournament. They might be there now. We got in with six wins in the conference, and they already have seven. They are a really tough matchup because they can shoot it from all five spots. Even (Cierra) Porter can make threes. They really stretch your defense, and they play hard.”
