Mizzou Men’s Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Alabama 57, Mizzou 54
Mizzou Head Coach Kim Anderson
Opening Statement…
“It was a disappointing loss. Very frustrating, but I’m really proud of our guys. We continue to fight and play great. We did a good job defensively and tried to make a difference in the second half. We knew they were a good rebounding team. We can’t afford to give away possessions. We had opportunities at the end even when we were behind. We just couldn’t make the play, not because we didn’t want to, we just couldn’t make the play. I’m always proud of these guys and proud of the way they fight. Like I said, I’m disappointed that we lost the game.”
On last offensive possessions...
“We were trying to get Terrence to handle the ball, and while going to the basket, whether it would have been Russ on a roll or someone from a jump shot. We got a decent shot, but it’s unfortunate that we just didn’t make the plays we needed to when we got behind.”
On second half play...
“I thought that they really played aggressive on the boards on the second half. They outrebounded us. It wasn’t just the big guys, I thought it was their whole team. Everybody does a great job on offense. They got the ball and they kept the ball alive and they kept us from getting it. I’m disappointed for these guys. We just weren’t big enough and strong enough to make the plays on the boards. We just need to be able to make plays. We need to just keep getting better and keep working at it. We need to put this one away and keep working.”
On momentum swings...
“You can say what you want about the call, but obviously we gave them back-to-back threes. You have to give Ingram credit. He came down and made the plays. I thought he was the difference in the game. When he needed a bucket, he got the bucket. We had a couple of late looks. We got the ball in the paint and we just couldn’t get it in the basket and we couldn’t get a key rebound when we needed to. We just don’t have that big of margin for error. We can’t make a bunch of physical or mental mistakes and expect to beat a good team. Alabama is a good team. I knew they’d make a run. They are a good team with good players and we fought off a run but we couldn’t fight off the second one.”
Mizzou sophomore forward Kevin Puryear
On Mizzou’s possession in the last couple minutes…
“We try to score the ball, get stops and win the game. That’s pretty much it. We talked about being gritty and gritty down the stretch. Making stops and making the right play. Like Coach Anderson said, we didn’t make them, so we lost”
On how he felt once Alabama started taking the lead…
“After that out of bounds call and those two threes, the ball was pretty much in their court at that point. It definitely changed the momentum of the game. It definitely gave them all the momentum; at that point we were trying to claw back. We just didn’t make the plays we needed to make. We turned the ball over a couple times and didn’t get the rebounds we needed to. This was definitely a winnable game. We just have to close games like that. Winning by close margins like that come down to the little things. That’s just what we mess up on down the stretch.”
On when Braxton Key missed the free throw and Mizzou couldn’t get the rebound in the last seconds of the game…
“That was extremely frustrating. If we had got that rebound, we definitely would have had more time to get a shot. But we didn’t get the rebound and we ended up with the ball with 3.4 seconds left and had to chuck one up. Just got to do the little things better next time.”
Mizzou sophomore guard K.J. Walton
On Mizzou letting Alabama run with their lead after halftime…
“We felt like we could have been up maybe five or six more points, but we didn’t play that well at the end of the half, we still had a five point lead going into the second half. We felt good about that.”
Alabama Head Coach Avery Johnson
Opening statement…
“I think people will ask why I am so excited about this win. It’s not just a win tonight, it’s the way we won. Our guys had a tough first half. We couldn’t get much going, especially against their zone. We scrapped what we were doing against their zone at halftime. We went more to a man-to-man offensive look and got a couple of easy baskets. I’m so proud of our guys. This was a game we could have easily laid down and quit, because Coach Anderson is doing a great job with his team under the circumstances. They’ve lost double digit games in a row and now they’ve come back and beat Arkansas and Vanderbilt at home and lost a tough one at Texas A&M. Under the circumstances, he really has his ball club playing at a high level with Barnett and Phillips. We did a good job against those guys defending the three-point line. We rebounded better in the second half, and Braxton Key and Dazon Ingram triggered a comeback with their decision-making and their shot making. A lot of guys on our team deserve credit like Bola, but no more than these two young guys. I’m really proud of our guys, and of these two guys, because they really grew up tonight, especially in the last five to seven minutes of the game.”
On halftime talk...
“It’s the cycles of the season. You never know what one game will bring. We didn’t’ play well in the first half of our last game either. So we’ve had two games where we scored 18 and 20 points in back-to-back games. It’s all correctable errors. In the first half, we missed too many layups.”
On Jordan Barnett and Mizzou team...
“He was a major focus. We had about five different stars by his name in the locker room. We knew that if he continued to play like he had been playing recently, we weren’t going to be in great shape. With Phillips, he was a big emphasis. When you play against Missouri, you have to do a good job against Phillips with his ball screens and trying to close out Barnett and take away his space. VanLeer got away from us one time when we didn’t switch properly. If you had told me that we would come into Missouri, the way they have been playing at home recently against Vanderbilt and Arkansas, and they would only score 54 points, I would take it.”
