Colorado-Missouri Quotes

Head Coach Jeff Bzdelik

GENERAL ?“Obviously this is a very tough loss to swallow. What happened in the second half? Well, we had five turnovers in the first half and 11 in the second half. We yielded 15 offensive rebounds, and it is starting to sound like a broken record. We need to stay disciplined, disciplined to what we're supposed to do. I can think of two plays in the second half where we didn't stay disciplined. The first we had a guy get beat off the dribble, we had someone step up and help but we are supposed to rotate, sink and fill and we only rotated. He missed the shot they got the rebound and scored. The second time they had a guy take a shot and we had a guy jump out there and contest it but he didn't box out, again they got the rebound and scored?that's four points right there. I can think of five or six other examples that our team just has not learned yet. They are all things that we are more than capable of doing but we are not disciplined. Offensively, I don't know what happens, we just stop doing what we're supposed to be doing. Am I upset? Yes, I'm upset. Again, everyone just needs to do their job. Like Tom Brady says, everyone just does their job, and we don't do that yet. One time we set up a play and the guy with the ball decided he was just going to wheel and go. We're not good enough to play 30 some odd minutes and win?we have to play all 40.”

ON MISSOURI'S PRESSURE?“This is what I tell the players; being tough isn't punching somebody, being tough is responding under duress. They (Missouri) turned it up, and for some reason when teams turn it up we melt. We start doing things we shouldn't be doing and it leads to empty possessions.”

ON MARCUS HALL?“In our last game, against K-State he tweaked his groin. To his credit he battled through it and played the game. He did a great job tonight in a lot of ways.”

ON TEAM FOCUS?“I don't know why they would (lose focus). Really, I don't know why they would. We always talk about having to put forth a wire to wire job. Wouldas, Couldas and Shouldas don't count. Our maturity doesn't allow it to happen.”

ON TEAM MATURITY?“That's on me, I'm the coach. I have to do a better job of keeping them disciplined, and that is on me, I am the coach. That is why I am upset; this is not what we want or where we want to be. I take the blame for this loss, because I couldn't get them to do what I wanted them to do.”

ON TAKING SHOTS LATE IN THE SHOT CLOCK?“No, we're not holding the ball. I know everyone thinks we run the Princeton offense, but we don't. We don't hold the ball, that is not what we run. We've played 19 games, and we are still making too many mistakes. We force the backdoor pass; you have to be able to see things. You have to be able to see the floor. If there are two guys on you, you have to be able to see that. I was flipping through the channels the other day and saw a story on Steve Nash. The reason he is so good is because he understands the game, it is so simple. When there are two guys on one guy, that means one guy is open. Where did the second guy come from? He came from over there?well then someone over there is probably open. Just because you have the ball doesn't mean you have to make the pass. We got casual in the second half. You can't be casual when the other team is desperate, and that is what happened to us today. So no, we did not tell our players to hold the ball.”

Head Coach Mike Anderson

GENERAL ?“Anytime you play on the road you have to find a way to win, and my guys found a way. Every game has its own characteristics. We stepped up to the plate and made plays. It has to be about consistency. We have a lot to work on- we have got to have the free throws. Our defense in the second half was good. We have a lot of unsung heroes on the bench and even on the court. A lot of guys contributed tonight.”

ON Sr. G J.T. TILLER?“He is getting good.”

ON Sr. G STEFHON HANNAH?“It was good to see him focus, sometimes I didn't know where he was.”

ON Jr. F LEO LYONS?“He's been challenged. Look at his numbers. He has got to be consistent.”

MARCUS HALL

GENERAL - “We just have to be more mature at the end of the game and play the full forty minutes. We did it in the first half, but we have to be able to play forty minutes.”

ON THE FUTURE - “We go into all of our games looking for the win. We are already five games deep into the Big 12 season, and a loss is a loss. We have a short turnaround and have to be ready for another game in three days.”

ON CU'S EXECUTION IN THE SECOND HALF - “It just wasn't there for us at the end. We did a good job with the ball in the first half, but we got lazy with in the second half and at the end of the game.”

ON LOSING IN THE BIG 12 ? “They've all be tough. We have to turn this thing around and learn how to finish games better.”

ON COLORADO GIVING UP EASY BASKETS - “We just didn't talk in the second half and that led to some easy lay-ups [for Missouri]. When we were supposed to switch, we didn't, and we need to fix that miscommunication.”

ON HIS LATE-GAME TURNOVER - “It was a careless pass. We had a play set up to where I was going to go up the side; I saw Cory [Higgins] open and I rushed the pass and turned the ball over.”

Richard Roby

ON HIS PERFORMANCE AGAINST MISSOURI ? “I never go into a game trying to score a certain number of points; I just do what I can to help my team win. I missed a lot of easy shots and it just wasn't there for me today.”

ON COLORADO'S PLAY AT THE END OF THE GAME - “They took us out of our game at the end and we didn't execute when we had to. Some costly turnovers by us led to easy lay-ups and easy points for them.”

Cory Higgins

GENERAL - “We definitely got sloppy toward the end of the game. We got away from the game plan that we had in the first half and it cost us.”