Colorado University Athletics
Missouri-Colorado Quotes
February 28, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Kathy McConnell-Miller
Opening Statement
“This is a very disappointing game. Not to take anything away from Missouri, their game plan and execution was great. We started flat and I thought we finished flat. From a preparation standpoint, the players knew what they needed to do to win, but I was surprised how we came out and it carried through. Missouri got easy buckets and hit some shots early on and their confidence continued to grow. They're not the best perimeter shooting team. They get scores off of transition buckets, and that was our number one key on the board today. From start to finish they played with more energy than we did.”
On Big 12 Competition
“I don't see a cockiness on this team, I see a genuine respect for the players and coaches in the conference. I don't think for a second they have over looked anybody for any reason.”
On Rebounding in the Second Half
“Typically its Brittany [Spears] and Kara [Richards] getting the rebounds, but when Spears is guarding the shooter she can't get the rebounds that she normally does. We just didn't dig enough or get the rebounds. They had too many second and third opportunities in the last two minutes.”
On Turnovers
“I thought Missouri had really good ball pressure. They were up in our face a lot, and we had a lot of mishandled possessions. It was just a combination of things that caused a lot of turnovers. If we could have kept the turnovers to 15 tonight, we are talking eight extra possessions with the ball to see what you can do with it. I don't think they understand the value of each possession because it hasn't improved dramatically over the course of the year.”
Colorado
Kara Richards, Sr., C
ON WHY THE TEAM CAME OUT FLAT?“I'm not really sure. It definitely wasn't from a preparation standpoint, we never under estimated them. They are a fantastic team and had a great game plan.”
ON G BIANCA SMITH MISSING MOST OF THE GAME?“She's another scorer so we lose a lot of points without her on the floor.”
ON COLORADO RELYING ON HER SCORING TODAY?“I don't think we were anymore than usual. I just think that we didn't play as hard as the other team today.”
ON THIS BEING A TOUGH LOSS?“Yeah, because we can beat this team and we didn't do that today. That is what makes this loss hard.”
Missouri Head Coach Cindy Stein
General
“I felt like our defense and our forwards in the second half were our keys. We still have to make better decisions. When you get to a 10 point lead and three minutes left in the game you have to take care of the ball and make use of the clock and you have to play defense. Richards had four fouls, and we wanted to attack her but be patient doing it; we didn't always get that accomplished, Richards did a great job at staying in the game. “
On Jessa Johnson Jr., F
“With her being sick I wasn't sure how her legs were. It wasn't like I wanted her to be firing away but she hit some great shots she got some great rebounds that we needed.”
On RaeShara Brown So., G.
“I can't say enough on Rae's play. They call her an X-factor and she came to play today. She provided a good energy. I think we did a really good job at keeping the kids playing fresh throughout the game. It feels good to get a road game win.”
On Differences since Last Game vs. Colorado
“I think the difference was we had shots. The last time we played we had 20 open shots we missed and you can't do that so we wanted to increase our percentage by getting more shots in the paint and have better shot selection which I think we did a better job at today. Colorado is a good team and we feel very fortunate to come out with a win”
