Colorado-Missouri Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Linda Lappe

General
"I thought we played our best basketball of the season. It's always too bad when the end doesn't come out the way you want it to come out. I really like the change we made this week with our team—how we are playing together and how we are executing offensively and defensively especially at times. We just didn't make enough plays at the end and you have to give Missouri credit. They had a couple turning points there, and I thought that transition three was huge. That was the only transition three we gave up all night, I think. A huge goal of ours was to not let them get going in transition, but that one (shot), I think put them up three and then we were playing a little bit from behind the rest of the way. I love the effort of our players and I am really proud of how we played with the fight that we played with, the intensity, and the passion that we played with."

On not having a three pointer in the second half
"Well you have to credit our players. We talked about it at halftime and we knew we couldn't give #24 (Sierra Michaelis) one more open three. They were setting a lot of screens for her to get open, so we talked about just staying really tight to her and not letting them have open three's. (We needed to) be steady and have high hands. I thought our guards did a tremendous job of getting through those screens and as we did that, they started to pound it into the post. Our interior defense wasn't as good as it could've been. There were some easy catches there on the block, and that's really how they scored in the second half. You have to give Cierra Porter kudos for really taking it at us in the second half. I think she missed one shot and made every shot that she had in there. Overall just did a nice job. On our end, they went to the zone and I thought they really fanned out; we had any open middle gap that we wanted. The ball got to the middle really easily, which means that the zone was spread out. In the second half we were going to get layups and that's what we got. We got nine layups in the second half; we just needed to convert on a couple more of them. I think we made four of them, and when you are playing against a good team and trying to win the game, the goal is to be eight for eight, or nine for nine on those layups. We just couldn't quite get that done."

On how Linda feels about the team heading into Pac-12 play

"I just told our team that Missouri is like Oregon State and Stanford. We've now faced a team that is very similar to those types of teams. Kentucky and Florida were a lot like the more athletic teams in the conference, like California. So we've seen a lot of different types of basketball. We've had a pretty tough non-conference schedule, especially for a young team. There haven't been a lot of easy (games) to learn a lot from. I feel like we are prepared, and we have two games left after finals week. If we have another good week like we had this last week and I really like where we are sitting going into conference play."

On Kennedy's growth as a player

"Kennedy ran our team tonight and did a nice job of finding the open player. She probably could've had a few more assists based on the rest of our team making some shots. She doesn't get rattled; she's staying very composed and she's doing a much better job at taking care of the basketball. I thought she did some nice things in that today. And she makes plays. You need players that step up and as a coach you can't design everything that is going to happen in a game. Kennedy is one of those player's that you give her a framework and say do it she finds a way to get things done. She hits a bank shot coming off an on-ball screen, and does things like that all the time. You think it's lucky, but I have seen her hit bank three after bank three in practice to win the scrimmage. I know that is something that she does. She just finds a way, and doesn't have to be pretty. It can be pretty, but it doesn't have to be. And she is okay with that.

On the three freshmen having an impact

"In the first half, they were all three in and that is pretty impressive. They have great passion and great energy. They are winners, and that's what you want. Obviously, there is a certain amount of growth when it comes to knowing the intricacies of the game and what to look for and things like that, but you have to love their passion—their ability to fight and play. I thought all three (freshmen) did some really nice things today."

On if Kennedy is ready to be a leader in the Pac-12

"Yes (she is ready to be a leader). And the good thing is she has help. I think our point guard position is pretty talented. Brecca (Thomas) is at the point; Alexis is at the point at times, and Kennedy so you can't go wrong with those three."

On the 16-4 run Missouri had

"In that run, we had three turnovers in a row and we had two or three little bit questionable decisions. Quick shots allowed them to go, and when you take a quick shot it's great if it goes in and if it doesn't go in then you are not having to make them work on defense. If you don't make them work on defense then they get to spend all their energy on offense and we are working on defense. So it is not a good combination, we want to make them work on defense by moving the basketball and when we went on that run in the first half it was because we were moving the ball. The ball didn't stop with one person, it got shifted around, we hit the open player, and I thought we had even more openings against the zone. Missouri hasn't played a ton of zone and they got in foul trouble. So it kind of forced their hand a little bit and had to play a ton of zone. We haven't faced a ton of zone this year. I mean I can only probably count on two hands the amount of minutes we have played zone offense. You look at that as something that we were not as comfortable against. At some point you have to become comfortable after you see it for a few minutes. You get use to the openings and again I thought we had so many openings against the zone. We did a nice job of finding that high post. We just couldn't find a way to put the ball in the basket."

On Lauren Huggins injury

I don't know. She walked off so that is always a good sign, but I am not quite sure what she hurt yet.

Colorado Players

Jamee Swan, Sr. F

On Mizzou Coming Back to Win the Game

"It's very frustrating. We did really well through the first half and into the second. We just lost the 'umph' to push us through. Figuring out how to keep that 'umph' to keep this from happening would be nice."

On What Contributed to Mizzou Coming Back

"They're a good team, there's no doubt about that. They've got post players that can score; they're good guards that can shoot; they've basically got everything the team needs. They played hard; they battled. It was a lot of fun to play against a team of that caliber, and it will set us up for greatness for the Pac-12. Coach was telling us that all of the team that we played thus far are almost replicas of the Pac-12 teams. If we can figure out how to get that 'umph' to stay, then we're going to be phenomenal in Pac-12 play."

On Mizzou's defense in the Last Six Minutes of the Game

"They started to play in a zone; that was different for us. We were expecting a 90 percent man team. When they went into a zone it stunned us, and we stopped moving."

On Her Play in the Third Quarter

"I thought to myself that I need to be there for my teammates and they told me that they would be there for me. They have my back and I have theirs. Whenever they pass me the ball it was my duty to score and give them that assist because they saw it, they set it up, and they created the play. I felt like as a good teammate that is something that you should do. You have to reward someone who has to do an amazing pass or sets an amazing screen. If you get the ball it's your job to make sure that they get recognized."

Kennedy Leonard, Fr. G

On What Was Said During the Timeout to Boost the Team

"We could feel like they were going on a run. We do that all the time in practice when people go on runs against us. She called us in and said that we needed to play some defense, and we have to get stops and get scores. I think that with (Coach) reassuring us that we can do it. We didn't come out quick enough and I think that hurt us, but the way that we bounced back from that I think was really beneficial for us. She said get stops, get stops and we got stops; that was really important."

On the Team Losing to an Undefeated Team

"Anytime we lose it's disappointing. We had that game; I feel that we had that game. We all felt that we had that game. To be up by ten (points) then give up that lead, and then let them up by four (points)—it just went back and forth. I think that's upsetting. Yes we're young, but I don't think that is much of an excuse. I think we played a lot of game and we've grown a lot, so I don't consider us young anymore."

On Her Growth as a Player

"My teammates help me out a lot; they are always there for me. I think they have been a huge part of everyone's growth. Everybody grows from the people around you. Knowing that everyone has my back, and I have their back just as much, I think that is vital in everyone's growth. That has really helped me growth."

On Mizzou Limiting Her Jump Shots

"I was just looking to attack more and get my teammates open shots. The zone (defense) is a different read. You don't get to come down and hit that gap. I was trying to get into the lanes and get passes out. Missouri didn't really do anything, I just had a different mindset in attack."

On #21 Cierra Porter's Play

"Something went off, and she made the choice that she wanted to play as well as she did. And she did it. She took the first wing, and we were kind of stumbling backwards .But once we figured it out it became a lot easier to handle."

Missouri Head Coach Robin Pingeton

On Remaining Undefeated

"I'm really happy for our players. I think they've worked really really hard. We knew today was going to be a really big challenge for us. Colorado's got a heck of a squad and I think they're still kind of finding their way a little bit, but they've got all the pieces. Once they start clicking on all cylinders they're going to be a dangerous team and it's going to happen this year for them. I felt like they played really well tonight and it was everything we could handle and maybe a little bit more, but we found a way to stay the course. We bent at times, but didn't break and I was proud of our kids to show the resiliency they did in the second half."

On What She Said At Halftime

"We just talked about defensively we felt we got a little soft. We talked about who their shooters were and they were six for six from the three-point line. We felt like we were just soft defensively and needed to sure some things up. It felt like we hadn't been out rebounding much this year and at halftime we were down on the boards so we felt like we needed to play harder than what we were playing. Offensively we had 40 points. I felt like our offense was pretty solid but could have been better. We missed some points in the paint, left them out there, but overall I felt that offensively we were in a good position. The biggest thing is we just talked about we're not going to hit a 10 point shot. It's going to be a process. By the fourth quarter we were hoping we could have it tied up and we were still down one, but obviously cut that lead down a little bit. Just had our kids down the stretch make some big plays and hit some big shots."