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EA SPORTS MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 26, 2014Kim AndersonMontaque Gill-CeasarNamon WrightLAHAINA, HAWAII Missouri – 74 THE MODERATOR: Coach, some opening comments blood pressure today's game. COACH ANDERSON: Well, it's good to be able to come over here and win a game. I think we got a little bit better today. We had to play some different lineups. We had some guys hurt, and we had some guys get in foul trouble and stuff, so we had to move things around a little bit. But I thought we responded. Played a team that shoots the ball well normally. Present match‑up problems for us because they can play five guys that can shoot the ball. But I thought we didn't, by any means, it wasn't very pretty, but I thought we played well enough to win. On the third day, to be able to come and get a win is important. So proud of these guys for hanging in there and preparing pretty well on a short amount of time. Q. A big day for you. Were you waiting for this kind of performance and you just hadn't been able to get as many opportunities today? What about today allowed that to happen? NAMON WRIGHT: I just stayed prepared in warm‑ups just to make sure I hit a good amount of jump shots up and just stayed ready. Q. Montaque, how hard was it to play with those unconventional line‑ups that you had to use in the second half? MONTAQUE GILL‑CAESAR: That means we're gelling better as a team. We grew better as a team. Forced to use different lineups, so I think we did a good job with those. Q. You hit three, three pointers for your team in a row there. Just talk about your second half and how you're feeling in the second half? MONTAQUE GILL‑CAESAR: We're feeling a little more confident in ourselves. We kind of went into halftime with the mentality that we weren't going to be bullied any more. So when we came out in the second half, we were just attacking on both sides of the floor. I think we just got easy stuff because we had that mindset. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Montaque. Q. Montaque, did you feel like you had to bounce back after yesterday? Were you frustrated with the way you played? What was your kind of mentality coming into this game after that one? MONTAQUE GILL‑CAESAR: Everybody has a bad game. Some games just aren't going to go your way. Yesterday our team had a bad game, so I think as a team our mentality coming in today, not just personally, but our team was that we're not going to leave Hawaii without a W, and I think we responded really well. Q. What was it about today's game that seemed like all of you freshmen were playing with maybe more confidence than you've had? MONTAQUE GILL‑CAESAR: We actually had a team talk yesterday, and the leaders of the team kind of reached out to everybody else and kind of gave everybody else confidence. So when you have guys like that, you're going to have a boost, and I think it showed today. Q. First of all, how's Johnathan? COACH ANDERSON: You know, I don't know. I had no idea he was hurt until he asked to come out of the game there early. I haven't had a chance to talk to Pat very much about it, he apparently just woke up this morning sore. At this point I don't think it's anything serious, but Pat said he was tight. His knee was tight. So we were able to‑‑ I was really pleased with the way D.A. came in and gave us some minutes, and then we played some unconventional lineups, Deuce, and Techie, but we were playing a team that played smaller a lot of times. So it wasn't as bad as if we were playing a team with two seven‑footers or something. Q. Coach you have a lot of experience in the D‑II level, and the experience they've got and their level of play as well? COACH ANDERSON: Well, I'm really impressed with their team. I was talking to Coach there after the game at half court, and I know they're going to have a great year. This type of experience for those guys is just immeasurable. I know when I was at central Missouri we were fortunate enough to play Missouri, and we were fortunate enough to play some other Division I teams. Even played Kansas, Kansas State, Creighton, a lot of those. We played Austin pea every year because my assistant's dad was the head coach there. So getting that opportunity only makes them better. I think they're going to have a good team. The only difference, a lot of times the difference in Division II is size, you know, and maybe some quickness and some strength. I've always, after playing West Liberty last year it was fun to play these guys because they play, they play. I know they'll do well this year. Q. How nice was it to see Namon have a breakout game, and how do you get him to carry that with him back home? COACH ANDERSON: Well, the big thing with those young guys is confidence. You look today and you guys can do the math, but you look at the play of Techie, you look at the play I thought Tramaine gave us a big boost especially in the first half. You have name on, the job that he did, and D.A., you know, that's four freshmen out there playing a lot of minutes today. So that is encouraging. Hopefully it will give them some confidence because certainly the first two days were very difficult here. I don't think we were as physically prepared as we needed to be. In other words, I don't think we understood how tough the games are. So this was good, this was good that we could come out. You don't want to come over here and not win a game. I told our guys I don't know how they do the place, but I said you want just as many games as the fourth place team is going to win. You're always looking for something, you know? Q. Did you have to challenge the guys yesterday after that loss or did you let the older players deal with it? Montaque talked about the leaders kind of helping out with that? COACH ANDERSON: You know, we had kind of a spontaneous meeting. I mean, we were meeting last night, and this is a short turnaround, so you've got a lot of work to do in a short period of time. We were meeting last night and a couple of the older guys, I think kind of challenged everybody to perform. They performed. I'll give them credit. They took the challenge and came out and played well. Not just younger guys, but everybody. Q. It seemed like Wes did a lot of things for you, but he hasn't shot the ball well for three games now. I guess, first of all, how impressive is it that he's able to do the other things, but how do you get him back scoring the ball again? COACH ANDERSON: Yeah, I think obviously you get a chance to get home and get some rest. Wes was really key defensively for us. He's a guy that even though Bailey, I think Bailey had some points, I thought Wes did a pretty good job on him there for a while. We were up there trying to press him and put pressure on him, and he just would go around us. So we finally backed off a little bit and he missed a couple shots. I don't know if we had anything to do with it or not, but certainly a good player. But Wes brings a lot to the table other than scoring. You look at our two starting guards today, and they were 0 for 13, and we were still able to win a game. So that's, I think that's good. That just shows how important both of those guys are to our team, and when they're not scoring, they still bring other things to the table. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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