NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - MISSOURI VS OKLAHOMA

March 20, 2021

Cuonzo Martin

Lucas Oil Stadium - Equality Court (North)

Missouri Tigers

Postgame Media Conference

Oklahoma - 72, Missouri - 68

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach.

CUONZO MARTIN: Hard fought game from both teams. They played well. Obviously great game down to the wire. We came up short. Reaves was exceptional with the ball making-decisions. Manek made some big-time threes. We had some breakdowns that when he made them and they did the right things to win the game down the stretch.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions, please.

Q. Couldn't have been the shot that you wanted there in that last possession. What was the play there and who was it going for?

CUONZO MARTIN: Well, the last possession we didn't have any timeouts. We had a play executed, but what happened they didn't get a shot up. So guys came down scrambling. They went at Dru Smith. Kobe Brown had an opportunity, so we had to play drawn up, but again time ran out.

Q. And then you guys started so hot, 13-3 to open the year but just 10-10 in the last three months. What changed halfway through the season with you guys, specifically in the second half of games, it seemed like?

CUONZO MARTIN: I just think it was, I mean, a little bit of this or that, I mean, I think when Tilly went down, I think that was tough for us, obviously with the death of his grandmother, so then you had to make adjustments there. And then we were fighting to get back in it and just never really got over the hump on a consistent basis. We did some good things but just never got over the hump consistently.

Q. Obviously Drew Buggs played the majority of the second half at the point. What made the decision to roll with him over X?

CUONZO MARTIN: I just thought he did a good job of executing, getting us into what we were trying to do, but also I thought he did a really good job defending and embracing that challenge. He really stepped up and did a great job, in my opinion.

Q. Obviously a tough result. It looked like it weighed pretty hard on Tilly. His jersey was over his head when he walked in the locker room. Was he taking that pretty hard?

CUONZO MARTIN: I think he's taking it the same way that all of his teammates have. You fight hard, you have a long season, you got a lot of dreams during the season, great relationships, and so, yeah, you're talking about a senior who is played his last college game, so of course he's taking it hard, but no harder than his teammates, I would imagine. It's a very emotional locker room.

Q. Can you speak about the play of Dru Smith and just how he kind of got you back in the game there in the final minute and just what he means to this basketball team the whole year?

CUONZO MARTIN: He stepped up big. Again, he had a heck of a challenge on the defensive side of the ball with Reaves, who is a very talented player, and he embraced that challenge. Then on the offensive side of the ball you still got to score and make plays and he did both. Both those guys played an extraordinarily basketball game and they will both play for a long time at the highest level.

Q. It looked like in the second half you wanted to put your fours on Manek instead of Jeremiah. He still got loose for some threes. How tough of a matchup is he, I mean, even if you knew that going in obviously?

CUONZO MARTIN: I think those threes with the fours was, were breakdown threes. I mean, just, simply, can he shoot the ball? Yes, and he gets it off quick, but I think that was more breakdowns as opposed to great actions, he's getting open. It was just breakdowns, guys didn't go up to the line and contest the shot like they needed to. I think it was two of them by Kobe, two of them when Kobe was defending and I think one with Mitch.

Q. The fact that Dru Smith hit those late threes and when you guys were down eight you seemed to stay in the game and get back in it. What does that say about this group and specifically Dru Smith that you guys never gave up?

CUONZO MARTIN: I think it's always been that. It's a group that fights, they compete, they play hard, they give themselves a chance to win the game. And it's basketball, you can't give up, you have to work as hard as you can work until the buzzer sounds, and I thought he did, as well as his teammates.

Q. What will you remember most about this team this year?

CUONZO MARTIN: One, they did a great job of getting us back where we need to be as a program. We'll continue to make progress as a program. So they did that. They stayed the course. Again, this year had a lot of things take place in it, on and off the court. And I thought our guys did an admirable job of being professional, taking it as it comes, not complaining, not making excuses. So I'm really proud of those guys, they really matured, great senior group and just I think, simply said, they were professionals from start to finish.

Q. I know you mentioned Pinson already and Bugs played pretty well, but I wanted to follow-up, Pinson showed some energy early on, but wasn't shooting the ball great and kind of seemed un confident, but he's still Xavier Pinson, can you explain why you kept him on the bench late in the game?

CUONZO MARTIN: I think really we got into a flow with Bugs, we got a real flow, we got back in the game with Bugs, and it just went from there and I thought Bugs did a great job on both sides of the basketball.

Q. Mark shot well tonight from three after having a tough shooting stretch later in the season. How do you feel for Mark to rebound and have that kind of performance and what might be his last game?

CUONZO MARTIN: Happy for him. Happy for him because again he works hard, Mark works extremely hard. Puts a lot of pressure on himself to be successful, make shots, make plays. I mean, he puts the time into it, so it's great to see him transition like that just to make shots, yes.

Q. It felt like you guys had control of that game for the first half, even with that short lead and then coming into the second half you guys went down on that 12-2 run. Did you ever feel like you regained control of that game in the second half even when you made your own 12-2 run?

CUONZO MARTIN: I think we tied it up, I'm not sure we took the the lead, but I know we tied it up and I thought we were great. I thought we had a stretch where it might have been two or three air balls in the stretch there, one of them was a deep one. And we were obviously still in the game, but that's when we have to capitalize, execute what we're doing and get a good shot and make a good decision.

Q. Looked like y'all were able to get some looks inside real early on, but then Oklahoma made it challenging to kind of get anything close to the basket. What did their defense kind of do that made that challenging?

CUONZO MARTIN: Oh, it was -- I think the simple answer is their goal was to make our fours beat them, so if your fours beat us making threes and making plays, then so be it. Everybody else they defended, they sent their four on Tilly or they probed our fours some. So I think that was more of the game plan, they said, if their fours are going to beat us, let them beat us.