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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 14, 2009

Zaire Taylor

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA

Missouri Â– 73
Baylor - 60

CHARLIE FISS: Ready to begin with the Missouri Tigers, champions of the Big 12 conference. Coach Mike Anderson and his four student-athletes, DeMarre Carroll who happens to be the most valuable player, Leo Lyons, Zaire Taylor, another all-tournament team member, and Matt Lawrence.
Coach, before we get to questions for your student-athletes, congratulations. Your thoughts on today's victory?
COACH ANDERSON: First I want to say my hat is off to Baylor. I have been at a program where you have to go four games in four days, and that's tough, especially to play against a team such as the Missouri Tigers in terms of how we play.
I thought the tournament format plays into our hand, especially with the depth. But the thing I'm more proud about these guys is the focus, the focus that they came out with each and every game. They just took care of business. Hats off to them. We got off to a, I thought, pretty decent start, but our bench came in and played real well, our young guys, the freshman, Miguel Paul, Kimmy English, Marcus Denmon, Keith Ramsey, all those newcomers, those guys came in and really helped.
These guys were able to come out in the second half and put the pedal to the metal so to speak with our defense. Our defense was the most consistent thing here in this particular tournament. Eventually, we are going to shoot the ball well and I thought we shot the ball a little bit better today.

Q. Matt and Leo, you two more than anybody else have been here so long. I know you try to look forward and not back. Can you just talk about any sense of appreciation you have for the moment and all that's gone on in the last period since you guys have been here? Did you reflect on that on the court after winning?
LEO LYONS: It is a very emotional time for us right now. Four years we have been through all the ups and downs. We have seen this program when it was at its worst and best and that's right now. We want to continue to keep it going and take it as far as we can to end our senior year.
MATT LAWRENCE: I agree with my boy Leo. It has definitely been a roller-coaster ride. Credit goes out to the guys on our team that all came in here and we are about one thing and that was winning. That reflects our coach.
Coach Anderson has been nothing but honest with us saying he is going to bring a championship to this school. Not many people believed him except those 14 guys in the locker room and our coaching staff, too.

Q. Seniors, what was it like for you that last 60 seconds or so where the outcome had been decided and the clock was just ticking down?
COACH ANDERSON: It was a great moment, you know. Coach -- we couldn't really look at the last 60 seconds. We had to wait until it got to zero because Coach said -- he kept saying it is not over yet. Once it got to zero, we got happy. We hugged each other.
Hats goes off to our bench. They all get a lot of credit. But I think we are the ultimate team. That's what makes our team so great because many of y'all know that Leo went out and Lawrence Bowers would come out and he would get a great steal. Many teams, when one guy come out he gets kind of mad. We are the ultimate team. I think our bench stepped up, Kim and Miguel. Hopefully we carry this on to the NCAA tournament.
MATT LAWRENCE: I was just concentrating on winning the game. I wanted to see the 0:00 on the clock. I wasn't worried about what was going through my mind except for that game being over with finally. I was excited to be out there on the floor with some of these guys I have been through a lot with.
There is time for reflection later. I think we got a big thing coming up in a week. We showed we are a team that can play in a tournament-style atmosphere and do well. We will try to do it well again next week.

Q. (Indiscernible).
LEO LYONS: Mostly you are used to seeing us laughing. I know I made a mistake at the end of the game. He told me he loved me. It was pretty emotional. I said I loved him back. The game ended. That just shows the maturity that I have been through and just shows how we stuck together throughout these whole things.

Q. DeMarre, everybody is talking about their emotions. Can you talk about your emotions, transferring here, all you have been through and to be the MVP and end up here.
DEMARRE CARROLL: You know, my whole thing of transferring here, once I transferred here, everything started going wrong and I was just looking around like "man, what did I get myself into." My uncle told me to keep having faith and the light is going to come up -- the sun will come up at the end.
I got shot. We lost a lot of games and so on. Look at me now. I'm standing here smiling with a Big 12 championship.

Q. Kim went through a pretty tough period there the last two or three weeks, struggled on the court. Tonight he came into the zone and really stepped up for you guys when you needed him the most. How did he stay so positive and what advice did you give him? And how important is it for him to keep going with what's coming up?
LEO LYONS: He has got a high confidence level. There is nothing that can bother him. That's good for him because him being a freshman, he goes into the games knowing he can score and knowing he can play for us.
I don't think no shots mess up his confidence. We keep on telling him to keep shooting and sooner or later it keeps going, like today.
ZAIRE TAYLOR: The coach is like that's the shot we want after every shot he missed. We all shot terrible yesterday for the most part. Just being a little slump -- I mean, every freshman goes through it. I mean, I'm sure we have all been there at one point or another.
MATT LAWRENCE: I didn't have a freshman slump because I didn't play (laughter).
ZAIRE TAYLOR: Matt didn't get the opportunity.
When it comes down to it, it is just hard to, like, go through a 30-game season at this level, 30-plus games.
I mean, the wear and tear takes a toll. He knew what he was capable of. I came in and tried to talk to him and he was telling me what he was going to do. He wasn't worried about it. So if he wasn't worried, we weren't worried.

Q. All season long after wins you guys have said that you have until midnight to celebrate. Has Coach said anything on whether or not you get an extension tonight?
LEO LYONS: We got to fly back home. I'm pretty sure he will tell us on the bus what time we got to be back in. I'm pretty sure a lot of us won't hear him. I'm just joking. (Laughter).
Nah. We are not too much worried about anything else but this win and we will try to focus on the selection and see where we will get seeded and focus on the next team.
COACH ANDERSON: Y'all see what I deal with. Every day I deal with that. That's a good thing, though.

Q. Mike, given the Saturday finish and how successful y'all were here, do you think that you have given the selection committee ample time to consider you in the conversation for a higher seed than you might have been on Tuesday?
COACH ANDERSON: Well, I would hope that would be the case.
We have been a team that's been focused on the things we can control, and that's the games. We had an opportunity to win this tournament, and I hope that stands for something. We have been pretty consistent all year long. Even in the feats we have had, I think we have responded in a positive way. Our last game of the season, we got a shelacking at Texas A&M. Look how we responded. We responded with three pretty solid games and not giving people many -- the scoring average was probably in the 60s. And so it just shows me this team is a team that can adjust and adapt and they learn, I think.
We are playing some pretty good basketball. And the better our bench plays, it really makes us a pretty dangerous basketball team. Hopefully it does.

Q. The fact that Oklahoma State played a zone yesterday, did that help you guys get started in the game? I know it was a different team, maybe a different zone. But the fact it was a similar kind of defense you were going up against, did that help with the shooting a little?
COACH ANDERSON: I thought it did because you got to remember in the second half I thought we did a better job of attacking Oklahoma State. We scored almost 50 points. So that means we got the ball moving, we got the ball inside, we started knocking shots down. We started attacking the glass. We got to the free-throw line.
I thought coming in today, I knew we were going to see some zone. Baylor had played zone practically the whole tournament. That fourth game, you try to save those guys' legs and they got some guys in foul trouble as well. I thought early on we didn't make some shots.
But I thought the freshman group, when they came in, had great ball movement and they started knocking some shots. It is kind of like the lid was open up and you could just see our defense intensity really pick up and the starters came back in. I think the game went back and forth like I thought it would.

Q. Mike, it has been a long time since Missouri has been at the top of Big 12 or Big 8 basketball. How well prepared is the program to make sure you stay there for years to come?
COACH ANDERSON: I think if you look at our basketball team, we got a good nucleus. Obviously these seniors are very, very important to our basketball team. I think they have shown the young guys the way. I think those guys you saw here along with Michael Anderson, J.T. Tiller who has been in our program for three years, I thought they showed the leadership and they showed the ownership of this basketball team. I thought the young guys followed their lead. That was very, very important.
So hopefully these guys have the kind of success they're having. It could leave that trickle effect. That's how you start a program, you start it by winning, bringing in great kids and they understand what leadership, commitment, ownership is all about.
But hopefully that is something that will be carried on. These guys look up to these older guys. And I think they have been imparting some pretty good knowledge on them. Even a guy like Zaire, Zaire is an old man.

Q. DeMarre referred to some of the things he has been through since he has been here. I wonder if you would talk about what it means to be able to get to this point for your program and for some kids like him that have made it.
COACH ANDERSON: I think coming in and obviously when you transfer, you come in and you think hopefully things are going to be a little bit better. Of course, we had some -- I mean, we had some storms, man. We had a lot of storms. He was involved in some of those where -- as he said, what took place with him. I always tell guys, tough times don't last, tough people do.
That's how I look at myself, my life. You have got to persevere, you have got to have faith. You made a decision -- he made that decision to come here. I didn't make it for him. He made that decision. You have to go through some things to get where you want to go. I have got to say he really dedicated himself, he committed himself since he has been here, and he has had a tremendous, tremendous impact on our program.
I mean, just think about the things that have taken place. He is the first team all-conference, first team all-academic, first one in the league for that to take place. He's graduated and continued to lead this team as we get ready for the NCAA. He is a true, true leader. He is the ultimate, ultimate warrior. I think when you talk about the complete package, he has that package.

Q. Mike, I wonder if you can talk about what this means -- a win means to you, give a little perspective to that.
COACH ANDERSON: I think it is some unchartered water where we hadn't been since I have been there. To see it all come together with such a young basketball team, it tells you the commitment of our guys. I think I got an excellent coaching staff, when you talk about Melvin Watkins, associate head coach. This guy has been in the Big 12. He knows all the -- the trainer, Matt Zimmerman, those guys have been with me at Arkansas. T.J. Cleveland played for us at Arkansas and happens to be my nephew. Jeff Daniels played junior college ball with me at Jefferson State. I have known these guys for almost 30-some-odd years.
So to have those guys, Ben Lindsey and so on, to have those guys to work with me, I think it has been a blessing and makes my job a whole lot easier. There is no question about it. When you start out the season, you set goals and this was one of our goals. To have an opportunity to actually do it here in these circumstances, I think it says a lot about our basketball team.

Q. Coach, you talked about the challenge of having that focus but consistently having it every day through a tournament like this. I was across the street this morning, saw Oklahoma, one of the two or three best teams in the country just not ready to play, not focused. Talk about how it is that your team had that this week and it seemed like that would be an advantage going into this NCAA tournament.
COACH ANDERSON: Once we got to the tournament, I always tell our guys, we don't change anything we do.
As a matter of fact, we kind of hopefully amp it up or turn up the volume on our defense and really get after people, especially in a tournament format. But it just goes back to -- from day one when we started out, the biggest game is the game you are playing right now.
And so that's been my talk to these guys, when you talk about it. Enjoy until midnight. It sounds cliche-ish, but it is pretty simple. They don't have to worry about all those things. As we start winning games and everybody, the prognosticators say you are going to be this, you are going to be that, those are things they can't control. They just stayed in the moment.
I think the approach to our guys -- you have to go back to the leadership, the leadership and the ownership. I think those guys, they want to do well, and I think they -- they formulate a bond that's really, really special. As I told them, they got a chance to have a special season and it continues.

Q. How hard was it to suspend those guys last season as a coach, just on the surface? It cost you at least one game. And if you don't, are you here today in this situation?
COACH ANDERSON: Well, I tell you what, that wasn't an easy decision. But it is about who I am and what I want my program to be about. I want the brand. The brand is going to be exciting, fun, up-tempo basketball where kids are going to graduate and they are going to do the right thing on and off the floor.
I'm a product of what I preach. So with that being said, it was a decision I made and I'm not necessarily worried about the outcome of games. Games are not that important, not when you are dealing with kids' lives.
That's important to me. So hopefully that was a life lesson learned for those guys as well as my guys that continue to be here. I thought it made a statement about what our program is going to be. I think as we got to this point, I think even -- I made a statement to our student-athletes, I made a statement to our administration, not only that but to the family of the kids that are here, to the family of the kids that were coming. So a guy like Kimmy English, I knew his dad. He knew what kind of person I was, what kind of program I was going to have.
Hopefully it is going to continue to help us as we continue to recruit in the future. I think when you get -- I'm big on character, and I think character can take you a long way. Sometimes it can outweigh the talent because the kids are going to come and do the right things on and off the floor.
Not only that, one of the biggest secrets to our basketball program is we develop kids. They develop. They develop on and off the floor, so when they leave, they can go and be a productive citizen in society. I'm recruiting, I hope you all know that. (Smiling).
That's who I am and that's what our program is going to be about. Thank you.
CHARLIE FISS: Coach, congratulations. Good luck next week.

End of FastScripts

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