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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2012Marcus DenmonKim EnglishFrank HaithPhil PresseyKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Missouri – 88 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Missouri head coach Frank Haith and student‑athletes Marcus Denmon, Kim English, and Phil Pressey. Coach, an opening statement. COACH HAITH: I thought that we played very well tonight. I thought our defense at the start of the ballgame was outstanding. We got back to guarding the ball the way we were guarding the ball earlier in the year. I thought our intensity level was very good. I've always felt this way in tournaments, when you play a team who played the night before, you have a tendency to not be ready to play. And these guys really fought hard against that, and we were ready to play. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Can you talk about your defensive effort especially in the first half? PHIL PRESSEY: Well, I usually just try to pressure the ball the best I can. And this game I came away with some steals. So I'm just playing defense how I know how to play. And that's what my coaches want me to do. And I came out with some steals. Q. Marcus and Kim, can you guys just describe what Phil brought to the game tonight? There was that sequence, 17‑0 run, where he was feeding you guys on layups almost the whole time. MARCUS DENMON: Well, early Phil really made the team feed off his defense. Like he said, he was making defensive plays, getting steals, and it allowed us to get early and easy layups on a fastbreak. KIM ENGLISH: Yeah, he's absolutely right. We really came in this game focusing on energy and defense, because, I mean, we feel like when we're right, our offense is never the problem. So, I mean, we really came out with a concerted effort to defend. And that starts with Phil out top. I mean, he was getting on‑ball steals. And it was a track meet from that. Q. Phil and Kim, both you guys came close to career highs. Were you holding something back? Because you could have easily broke that today if you wanted to. KIM ENGLISH: That's never the focus. We were stuck in the process on executing each possession, getting one stop this possession. Getting the best shot this possession. I mean, when you truly get yourself concerned in that process, big nights will happen. But, no, I don't even look up at the stat thing, except for fouls and scores during the game. PHIL PRESSEY: Yeah, I mean, my dad always told me when you play the game the right way, all that will take care of itself. So, I mean, once we get up by a certain amount of points, we want to run our offense and try to get the best shot, like Kim said. Q. Kim, can you talk about that 24‑3 run early in the second half‑‑ or, excuse me, early in the first half? You had 12 of those points, including the first 10. KIM ENGLISH: Well, we were defending and the ball wasn't sticking. We had tremendous ball movement. Good ball movement relieves the tension of the offense. That's Pete Carril. And that's the truth. When the ball is moving, things just happen. So that's what it was. Q. Kim, do you feel right now like your guys' very best is better than anyone's very best? KIM ENGLISH: I don't think so. That would be a bold statement. There's a lot of good teams in the nation. That's kind of out of our control. Again, if we just try to play our best on each defensive possession and get a good shot on each offensive possession, then I think we can have a chance to win a lot of ball games. But Kentucky, Kansas, there's a lot of really, really good basketball teams in the nation. We're so focused on the next game, Texas or Ohio State, that's a long way away. Q. Kim and Marcus, there's been some talk this week about whether Kansas City is a Missouri town or perhaps some other school's town. Just your thoughts on that and what you guys feel when you come here to play? KIM ENGLISH: Marcus comes home. He's born and raised Kansas City. Mike Dixon, Steve Moore, Jarrett Sutton, Andrew Jones. City adopted me. So this is our city. MARCUS DENMON: I mean, we are in Kansas City, Missouri. So I really can't worry about that. I mean, this is home for me, but I think that Missouri fans come out great here as well, so... THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Frank, is your team better when Phil tries to do other things besides score first? COACH HAITH: Well, I think we're really good when he's play making. I think we still want Phil to keep defense honest, because he does have the ability to score. But when he's into that mode of getting guys involved and play making, he's awfully good, which makes us awfully good. Q. Do you think this is one of your better defensive efforts in the first half, especially, of the season? COACH HAITH: We had some games we played defense like that, particularly when we were in Kansas City before, I felt we had two really good games guarding the ball, good pressure. You look at overall our defensive performance tonight, we were plus 20 on the boards, so we didn't give them any second shots. So I thought there's no question our defense was great tonight. But we've had that kind of performance a couple times earlier in the year. Q. How impressed were you with the fact that OSU didn't give up in the second half, and where do you think that never‑say‑die attitude comes from? COACH HAITH: I didn't think they would. Travis gets those guys to compete, and I have a lot of respect for Keiton Page and his career and what kind of player he is. And I didn't think that they would quit. And it just tells you a lot about their coaching staff and their program. Q. Can you talk about that 24‑3 run in the first half? COACH HAITH: It was all about our defense. I thought we really‑‑ we were able to get some loose balls and 52points in the paint. I hear a lot of people talk about our team, and they talk about us being a jump‑shooting team. But I think we can make shots. We can make 3s, but I like to think of us being a team that can put pressure on the defense by attacking the paint. Q. You mentioned that the previous two games here were kind of played out in a similar way. Going forward in this tournament, is that a factor at all? Do you feel like the comfort level they have here could be a big deal going forward? COACH HAITH: Well, there's no question. I thought we‑‑ coming back here our performance early in the year we reminded the guys how well we played here, and you're hoping it can play out like that, there's no question. But I think our guys are comfortable being here in this building because we have had an opportunity to play here early in the year. Q. When Oklahoma State made that run in the second half, how important was it for you guys to come back after that timeout and close the game out? COACH HAITH: Like I said, Oklahoma State didn't quit. They continued to make shots and continued to play. We may have let up a little bit there, our execution there a couple times on offense. And I thought we lost Keiton a couple times on defense, and it was important for us to continue to play the game the way we know how to play it. And I thought our guys finished the game we should. Q. You were able to kind of rest your starters as much as you can with this team, and maybe just physically and mentally it wasn't really that much of a draining game. Do you feel like that's kind of important in a first‑round game when you might have to play two more? COACH HAITH: As a matter of fact, in the first half we got some guys in there, Jarrett and Andrew, kind of lessen some of the minutes. Because we've got three days, hoping that we're playing three days. And we only have seven guys. So it was good for us to get some‑‑ the only guy I think played 30minutes was Kim, I think. Yeah, it was Kim. Or Marcus. Both those guys were right at 30. But they're normally at 35. So it was good to get some less minutes on those guys' legs. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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