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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 10, 2012Quincy AcyScott DrewPerry Jones IIIKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Missouri – 90 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with Coach Scott Drew. Coach, we'll call on you first for your thoughts on this afternoon's game. COACH DREW: I thought we defended, rebounded, worked the ball better offensively in the first two games. Today we didn't. Credit Missouri. Pressure defense, shot quick threes, didn't go into it. I think it's a good learning experience for our team, and because of this I think it will prepare us for the NCAA Tournament. And at the end of the day can't dwell about this loss. Gotta shake it off because tomorrow we find out on who we're playing, where we're playing. The NCAA Tournament is you lose again, we know we're all done. So hopefully we'll learn from some of the things that we should have done better or could have done better. Q. Coach, what did you‑‑ your team gained a lot of respect this week. Talk about the character of your team not quitting, basically playing a road game in the Big 12 tournament. COACH DREW: We really had three road games, Kansas, Kansas State and today. But at the end of the day, I thought‑‑ I said it yesterday in the press conference. I thought we grew up, but this was the next stage. And the next stage is handling success and bouncing to the next level. I think we'll learn some things from this game, and hopefully it will prepare us for the NCAA Tournament, especially if we play a team that's guard‑oriented like this. THE MODERATOR: Our student‑athletes are Perry Jones III and Quincy Acy. Let's go to questions for them. Q. Quincy, how frustrating a day was it for you, and is it frustrating playing Missouri? Seems like you guys kept getting close, getting close, and they'd hit a shot or get to the foul line, and it just seemed like you guys couldn't close a gap. QUINCY ACY: They did a great job of hitting shots. And we had some mental mistakes on defense that cost us. So it's a good learning experience. But we have to learn from it. Q. You guys have the size advantage. What did they do to keep you from dominating in the paint? QUINCY ACY: I mean, they just shot. PERRY JONES III: A lot of penetration. Q. Perry, how difficult is it to keep up with that 4 guard offense? It just seemed like they were lightning fast, getting down there on breaks. PERRY JONES III: I mean, they're a tough team to match up to, playing four guards and one big. That's why they're one of the best in the country because it's a hard matchup. They know how to play with each other, and just gotta learn how to defend on the perimeter. No matter who it is, you've got to be able to defend them if you want to win the championship. Q. You guys had a couple of the losses to Kansas and Missouri, and then you lost tonight. You had a strong showing against kind of the de facto road teams. Has there been‑‑ has anyone been especially vocal in the practices leading up to the games this week and what do you hope to improve on most leading to the tournament? QUINCY ACY: Just some of the mistakes we had in this game and over the tournament. It's better to have them now than‑‑ it's win or go home. So just looking to learn off of this game. Q. Quincy and Perry, did it seem, though, that you never could quite gain momentum to make a run in the second half, every time you seemed on the verge‑‑ I'm thinking of A.J.'s basket that was waved off, a few other things, that you couldn't quite get over the hump against Missouri in the second half until at least late. What was the feeling like for you guys? QUINCY ACY: I mean, we just had to get stops. I mean, that's pretty much the whole game. We had to get stops and we had to convert easies. That's it. Q. Quincy and then Perry, it seemed like the first five minutes of the second half kind of set the tone. What did Missouri do during that time span, and what should you have done to have responded to it? QUINCY ACY: We just have to communicate better on defense.  I sound like a broken record right now. We just had to get stops. That's pretty much what it came down to, stops. I mean, we're going to learn from it. We're going to watch film so we'll be prepared in the tournament. PERRY JONES III: Like he said, we gotta get stops. I mean, it's just plain and simple. No stops, I mean, you're not going to win a championship that way. And you've got to know how to stop the run and convert easies. That's it. Q. Quincy, how excited are you to begin the NCAA Tournament? QUINCY ACY: Very excited. I don't know where we'll be at. I guess we'll find out tomorrow. So I will be excited tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Questions for Coach. Q. Two things, what the players got asked about the first five minutes of the second half, that seemed to pretty much set the tone. It also‑‑ Pierre and Quincy kind of struggled today, Quincy Acy. Without those two guys, how difficult was it to get past Missouri? COACH DREW: I thought there were several times in the games where we had layups or shots that we've hit that we missed, and they had some tough shots that they‑‑ shot clock winding down, contested 3s. I mean, for them to shoot 43percent in three games in three days, I don't care if they were guarded or not, that's hard to do. So they get a lot of credit for that. I thought, though, that we missed some opportunities that we haven't missed before. And I don't know if guards just get looser quicker or what the reason. But we came out flat in the first five minutes and the same thing in the second. And seems like we weren't ready, we weren't loose in the beginning, or maybe just credit them for playing so well in the beginning. Q. You had talked about shaking off this loss and preparing for the NCAA Tournament. Do you start estimating where you might be seeded now and who the matchups might be, or do you just kind of wait and see what happens on Selection Sunday and just kind of react accordingly? COACH DREW: Actually, I haven't checked out anything or seen anything, because I knew we needed to take care of business, and then that would take care of itself. Just like everybody else, the fun will be tonight or tomorrow, once we stop thinking about this, to start planning on where we're going and to try to guess where we're going. I do want to say I think the Big 12 does an incredible job preparing the teams for the NCAA and postseason. Because they run the tournament just like the NCAA Tournament. So, I mean, for teams to move on now to the NCAA Tournament, they're not in that shock and awe of how the rules are for a postseason, and for our team, especially with three newcomers and one guy that's never been in postseason starting, this hopefully will prepare us for that. And then we can enjoy a celebration like that. Q. You said that this game hopefully would prepare you guys for the NCAAs, but you probably aren't going to face a team like Missouri with four guards that can play like they can and pass the ball and that sort of thing. Are they just‑‑ you know, a real unique team and a team that it's just really tough to play just because of all those factors? COACH DREW: I think the biggest thing we haven't talked about is their experience. Five seniors. They've been through situations like this. They've been through‑‑ and with us, I guess the biggest thing is handling success of playing well two days in a row, being able to be focused and ready for that third day. And I think that's‑‑ in some of these instances, that's what‑‑ because you win in the NCAA Tournament, as we all know, you have a lot of people congratulating you, telling you how good you're doing and all that. And you gotta push that aside and move on to the next game. And that's why I think, again, our losses this year made us a better team and put us in a better situation to be ready for postseason. In the meantime, we've done it 27‑7. Three losses to Missouri, two to Kansas, and K‑State's a very well coached team and a very good team and Iowa State at Iowa State. And they finished third in conference. So we haven't lost to teams we shouldn't lose to. Q. What did Missouri do to take away your size advantage on the inside? COACH DREW: Well, I think they baited us into some quick 3s, let's put it that way. And we took the bait. So we needed to work the ball, get it down more and try and get more shots in the paint. That's what we had talked about. But it didn't happen. So hopefully that's something we can learn from, so if we play a team smaller like this again we can‑‑ we've been so patient on the offensive end. This game, for some reason, we weren't as patient. And, let's face it, when you're down 10 points, you try to get it back quicker. If you're up 10, you tend to slow it down more and that had something to do with it. Q. Was there something that you saw in the matchup? Was it foul trouble that Deuce played this much and talk about his contribution today? COACH DREW: I think Deuce was tremendous today. He was fresh. And the second thing is defensively, I mean, Phil Pressey is really good. I mean, he's really good. And he does so much for that team. So we just tried to put a fresher body on him and Deuce is doing a good job on him, and he has length. But Phil really sets up so much for that team. Q. Coach, you talked in the past about changing the looks up on defense, but looked like tonight you seemed mostly man. Can you talk about what led to your decision to do that? COACH DREW: That's where you‑‑ after a loss, right away you start thinking four or five different things you could have done, should have done, might have tried. And you saw in the beginning, we didn't move well, first five minutes. And I just got worried if we went to a zone we'd get even more stagnant. So that's why we stayed with the man. If we had to do it again we probably would have tried it. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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