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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: LEXINGTONMarch 21, 2013Frank HaithAlex OriakhiPhil PresseyLEXINGTON, KENTUCKY Colorado State – 84 THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Missouri Tigers, Head Coach Frank Haith. We will start with an opening statement from Coach Haith, and then we'd ask that you direct your questions to the student-athletes. Coach Haith. COACH HAITH: Okay. Thank you. Obviously Colorado State, give them. Credit. They played their tails off. I thought they really were the more aggressive team. They really went after us and I thought they were rebounding the ball, which that's what they do, they really dominated part of the game and dominated the 50/50 balls, and they were the more aggressors. In this time of the year in tournament play, that's usually the team that wins the game. THE MODERATOR: All right. Questions for either Alex Oriahki or Phil Pressey or both. Q. Alex and Phil, this team never seemed to have a definition and just never seemed to get over that hump, especially once the start of the new year. How would you assess this season? ALEX ORIAHKI: Obviously my opinion, we didn't end it the way we wanted to. We weren't able to finish out games little earlier in the season and it's affected us now. If we don't find ways to finish game properly, we'll go home packing and that's exactly what happened. PHIL PRESSEY: We had an up-and-down season. Just to piggyback what Alex said, never could get it right, finish games off throughout the year. And then tonight we got beat in every aspect of the game. Not much more I can say. Q. Alex, you guys have just really been rebounding the ball very well the past 15 games. Why were things so different tonight? ALEX ORIAHKI: I really don't think anything was different. Little bit of lack of focus. I definitely feel on my part we could have did a better job on blocking out. That's how basketball is sometimes. I think it was a lack of focus and, you know, they were a little quicker to the ball. Q. Looking back at your time at Missouri this year, could you reflect a little bit on how your one year has gone? ALEX ORIAHKI: I'm just happy I came here, man. Phil brought me here and Coach Haith did a tremendous job in giving me confidence, and I wouldn't change my decision, you know, at all. Extremely happy I came here. You know, obviously I didn't end it the way I wanted to, but I definitely wouldn't change anything. It gave me so much confidence. Really felt like a family. I'm extremely happy I came to Missouri. THE MODERATOR: Any more questions for the student-athletes? All right. Phil, Alex, thank you. Congratulations on your season. Now we have more Q and A with Coach Frank Haith. Q. Coach, you guys cut the lead to 4 right out of the half and then Colorado State came back and built it up to 15 or thereabouts. What was the difference there in that time span? COACH HAITH: I think they made some shots. I think we get down like we got down, exert a lot of energy to get back in it. Colorado State is a good team. Every team in this tournament is pretty good. They're a veteran club. You got to give them credit. Sometimes we lose basketball games the other team can play well, and Colorado State did play very well. Q. Coach, what could this team never really get or grasp that you wanted them to do this season, and if you had to tweak something along the way, what would that have been? COACH HAITH: Well, Tom, let me just say this to you: I'm proud of what this team did this year. There's a lot of guys that play in the NCAA Tournament.  We have one guy returning from last year's team. This team made it to the NCAA Tournament. I'm very proud of what they accomplished this year. Q. Coach, later in the second half, Keion Bell was on the bench. Was it an injury or something he wasn't doing that you were seeing from him? COACH HAITH: Keion struggled a little bit in the first half. It just wasn't his night. It just wasn't his night for us. Q. Talk about your seniors, Bowers and Oriakhi, talk about what they meant to your program. COACH HAITH: Well, first of all, I can't speak enough about Laurence Bowers and his career, what he's been to the university, not just as a basketball player but as a young man, what he's given back to this university. I couldn't have been more proud of a young man to be a part of his life over the last two years: He's going to have a great future. Alex, even though we only had him for one year, just a special young man. He played his best basketball this year and I'm proud to be a part of that. I thought Keion, tonight wasn't his night, but he had great moments this year, also. He's a young man also, I think has grown a tremendous amount over the last year. And all three men, it's just been a pleasure to coach them. Q. Frank, I think Oriakhi shot like 80 percent the last three weeks or so. Did you feel like you guys did enough to get him the ball there tonight and, if not, maybe what was the problem? COACH HAITH: I think we could have got him the ball a little bit more. Alex got a little fatigued and got in foul trouble there. You know, we probably could have got him the ball. He played great here the last month of the season, and there's no question I think he could have got the ball a little bit more. Q. They had 48 points in the first half. What were they doing offensively, especially the guy that had 17 points? What were they doing offensively that made you guys struggle to defend? COACH HAITH: They're very comfortable coming off ball screens and they attacked us and got in the paint. They got some second shots. You know, Iverson played 23 minutes, he had 13 rebounds. So he kept the ball a lot. We couldn't keep him off the glass. They got to the free throw line. They're very aggressive in attacking us. A team like that who has played together like they play together, they know how to win. It was pretty evident tonight. THE MODERATOR: Time for one or two more. Q. I think the conventional wisdom at the beginning of the year was you had so many transfers that maybe the beginning might be a struggle but by the end you would really have it together. Almost worked in reverse. You got as high as 7th in the nation. Why do you think that was the case? COACH HAITH: I think you missed the boat on that, because I think we played better competition late in the year, too. So, you know, I disagree with that. I think we were playing pretty good basketball late in the year, and if you go back and look at it, we're pretty sharp in the season. Look at our numbers. We were one of the top ten teams in the country offense efficiency. We were 115 defensive efficiency last year. We're top 60. We lost some close ballgames in league play, but I thought we were playing better at the end of the year. Q. Coach, the same thing I asked Alex: You know guys have been very good rebounding. Do you attribute that to lack of focus tonight? Is that what you thought was the case, and if so, was it disappointing to see lack of focus in NCAA Tournament game? COACH HAITH: I don't know if Alex means it like that. I thought their commitment, their intensity level and how hard they went at the glass, that's what they do night in and night out. It is disappointing we did get out-rebound like that, because we normally don't get out-rebound like that. They were way more aggressive in searching out loose balls and attacking, and, you know, you got to give them credit. I wish we would have been more passionate about rebounding because that's what it is, it's about desire and, you know, Alex had a tough night. He only had two boards. You look at Iverson, he played 23 minutes and he had 13 rebounds. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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