Mizzou Head Coach Kim Anderson

Opening Statement… 
"Today sure feels better than it did 365 days ago. I am really, really proud of these guys. I thought in the first half, we got off to a little slow start, but when we started doing a little pressing, I thought we stirred the game up and we were able to build a lead. Personally, I was a little disappointed. I thought we had the chance to build a little bit more of a lead before half. Overall, I thought our guys did a great job, these two guys [Wright and Puryear] especially. Namon did a great job coming off the bench, making open shots and making passes. I think you can see an improvement in his overall game. Kevin Puryear made some shots and did a pretty good job on defense, but lost his guy on defense a couple of times. Wofford is a good basketball team. We were able to fight their runs off in the second half. Overall, it was a good win and something I think we can build on."

On Puryear…
"He has played pretty well in practice. The great thing about Kevin is that he plays so hard. He has a little confidence in his shot, his mid-range is good, and is one of our better post-up guys. He has played well since he walked on campus."

On Gary Pinkel…
"I think Coach Pinkel has done so much for this school. He has won a lot of football games, and I think that is what we focus on, but Gary Pinkel the man has done a lot for this school. You think about the winning of the games and the bowl games and all that. I am going to miss him. He has been great to me and very supportive. My main thing with him is that I just want him to be happy and healthy and for him and Missy to enjoy whatever they want to do. Certainly, I will miss having him around, as I am sure we all will."

Mizzou Player Kevin Puryear

On opening the floor offensively…
"I would just say our patience, and staying composed played a factor. Just trusting in each other and believing in each other, we knew it wasn't going to be like that the whole game. It wasn't easy. We just took it one play at a time and luckily we got some good shots."

On hitting his first shot of the game…
"It definitely broke the ice. It got a good run going for us and was a really exciting moment for the team."

On exceeding expectations...
"It is definitely a very sweet feeling to experience this at my dream school with this team. I am really looking forward to down the road because I really want to do great things here as a team, get a lot of wins and win championships. My vision is bigger than just this game."

Mizzou Player Namon Wright

On passing…
"It starts in practice and the last couple of weeks, we have been doing a pretty good job passing the basketball and it translated to the game."

On freshman players…
"They were calm and composed. I think that is a big difference from this year and last. Last year, I think we would have gotten down on ourselves a little bit, but this year we are a little more mature. Our freshmen are really good. They seem more experienced than we were. They were good."

Wofford Head Coach Mike Young

On a surprising Mizzou offense…
"I was a little surprised. We are not very good defensively yet. We've buttered our bread on the defensive end and to give up 83 points is disgusting, but I tip my hat to the Tigers. They played with a great flow. I think Phillips is good. I like his game. I like what he brings to the table. It's obvious that these guys believe in what's going on. They like one another. I was impressed with their team. I thought they did very nice things and they were certainly the better team tonight."  

On trying to close the gap…
"Again I tip my hat to Kim's team. You can tuck, tail and pout, but those guys came right back and continued to play and they made things difficult for us. We never could quite get that one stop, that one flurry, that would have really made it interesting." 

On the trouble with Mizzou's Kevin Puryear…
"I think as much as anything, with it being early in the year and he being a true freshman, we had some high school film on him, but just not quite enough. He made a three, or two, and he's a little bit bigger and a little wider than we thought he was. We just weren't as familiar with him. That's a pretty good kick-start to a year for that young man. He was good."