Postgame Quotes: UMKC

Nov. 13, 2015

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Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino

On the opening statementâ€¦
"I thought it was a good win for us. We had to adjust and go small. A little bit of that was on me, I didn't do a good enough job with preparing the guys offensively for the right game plan to attack that zone. So, we went small. Certainly it was beneficial, it got them out of that zone. We really spread them out and drove them. I think it was a little bit of jitter to begin with some of the shots. Overall, early in the season is never pretty. We found a way to win."

On the smaller lineupâ€¦
"Well, what happens is, when you play these games early and you play these mid majors, they have smaller guys. It's hard to match up with them position by position from an offensive standpoint, especially when they play matchup zone. If they were playing man, you could dump it into the post a little bit more and it would be a little more effective. Because they were playing a matchup zone we had to spread them out and get them out of it. I don't anticipate playing that lineup moving forward, I think it's a great offensive lineup, I don't think it's a great defensive lineup."

On Joey's hot startâ€¦
"He's a really, really confident kid right now. That's because he's, no question in my mind, one of the hardest workers in the program right now. He truly believes every shot he takes is going in, and he's disappointed when it doesn't go in. he puts in the time and he deserves it. He's a business-like kid when it comes to practice. He's got great confidence because he works really hard."

On the biggest issue with the zoneâ€¦
"I think that they were small and scrappy and switching everything. It's really a man to man, they just show zone. So we need to spread them out a little more. We weren't making the three, I think we missed our first ten threes. I think once we spaced them out we get more drives. So, I think it was a good adjustment and I think that our guys' kind of rebounded flat a little bit."

Senior Joey King

On the matchup against UMKC:

"This time of year a lot of the conference teams are a lot smaller. And you know, it's obviously tough to score again. It's just unusual match ups. So it's a good thing I've been trained to kind of play on the post and go outside on the same time so I can defend. You know, as long as you're not playing against a 7 foot 1 guy, I can defend in the post.

On the play of the newcomers:

"Carlos, Nate and I knew there would be some bumps at the beginning for the new guys, but in the end they pulled through and kind of got the jitters out. They were able to come through and we all competed at a pretty high level in the second half.

On his performance:
"I guess obviously I had that feeling last year. I've had that feeling my sophomore year. But the work I put in and the confidence I've gained knowing that this is my last year, you know I just want to do everything to help our team win. I really want to have no let downs. So whether it's defensively or offensively when I'm taking a jump shot, I'm thinking this could change the game. So every shot is so crucial. Every possession is so crucial. And you know they were dropping tonight and I'm pretty happy about it."

Sophomore Nate Mason

On 3 point shooting:

"We got great shooters on this team, everyone on this team has confidence to carry it out in the season"

Freshman Kevin Dorsey Jr.

On missing the last game:

"You know missing that last game, it was tough being on that bench, I wanted to get out there. They got the win, but obviously, you know, I wanted to be out there with my team. It was tough being on that bench, but it really opened my eyes."

On playing with Nate Mason:

"It felt great. There is a lot of versatility on the floor. If we can cause a lot of havoc on defense, get out on the break and we can be the fastest team in the country."

UMKC Head Coach Kareem Richardson

On the turning point of the game...

"We had some missed assignments on [Joey] King. He goes six for nine for the three, and that was a big part of our scouting report of not allowing him to get off, and we're still trying to grow, obviously, and we just had a few miscommunications there defensively and left [King] open."

On LaVell Boyd's first game...

" We were hoping he could bring that spark for us scoring last year... and we knew he could score the ball and hopefully that'll help his confidence and help our team as we get it going."

On positive takeaways from this game...

"Our start, that was a weakness of ours last year, getting off to a slow start, and I thought, offensively, we did start pretty well, so that certainly a big positive that we can take from this."

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Players Mentioned

Kevin Dorsey

Joey King

Nate Mason

Nate Mason

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