The full transcript of the postgame presser is available from ASAP Sports here. Below are select highlights from the 10+ minute interview.
Mike Anderson's opening statement:
First, I want to put blame on myself on this one here. I didn't have our guys prepared. Always think the first game in your tournament is the most important. You never know how your guys are going to come out, the psyche. So we talked about that, and we thought we had them prepared coming out.
But I thought Nebraska was much hungrier than our basketball team. They played hard. They got every loose ball. I thought they played looser. I thought they played with nothing to lose and everything to gain. And I just didn't think we had the energy that you gotta have, especially in this setting, in a tournament setting, where it's one game and you're done.
So that goes in terms of defending the championship, we won't be able to do that. But Nebraska, I thought they played better than we did. They outplayed us tonight.
Tiller on his general thoughts on the game:
Today seemed like it was Murphy's law, what could go wrong would go wrong; and everything they were putting up there, I see it as it was their day and they really wanted this game and it really showed in the results.
Bowers on shooting woes:
And, I mean, here lately we just haven't been shooting the ball well. I don't want to blame the game on that. But it's hard to beat a team if you're shooting 35 percent. And, I mean, the games where we haven't shot the ball well, our defense can only hold us in the game for so long. You gotta put up points.
Bowers on his wrist:
I can't afford to go down. We already had a player out in Justin Safford, which is the key part to our basketball team. And I think my team needs me. So I just gotta battle through it and just learn how to play with the splint that I'm playing with on.
Anderson on Mizzou being flat:
We are an energy team. We're an attacking team. I thought we settled for more jump shots than we did in terms of attacking, getting to the basket in terms of the free throw line. If you told me, hey, Coach, you're going to have four turnovers and we get beat by 15, I'll be scratching my head, wondering whoa.
But you have to put the ball in the hole. And guys -- I can echo it, too. What could go wrong did go wrong. We had them with the shot clock running down and they just throw it up and it goes in. It was a day for Nebraska.