Colorado vs. California Post Game Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Ricardo Patton

GENERAL: “This was a good win, and a good team effort. We came into this game with good focus and we were able to give a good effort. We beat a good California team tonight. They were picked to finish third in the Pac-10, so we feel that this is a great win for us. I was extremely pleased with our attitude. We were unconcerned with who scored, just that we put the ball in the hole. We moved the ball around well and showed a lot of unselfishness.

ON F MICHEL MORANDAIS: “In the first half Michel didn't score because he was playing very unselfish basketball. He was passing up quite a few shots that he would normally take because he was looking for his teammates. It was nice to see that side of him.”

ON G MARCUS HALL: “I've talked about his maturity all along. At this point he is much more mature for his age. When you have maturity like he does, it allows you to advance much quicker. I didn't think that Marcus was on their scouting radar. Most teams try to concentrate on denying David (Harrison) those one-on-one situations, and that allowed Marcus and Lamar (Harris) to get some good looks.

“He is a typical freshman. He is going to have some good moments and some bad moments. I used to train dogs and we had this saying that ?if a puppy doesn't snap when they're young, they won't bite when they're older,' and Marcus showed some snap tonight.”

ON F LAMAR HARRIS: “He has to step up and be able to knock down that free-throw jumper. That was something that (Stephane) Pelle was able to do and we need it from both Lamar and Chris (Copeland).”

Colorado Players

C David Harrison

GENERAL: “Cal is a good team. They're deep with a lot of freshmen and sophomores and they come to play hard because they have to play well to compete in the Pac-10. On defense, I thought we played very well. They weren't a big physical team and we kept them to less than 40 percent from the firld and 2-of-15 in three pointers. On offense we did what we had to do. WE produced a lot of buckets off our defense and transitioned well.”

ON G MARCUS HALL: “They weren't really guarding us tight on the outside, but they were strong on me and we needed someone to create plays when they're on me and leaving them open. He stepped up and was able to cover what he had to do.”

ON CAL C AMIT TAMIR: “It wasn't too difficult to guard my guy on the three point line. All you have to do is stick your had up and block. He had a few key shots in the first half, but not too many in the second half.”

G MARCUS HALL

GENERAL: “We're in college now. I played the way I had to play against a team like Cal. I just found out ten minutes ago that they have the top freshman recruits in the nation. I was impressed with (Leon) Powe. They were playing tough on David (Harrison) and someone else has to step up, whether it's me, Lamar (Harris) or (Chris) Copeland. Someone has to do it. They were playing us poorly so we stepped up where we could.”

Head Coach Ben Braun

GENERAL: “I thought that things were going our way in the first half, but I felt we were too much in a hurry and taking too much time. We have to do more on running and isolation. We gave Colorado a chance to set up. They were prepared. We need to get the ball in quicker.

“We had different combinations on the floor tonight and I liked what I saw. Effort and energy are what we need to be concerned with and we had that in spurts tonight. With (effort and energy) it will bring about results, but I think we maintained good effort tonight.”

ON MARCUS HALL: “The first half we went big and then Hall came and hit big shots. We needed to make adjustments because Hall was the difference for Colorado.”

ON LOSING: “There are reasons why we (lost) and we need to work on them. We need to make more baskets and we need to make better decisions on our game plan. It was a tough game.”

California Players
C Amit Tamir

GENERAL: “We got outplayed tonight. They played great team basketball. On offense, we did not play too much team basketball. We did not score much and I don't think you can win many games scoring 60 points.”

ON ALTITUDE: “At times (it affected me), but I did not feel that it was a factor too much.”

ON MARCUS HALL: “I think the attention we gave to their big guys (was too much). We might have overlooked their guards. He had a good game and he surprised us. We just stepped up when we were able to stop their main scorers, their big three. In the second half, you could see he created (good looks) for the rest of their team.”

ON FUTURE: “We better bounce back because we don't have much time. We are not going to relax at home because the fans have our back and we feel that we have to compete.”