Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-New Orleans Quotes
January 07, 2008 | Men's Basketball
CU
Head Coach Jeff Bzdelik
GENERAL?“For me, there were four important
things in this game. First, we were up
by ten in the first half, then we turned the ball over like seven of the next
ten possessions. We shot over 50 percent
for a while there and if we don't turn the ball over like that we're able to
gain some separation. In the second half
we were up like five or seven points after Rich (Roby) got an offensive rebound
and put in a lay-up. Then we started to
have a defensive let down, we missed a lot of lay-ups in the second half. On the flipside, we couldn't stop the drive
defensively, and we never took a charge.
We knew they'd be relentless in pursuit, they were 4-0 on the road, they
are tough young men and that was evident by them going into NC State and came
away with a win. We knew it had to be a wire to wire job and we didn't do
that?we let up. This team (
ON THE PLAYERS MORALE?“They lost 20 games last year and
they lost a lot of points. Now they are
being competitive, but now they have to learn how to win. Everyone has to look at themselves for us to
do that.”
ON TEAM'S PROGRESSION?“When I first came here, I said I
can't just waive a magic wand, the culture has to change first. We have to play for forty minute, forty
minutes of hard-nose basketball. You have to put yourself in a position to win
and I think we have done that so far.
Now it's time to take the next step. Again, we had seven turnovers when
we were up by ten in the first half and that was big because we had a chance to
gain separation. Everyone has to look at
themselves. When we lose, we all lose.
What can I do better as a coach? What can each player to better individually? Successful people only get discouraged
momentarily. That's a quote we try to
live by. The little things we didn't do
tonight add up over the course of the game and that is why we lost.”
New
Orleans Head Coach Joe Pasternack
ON BO McCALEBB - “Well you know Bo (McCalebb) is
just a big time player, he missed some easy shots in the first half and the
second half we really wanted to drive it in and our entire team did a great job
with that. They helped Bo by getting him
open shots and he was just monstering by doing big time player stuff.”
ON THE WIN - “Huge, it's huge to be
able to go on the road and beat a Big 12 team; for our kids and our program
it's just monster. It's terrific, just terrific, it's just another step forward
we just want to keep getting better everyday, just get ready for our
conference.”
ON KEEPING TEAM MOTIVATED WHEN DOWN
- “We talked about before the game that we have got to play for forty minutes
no matter the score. We've got to stay
with it for forty minutes and all year long we've stayed with it for all
forty. We've been down with two minutes
to go?one minute to go and our guys have hung out on top. They are just a great, great group of guys
and a tough, tough group of guys. We have faith. You know our whole team has faith in what we
do; our coaches do, our players do and we believe if we play our best, our best
basketball for forty minutes, and if we defend for forty minutes then we're
going to come away with a victory.”
ON HIGGINS'S LATE THREE POINTER
- “That was a defensive breakdown on our
part with Higgins but Shaun (Reynolds) really attacked the rim and he was open
and he was being a very smart player, he
had six points, five assists, two turnovers, six rebounds?monster rebounds,
just a very smart player in attack, holding us up.”
Colorado
Senior Guard Richard
Roby
On
General - It takes a whole team to get tired
of losing. I know there is a lot of guys on our team that care about winning
and losing, but you have to do whatever it takes to win. You can't take off a
possession. You can't let a guy drive by you five straight times.
On Losing - Losing is losing; last year, this
year. This is not a fun feeling, especially losing on your home court. But,
it's still a long season and we can turn this thing around, we believe that.
But it takes work, but it's better than last year. Before the game we said that
we would do whatever it takes to win. To come this close and have the lead with
a little time left, then have a guy drive coast-to-coast and get an ?and one'...
we can't have that happen.”
On Cory Higgins Late-Game
Shooting - “Those
were big shots that he made. He stepped up and shot them with confidence. We
didn't make shots in the second half. We shot 29% in the second half. We missed
a lot of easy shots, I including me, but that doesn't make up for the lack of
defense and letting them get easy lay-ups.”
On Their Final Season - “We are seniors and this is our
last shot at this. We don't want to go out like this. I don't care how many
years that these other guys have left, we have to win now. I'm not worried
about what's going to happen next year. We have to worry about now, the next
game, and the next possession.”
Senior Guard
On the last possession - “I was supposed to take the ball out and throw it
in to Xavier (Silas) and get it back, but the pass never made it there.”
On
