Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-TCU Quotes
December 03, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Jeff Bzdelik
GENERAL ? “The worst feeling for a coach is when your team doesn't play with emotion, discipline, or passion, and appears to just be disorganized. That's on me and it's a rotten feeling. We had a great crowd, great student body turn-out and it's really a shame we couldn't at least give any kind of effort. I'm embarrassed for the university.”
ON PG NATE TOMLINSON'S ABSENCE ? “Excuses are for losers. It shouldn't have [had that much of an effect]. In the second half of the Arkansas-Pine Bluff game he had his foot stepped on and he has really been hurting ever since. We've been limiting his practice time because of it. He's going to get an MRI tomorrow. He's actually been playing on one foot since the second half of the Arkansas-Pine Bluff and I think you can see he's an excellent player. We'll let you know as soon as we get the MRI results tomorrow. Worst case scenario it's a stress fracture and he's out six weeks or maybe it's just a bone bruise. Nate's such a competitor that I knew he was lying to me. He wanted to play tonight but we have to be smart. He has to get healthy and we have to find out for sure what's wrong and fix it.”
ON WHAT TO IMPROVE ? “I don't know. Obviously I have to do a much better job than I have been doing. Quite frankly if I were Mike Bohn, I might be searching for a new basketball coach because this is very unacceptable. That's not a statement of feeling sorry for myself or sympathy, it's a statement of fact.”
TCU Head Coach Jim Christian
GENERAL ? “We did a good job, we executed on the offensive end, we took care of basketball in the second half and that's what you have to do to maintain a lead.”
ON OUTWORKING AND OUT-EXECUTING
ON 3 CONSECUTIVE GAMES HOLDING AN OPPONENT UNDER 47 POINTS ? “I'm pretty proud of these guys for doing that, it's pretty hard to do. Joe Monaco of our SID staff said this is the first time since 1952, but that again has to be our calling card. “
WINNING AGAINST A BIG 12 OPPONENT ? “I think it's good for everybody, it's great for our seniors, and it's just great for our guys. Again I just want our mentality high. I don't care what happened before or in the past of this program or anytime in our history; we have to develop our own identity if we want to be a great basketball team and we are starting to do that.”
ON JR.,G KEION MITCHEM ? “Just phenomenal. He played within himself and took what the defense gave and made them pay when they left him open. He had a tremendous effort tonight, big things to get on the road.”
Colorado Players
Dwight Thorne, Junior, Guard
ON IF TCU DID ANYTHING THAT THEY WERE NOT ACCUSTOMED TO - “Not really. They were holding, just like everyone else holds and they were body-cutting, just like everyone else body cuts. We just didn't play with any heart. It was just an overall bad game.”
ON WHY COLORADO DIDN'T PERFORM UP TO THEIR EXPECTATIONS - “I think it was just us playing hard and playing bad. I wouldn't even say it was turnovers, because our defense was okay tonight; but our minds weren't there. Sometimes you just have mental breakdowns.”
ON PLAYED THE POINT GUARD POSITION - “I'm comfortable with it; I just haven't played it since camp, since we first started practicing. I haven't played it for a long time, so there will be an adjustment period for everybody for the next couple of days. We should be okay by next week.”
ON WHAT COLORADO NEEDS TO IMPROVE - “We have to do a little soul searching, look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out what we have to do to get back on the right track, and get off of this losing streak.”
Cory Higgins, Sophomore, Guard
ON COLORADO'S PERFORMANCE - “We didn't show up, we didn't have any heart. We played like we didn't want to be here. ” We have to act like we have heart and act like we are playing for something; that shouldn't be hard.”
ON PLAYING WITH THE ABSENCE OF STARTING PG NATE TOMLINSON - “It was tough, but I don't know, if anything that should fire us up more. I don't know how that can bring somebody down and not want to play harder.”
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