Colorado University Athletics
Quotes: CU vs. CSN
December 22, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Jeff Bzdelik
OPENING STATEMENT: "I was very pleased with 27 assists, with 32 baskets, five players in double-digits. I was very pleased, I really was. Defensively our positioning was better. This team is a very high scoring team. We just need to keep getting better, and work to get better and continue to share the ball and play with high energy and totally sell it to one another in what we are trying to do."
ON BREAK BETWEEN GAMES: "We've had some very intense practices where we just totally mixed up the players. The players played with an edge for the last several days here in practice. Once we got through final exams, it was just basketball. We had three consecutive three and a half-hour workouts where we really went after each other. Yesterday we just went for 90 minutes, got our legs back and I was very pleased. The good part about it is, we were able to step back and really work hard in the areas that we haven't been good at, and to spend more time improving players individually, and spending a lot of time working on our team collectively in terms of improving there. I like it, in a sense, but then we have another long layoff."
ON ALEC BURKS: "I think that he is entertaining. It's not only that but when we play this kind of basketball and we can rebound the ball and we can get out in the open court, it's winning basketball and it gives you a chance to win but it's also fun to watch when a team is sharing the basketball."
ON CHANGING STARTERS: "The players didn't even know who was going to start until today. It's going to change, let me tell you this, it's going to change. We need to sustain the energy for 40 minutes. The only reason I did that is with Dwight [Thorne], in all fairness to him, he is more of a combo kind of guard and he responded great in what, a half a game? He had 19 points in 18 minutes on 6-of-10 shooting and five assists and a steal. That's beautiful. It doesn't matter who starts, the starters only job is to get us off to good starts. It's not a rite of passage or entitlement to play extended minutes. Your effectiveness on the floor and quality of play will determine how long you stay out there."
ON PLAY OF MARCUS RELPHORDE: "Marcus, we talked about it with our staff. In our wins he gets three defensive rebounds a game, and he did that today. He got on the floor early on and got a loose ball. He had four assists and three steals and shot effectively. That's what we need from everybody. We need everybody to play at the highest level, individually and collectively as a team."
ON OFFENSIVE PLAY: "As long as we are taking good shots, knock on wood here, but we are pretty good shooting basketball team. But it's the quality of shots that's most important. Against CSU we drove in there and we were selfish. We were able to get by the first defender when they had two defenders waiting for us; we tried to force up shots one-on-three or one-on-two. When you have two people on you that means that someone else is open. We had open people all over the place, but we weren't very team oriented that day. I give Colorado State credit, but I am just saying that we learned a lesson from that that we need to keep sharing from that, and when we do we have got a chance to knock down shots because we shoot the ball pretty well."
ON DEFENSIVE PLAY: "First of all, defensive positioning needed to be worked on. We foul a lot and 90% of fouls are defensive mistakes that are results of poor defensive positioning. We have worked hard on our defensive positioning and to be one step ahead of the play. That's what we have utilized this time for over the past several days is to work on our defensive positioning. You may be a step slow, but you can be a step ahead in your mind and be in the proper spot, and that's what you have got to do. Being in the proper position puts you in a position to be able to help effectively and take those charges and things that we need to do to protect the rim. We were able to get some traps early on if you noticed, because our positioning was good. We scored 14 points in the first eight or nine minutes off turnovers."
Cal State Northridge Head Coach Bobby Braswell
ON POINTS OFF BENCH: "The majority of our points came off our bench and from walk-ons. What that says is that we weren't a very competitive group tonight. We didn't give Colorado much of a fight. We didn't give them a chance to see what kind of basketball team they had to be honest with you. We really just laid a big fat egg, it's very disappointing."
ON BETTER SHOOTING PERCENT IN SECOND HALF: "We couldn't do any worse than we did in the first half. Things could only, hopefully, get better. We were just not very competitive; it's very rare that I say that about the Northridge basketball team, but we just didn't compete tonight. It is very disappointing. As I told our guys we have until January 2 to find it, because we open up conference play and we are going to have to compete a lot better than that to have any chance in conference."
ON CU BEING FIRST OF THREE STRAIGHT ROAD GAMES: "We live on the road. It feels like we have played all of them on the road. There isn't much you can take from this except talk to them afterward and challenge them to compete harder and play harder. Right now our defense is like a sieve it doesn't matter what we do, man to man, zone, we are just too easy to score on right now. To me that just has to do with competitiveness and toughness. We've got injuries, we've got people that are out, but that is no excuse. We have got to play better. We are playing the walk-ons a lot of minutes, too many minutes probably, but if they are going to compete and play hard we're going to keep playing them."
Dwight Thorne II, Senior, Guard
ON CU'S BEST PERFORMANCE: "That's a hard question. I will say yes for now, ask me again later. We played well, I think we executed from the beginning. We did what we had to do to get the win. It was a good defensive effort and we kept them to 58 points. That has been a big thing, to maintain our intensity through the whole game. Tonight I think we did that better than we have all year. Unlike the CSU game, we shared the ball better and defended better. If we do those two things, we can compete with anybody and we will be hard to beat.
ON BREAK BETWEEN GAMES: "I think it's good and bad. I think Bzdelik has done a good job in practice switching it up. If we continue to sustain the things we can, it can give us the edge we need."
ON COMING OFF OF THE BENCH: "Coach said he was going to make some changes, and I am the change. I'm a grown man so I have to respond to it, so I just come out here and do what I have to do. I guess we'll take it day by day. I think Coach tries to measure personnel by who is playing well and things like that. If you're not playing well, then he is going to make changes. It's going to be his discretion, like everybody knows, I have no idea. It's something that I haven't done in a while. I just try to come in focused and try to get ready. That's pretty much my mindset, just come out and play hard."
Alec Burks, Freshman, Guard
GENERAL: "It felt like it was an up and down game and I felt like I got to show off my athleticism to the fans. I feel like that suits my game real well."
ON MOVING ON FROM CSU LOSS: "To get school over with, that's a good thing and to get that loss behind us. It was an important game to get our fans out there behind us."
ON EARLY SUCCESS: "I didn't know I would be this big at this point, but I have the talent to so I am not surprised."
ON BZDELIK'S COMMENT TO TEAM: "He said we rebounded better than we have before, but that's about it."
