Colorado University Athletics
Colorado, Missouri Quotes
February 21, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Jeff Bzdelik
GENERAL?“We're not yet strong enough or tough enough collectively for all 40 minutes. I told you I would never use youth as an excuse and I won't; they need to grow up. They'll win when they get tired of losing. I need to see a will and a want to be strong around the rim: rebounding, finishing, being strong with the ball, and executing under duress. We played a team with three seniors and a couple of juniors that play predominantly. They [
ON PRESSURING THE TEAM TO GROW UP QUICKLY?“If this doesn't sting you, I hurt. Our fans hurt. At some point you have to say enough is enough. You can say, ?well we're young and we've lost so many games by single digits,' but I'm not into that. On the flip side, I knew this would be a challenging year. I feel great about the vision for this program and how we are going to do it, feel great about the future. Successful people are only momentarily discouraged. I knew we would have to climb this mountain, but you understand that in climbing this mountain you have to put pressure on them to succeed. I told them, teams like Missouri and Kansas and Oklahoma are not only going to be in the tournament but are going to be seeded highly and these teams are going to go far, why can that not someday be you?' Changing the culture here to have them understand that is why I'm putting pressure on them.”
“We've got them to the point where they understand what to do and how to do it. Now there comes a point where what separates great from good and good from average. Coach [Bobby] Knight once said, ?the mental is to the physical as one is to one.' The point is there has to be a collective desire. A will and a want to when the ball is up on the glass or you're going to the rim. We took four charges in the first half, that's an improvement. It took us a month to get four charges earlier in the year. But it has to be all the time because we are not good enough, and no one is in this league, to only be operating on three cylinders and not four. It has to be a collective effort and some guys are starting to get it. We need everyone to get it.”
ON MISSOURI F LEO LYONS?“We never put a body on him, he had four offensive rebounds. We work on technique, we work on drills and our guys do a great job of blocking the managers out with pads. Rebounding is not about size, it's about putting a body on someone and driving them back. In the first half we allowed Leo to catch the ball deep on the block. We need to deny him, get into his legs and drive him back. We don't teach just letting them catch the ball; we're not good enough to let someone catch the ball there. All these little things add up. I'm into this here. I'm tough on these young guys because we need to grow up fast.”
ON CHANGING THE MINDSET OF THE PROGRAM?“You'll win when you're tired of losing. We honestly have a few guys who have that mindset. I'm excited about our future. I'm exciting about building this thing the right way. I said when I came here, I wouldn't be able to wave a magic wand. If we are going to build this right, we are going to have go through these times. I read something on leadership the other day from
“They are wired right. Losing can beat you up and there's a lot of teams that have thrown the towel in because they have less character. Our guys haven't. We don't play well all the time but they are trying and competing which is testimony to how they are as people and how they're wired. I'm going to keep challenging and keep pushing them. They're growing up the hard way but that's a good thing.”
Missouri Head Coach Mike Anderson
GENERAL?“In the last 6 minutes, I thought we would insert our starters and a nine point lead turned into a fifteen point lead. We were able to just ease away. I thought fatigue was a big factor in the game. We had some other guys come off the bench and they played well. We are getting a lot of other guys that are starting to contribute. So our four guys like Leo [Lyons], Demarre [Carroll], Ziar and JT can play quality minutes because they know they have got some guys coming off the bench. You can just see the trust continuing to grow in our basketball team.”
ON KIM ENGLISH?“He is a young guy. Young guys are going to be up and down. He is learning. Some guys try to go get it different ways. A lot of thing are different, things you can do at home , you can't do on the road. This is a learning process for him. For all of our freshman, it's a learning process. He [did not start the second half because he] had three fouls.”
ON HAVING A WEEK OFF?“We were a little rusty. But we played ten guys. We played well.”
ON HAVING TEN WINS?“We are playing with a lot of confidence. We have some guys that really like to win.”
ON REASON FOR WINNING ON THE ROAD?“Players. Attitude. Leadership is helping our team a lot right now. We play hard and work hard. Things are just falling into place.”
ON BEING HUMBLE?“That is exactly what our team is going to do, be humble and hungry. We take it one game at a time. We are going to stay focused on what we can control. And what we can control is the next game.”
ON LEO LYONS' FOURTH FOUL?“We saw how he was playing. He was talking, he was active. When that takes place, you just let him go.”
ON LAST FOUR GAMES?“There is a sense of urgency. I told the guys I want them to play a little more athletic, and they did. This was Leo [Lyon's] first foul out. He was trying to play defense.”
Colorado Players
Austin Dufault, Freshman, Forward
GENERAL-“They're a good team. They're a tough matchup for a lot of people. Their scramble defense is pretty tough to play against at times. They are just a well coached team.”
ON BEING DEFENDED BY LEO LYONS?“He is a big athletic player. He got to offensive rebound a lot, especially in the first half. I think he had four offensive rebounds in the first half. He came to play tonight. He didn't get to play against us last time when we were there. He played really hard.”
ON OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES?“We have been getting pretty good looks, I think. We have to be more mentally tough, just be stronger and knock them down around the rim. We have played two good defensive teams, but at the same time we have gotten a lot of good looks and we just have to be strong enough mentally to knock them down. Any time you give up nine offensive rebounds, you are digging yourself a hole. We have to continue to try to improve in that area.”
ON AGGRESSIVE PLAY?“I was too tentative in the first half. I needed to be more aggressive, especially on the rebounding. I was letting Lyons and [Demarre] Carroll push me around a little bit. I have to get over that, playing against seniors. No matter how old you are, you have to go out there and play the game. I think I figured that out the second half. I played hard and tried to help out my team in any way I could. Coach [Bzdelik] got on me a little bit, got me fired up, and a little ticked off. I came out in the second half with a different attitude. He reminded me I didn't have any rebounds in the first half, and that I got a shot blocked in the middle of the first half. He told me I have to go strong, or I am going to continue to get blocked. That kind of hit a button with me, especially the rebounding part.”
ON TENTATIVE FIRST HALF?“All of the sudden you realize that I can play and I just have to go out there and play as hard as I can all 40 minutes. If I do that, good things will happen. If I am not aggressive, no good will come of that. At times I have been tentative, I have to go out and play as hard as I can.”
Jermyl Jackson-Wilson, Senior, Forward
GENERAL?“You can get down a little bit, but you have to bounce back. I guess as long as the sun shines, you can have good spirits. There is always a new day. The moon comes up, the sun goes down. There is always another day to work hard; a better day to play basketball. All you can try to do is continue to try to get better.”
ON TEAM MORALE?“I have said it before, some teams make the post season play, but they may not have the best record. You just have to keep playing hard. You can't count yourself out. You have to continue to go together. Some teams peak early, some teams peak later in the season. Obviously, we have not played our best basketball, or we have not gotten into the win column at least. I would not mind playing my best basketball in March, beating every team then. Of course I want to win every game we play, but if we win the rest of our games in March, that would be a good thing. [The team] all knows no one is giving up on our team. If they have given up they are not in our locker room anymore, and they are not on our team. I take that to heart. If somebody is out there thinking this is over, it's not over. It's not over for me. On behalf of the team, it's not over for anyone.”
ON STRENGTH OF BIG-12?“You can't go into any game thinking you are just going to win. It was a tough game playing at Missouri at the beginning of the Big-12. We played a little bit better, but we didn't get the win obviously. Every team is touch. You know, Oklahoma, Kansas, and we have a tough game Wednesday. There is no game in this league that is not tough. They may be ranked differently, but everyone is going to give you their best effort.”
Missouri Players
Demarre Carroll, Senior, Forward
ON HAVING A WEEK OFF?“We got off to a fast start. We've been trying to train for the altitude. But I think that kind of had an effect. It's just one of those things. But we picked up a big win, and hopefully we can go back home and protect our home territory.”
ON DIFFERENT COLORADO TEAM?“Colorado is a way better team than they were when they came to Mizzou. We knew that their fans were going to help and they were going to give us their best shot. I think we just came together more now than ever.”
ON LEO LYONS' 15 REBOUNDS?“That's him. You know he is supposed to do that. It's the last four games. We keep telling each other, you know let's do it. Let's go all out. It's getting close to the end of the season. He has got to show he can rebound.”
ON TEN CONFERENCE WINS?“We don't look at that yet. We have got four games left. We are stronger than we were last year, or the year before that. We can be out of a game, and come back in a matter of minutes. We just have to keep coming together when we go on the road.
Leo Lyons, Senior, Forward
ON COLORADO DOUBLE-TEAMING DEMARRE CARROLL?“We figured that out early. I was moving around on the perimeter a little more than he was so [Colorado] really did not get the chance to double me.”
ON REBOUNDS?“I was trying to be aggressive. We talked about them being the worst rebounding team in the league, and we tried to take advantage of that.”
ON FOURTH FOUL?“It is the good thing about being a senior, you can put your hand up and tell them [your bench] to sit down. I wanted to make something happen before I came out. We are used to being in foul trouble. Some refs call if different from other ones. Our bench makes our team. We put so much effort, and then they come out and give the same type of effort, there is no drop off when our bench is in there. That makes us one of the top teams.”
ON THE MEANING OF TEN CONFERENCE WINS?“It means nothing right now. Of course we have not done this in a while, but we want more than just conference wins. It is still a letdown, we lost some games on the road we should not have. We still have a lot more improvement to do. We just try to take it game by game.”
ON MISSING THE FIRST COLORADO GAME THIS SEASON?“I just knew that they have not seen me this year. You could kind of tell from the beginning, they were trying to double Demarre, but they left me one-on-one. Me not playing [in the first game] kind of helped me a little bit.”
