Colorado University Athletics
Colorado, Baylor Quotes
January 13, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Jeff Bzdelik
GENERAL-"First, I would like to thank our students and our fans. They were absolutely awesome and contributed in a big way to this win. It is a combination of the fans and playing well. Our players really competed and played well against a very good team in Baylor. We only had five turnovers, and none of those five were bad turnovers. We really did a great job of taking care of the basketball. We lost (LaceDarius) Dunn in the first half, but we did a better job of that in the second half. We competed and made some timely shots."
ON F TREY ECKLOFF-"He has not played very much this year. But to his credit as a young player, he has never put his head down. He has battled, listened, and is coachable. He is a great example of someone getting better. He has had great practices, and I have confidence to use him in the game. I thought he did a good job defensively, and contributed in a big way."
ON THE LAST TWO GAMES-"This was a very important game because we had a great crowd and were playing a ranked opponent. We played well at Texas, who was the number one team in the country. We have been playing well and are getting better and we just have to continue to do that. To be able to get rewarded for the great effort that our players are making to improve is huge."
ON G MARCUS RELPHORDE-"Marcus has had five different coaches in five years. That is really difficult on anybody to understand their role. For him to finally understand what we expect out of him, and how he fits in has made him more instinctive and less robotic."
Baylor Head Coach Scott Drew
ON SECOND HALF PLAY-"It started on the defensive end. One thing we have to do is credit Colorado because at the end of the day they are the ones that made the shots. When you shot 62% from the field and then 57% you will be tough to beat. We gave up 51 in the second half. This Colorado team, we held them to 50% and they shot 54% at Texas, so this is a good team. I think the big thing here is that you look at it and the Big 12 is 1-14 now; it's tough to win on the road. I think this was Colorado's largest crowd and they did a great job, it was much different than previous years playing up here. There is a reason they are undefeated at home so I have to give them a lot of credit.
ON LEARNING FROM MISTAKES-"As for us, I think this game can be a great learning tool. This was the first time we have had a close road game and there are a lot of things we can go forward with and improve upon. We can use this game the rest of the season and looking back this can be a great game for us. Hopefully we will be able to take advantage of some of those things and get better. With that being said I know we outrebounded them 38-25 but normally we do a much better job with second chance points. We only forced them to give up five turnovers yet they forced us to 18 and a lot of those were unforced and a lot were early in the game. There are a lot of areas we have to get better in and improve in; the good thing is it's early in the season. Another thing is if you wanted to be a ranked team you are going to get the others team's A-game."
ON COLORADO'S BIG SHOTS-"You really have to give Colorado credit in that second half because we didn't play as good as we could defensively and they made the shots at the end of the day and some of them were tough shots. Again, if you are going to lose, you would rather lose against a team that plays well. I think they earned it and I think we have to get better."
ON COLORADO'S CROWD-"I think Colorado's crowd was a big factor. They had great energy and I really credit the team, they hit big shots and at the end of the day they earned the win."
ON COLORADO OVERCOMING BAYLOR'S HEIGHT ADVANTAGE-"First thing they did was force us to have 18 turnovers, which is a lot of attempts we could have used. They put good pressure on us that affected us and we didn't play as well as we need to play to win on the road."
Colorado Players
Cory Higgins, Junior, Guard
ON HOW THIS GAME RANKS COMPARED TO OTHERS- "This is defiantly up there. It's been a tough stretch this past couple of years, and I feel like we're breaking through that door."
ON CONFIDENCE GAINED FROM GAME- "I think we have been building more and more confidence from the non-conference, and from over at Texas. We know we can play with anyone. Unlike in the past we expect to win these games. It's a lot different this year."
ON HOME COURT ADVANTAGE- "It helps a lot. Everything from them missing free throws the fans had so much to do with that. On defense the fans had a lot to do with that too. It's huge for us."
ON WHEN THE TEAMS HAD TO BE SEPERATED- "I don't know, it was just people talking back and forth, getting heated and frustrated."
ON COACH BZDELIK CALLING THE TEAM MILD- "I don't think we're mild anymore. We are a whole different team. We have a whole different swagger on this team compared to the ones in the past."
ON PUTTING TEXAS LOSS BEHIND THEM- "You cannot dwell on one game in the Big 12. Every game is going to be a fight, so after the game we have to move on to the next. So we are looking forward to Kansas State."
ON HALF TIME ADJUSTMENTS- "They are a good team, so we knew what they were going to run. We had to pick up the energy because that is what gave us the lead in the first half. We had to get stops and once we started doing that we got easy buckets in transition. That really helped us."
ON PLAYING AGAINST THE ZONE DEFENSE- "We had trouble because we were not being aggressive playing against the zone, just swinging the ball around the outside. Once we started getting in the gaps we were getting open shots and hitting them down."
ON GAINING RESPECT AROUND THE BIG 12- "I don't know it doesn't really matter to us. No one wants to respect us anyways, so we have to take it."
Alec Burks, Freshman, Guard
ON GAME PLAN- "I try to stay aggressive all game, like coach tells me to. I think that worked to my advantage tonight."
ON PLAYING WITH PRESSURE- "I don't believe in pressure. I don't think it was. I just had to step up and knock them down, so that's what I did. I don't really believe in that so that's how I play."
ON BALANCE IN SCORING- "We just have so many weapons, you can't stop all of us. We have so many weapons out there compared to last year, when we only had Cory out there. This year we just have a lot more balance out there."
Marcus Relphorde, Junior, Guard
ON MAKING EFFORT TO DRIVE THE LANE- "The strategy was to be more aggressive, because they have a lot of shot blockers. They collapse when you drove so you could drive and kick it or you could drive and draw fouls on their big men."
ON RAISING PLAY FOR CONFERENCE GAMES- "I haven't changed my game I'm just starting to get more comfortable with everything, and it is all starting to come easier."
ON FAN SUPPORT- "We had great fan support today. It was crazy. If we could have that every game and feed off that I think it will help us get a lot of wins this season, especially at home."
ON STOPPING FRONT LINE- "They have a really good front line. Ekpe Udoh is a really good player. He can score from the mid post, deep post, and they have some big guys and we are a little undersized so you have to battle out there. We have a lot of centers who are starting to step up and play, Trent Eckloff, Austin Dufault and Shane Harris-Tunks, so we have three guys we can throw in there and just make it tougher."
ON HALF TIME ADJUSTMENTS- "We just had to fight through the screens. Dunn battled through some of the screens in the first half and he got on a little roll. We just had to toughen up on defense and battle through those screens and keep a hand in his face because he is a good shooter."
