Colorado University Athletics
Colorado, Kansas State Quotes
January 16, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Jeff Bzdelik
GENERAL-"We can spend a lot of time talking about the defensive rebounding, but when it is all said and done, we have to take care of the basketball better. We can't have that many turnovers, and we missed free throws. The spirit and the effort from our team is terrific. We just have to take care of the basketball, and when we have opportunities to get free points at the line, we have to cash in. It was a hard fought game, we just came up a little short."
ON THE AGGRESSIVE PLAY IN THE GAME- "Those were two teams playing very hard."
ON THE LOSS-"We are improving. We can be competitive with any team in the nation. We need to continue to grow and get better. When you play the quality of competition we are playing, you have to take care of the basketball; and you have to cash in on free opportunities, as I said with free throws. You have to block off better. We are undersized in there. Everybody knows that, but we had some opportunities. We failed to block off several times tonight with force. As our young players are beginning to understand, every possession matters, not only in a game, but in a season."
ON THE CROWD-"Our fans have been absolutely awesome. I sincerely hope they will continue to support this basketball team because if we can create the environment that we had tonight every night, we're going to have some fun in this building. We just played the 12th ranked team in the nation with two veteran guards. With only one senior on this team we continue to learn to value the ball and to get more comfortable in this kind of environment, against this kind of competition. This team will continue to grow and will be a good combination."
"Our fans are absolutely awesome and I sincerely hope they will come out and make this place a great environment. They have created a wonderful environment and I hope they will continue to support this young team and grow with them. We can turn this thing; I believe that. Our players care deeply; we're all disappointed because we wanted to win this for our fans. We wanted to do this for our fans. We didn't."
ON CHAUNCEY BILLUPS TALKING TO THE TEAM-"Yes, I had Chauncey talk to the team. Chauncey and I are very close, and I knew he was coming today. Chauncey has been very supportive. He's been awesome. He knows these guys."
ON THE OFFICIATING-"It's not always going to be easy. I often use this phrase, 'execute under duress.' It's a big phrase in the NBA. We've shot over 50 percent against the number one ranked team, the 12th ranked team, and the 22nd ranked team, and we came into this game ranked 15th in the nation (in shooting). It's hard for us because we can't throw it down to anybody on the block and get an easy bucket. It's hard to get into a flow, but that's where a patient aggressiveness and a willingness to share the ball pays off. Kansas State is an excellent defensive team. We held them to 42 percent. Think about how many easy ones they got that were underneath the rim. Defensively we are doing the right thing; we just don't finish possessions defensively. Just think, if we had finished those possessions, we could have held them in the 30s. How we solve that problem falls on me to recruit."
ON ALEC BURKS' DEVELOPMENT IN PRESSURE SITUATIONS-"Gaining wisdom and experience is a tough thing. Now he understands. He did well. He had three assists and six rebounds for us. I'm more concerned about the defensive end, but he's a talented young man. He's figuring it out. "
ON PLAYING KANSAS STATE TOUGHLY-"We always expect to win. That's why it hurts."
Kansas State Head Coach Frank Martin
ON NUMBER OF FOULS- "That's becoming a common theme with our basketball team. We commit most of them. We didn't foul early in the year, now all of a sudden all we do is foul and its bad defense bad basketball and we have to stop."
ON COLORADO KEEPING THE GAME CLOSE- "I don't know if arms length is the right words. They tied it, they were down one. They never really took the lead. I think they lead 42-40, then we made a three, and they never got it again. Our kids are fighters, they're battlers, and they have been through things like this. It is not their first away game. That's why at Missouri we didn't play well with the game on the line. Today we had a defensive break down late in the game and that was my fault. They have five guards, and I tried to put us into our zone press, dropping into a wide zone to match up with shooters, and that's when Dwight Thorne hit with 40 seconds to go. That's on me. I made a bad call."
ON RODENY MCGRUDER- "He's great in practice. He's been phenomenal. He's been really competing, but he still gets lost out there. He forgets certain things and he's not where he belongs but you can overcome mistakes if you play with effort. He is learning that. He can shoot that ball."
ON GETTING THE OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS- "That's what Dominique [Sutton] does. I've told him 'you can't do that I can't play you.' On a day where he didn't play well in most of the game, he made his free throws at the end. He still did what he needed to do to help us win the game."
ON RODENY MCGRUDER'S DEFENSE- "He has grown. I tell guys all the time, don't expect me to trust you to defend in the game, if you don't defend in practice. Games are for real. Practice is where you learn. He's battling and he's learning. Rodney is one of us. He's grown. That's the challenge as coaches to keep working those freshmen. He played his rear end off in the second half."
ON THE LARGE AMOUNT OF FREE THROWS TAKEN- "That's what we want. We need to pressure the rim. We need to utilize our size. Pressure teams into getting into their bench, and not settling for perimeter shots. We want to get those in transition. That's the shot we want. If we don't get those in transition, unless I've called a set the ball needs to get to the rim first then to the outside."
ON INSIDE GUYS WEARING OUT COLORADO- "We didn't make layups. We got the ball around, but we just couldn't make layups in the first half. You have to make those two foot shots; there is no excuse for that. They're kids, we came back and made them in the second half. We tried to force them to guard the rim, because we felt that was an advantage for us."
ON UPCOMING GAME AGAINST NUMBER ONE TEXAS- "It's a great opportunity for our basketball team. We play against the number one team in their building. We understand that were about to walk into a battle zone. That's why these kids signed up to play for us. Those are the kind of games they wanted to be in. They don't want to play against the sixth or seventh best; they want to play the best in our league. Those are the games our guys came to school here for. We have to be better or else were going to be in trouble. It's a tremendous opportunity not just for our players, our school, our program, everything, just to expose our program for the world to see."
Colorado Players
Cory Higgins, Junior, Guard
ON DIFFERENCE IN GAME- "Rebounds for one, that's the deal every game. Free throws. I missed four free throws; that puts us back in the game. Those are opportunities we can't miss. We don't have that luxury to miss opportunities like that"
ON MISSING SO MANY FREE THROWS- "I guess it did surprise us. We just have to step up there and make it. There is no excuse for missing free throws."
ON PLAYING IN FRONT OF A LARGE COLORADO CROWD- "It's the best pro-Colorado crowd I've seen at one of our games."
ON DIFFICULTY GETTING REBOUNDS- "Obviously we are undersized, but we can't use that as an excuse. We just have to scrap that much harder. There is no formula to it, we just have to try to do it."
Dwight Thorne II, Senior, Guard
ON DIFFICULTY GETTING INTO RHYTHM WITH THE AMOUNT OF FOULS CALLED- "There were a lot of fouls called. I don't understand why, I guess it was equally as bad on both ends. That makes it hard for us to get into a rhythm, I think for both teams, but you have to deal with it."
ON REFEREE SEPARATING TEAMS- "He told us that we were too good of players to be playing the way we were playing. He said we needed to clean it up."
ON THINGS LEARNED FROM THE GAME- "We have to continue to play hard. Even though we are undersized, we need to scrap and try to get rebounds. If we do that, the other things will come along."
Marcus Relphorde, Junior, Guard
ON EARLY FOUL TROUBLE- "It definitely affected it. Not being able to get into a rhythm. I feel like I could have really helped the team out offensively and defensively in the first half, but cheap fouls, questionable fouls, it hurt."
ON PHYSICAL PLAY- "It was a more physical game; I feel that it was just officiated closer. They weren't really letting us play. I don't want to blame it on the refs. We have played in more physical games than that."
ON BRINGING HIGH INTENSITY TO THE ROAD- "We have to play hard on the road. If we play hard, 100 percent effort, we're going to get some wins on the road too."
