Colorado University Athletics
Colorado, Texas Pan-American Quotes
December 01, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
On balanced scoring - "I think balance is good for our team, especially where we are right now. Every game is going to be different this year for us for scoring. The one thing that we did going into tonight's game is we challenged our team to play together, to make the extra pass, to play unselfishly. Those are things that we didn't do at Harvard on Sunday. I was really proud of all of our guys for doing that, especially Marcus (Relphorde) and Cory (Higgins) did a tremendous job as seniors are supposed to do when they are challenged. I think that rubs off. One guy makes the extra pass; the next guy makes the extra pass. We don't want to lose our aggressiveness, but we have to understand that against good defensive basketball teams, we're probably not going to be able to score with one or two passes. We have to make three, four, five, six, seven, eight, you know, as the possessions wear on. I was pleased with our balanced scoring tonight."
On first half defense versus second half defense - "Second half defense was probably the most disappointing thing about tonight's game. We gave up 45 points, and they 56 percent in the second half. It's nowhere near good enough, and our guys know that. Again, it's early and we're still learning and they're so many things we have to get better at. I thought the first half was good. We didn't find their shooters early; they hit three threes. They got those nine points pretty quick on us, but after that we did a really good job and settled in. But in the second half, we really lost our focus. They had 11 offensive rebounds. It's not good enough. Again, it's Texas-Pan American, but they did have a bunch of big, bruising guys down there for 11 offensive rebounds. It's not going to cut it."
On Nate Tomlinson's status - "I don't know; I haven't talked to the doctors or trainers yet, but I will as soon as we get done here. We'll find out as the night goes on. It was just a hard screen, and he took a shot to the neck, so his neck was very, very tender. They took him to get x-rays, but I don't know any of the results."
On teamwork - "We've got some pretty talented players on this team, and sometimes the game comes too easy, and what happens is you play against a good, defensive team and things don't come too easy. You have to work for whatever you get, and Harvard was one of those teams that we just tried to do it all by ourselves, so one of the things we talked about was we have to make each other better. We have to play together. We have to set screens. We have to play within ourselves, and not try to do everything off the dribble. You could see tonight the tendency was to go with it, especially early. What I don't want to do is I don't want to take away our aggressiveness offensively. If we want to push it, we still want to run; we don't want to change anything. It's just in the half-court; we've got to move the ball a little bit more than we have. Again, I thought it was a step forward tonight and it shows in our numbers. Against Harvard we shot 38 percent. Tonight we shoot 54 percent. Part of that is the defense we're playing against, but part of that is the way we're playing."
On Marcus Relphorde playing for another new coach this season - "That's a question Marcus has to answer. I've talked to Marcus, I feel bad for him. Having to adjust to a new guy every single year, but Marcus is a smart player. He understands the game. I think sometimes he gets frustrated. Tonight I thought he played with a maturity that we're going to need as this season goes on. I'm proud of him for that."
On sharing the ball - "It's making the extra pass; it's playing together. It's not doing everything off the dribble. The dribble is going to be a part of it, but the downside tonight is we only got to the free throw line 13 times. Normally we've been getting there upper-20s, low-30s. Each night is going to be different. Every night probably won't be like this. If we can find the balance in when do we go, when do we put it on the floor and attack, when do we have to move the ball side-to-side and get six or seven passes before we get a shot. That's the maturity we need to have come, and the balance we need to find. It's early and these guys are still trying to adapt to our system, and what the coaches are asking them to do. But again, we have smart players, and I think we took a step forward tonight on that end of the floor. Second half defense, we didn't."
Texas-Pan American Head Coach Ryan Marks
On the game-"I thought Colorado's mentality early in the game was great. I thought they were very mentally sharp, particularly from a defensive standpoint. For the first 20 minutes of the game they had us out of rhythm offensively more so than any opponent we have played so far this year."
On Cory Higgins and Alec Burks-"You have to pick your poison. We were very cognizant of helping on Higgins and Burks. We felt like if they are going to beat us, we want to see them beat us differently than they are accustomed to. (Levi) Knutson and (Marcus) Relphorde are very good shooters so playing off of them as much as we did was a gamble and we had our fingers crossed that they wouldn't shoot quite as well as they did."
On changes made in the second half-"From a mental approach we had to be more stubborn about executing our offense. I think we did a little better job of backing their pressure off. We were a lot better in the second half offensively, but I am not sure we didn't digress defensively."
On rebounding-"Our energy level typically is good. For us, in a sense you think a smaller team may struggle rebounding, but because of our quickness, and in many ways we are playing four guards which is different from what (Colorado) will see in the Big 12, I think our quickness allowed us to get to a lot of offensive boards and loose balls."
Colorado Student-Athletes
Levi Knutson, Senior, Guard
On his thoughts of the game - "I think for the most part we played hard today. We played unselfishly, we played as a team, and that's what we are looking for the most."
On the playmaking abilities of Cory Higgins and Alec Burks - "We have a lot of guys that can make plays for each other on this team. Cory and Alec are guys that want to share the ball, and they showed it tonight. Obviously they are both talented players, so it's good when they are scoring too. We have depth and ability to score at a lot of positions which helps our team."
On the defense in tonight's game - "Obviously we gave up 45 points in the second half. We are not too happy about that. We had a better defensive half in the first half, so we need to string together 40 minutes of that kind of defense."
Marcus Relphorde, Senior, Guard
On the emphasis of good defense - "The whole season we have been trying to play hard on defense. We focus more on the defensive end and let the offense come. I think we were finally able to string together some defensive stops, which is something we have been trying to do and the mentality we were able to do that. We were more consistent. The more consistent you get with that, in the second half if we keep doing that, we can be a better team. I think it can get more wins for us."
On playing well at home compared to playing poorly on the road - "It's the same game, I think it's a lot of things. We just have to mature more as a team, be more patient on the offense end and get more stops on defense. It's the same game, but we have to come together and play more as a team. I think we can get more wins."
On playing in a different system - "It is fairly easy. I have played in a lot of different systems, it's not that complicated, but it is still an adjustment. I think the further that the season goes we have to get together, practice more as a team and get more adjusted."
