Colorado, New Mexico Quotes
December 23, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General-"We didn't do a very good job of guarding the ball in the second half. We let them get in the lane in the first half. There were three things we knew we had to do coming into tonight's game. We had to try to limit their transition baskets as best we could. We did a really poor job of that in the first half they got a lot of transition buckets. The second thing we had to do was guard their ball screens. We did a very poor job of that in the first half and a much better job in the second half. The third thing we had to do was guard the basketball. We did a decent job of that in the first half and a really poor job of that in the second half. They got in the lane whenever they wanted; they just took us to the rack and that's how they shoot 61 percent for the game. You look at our field goal percentage defense, you look at the fact we got outrebounded by 12 on the boards, it's a testament to our guys' competitiveness that we held in there and made that a game. We were fouling at the end and that's how the margin got to 13. It was a six to eight point game, and when you look at those numbers, there's no way it should have been. We fought and we battled; I like that. I think there are some positive things we can take from this game, but their guard play was really good tonight."
On playing two days in a row-"To be honest with you, I wish we had maybe a day in between. I do. When you lose, you want to play as soon as you can again to get that taste out of your mouth. I would love to have more prep time. Obviously, they (Indiana) are in the same boat, so that's what I like tournament play; you both are playing back-to-backs, so it's not like there is a huge advantage either way. Our guys know what we have to do. It's not rocket science. We have to guard and we have to rebound at a high level if we want to play at a high level and win at a high level. Until we do that, there will be nights like this."
On playing Indiana-"It's a storied program. Tom Crean has been there now for three years and he's trying to instill a lot of the same things in that program in terms of pride and their toughness that we're trying to instill in our program. They're in a growth phase and we're in a growth phase. It's a great opportunity for us to play a storied program like Indiana. When I was a freshman (at Kansas) I had a chance to play Indiana in the consolation of a tournament at Christmas time at Madison Square Garden. We met them in the consolation and we beat them, and it was one of the most memorable times of my playing career because we beat Indiana. Our guys have the same opportunity tomorrow which we're thankful for."
On New Mexico's early run to start the game-"Transition; we let them in for easy baskets and we weren't getting back. They were running and dunking and getting to the rim whenever they wanted. We put some pressure on our offense by giving them easy baskets."
Alec Burks, Sophomore, Guard
On the loss-"I felt like we let them get in the paint too much. In transition, we didn't guard the ball real well tonight and that hurt us which is why we got a loss."
On how to beat Indiana-"We just need to do the same things we were supposed to do today, guard the ball, rebound, get stops in transition, and we'll be good."
On playing against former assistant Steve McClain-"It's a lot of emotion for me. He helped me out a lot my freshman year; he took care of me. When I needed something, he was there for me so it's always emotional playing against him."
On playing Indiana-"It's great experience to play against two great teams that are usually ranked. It helps us in preparing for league play."
On not being able to get the deficit fewer than six points-"I feel like we were just letting them in the paint too much. We would score but we kept trading baskets. That was the downfall of the game; we just let them score too much."
