Colorado, Maryland Eastern Shore Quotes
December 30, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General - "Not our best effort that we've had, but it is better to learn from a win than a loss obviously. We just need to take this one and move on and try to get better. I was not real pleased with our effort tonight, especially in the first half. Once we locked in defensively, we held them to 32 for I don't know how long, but we held them to one point after that for the rest of the half. We never put them away until midway in the second half."
On if he was worried - "We've done a pretty good job on that, especially at home. I think there is a philosophy in college basketball in the 30 or something games you play, you play five below your ability level, you kind of stink it up and it wasn't your night for whatever reason. I think there are five games that you play above your heads a little bit, shots are going in and you are feeling good. Somewhere in the middle-twenties are who you are as a team. I think this is one of the five games on the former end that we weren't ready mentally and emotionally for whatever reason. As a coach you look at yourself. I told myself in the middle of the first half that I didn't have our team ready to play coming out of the chute tonight. I have to take ownership in that just as much as our players do because we are in this thing together."
On if he is happy with ball movement - "We shot 59 percent; we shot 75 percent in the first half. We moved the ball. We had 19 assists. I thought Nate Tomlinson in the second half came in, he had six assists, he wasn't in the flow of the game tonight. His hip is bothering him again a bit. He wasn't himself, but he got our team going by just making plays for other guys. I thought individually we had some great efforts. Austin Dufault did a great job tonight, our guys were looking for him down low and he was productive when he got it. I thought Shannon Sharpe played well in the minutes that he played. There are some positives that you take from this as well as some things that you have to learn from."
On if he is concerned with his team's one-on-one defense - "Guarding the ball is something that we work on, we will continue to work on, we will work on tomorrow morning when we practice, and it was on the board when we took the floor. It is a concern for this team; we have to guard the ball better than we did tonight. We've shown some improvement in that area as the season has gone on, but we are not where we need to be. Before the end of the shot clock, we are either going to be in a pick-and-roll situation or we are going to be in a one-on-one situation, where they are going to try and drive it down our throats."
On Austin Dufault's development - "Austin has been terrific. I think he is really starting play with confidence. He kind of knows his role. He knows what is expected of him. I think from a post-defensive standpoint, I think he has gotten better and better and better as the year has gone on. I like it when our guys look for him. The first thing that I look at, at Austin is his rebounding. I talked to him about it at shoot-around today; when you are in that six, seven, eight rebound range, that means that you have had a productive night. Some nights he has been there, some nights he hasn't."
On playing a shorter team - "We don't read much into it, but we always want to play inside-out, whether we are playing a team that is short or a team like Baylor that has a huge front line. We always want to play inside-out, whether it's posting the ball to our bigs or whether it's driving to the rim and attacking the paint and creating opportunities for our shooters. We didn't approach this game like, 'Oh, their short; their weak inside, lets exploit them.' We want to play that way every night."
On what he was looking to see from his team going into tonight's game - "I was looking for a step in the right direction in terms of our mental approach. You are coming off a win against Indiana in Las Vegas, a big win for a basketball program, and it is the first game after the break, it is a game that your players sometimes overlook, and I was hoping that we weren't going to do that. They can answer if they did or didn't, I just know that we weren't ready to play from the get-go. I don't feel good about tonight, and I don't necessarily think that we got better as a basketball program tonight, but we have a chance to do that tomorrow. That is all that you can do."
Maryland Eastern Shore Head Coach Frankie Allen
General-"The level of competition in terms of how we came out and played was something I think we could build on in the first half. We've got to be more consistent. We've got to be able to fight through some adversity and be a little more consistent with our effort. At halftime we were down 13 (points), but with about three-and-a-half or four minutes to go, it was a two-point game. The Buffaloes were able to turn it up a notch and go to a second gear, and we just can't seem to find that second gear. I took away some things here, feeling good about a half of basketball against a Big 12 opponent. As the game wore on, we just became a little bit dysfunctional. We've got to do a better job of being a little more consistent in how we do things as the game goes on. Once Colorado got the lead up to around 20 (points), we kind of got away from the things that we do offensively and defensively. If we could just be more consistent in our play, I would feel a lot better. There were some good spots but not enough."
On what worked early in the first half-"I thought we got good shots off the ball-screen. I thought we did a better job of running the offense in the first half. Everybody touched the ball, and we took it side to side; but like I said, I didn't think we did enough good things together, but I am pleased that we showed some signs. We just have to build off the positives, the things we did well in the first half, and we got a few things going in the second half, but it was not enough things to turn the tide."
On looking forward-"When we get back, I know we're taking Josh (Bright) to the hospital. Josh is such a competitor, and I hope things go well with him. We're looking forward to getting back and getting ready for Oklahoma. If I could take away some positives from this game, the opening we definitely can build on as we head into conference play."
Colorado Student-Athletes
Marcus Relphorde, Senior, Guard
On defensive struggles-"I think a lot of times we play good defense for 20 or 25 seconds, and then it's one little letdown. A lot of it is mental too. Somebody may tip a ball in and score, or get by somebody last second. I think we just need to focus in on the whole 35 seconds, and then after the shot getting rebounds so they aren't getting put-backs and easy baskets like that."
On what to improve on for Big 12 play-"We need to get better at everything. Coach (Boyle) actually went over the numbers with us today, and offensively we're top three in pretty much every category in the Big 12, but defensively we're sitting at the bottom. We definitely have to work at gearing down on defense, and getting our defensive field goal percentage up, lowering it as low as possible, and then just our rebounding margin, which is what coach has been talking to us about a lot."
On being undefeated at home-"It's important. Every game is important to us. We're trying to get as many wins as possible; that's what we're trying to do."
Austin Dufault, Junior, Forward
On the team's performance tonight-"(We played) not very well. Mentally, I just thought that we weren't really there tonight. It showed in the first half especially."
"It's definitely disappointing because we talk about it all the time that we try to hold ourselves to our own standard and hold ourselves accountable, and not play to the level of our competition. For the first half, and some of the second half, we felt like we didn't do that tonight. It's all about the guys on the team, and tonight we just didn't do that."
On his performance-"I thought I played well. I had some pretty easy looks, so I had to pretty much just put them in. There were some good passes from my teammates."
On gaining confidence after the win-"You just look at both positive and negative things from a game, and learn from it, but it's on the back burner, so you've got to focus on the next game. I know we're going to be playing a lot bigger guys, and tougher competition coming forward, so you can't get too excited about it. You can't get too happy with yourself."
