Colorado University Athletics
Colorado, Western New Mexico Quotes
January 06, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
GENERAL-"Needless to say pregame speech number 15 is going into the trash. I'm never using that one again. I'm looking forward to Saturday, let's put it that way. I'm glad this is behind us. I want to move forward. I want to answer the questions that you have but focus our attention to Missouri and get ready for the Tigers."
ON IF THE TEAM IS READY FOR SATURDAY - "They'll be ready. There is no question. I think this is the time of the year where you talk to coaches around the country and I've talked to some coaching friend of mine - when you get to the end of the preseason and you look around the league tonight and see who everyone played, they all had tune up games so to speak and this was ours. And it is hard for your players and it is hard for your coaches. You have to look at yourself first and I didn't do a good job in preparing my team in terms of emotionally being ready to take the floor and I think that showed. We all have to hold ourselves accountable and [assistant] coach Mike Rohn did a great with the scouting. It wasn't on him; it was on me for not getting our tam ready emotionally so I take responsibility for that too. We'll be ready Saturday."
ON WHERE THE TEAM STANDS - "I really like the improvement we've made over the last four or five weeks. I think we've gotten better. I think we understand that we are a heck of a lot better collectively when we play together on both ends of the floor. We are not good enough to go one-on-one - tonight we were but I think our players understand that we need to play together on both ends of the floor to be successful in our league. I think we have gotten better defensively, but that is something that we have to continue to get better at. There are eight teams in our league that over the whole preseason held their opponents to under a 40 percent field goal percentage. So there are eight pretty good defensive teams and we are not one of those eight so we have a ways to go to improve in that area. We have a ways to go in rebounding. We have to rebound by committee, there is just not going to be one guy. We have talked about that all season long. Those are the two areas that I am going to beat like it's a dead horse because when we do those things we have a chance to beat a lot of teams."
ON IF ANDRE ROBERSON IS EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS - "You never know with freshman. You hope and know how talented they are and what their upside is but you don't know how they are going to play when you throw them in the fire. For that kid to have three double-doubles in the first 15 games, I expect him to get every rebound. There is one that he didn't get in the second half and I myself was getting mad at him because I expect a lot out of him. He has exceeded our expectations and I am very proud in the way that he has played. We are going to need him in Big 12 play. We are going to need him to rebound the basketball at a high level."
ON THE MESSAGE HE WAS SENDING TO HIS STARTERS, SWITCHING THEM OUT EARLY - "We weren't ready to play obviously and if your starters are not ready to play, it is hard to obtain the respect of the guys on the bench. We're not sure if all the bench guys were ready. It is not like they came in and we came roaring back. So it was a team thing, but I think it was something that obviously had to be done. You've got to wake them up somehow. I do think when we put the starters back in that we saw a different level of intensity. We got stops and narrowed the gap and we took the lead. Our players are smart and they know what is ahead of them. They know that they weren't ready."
ON THINGS NOT TURNING AROUND RIGHT AWAY AFTER THE SWITCH - "To the defensive of the guys coming in, that was a tough lineup to defend. We had Levi [Knutson] at the point, had Javon [Coney] at the two and had Andre [Roberson] at the three and Ben [Mills] and Trey [Eckloff]. We don't practice that lineup. It is all about effort and getting stops. You can go the entire first four minutes without scoring but if you are going to do that then you can't have the other team scoring every time they touch the ball. And that is what we were doing. We had three empty possessions and 'boom' three of their first possessions they scored with the basketball."
ON WHAT TURNED THE GAME AROUND - "Getting stops. The only way you can extend leads, get leads and keep leads is by getting stops. Because when you get into trading baskets, you are relying on your offense. We have seen low Division-I teams and Division-II teams like tonight and there is a lot of talented offensive basketball players at any level, and what separates the men from the boys is who wants to get down defensively and get stops. That is what it comes down to. I don't care what league you are in. It doesn't matter. I sound like a broken record, but it is just what I believe in and if you look around in college basketball, those are the successful teams."
ON IF HE WAS RESTING NATE TOMLINSON FOR SATURDAY - "Yeah Nate will be ready. He has had some issues with his hip. He'll practice tomorrow and he'll be ready to go Saturday."
ON IF NOT HAVING TOMLINSON AFFECTED THE TEAM EARLY IN THE GAME - "I don't know. The thing about Nate is that he is the kind of guy that tries to make everyone better. I look at the fact that we had 36 total baskets and only 12 total assists. I think that will be a little bit different if Nate is in the game. The one thing that Nate does is he really looks to set up his teammates. It was a hard game because we could get the ball to the basket at almost any time we wanted, but we have to have more assists. Twelve assists on 36 baskets is not what we are looking for. We are looking for the 22-23 number."
ON WHAT THE TEAM DID WELL AFTER SLOW START - "I thought we got the ball inside offensively and we turned them over 16 times. I think defensively we were black in double teaming the ball screens. I think we did a good job of that at times in the second half. We forced some turnovers and again offensively we got the ball inside pretty darn well. We didn't always finish when we got it in there but we got it in there. We want to play inside-out offensively. I thought that was good."
ON MISSOURI - "It starts with handling their pressure. They come in and they try and put pressure on you for 40 minutes and you have to handle that. I want to run, but I want to run on our terms. I think controlling the tempo against Missouri is critical. The way you control the temp is by controlling the basketball and attacking when the situation presents itself and knowing when you bring it out to run some offense, to make them work defensively. Their guards are very good. They are a talented team; you don't get into the top ten by accident. They have good players, they are deep, they well coached, they are a good basketball team. But with that being said I think we matchup with the very well in terms of our personnel. What it comes down to in conference play is who is executing at the higher level and who is guarding and rebounding at the higher level."
ON STUDENTS RETURNING FROM BREAK - "I thought the students that were here over break did a great job coming into the games. Their numbers were obviously down. Hopefully Saturday they will be trickling back. The home court at Coors is going to be very important to us and it starts on Saturday. The fan support has been great over the holiday break with the people that have been here, but the price of poker is going up starting Saturday. We know that and I think our fans know that. Hopefully it will be a great atmosphere come 11:30 on Saturday."
Western New Mexico Head Coach Mark Coleman
ON TAKING AN 18-6 EARLY LEAD-"That's always nice. We don't come into these games expecting a win obviously. To make Coach [Boyle] yell at his guys and take timeouts and pull his five starters off kind of makes us feel good because we want to be competitive and we do a good job of that. They are a talented team. They are bigger than we are, faster than we are, and stronger than we are. We come here to battle and get a good experience out of it, but also play well and give us some confidence going into our next conference game."
ON COMING OFF TWO CONFERENCE WINS-"We played UTEP and Sam Houston State -- both are DI teams. We didn't play well, we didn't battle, and we laid down for those two teams, but we didn't do that tonight. I'm proud of them for that and the two wins we had in conference on the road. They were a huge hit for us, and we could have very easily lost at the buzzer or with one second left, and that was a spring board for us in the Mines game. We played well and they were undefeated but we ended up coming out with a win against the first place team in the conference and that was a spring board to tonight. Like I said, we don't expect to win these games, we'd love to win these games but it's a rarity. I'm happy that we battled and that we competed."
ON COLORADO'S 17-2 RUN IN THE FIRST HALF-"Colorado obviously stepped up their game and played the way they were capable of playing. We also got fast break baskets where we rebounded well and could run down the floor, but Colorado started scoring and we weren't getting baskets. Then we had to set up our offense and play right into their hands. Because they are long and they are strong, for us to have to execute our offense on a consistent basis is a problem for us against a team like this. I would say that's the biggest contribution to the 17-2 run is that they stepped up their efforts scoring. We weren't getting stops and they were also getting offensive rebounds and forced us to set up our offense far too many times."
ON WHAT HE TOLD HIM TEAM AFTER THE GAME-"I told them I'm proud of them. They didn't back down. We played earlier in the year against New Mexico State and took a beating and that's because we didn't battle. We also lost to Sam Houston State because we didn't battle. These guys can battle. They are a Big 12 team and whether they are No. 1 or No.12 they are talented no matter where they are in the Big 12. To come out here and compete and play well against them I'm proud of them. Just now we have to take the next step to Friday when we play Adams State."
ON PLAYING FIVE GAMES IN SEVEN DAY-"It is quite a road trip. It's not like we're the Lakers and having an east coast swing or anything, but we'd just be sitting at home doing nothing. There's no one on campus, so it's nice to get these guys out and away from sitting around doing nothing. We're playing games. These guys like to play and would rather not practice. It's a tough road trip, but we'll get through it. The two conference wins earlier helped make it a lot more enjoyable."
Colorado Student-Athletes
Alec Burks, Sophomore, Guard
On the slow start-"We just came out flat, and they took advantage of it. That's what happens when you come out flat like that. People are going to take advantage of it and score. We got our heads together at the timeout, and we pulled out the win."
On whether they may have been looking ahead toward Missouri-"I wouldn't say that. I would just say we weren't ready. We were just a little sluggish. We don't overlook anybody."
On the entire starting lineup being substituted early in the game-"It helped us a lot. It showed us that we weren't playing the right way; the way we wanted to, the way [Coach Tad] Boyle wanted us to play. We got our heads back on and came out with a different kind of energy to get this win."
On the start of Big 12 play-"I'm excited. The Big 12 is starting; it's a grind. The whole Big 12 is going to be fun though. Saturday, we are going to come out with a lot of energy, and we should be able to pull it off."
On what it takes to compete in the Big 12 Conference-"You've got to fight, you've got to grind, and you've got to be tough. You've got to rebound, and you've got to play D. It's not for kids; it's a grown man's league. I learned that last year. We've got to play hard every night, every game, and don't take anybody lightly. We'll be fine if we do that.
On being ready for conference play-"I think we are. I feel like we show that in practice, and I feel like this whole preseason has prepared us for the big 12. I feel like we are all ready."
On altitude and an up-tempo style affecting opposing players-"I could say that. We run the up-tempo, and I can see teams being affected by the altitude just by running up and down the court. It's a tiring thing. The up-tempo might factor a little bit, but not as much as you just running up and down."
On defending the motion offense-"I think it is definitely harder, because in the Princeton [offense], everything is set. Everybody knows what you are about to do, so they can trap more. In this motion [offense], you don't know where we are going to be, so it's hard for them to do that."
Andre Roberson, Freshman, Guard
On gaining confidence over the last few games-"I gained a tremendous amount, especially used to the college level of basketball and getting the confidence to go out there and do those things I know I'm best at."
On his production off the bench-"That's what I am trying to mold myself to on the team, that role. I just want to come in and give the team a boost and keep going from there."
On whether they may have been overlooking Western New Mexico-"We didn't come out like we usually do. I guess everybody was just looking forward to the Missouri game, thinking ahead."
On the entire starting lineup being substituted early in the game-"I just knew we had to pick it up. Something had to happen in order for us to get the win. We went in there and played to the best of our abilities and got the win."
