Colorado, New Orleans Quotes
December 29, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General- "Obviously it was a great performance by our guys, we finally put two halves together so better late than never. Hopefully we can use this as a spring board as we move into conference play on Saturday; it is a whole new season. I thought we took a step forward tonight. We talked at halftime, much like we did against Texas Southern, about playing 40 minutes and not playing the scoreboard and our guys obviously took that to heart tonight; to me that is a sign of progress. It is not going to be like this every night, we know that. What I am trying to get through to our guys is about Colorado basketball and how we play and the process that we go through to approach games, and I thought we took a step forward tonight on that."
On What It Means To Have Askia Booker Back - "Askia is an important part. If you look at every member of this team, and three weeks ago there is no question that I felt that depth was a strength of this team. The last couple of weeks I have wondered if that is actually the case or not. Confidence is such a fragile thing with college athletes, I don't care what sport you are playing, to get over that hump you have to believe in yourself and that is one thing Askia does. It was really good to have him back he gives us a punch off the bench obviously. The whole key for him tonight was three assists and one turnover. He is going to be able to score for us at times and give us energy, but as long as he doesn't hurt the team, which he didn't do tonight, I am pleased."
On the Importance Of Carlon Brown's Scoring Ability - "Carlon [Brown], Spencer [Dinwiddie], and Andre [Roberson] have really risen in terms of their consistent play over the last three weeks. So Carlon's performance tonight, especially in 19 minutes, he was very efficient. The most that anybody played tonight was 23 minutes so we got great production and balance, we had five guys in double figures and 18 assists. I thought we turned it over a few too many times but nobody had more than one except for Shane [Harris-Tunks]."
On Whether Rest Is A Positive Going Into Conference Play - "I don't know if it is a positive or not. I thought that taking three days off over Christmas doesn't help anybody. I thought that we were a little winded. I think that Spencer [Dinwiddie] is one guy for sure that has to get into better shape to play extended minutes in league, I thought that he got a little winded tonight, his stamina has to get better. But we can get into shape in practice. Tonight was about getting guys some minutes that usually don't get a lot of minutes. In college basketball, you look at guys like Trey Eckloff, Ben Mills or Beau Webb, our walk-on, those guys work hard every day in practice just like the rest of the guys and it is nice to see them rewarded with some minutes. I was disappointed we were not able to do that against Texas Southern, tonight was good for that. It is hard to look at the stat sheet and see too many negatives but I thought that turnovers were one of them, and there is always room for improvement. We are going to practice tomorrow just like we would had we gone into overtime tonight, It is about the process of what we have to do over the next two to three weeks before school starts up. This is a time where college basketball players and teams can make tremendous strides and we have to approach it like that. We can't approach it like we get time off and get to sleep in till noon, practice a couple of hours then go to the movies. It is a time to get better. Our guys need to approach it like that."
On Going Into Conference Play - "I think from where our program is right now, I think this is what we need. From where our team is this was good for us. I wish we were at this point earlier in the season but we weren't and we aren't. We just have to see how this season unfolds."
What To Expect In the Pac-12 - "I don't know what to expect that hasn't changed. I have not been through the league, we played Cal and Oregon State here last year and we had some success. It is going to be a fun experience. It's an opportunity to create some history of their own. How the schedule sets up we have the first three games at home we can't ask for anything better than that. We better be a good road team in February because we are going to be on the road a lot late. You have to take care of home court advantage and learn how to win on the road. I think our team has the guts and the gumption to do that. We are going to be in a lot of close games in the Pac-12 that is what I anticipate. There are not going to be too many games like we had here tonight.
On Carlon Brown Playing Against His Former Team In Utah - "I am probably going to talk to him about it because Carlon will be ready for this one emotionally, I just want to make sure he is not too over hyped. This game is going to mean a lot to him emotionally and probably more so when we go to Utah. The one thing about Carlon is that he is pretty mature. He understands that he just has to play within himself and not do too much. When he lets the game come to him he is pretty darn good. He does a pretty good job of that, and he has really elevated that the last two weeks in terms of his maturity and not forcing the issue."
New Orleans Head Coach Mark Slessinger
General - "We played last night against North Texas and got on a plane this morning and flew here. Coach [Tad] Boyle does a tremendous job. He is one of the best up-and-coming coaches in the country. Colorado is very lucky to have him and they need to try to keep him as long as they can. He's got this program going in the right direction. They played a phenomenal game today, and we didn't play our best game. We just didn't play well. We knew we had to play pretty error-free basketball to be able to play a team as good as Colorado. We'll bounce back. We'll play again on New Year's Eve and we'll come back and play."
On The Condition Of F Antonio Wertz - "We don't know. He is at the hospital getting x-rays right now."
On What He Can Take From A Game Like This - "We'll take a lot from this game. Any time you play a team who is quality, you are going to come away a better basketball team. And I think we did. We learned some stuff offensively. They guarded us in different ways than teams have guarded us before, so we had to make some adjustments and make some different reads. Every game we play, we are going to try to get better, we are going to try to play to our highest level and give the best we can."
Carlon Brown, Senior, Guard
On The Victory- "The best part of this win was seeing guys on our scout team getting to play some good minutes down the stretch. To see those guys get to play the game they love in front of their families was really the best part, because the last two games I think we let them down, because they should have gotten to play then."
On Scoring 1,000 Career Points- "I never thought about scoring 1,000 points in college, I just wanted to make the most out of my opportunities and play the best I could, where ever I was, and I feel Iike I did that and am still doing that now."
On Maintaining The Lead- "Tonight we just focused on getting stops and if we had the opportunity to run we were going to take advantage of the numbers, but if not we were going to run our half-sets. We wanted to make progress tonight and be more consistent, and I think we did that for a good 35-40 minutes."
On Starting Pac-12 Play- "I'm looking forward to not only playing Utah but all the Los Angeles schools and Bay Area schools. A lot of people are saying the league is down, but that is probably just because (the Pac-12) has had the most draft picks over the last 10 or so years. We are just looking forward to proving people wrong because we don't like the way they picked us to finish (in the Pac-12) in the pre-season so we have a chip on our shoulder."
On Transferring From Utah- "It didn't mean anything whether the coach (at Utah) stayed or not. I made the best decision for me as a player and for my career. It was a situation I felt I didn't want to be a part of anymore and it was going in a direction that I didn't perceive it was going in the first place."
On Distractions Before The Utah Game- "I'm not worried about distractions, I'm just going to approach (the game) like I did tonight. I'm going to try to be aggressive early and make plays and get to the (free throw) line. If my shot is falling, then take it, if guys are open, hit them. I'm going to practice tomorrow with the same emphasis and just playing it like it's another game, because if I put too much emphasis on it, it might take away from the team and what we are trying to do as a team, and I don't want to do that."
Askia Booker, Freshman, Guard
On Confidence Gained- "I think it is a big movement for us, the other games we weren't doing so well, and the way we played tonight will give us momentum going into conference play."
On Scoring In The Paint- "That was definitely part of the game plan. Coach [Boyle] instructed us to get the ball in the paint, because they were not nearly as big as us and we could take advantage of it. That was a big thing we pin-pointed for this game."
On G Carlon Brown- "Watching him everyday as a leader in practice, he doesn't worry about the past or the future, it is just about the moment he is in. I don't think he is worried about the past or where he came from, he is only worried about Colorado basketball. He has been showing that lately in the games and practice."
On His Health- "I actually feel a lot better, yesterday I wasn't feeling that well and I was still very up and down. I felt I couldn't let my team down and there won't be any more sitting out for me."
