Colorado University Athletics
Colorado, Kansas State Quotes
February 13, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General - "What a difference a day makes, right? I said this to our guys in the locker room after the game, but our players deserved this win after what happened on Wednesday night when we gave one away. I'm relieved and so happy for them because they worked so dang hard at this game and it's nice to see hard work rewarded; and it was tonight."
On if he thought the final shot was good - "I couldn't tell. I thought we guarded it well and we made them make a cross-court shot. I thought we contested it. If it was good then obviously the basketball gods were on our side. I thought it took him [Rodney McGruder] an awful long time to get it in. I thought we guarded it exactly how we talked about guarding it in our timeout. I think we've learned; that's progress. We're not in that position without our bench. This game was won by what we call our gold team in practice. Cory Higgins and the job that he did on Jacob Pullen helped us big time defensively; I'm not taking anything away from those guys that played. Obviously we got in a lot of foul trouble, but I thought our guys that came off the bench really were ready when their number was called. A lot of them haven't been getting a lot of time lately, and again I was really proud of those guys. It's not easy to go to practice every day and not get in the games, and to respond when your number is called; they all did that. Javon Coney, Ben Mills, Trey Eckloff and I thought Shannon Sharpe really grew up tonight, too. His best game by far as a Buff."
On guarding the final shot - "We were going to switch every screen; down screens, back screens. We had Austin Dufault on the ball, we wanted to kind of pressure the passer a little bit. We substituted Ben Mills in for Shannon because we wanted him at the rim. It was only a two point game and we didn't want it to go to overtime, so if they were going to throw it to [Jamar] Samuels or [Curtis] Kelly at the rim, we wanted our seven-footer in there with 1.5 seconds left to hopefully just bat it and get the clock started. We switched at every screen knowing that they were probably going to go to Pullen or McGruder or [Will] Spradling; they've got three good shooters in the game. We were just going to switch every screen and have Ben under the basket. Again we did a good job. They cross-courted it to a good shooter and he made a shot, but thank God it was after the buzzer. I didn't see it. I was just waiting on the officials like everybody else. I heard the crowd, but the crowd doesn't make that decision. There's nothing to tell [the team at that point] because what happened, happened and it's either good or not good. There is nothing to talk about then, but you're just keeping your fingers crossed, hoping the red light went off."
On Alec Burks' performance- "Alec struggled offensively a little bit. He was pressing, but when we moved the ball we were pretty good. In that first half we just tried to do everything off the dribble or one pass. When we moved it, and even in the first half we moved it side to side, we got good shots, but they weren't going in. What I told our team is, 'You can tell our program is making strides, it's not always in wins and losses. The result is different so our feelings are 180 degrees different. Our progress tonight was that we got through the end of the first half where we couldn't make a shot and we shot 28 percent, but we're still in the game because we guarded and we rebounded. We held them to 24 percent and we were only getting outrebounded by one against a big physical team.' That's progress. Defense and rebounding, we talk about it all the time and it kept us in the game in the first half, we knew our shots would start falling a little bit, and we got over the hump. Our guys battled and that's what we have to do every night; that is non-negotiable. If we do that and our players buy into it, which they're starting to, we're going to win our fair share of games. We're not going to win them all, but we'll win our fair share."
On the idea of fouling late in the game- "My philosophy is normally not to foul. What I told our guys is 'if the clock gets below five seconds and the guys dribbling and we foul him, it's not the end of the world. Do not foul a shooter.' The downside to that strategy, they make the first [free throw]. They miss the second one on purpose and it goes off us, so they get a chance to tie or win the game. That thing could have backfired on us very easily. It's not great coaching, it's not great strategy, it's what you believe and I believe that eventually we're going to get to the point where this isn't even a discussion. We're going to guard him and take our chances. Tonight we were foul depleted. We had two guys who were already fouled out, so we did not want that game to go into overtime. You never want the game going into overtime when you're up three. I'm not sure it's a clear cut thing, I think it's more of a philosophical thing and I'm not 100 percent clear on it myself. I think situations dictate and when we're not a great rebounding team off of free throws, which we're not, that strategy backfires. We dodged a little bit of a bullet, there's no doubt. Without Andre [Roberson] and we've got Levi at the four, that's the way the ball bounces. I was going to live with the result either way, but I'm glad it turned out the way it did. I just know our players deserved this."
On giving up rebounds off of missed free throws- "That's my pet peeve; it drives me crazy. Sometimes it's also getting punked and not being tough enough, but sometimes the ball bounces their way. When we get punked and pushed under, it aggravates me. That's my pet peeve as a coach and that's something we have got to get better at."
On the slow first half- "I think the whole key is keeping your poise and composure. The thing I was so proud of with our guys is that we didn't let our frustrations on the offensive side bleed to the defensive end; in games past, we've done that. We can't score, we're struggling offensively, and we break down defensively. Tonight we didn't do that. I think it was 15-10, we couldn't score. We were on 10 for a long time, but we kept battling defensively. Their first seven points came off of second chance baskets and we talked about that the first media timeout. We did a better job as we went forward from that, but it was ugly."
On Shannon Sharpe- "I hear what Shannon was in high school and I see him in practice every day. When he attacks the rim, that's what we needed at that time. I think the thing with Shannon that people forget he's a freshman and he's got some things to develop in his game. But I think tonight was a big step in his favor."
On guarding Jacob Pullen- "We started out doubling every ball screen he came off of. We wanted to get the ball out of his hands. I thought we did a good job of that in the first half. In the second half they started picking and popping with him and McGruder and they really cleared the side. We made an adjustment and about the last 7 to 10 minutes of the game we said that we're switching one through four ball screens on Pullen because we didn't want the pick and pop with McGruder and those guys to hurt us. The downside of that is you switch off Shannon and Cory and you lose your best on-the-ball defender and you have one of your other guys like Levi guarding Pullen, and that's not a matchup we want. But the pick and pop, we wanted to take out of the equation. You've got to pick your poison with Jacob Pullen and they're not as good with the ball out of his hands. Our strategy was to get it out as much as we could, and when he didn't have it to make him expend energy to get it. We did a good job of that tonight."
Kansas State Head Coach Frank Martin
On last play of the game-"It was a free throw play that we have been rehearsing and executing as a freshman we just couldn't come up with the ball. We just reacted late to it and then it went out of bounds and we ran exactly what we wanted to run we just couldn't get the shot off quick enough."
On missed buzzer-beater-"I saw the clip on the television screen on the table the second time it was run and they continued to review it but I saw the light had gone off and it wasn't any good. If you don't play well enough then you don't deserve to win and we didn't play well enough."
On loss-"When you are on the road, you are not going to be winning if you shoot 30 percent from the field and miss 13 free throws."
On loss in such a close game-"Don't make mistakes earlier in the game so you don't get to that point. We beat Alcorn State earlier in the year and my comment after was 'We can't sustain effort without discipline or focus for an extended period of time.' Here we are in February and it's the same problem. If we don't grow up and handle those things better, we are going to continue to put ourselves in tough spots. There were a lot of mistakes over the course of the game - a lot of open shots and overall it's not about that last shot, it is about everything before that shot."
On defensive play against Burks-"We did alright. We guarded them with a little size and Shane [Southwell] did a halfway decent job on them defensively. We didn't do a very good job on anyone in the second half, but we did a decent job on Burks."
On fouls and the slower pace of game-"They made free throws and we didn't. Referees are going to call what they see. There are some games we play where there are no fouls, but some games there are fouls. Officiating is a hard job so they are going to call what they see and that is their right and what they are there to do. [Colorado] made their free throws, we missed ours and they won."
On Jamar Samuels being harassed by Colorado fan-"There was some [Colorado] fan talking about his mom and that is completely uncalled for. Give me that guy's number and I'll show him how to talk about someone's mom. [Jamar] will be fine. He had more composure than I did because I would be in the stands ripping someone's head off. Colorado has good people, I am not going to put a cloud over Colorado people because there is one ignorant human being in the stands, but it is unfortunate that there is always one person that opens their mouth in certain ways. I am proud of Jamar. The team pulled him out of there and didn't create a scene. He was upset in the locker room but that is what the locker room is for. He handled it a lot better than I would have if they were talking about my mom."
Student-Athlete Quotes
Cory Higgins, Senior, Guard
On getting in a rhythm with so many fouls being called- "It was really hard. It was the most unorthodox game I think I have played in. It was that way against them last year, too. We expected that, we just had to overcome a lot to get the win."
On the last shot- "I wasn't confident at all, but when I heard the students, I guess they were pretty confident. When we saw the screen, we all knew it was no good. It was just a matter of time before they called it."
On what he felt after seeing Rodney McGruder's final shot fall- "It's a terrible feeling, especially after Wednesday. We didn't want to make the same mistake that we made last time. We felt like we did everything we could to win the game, and if that had happened again, it would have hurt. It would have hurt bad."
"We executed this time and Wednesday we didn't execute the game plan. This time we executed and things happened to go our way."
On Kansas State's final possession- "I was confident, they only had one second. If you can't play defense for one second, then you don't deserve to win that game."
On needing a win- "We needed it bad. We felt like we've played hard enough to win a lot of these games that we've been dropping. We just needed it to reinforce that the things we are doing, do work. We needed it for our confidence, just moving forward."
On Ben Mills deserving more minutes- "Of course, he's a guy that works hard. I think any guy can play out there when you have the desire that he has and are a team guy like him. He was huge getting us started with that block, but more importantly, our whole bench was huge. We really feel that they won that game for us. They really got it going in the first half, and they really set the tone for our starters to step up."
On Shannon Sharpe-"He was huge on defense, on [Jacob] Pullen, and doing his best to run the team. I think those were the biggest minutes of his career so far, so I was happy for him to really have some success tonight and really build his confidence."
On playing Kansas State-"That's just their style of play. They're going to be physical. Because they are so physical and aggressive, they are going to foul a lot. At the same time, we can't back down, and we have to match their intensity. I think that's why it's such a grudge match whenever we play these guys."
Alec Burks, Sophomore, Guard
On the last shot- "It was crazy. I didn't think he made it until I saw it go through the net. It is just crazy to think someone could win the game like that."
On the difficulty of the last shot- "He turned it around with one second left, and threw it up and it went in, all net. It was crazy for anybody to make that. It was like a 'horse shot' or something. I don't know how he [Rodney McGruder] made it. He saw me everywhere he was shooting. I had my hands in his face. I don't see how he saw the basket. I'm 6'6". I'm much taller than him, so I don't know how he got it over me."
On what he saw on the final play- "I saw him [Rodney McGruder] going to the three-point line, and I just tried to get in his face so he couldn't see the rim. He just threw it up and it went through the net."
On whether he thought Rodney McGruder got the shot off in time- "Í was very confident, because I saw the red light when he was shooting in my face. I knew he couldn't have gotten it off in time."
On the foul calls- "It can be like that. You've got games like that where the calls don't go my way, but we won. It doesn't matter what I did."
On how CU's strategy after Marcus Relphorde and Andre Roberson fouled out-"Switch everything, play hard, and make up for them being out. We had to play harder."
Ben Mills, Freshman, Center
On getting quality minutes- "It was really fun for me to get in the game and just contribute and try to help the team as much as I did. I thought the bench came in and played pretty well, and helped the team win the game."
On his block in the first half- "I think that's what started to get me going. It's an adrenaline rush for me, and I think it built some momentum in the game, and I think it was a lot of fun."
Kansas State's Jacob Pullen, Senior, Guard
On loss - "Any way to lose is tough. We planned to miss the second one. We wanted to get the tip and get the ball back so we could get the shot. We got the tip and got the ball back and drew up a nice play and I thought he [Rodney McGruder] got a good look and off in time, but the replay showed he didn't."
On missed buzzer-beater-"I thought he got it off in time but then they showed the replay and we saw that he had to turn around to shoot the ball and it was clear he didn't get it off in time."
On emotional ending-"It's tough. It is an up-and-down emotion really fast. You go from thinking you just won the game with a buzzer-beater to losing the game by one shot."
On low scoring in first half-"It was a different game. There were a lot of fouls called and a lot of missed shots. For us, there were a few possessions with loose balls that got us out of the game because we couldn't make plays. You make bad plays and they come back to bite you"
On coming back from loss-"[It's a] quick turn-around; you can't let a game like this get under your skin. We have to turn around, watch them play tomorrow and focus back in on Kansas who is a very good team. We have to find a way to protect our home court."
