Colorado University Athletics
Colorado, Texas Southern Quotes
March 17, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General-"Well, we'll take that I guess. It wasn't the prettiest game. I thought mentally we were a little bit out of it. Physically, I thought we played hard, but mentally I thought we had a little bit of funk to us if you will. We shot the ball well enough, we rebounded well enough and we defended well enough to win a game. You do that in the middle of March, you have to feel good. We'll just take it and move on. We'll have to play better on Friday for us to be successful against whoever we play, I think it will be Cal. It will be a heck of a challenge against a future Pac-12 team. Postseason play, that is what it is all about so we are excited."
On how much credit Cory Higgins deserves-"A lot. I thought Cory was dialed in from the get go and really played well all night. Again, we didn't have that mojo that we need to have, and that we had in Kansas City. A lot of that is expected. I can't fault our guys too much for it, but we just have to get back to who we are and how we are playing, which is a good basketball team - and playing together. We have to play together. Tonight was a night I thought we could have a lot of assists, we had 19 of them, and I thought we shared the ball. We have to play better on Friday, and we will."
On getting this game out of the away after the disappointment on Sunday-"I sure hope so, that is what we hoped. It is not like our guys weren't ready to play, it was just that cloud hanging over them. It is hard to explain, hard to put it into words. I could feel it, they could feel it, and hopefully that will be lifted. With Cal coming in, and a future Pac-10 opponent and the opportunity to play another BCS school, our guys will step up, they have all year. I have confidence in our guys."
On playing well in spurts-"We spurted on offense. I have to give Texas Southern credit, they kind of junked it up, they zoned it, they matched up, they switched, and we just never got into the flow offensively. Even though you look at the stats and you see that we shot 61 percent, normally we shoot the ball better from three then we did tonight. We didn't shoot the ball well from three. When you shoot 23 percent from three and 61 percent overall, it means that you are getting the ball to the basket and I thought we did a good job of that. We got into the bonus early in the first half, got to the free throw line. I just wanted a little bit more balance. Obviously Alec and Cory had great nights, Andre off the bench had a great night, but I would like to have a little more balance than we had tonight. We have guys that are capable of going off for big nights, and I'm never going to get mad for that."
On getting the team ready to play-"I think it goes back to Cory. I thought Cory was really dialed in, you could tell from his demeanor out there, and the way he played. He kind of willed us tonight and that is what we needed."
On if Cory Higgins was stepping up before the game-"In our team meeting we had on Monday, I spoke a lot, we talked about perspective in life and how to deal with disappointment and how you have to move on from it. When I was done speaking, I probably spoke for 10 to 15 minutes, I said, 'do you guys have anything?,' and both Cory and Levi [Knutson] stepped up and gave some of their thoughts with the team. I thought that was a great sign and it showed great leadership by both of those young men. I know our seniors are not ready to have their careers to be over with. I know the rest of the team isn't either, it just isn't our seniors, our whole team wants to keep playing and I think postseason games, especially in the NIT, are won by the teams that want to keep play and have the will to survive."
On Andre Roberson's improvement-"Andre just keeps getting better and better. Every game there is still some mistakes, but what I like about Andre is that he is recognizing them now, defensively and offensively. As long as he keeps being coachable and keeps getting better at this rate, he is going to be a special player. He already is but the fact that he is a freshman and the numbers that he is putting up as a freshman are pretty phenomenal."
On having the students postponing their spring break-"My message to the students is that if you can postpone getting out of here by six or seven hours or whatever it is, just stay one more game and give us that lift because we need it. Hopefully they will. Our students have been great all year, our fans have been great all year. You look around the NIT and you look at the attendance figures and you look at what we have tonight, I'm pretty pleased with the support that we've got and I'm pretty thankful for it. This team deserves it and Friday night will be another opportunity for our fans to get us over the hump. We're going to need them."
On Cory Higgins' first postseason game-"Cory deserves it and he has deserved it before this year. I'm glad that he is being rewarded. All of our guys are being rewarded by it because they have worked awful hard. When you keep playing, milestones come. I think 22 wins ties the school record so we now have an opportunity to break that. That means this team will be the standard for any teams coming in the future for the standard of wins. That it is what it is about, it's about winning basketball games, and certainly milestones of starting games and scoring points, that is a testament to Cory and for what he has done over the course of his career. This team has something really special in that it can put itself in the record books and obviously we hope that is a record that is temporary. It is a special opportunity."
On watching Northern Colorado play or Cal film tomorrow-"I'm watching Cal film tonight, and I will watch UNC tomorrow and we will practice tomorrow. I don't know what time they play, but we will practice tomorrow and I will definitely watch UNC. There is no question; I'm not going to miss that game. Cal film we will be watching tonight, our assistants have already broken it down so scouting report wise we'll be ready to do that. We have one day to prepare for them and they have one day to prepare for us, and they have to travel. That is the benefit of being the number one seed. Our guys earned that and we have to take advantage of it though. Cal is a good team, they are mentally tough, they are well coached, they are fundamentally sound, and they run good stuff. It is going to be a 'Big 12' game."
Texas Southern Head Coach Tony Harvey
On Colorado's run - "We didn't make shots. Our kid's never quit. We put the ball in some sweet spots. We had the rhythm going. Once we had the rhythm going, we didn't execute. I don't know if it was the altitude and we were breathing hard. It really hurts us. No were playing small ball and settling for the three-point line all the time. It's hard to run the offense when we went to a smaller lineup."
On Texas Southern forward Daniel King - "He got the fouls early. He got three quick fouls. It was really tough, but he deserved a couple of those. We have to do better and we weren't where we needed to be."
On Texas Southern guard Harrison Smith - "He gave us a big lift tonight. I thought he did a really good job attacking the ball and attacking the basket."
On defense - "If we had half as much energy on defense as we had on offense, it could have been a different ball game. I really was disappointed in how we guarded the basketball."
On Colorado's game - "When you look at first 35 points, 16 of those were from the free-throw line. They really didn't score the half-court stuff for a while. We were fouling, and those guys were going to the free-throw line. One of the things I talked about before the game, was fouling. I knew we also had to do a much better job at containment, not allowing those second and third shots. You can't foul a team like that. They shoot the ball way too well from the free-throw line."
On Colorado players Alec Burks and Cory Higgins - "I talked about this before the game. As far as back court, they were probably one of the better back courts we faced all year. As a tandem, they are very good together. They've had a lot of success."
On Colorado not making the NCAA tournament - "I think they got a bad break. I think their coach [Tad Boyle] is doing a really good job. The kids' enthusiasm was there and I think that was one of the good things with that happening."
Student-Athletes
Cory Higgins, Senior, Guard
On whether tonight was a statement game- "I think we definitely just wanted to come out here and play hard. We just wanted to keep some of the momentum we had at the end of the season. I don't know if it was a statement game, but I knew we were going to be locked in and try to, just make sure we win and get back to playing a good basketball game."
On how long it took to get over the disappointment of not making the NCAA Tournament- "I don't think it took us that long. I mean, after it happened, it is what it is and we had to deal with it, we didn't have any other choices. There are tougher things in life and so we just need to focus our energy on NIT."
On his and Alec Burks' performances tonight- "We were just trying to make plays and just trying to help our team win."
On the positive mood of the team- "Yeah, we definitely were having fun out there. I mean, any time you can play another game with these guys it's always going to be fun, especially me being a senior. We just wanted to let it all hang out there and really just not worry about anything else."
On what was said after Texas Southern cut their lead to three in the first half- "I don't really remember anything specifically being said. I mean, one of the points Alec [Burks] said was, 'We need to go into the half with a double-digit lead,' and I mean, maybe that's what sparked it. We just knew we had to separate ourselves and not play down to the competition."
On potentially playing teams the Buffs lost to early in the season- "If we have to play any of them again, we definitely have something to prove. I think we just dropped some early because we weren't clicking right away, but I feel like any of those losses could definitely be wins right now, especially at this time of the year."
On playing his first post-season game- "To be honest, I didn't really think too much of it. It just felt like another home game, but it's definitely nice to be playing at this time of the year, especially when I haven't my whole career. I'm just glad I was part of something that got this program turned around."
On the CU students' support- "They were great, they've been great all year. For them to be behind us especially this past week was huge, and just knowing they're going to stick with us through the thick and thin. We can't thank them enough. I don't think they're going to change their plans for spring break, but hopefully on Friday, a couple of them [are] still left over."
Andre Roberson, Freshman, Guard
On the importance of the NIT experience for the younger players- "This is just good experience. Just getting to a tournament, you know if you lose, you're out, you're done for the rest of the season. Just kind of get that experience under my belt, and just keep doing that."
On the senior players' motivation the past few days- "They definitely did. Knowing it was their last time and they didn't want to go out like that, losing on the home court, just going out on a loss. You don't want to do that as a senior."
On playing future Pac-12 teams in this tournament- "It's definitely exciting, just to get a feel for how they play going into next year. It'd be great to play them."
Texas Southern Guard Harrison Smith
On Colorado's run - "We've been in that situation before, preseason and in regular season. We saw it as a challenge. We knew we had to cut it down. That's our goal, to cut it down in a certain amount of time. If we reached that, we would have been right back in the game."
On the possibility of beating Colorado - "I think they should have been in the tournament. It's always a big thing to go on the road. The crowd is also a big factor. Emotions get running and players feed off the emotion of the crowd."
On Texas Southern's slow start - "We started off flat. You can say it was jitters. We eventually shook the jitters and started playing."
On shooting - "They actually have a really good defensive team. A lot of the in-and-out shots were just us, and I don't know what it was. They just didn't drop."
On stopping CU players Alec Burks and Cory Higgins - "We just tried to dig in and at least stop one. We tried the best we could. If you try to stop one, the other one is doing something. We did the best we could."
Texas Southern Forward Travele Jones
On having the ability to catch Colorado in the first half - "A couple of mistakes messed us up. We had a good run. The way we talked about before the game, it didn't go like that. It went elsewhere."
On stopping Colorado - "We had the game, we did score the ball. We just couldn't get stops and when we did get stops, we fouled them."
On stopping CU players Alec Burks and Cory Higgins - "Coming into the game, our mindset was to stop those two guys. They are good players, talented guys. Throughout the course of the game, we lost focus and that caught up with us."
