Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-Baylor Quotes
March 05, 2011 | Women's Basketball
General
"I liked our resiliency and our fight in the first half. I think that showed a lot about our team. We got down big to start off the game and could have packed it in early, and didn't, and I think that showed a lot about the character of our players to keep fighting and to keep believing. It just kind of took us a while to figure out that Baylor was still human and they were still going to make mistakes and we could take advantage of some of those things."
On not having Chucky Jeffery
"Obviously it's a huge difference. She plays a lot of minutes and she's been coming off the bench for us and getting a lot of minutes. She's a scorer on the floor and she kind of gets us into what we need to do. Defensively she usually gets us a couple steals and rebounding, too, we probably missed her more than anything. I thought in the first half we stayed right with them rebounding-wise, but in the second half they took it to us and I think she would have helped a lot."
On not playing an inside game
"Anytime you can get things to the rim I think that's important. I thought Brittany Wilson came in and did some things at the rim. Chucky is one of our better drivers and a lot of times she can set other people up as well. I thought we took a lot of outside shots and that's what we needed to do; that's what a lot of teams against Baylor do. That's our game; to tell you the truth we don't get a lot of things at the basket anyways. We shoot a lot of outside shots just due to the fact of how small we are and that we have pretty good outside shooters."
On preferring aggressiveness
"I think early. Not necessarily taking it in there and trying to take a shot over her [Brittney Griner], even just driving in there and looking for people behind and looking for different kicks. We talked about that as being one of our keys; we had to have an attacking mentality. I thought we came out a little bit on our heels, but we changed our mentality and I liked that part of it. I think that showed a lot of growth. We've done that in different games. Oklahoma went the same way. We came out kind of tentative and there was a switch that went on and then we became the aggressors and we have to go into every game as the aggressors and not take a backseat to anybody."
On the disparity in free throws
"You can't defend that. It's just tough, at one point it was 22-0. I do understand that we were playing different games. We were shooting a lot of outside shots and they were going inside a lot. They do average a lot of free throws. I thought it was tough for us and I thought early on that's kind of one of the ways we were getting down fast, we were putting them at the free throw line way too much. In the second half they were at the free throw line it seemed like every other possession. It was tough for either team to get in a flow offensively and defensively. They're going to get their free throws because they pound it in there and they're aggressive. We just have to be a little bit more aggressive in there as well to make sure we get a few more [attempts]."
On playing Kansas in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament
"I think we're excited to play Kansas mostly because we've played them twice, it's a team in the [Big 12] North, we feel like we know them fairly well and we know what they do. They played tremendous the last time they played us and we didn't play very well. I like it because we've gotten so much better since the last time we played them. We played them very early on both times, I think within a matter of weeks. Since we've played them, in the post we've gotten better, in transition defense we've gotten better, our offense has gotten better and our confidence has gotten better. Anytime you go into the [Big 12] Tournament you have to have a certain level of swagger and confidence and I think we have that."
Colorado Players
Brittany Spears, Sr., G
ON BAYLOR'S OPENING RUN-"I don't think we were star struck because we played them last year. We were rushing our shots."
ON THE TEAM'S START-"It was just us not making our shots. It was nothing they were doing."
Chelsea Dale, Sr., G/F
ON BRITNEY GRINER-"She's a great player and you want to give her your kudos of course, but there are also ways that we could guard her and that is how we looked at it when we went into the game."
ON THE CROWD-"It's was fun. It got pretty hot in there too."
ON THE MATCHUP WITH KANSAS-"We want to give them one. We owe them one."
ON SEEING BAYLOR AGAIN AT THE BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS-"We want another chance at them too."
ON BAYLOR'S FATIGUE IN THE GAME-"Especially when we made our run. We really capitalized on the fact that they didn't get up and down the court as fast as they did in the beginning. That is where our conditioning at altitude really kicked in. Coach [Linda Lappe] always says, 'You haven't even hit your second wind yet,' and that is stuff we've been training since the preseason."
ON COACHING STAFF BELIEVING IN THE TEAM-"I think the position that the three of us were in when we were in the process of getting a new coaching staff, we were afraid that we would be left out of what they were expecting in the future. In that, 'Let's just get these guys out and we'll move on with the program.' As soon as coach Lappe and the staff came in, we were apart of everything and they made us feel that we were the leaders and that we weren't going to miss a beat with these guys. From the get-go, they believed in us 100-percent. In the preseason, if we didn't make our times or something, they believed that we could do it. Same thing when we played teams like Baylor, Oklahoma, and Iowa State-they had an amazing game plan for us and not only does the game plan work, but when you have them right behind you and screaming you on, it is so motivational. There are no words to explain that feeling."
Britney Blythe, Sr., G
ON THE TEAM'S START-"I just think we just had a slow start. I don't think it was anything else but us. I think you could tell that we came together once me made our run and came back in the first half."
ON BRITNEY GRINER-"She's tall."
ON HAVING MOMENTUM GOING INTO THE BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS-"I feel like with the mark that we've left in the wins that we've gotten, people are not going to roll over us. They're afraid to play us a little bit and they have to worry that we'll come out and play our hardest and that we won't give up. That is the exciting part because we know anything can happen. Like coach [Linda] Lappe always says, 'It's March. You never know what can happen.' I think that is what Baylor thought in the first half. I know their coach went in their locker room and talked to them, 'Hey we have to play. We just can't roll over Colorado,' and that is a good feeling going into the Big 12 Tournament."
Baylor Head Coach Kim Mulkey
GENERAL-"Our basketball team is ready to play. I thought we had tremendous ball pressure. We were able to get subs in and out of the game with the altitude. The last eight minutes of the half was fatigue setting in. Fatigue set in and we quit guarding people. In the second half we had better ball pressure from our guards. We just started back over what we started the game doing."
ON DEFENSE-"It's youth. We have one senior on the floor and she's playing with one eye. I don't say that in an ugly way, but that's your senior out there trying to be a leader and she's trying to find her way out there right now. That's huge. I don't think it was anything where they intentionally did it or became comfortable. I think fatigue set in; altitude or whatever. I thought that I was subbing enough players in that that wouldn't happen, but it did and it really showed up on the defensive end of the floor."
ON NERVES WHEN COLORADO STARTED TO CLOSE THE GAP-"No. We've been in too many tough battles in this league; one to two point games down to the wire. We regroup in here and correct a few things. It wasn't X's and O's to correct. X's and O's were not the problem. It was fatigue that allowed us to not be very good on the defensive end of the floor."
ON MELISSA JONES COMING HOME FOR HER LAST REGULAR SEASON GAME-"MJ can answer that better than I can. That just kind of tells you what kind of kid she is. She was cleared by the doctor to play. This (Colorado) is her home. That's emotional and that's personal for you. She must have had a hundred people here just to see her. For her to go out on that floor as our captain and as the type of player that she is, just her presence makes us better."
ON COACHING AGAINST BRITTANY SPEARS-"I told Brittany Spears after the game that I read the article today, and the most impressive thing about Brittany Spears has nothing to do about basketball. The kid's graduating. The tragedies with her family, and just the fact that she went to another prep school to be able to come here and that she's going to have a diploma in her hand, knowing how she fought against adversity. I told her at the end of the game, 'I don't know you, but I respect you and I am so impressed by what I read in the paper.'"
Baylor Players
Brittany Griner, So., G
ON COLORADO'S COMEBACK IN THE FIRST HALF-"Just errors on our part. We came out with a lot of intensity and kind of lost it, but we fought through and got it back."
ON WHAT COACH MULKEY SAID AT HALFTIME-"She told us we needed to go out and play hard like we did when we first came out."
ON PLAYING WITH A LEAD-"We were playing to the score. We saw the score and kind of let up a little bit."
ON CHANTING BEFORE THE SECOND HALF-"Always when we come out, the first five minutes of the second half is always really important. Coach always stresses that to us."
ON PLAYING BAYLOR BASKETBALL IN THE SECOND HALF-"Our hustle and we ran our offense all the way through and played our defense."
