Colorado University Athletics
Colorado, Arizona State Quotes
January 20, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General- "I thought our focus tonight was terrific; I felt we were there mentally the whole 40 minutes. We needed that tonight because they're a grind-it-out team and they do what they do really well. Our guys really executed the game plan and guarded well. I thought we hit a little bit of a lull in the first half, we were on a scoring drought which we are capable of going on those. But the good news is that is our defense kind of stood the tide and we were able to go into halftime with a good lead. I'm happy with the win."
On Having Students Back In Town- "I told them they are the heartbeat of this arena, they are the difference makers. The community has been great all year when the students were gone on break. To have that (student) section full was key and I just want them to know that we appreciate them and we need them. I thought (the crowd) made a difference tonight and they can make a difference on Saturday (vs. Arizona). We want this place to be jumping, and it's our job as Colorado players and coaches to make sure we're ready to go Saturday at 4:00."
On Preparing For ASU- "I'm so thankful that we were able to play Arizona State on the front end of this trip because they are so hard to prepare for with their matchup zone and flex offense. That's not to say that Arizona isn't hard to prepare for because Arizona is a very good team as well, but Arizona plays more like us. To have to play Arizona State on a Saturday after a Thursday game would have been really difficult."
On Confidence Level- "I'm not worried about confidence with this team. I think we have a resilient group of guys that believe in themselves and believe in each other, and I know as a coach that I believe in them. I think it is going to take more than two losses to two good teams to shake our confidence. So I was not concerned about that, I did think though, that it was important we came out tonight and played well to get our mojo back, and I think we did that."
On Bench Play- "We talked about with our team that I thought we needed our bench to play well tonight to get the win. That was one of the advantages we had on Arizona State, so we wanted to make sure we took advantage of that. Depth was in our favor tonight. I told them at halftime that I wanted to shorten our bench in the second half, and sometimes I forget to do that, but I wanted to make sure I held myself to that."
On Senior G Carlon Brown- "I think it was just one of those nights. You can look at a lot of our guys, Andre (Roberson) only had four shots but he had 12 points and was very efficient. Against that matchup zone it is hard to get into a flow. You've got to make plays when you have the ability to make plays, but you may not have an opportunity to make a play again for another three or four minutes. It is hard for players to get into a flow. The thing about Carlon is he didn't force anything. He didn't get frustrated, and for only having 11 assists on 23 baskets I thought we played unselfishly. I also thought we had some fast break opportunities in transition that we didn't convert. We need to convert those, so there is a lot of room for improvement."
Arizona State Head Coach Herb Sendek
On Not Having Trent Lockett- "We talked a lot before the game about everyone needing to carry a little more weight. We needed to get to the foul line, but they were the more aggressive, physical team from the get go."
On Why ASU's Defense Struggled- "I thought a few things. I didn't think we did a good job with ball screens, cuts, and they got to our body on some screens. We need to do a better job on defense with the ball."
On The Psychological Effect Of Not Having Trent Lockett- "If you want to go there you can, the guys knew coming into this he was a big part of our team, but we always talk about that if a guy's out we will need to focus on the guys that are in and ready to play. That's all you really can do."
On F Kyle Cain's Performance- "His last really good game was the USC game. With him we are focusing on establishing consistency and coming into an environment like this-- being ready to go at the beginning of the game and not only maintaining that level of play throughout the game, but from game to game. Every game is a high water challenge for us."
On The Two Technical Fouls- "I came out of the box and was arguing a call and I didn't really move so I got a second one. I didn't really deserve a warning. I was pretty animated and clearly out of the box."
On Ball Movement- "I don't think our execution was very good. We didn't get the ball to the entry point and we didn't do some of the basic things that we are capable of doing. I think we got hit between the eyes early."
Austin Dufault, Senior, Forward
On Holding ASU To Under 20 In First Half- "It was really big, especially coming from our second half at Stanford when we didn't really defend that well. We wanted to come back and just get back to what we do and the things that we focus on. I think we did a good job of that in the first half."
On How They Prepared For ASU's Match-up Zone- "We had a few days to prepare for them, and I thought we did a really good job preparing for them in practice. Our guys gave us a pretty good look in practice of what ASU tries to do. We put in some new stuff for them. But I thought we were really focused on what we needed to do in order to attack it; we executed pretty well in both halves."
On The Importance Of The Student Section- "The student section was awesome tonight. The past couple of years they have been supporting us pretty well. It's just nice for school to be back in session so everybody is back now and they can come out to the games and stuff. It was great, it gave us a lot of energy."
On Upcoming Game Against Arizona- "I think back to a couple years ago when we lost to them in Maui. It was a close game so it wasn't a whole lot of fun. Saturday it will be a completely different team and a completely different game. But, it will be fun to play against them again. I know they have a great program, but we're excited to play them and show them what we can do as well."
Nate Tomlinson, Senior, Guard
On CU's Defensive Performance- "Yeah, we talked about speeding them up a little bit. We tried to speed them up to get the tempo in our favor and I thought we did a good job at that"
On Impact Of Herb Sendek Getting Ejected- "I don't know if it was that important. We just stopped doing the things we should be doing. We missed a couple of assignments, let them get out in transition, let them hit a couple of threes. I don't think ASU's coach being ejected played too much into the result. At the end, I think when things got close, we tied it up a little bit."
On The Impact Of The Win Tonight- "It was good to come back and get a win. We feel like we are a good team and we feel like we can compete for the title in this conference. Taking care of our home court is just something we have to do."
