Colorado, Wofford Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle

General—

“Good first game I think. There are some things we can build on from a positive standpoint; there is obviously a lot of room for improvement as well. I don't think people respect Wofford like they should; Mike Young is an excellent coach he has been there for twenty-four years. He coaches the heck out of them, they came in here and controlled tempo, obviously we wanted to speed it up and they wanted to slow it down and they did a good job of that. Normally we would have been pressing and trapping and extending our defense a little bit. I wanted to see where we are at with our twenty-two defense which is our halfcourt defense and our motion offense and so I think tonight is a good barometer. We have got some work to do on both sides of the ball. Overall I thought our guys really tried to execute I thought there were times where the team played hard even though we had some break downs. And Wofford again was one of those teams that wen we broke down they made us pay; they had some really good players. I think the players that really stood out to me for them were number two, thirty-two, and thirty-four; those kids were warriors.”

On Wofford Being A Young Team—

“They are young and we are young. I think it did match up well for us and we knew they were going to loose some guys. When you play a team like Wofford that s well coached that they are going to run their stuff and be a good test for you. We had the size advantage but we only won the boards by four, that is an area as a team I think we can get better. Andre is changing roles a little bit, the other part of it is he has never had defenses geared towards stopping him, they have maybe geared more towards keeping him off the boards but now he has go both. I think our offense will evolve and continue to get better.”

On Josh Scott—

“He was terrific, once we got him some post touches and he was good down there. He has a knack for getting to the foul line; he shoots ten for eleven, a typical Josh Scott performance. I think he had a pretty stellar effort for a guy who only took four shots.”

On Having Post Players—

“For the first six or seven minutes of the game we didn't really get any post touches, really until Shane came in. The minuets Josh was in there at the start of the game he never touched the ball on the post. Shane came in got a post touch, kicked it out to Ski for a three. Hopefully our guards will figure out that good things happen when we get the ball inside, but they looked for him in the second half and Josh responded; he is going to be a force down there. I thought he really passed the ball well tonight, that is something that we have talked to him about that he hasn't done particularly a good job of in practice but tonight I thought he was terrific in finding the open man and the cutters. I think that is an area where I think we are going to get better, as we evolve because we haven't had a low post presence in the last two years.“

On The Freshmen—

“I think in spurts they did well, they were maybe a little nervous. Eli made some good plays, I thought Xavier Johnson rebounded the ball extremely well, he led us with eight. There were some break downs they don't understand that even when you play against teams like Wofford they have a lot of good players too, there is a lot of good players playing division one Basketball. Our freshmen I think understand that a little bit more tonight. Experience is the best teacher. I like our freshmen obviously two of them didn't play and we are going to redshirt a couple of them. Chris Jenkins and Wesley Gordon have chosen that rout, and I think in the long term it is going to be good for them and our program. In the short term there is going to be some time were we wish we had those guys but we will figure our rotation as we move forward, and hopefully we will get Jeremy Adams back.”

On Redshirting Two Freshmen—

“I think it says a lot about the players we have in our program and I think those are mature decisions, they are long term decisions, not short term decisions. In today's world of college basketball I think it is pretty admirable that those guys made a decision like that. It looks well for our program down the road I promise you, because they are good players. It is something we talked about it but it was their decision. Wesley Gordon has the chance to be a first team All-Pac-12 player I really believe that when it is all said and done here at Colorado. You look at a guy like Xavier Talton tonight he played ten minutes, there is only so many minutes to go around. I know Spencer, Ski, and Andre are going to play a lot of minutes, and I think Josh and Sab are right there too so there is only so many sub minutes to go around. So we had that discussion and I told them that if you can turn the clock ahead four years, you are going to get that fifth year back.”

On Xavier Johnson Being The Sixth Man—

“He can be yeah. That might change depending on matchups. I think he could be great coming off the bench with a punch. I don't worry about Xavier on the offensive side where I am challenging Xavier is who you are going to guard and how well you are going to guard them. That is where I have to have ultimate confidence on guys especially down the stretch. Xavier Johnson physically is capable; he is a competitive guy, and wants to do well, and he is very coachable. As long as that continues he is going to have a monster freshman year as well.”

On The Open Threes—

“We talked about it at half time how good they were shooting, but we hadn't given up any layups so that was good. We knew coming off those screens were going to be a key for their offense and it was. At the end of the day we held them to 34% field goal on defense, which is a pretty good number, but they shot better from three then they did from two. That is an area of improvement.”

On Watching Sabatino On Defense—

“I thought the difference in the game, I thought when we really blew it open there in the second half was Sabatino's intensity on the defensive end. I think our crowd fed off of that energy, he did a great job on their point guard and that guy ended up fouling out. That is what we have to have is a team effort as guys come off the bench we have to be pressuring them, and especially here at home. But Sabatino's defensive energy I think was the difference of the game.”

On Going On The Road After A Game Like This—

“It is important because the teams we play in Charleston are going to have more talent than Wofford and that is not to disrespect Wofford's talent, I respect them, but they are going to have bigger and stronger athletes. So we are going to have to have our ducks in a row. We can't break down defensively, we just can't, and if we can get to that point again that was the reason we won a championship last year.”

On Getting The Jitters Out—

“I can't say more about our fans, to have more than ten thousand here for an opening game at 5:00 on a Friday afternoon, I can't say enough about them, and it was good that our players got to experience that so that when we do come home of the trip from Charleston they kind of know what to expect.”

On The Defensive Game—

“We gave up two layups for the game, which was a good number. Wofford didn't get out in transition; they tried to slow it down. You can't expect as a coach on November 9th, for your team to be executing at midseason form, it is just not reality. I loved our effort, I loved the makeup of this team, they are coachable they are tough. We have to keep driving them and we can't ever be satisfied where, where we are.”

Wofford Head Coach Mike Young

General—

“That was an electric environment to have three freshmen in the line-up at different points. We have a long way to go. Colorado is very good. We have a laundry list of things we need to shore up, such as shot selection. At the end of the day I was really impressed with how hard they competed and their willingness to do what we ask. There were too many threes tonight and that is not what we do. We only shot two foul shots. I am excited about where we are going to get to with this team. It will take a little time, but we will get there. We look forward to opening at home on Monday and getting better.”

Colorado Student-Athletes

Spencer Dinwiddie. Sophomore Guard

On How They Played Tonight—

“For our first game, I think we played solid. We didn't let them have any lay-ups, we forced jump shots over hands, you have to give them a lot of credit because they definitely hit quite a few threes and we knew that's what they wanted to do. But, we played with our principles and we out rebounded them, so, for the most part, I thought we did our thing.”

On Trying To Set The Tone on Offense—

“Being a guard, we usually try and set the tone. Me and Askia [Booker], as well as Andre [Roberson] and Sabatino [Chen] are the leaders, so that's our job, especially being in the starting lineup. That's probably something you are going to see every game. It's more than just a one game thing.”

On Play Of Freshmen—

“I think overall, they played well. Eli [Stalzer], in particular, didn't make any mistakes and knocked down an open three. You got to see how talented Xavier [Johnson] is. You saw him able to get the ball to the rim and you saw him also put down a ton of rebounds. So, that was good. Josh [Scott] did his thing, probably most in scoring. And then Xavier [Talton], he went out there and played solid for us and gave us really solid minutes.”

On Wofford Defense Focusing on Roberson—

“Andre being the pro prospect on the team, everybody is going to focus on him. So, I think they pressed a little bit. But, you're going to see him play more relaxed as the season goes on, especially in the next game. You're going to see Andre a lot. You can't keep him down. As soon as Josh [Scott] continues to emerge as a high scorer, that's going to take a lot of pressure off Andre and its going to give him the ability to be that hybrid forward, so, he's going to be fine.”

On His Injury—

“I'm going to be fine. I got hit in the leg and my leg kind of went dead. When I stood up my calve locked up. So, that's all that was. It's nothing major.”

On What He Learned From Puerto Rico Last Year—

“What I learned was to go out there, have fun, and let your talent take over. During Puerto Rico, I was still not playing well. I didn't start playing well until we got back. So what I took away was to continue to play and to continue to work hard in practice and eventually your talent will prevail. I mean, if you can play at this level, you can play at this level.”

Askia Booker. Sophomore, Guard

On Transitioning Into The Starting Lineup—

“It's not really that much different. I've been playing with these guys a whole year now and I think the only role that has changed for me is to be more aggressive. I'm in the starting lineup now so I have to be a lot more aggressive. I have to score points, I have to give guys shots and I have to be a lot more consistent without turning the ball over. I think turnovers is the main area where I need to improve from last year.”

On How Much He Learned From Puerto Rico Tournament—

“A whole lot. I think that just playing that early and getting our feet wet that early was a big deal. I think we learned a lot from the seniors from last year. I think we know what to expect this year and we need to let the younger guys know what to expect. We just have to go out there with the utmost confidence and compete as hard as we can.”

Josh Scott, Freshman, Forward

On First Game As A Buff—

“It was exciting. I haven't playing in front of a crowd like that in a long time.”

On His High FT Percentage Tonight—

“I learned in high school that if the person guarding you is smaller, they are just going to grab you so you better be able to make your free throws.”

-COLORADO-

Players Mentioned

Jeremy Adams

Askia Booker

Spencer Dinwiddie

Wesley Gordon

Chris Jenkins

Xavier Johnson

Josh Scott

Xavier Talton

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