Players Mentioned
Colorado-Northern Arizona Quotes
December 21, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General
"That is a great way to go into Christmas break for our team; it was a
great team victory. I am really proud of our guys for really playing unselfish
basketball; 24 assists was a season high for us, (Sports Information Director) Dave
Plati just told me when I walked in here that it was our best shooting game in 23
years and a lot of that is passing the ball. It was contagious throughout our
team and we talked at half time and every timeout about playing the possession,
not playing the score board and I think we did a good job of that. Scheduling
is a big part of college basketball, and Northern Arizona had a big week and
then they come in here with only one day of rest in between. But if you go back
and you look at our KU game, two weeks ago KU had nine days off to prepare for
us and we didn't. Sometimes that is just apart of college basketball, and I
think that was apart of it tonight. We did a good job and we did what we had to
do, but I think Northern Arizona is better than what they showed tonight."
On Going
Deep Down The Bench
"We really need to get those guys going; those (bench players) are going
to be important to us throughout the season. We know pretty much what we are
going to get from our starters; sometimes those guys come off the bench and they
need a confidence booster. Those guys have been practicing better too; we have
a black team which is our first team and then we have the gold team which is
our second team and we hook it up in practice and we compete a little bit.
Those competitions in the beginning of the year were wide margins but they have
gotten narrower and the gold team has really been competing well, that gap is
narrowed. I talked to those guys yesterday in practice, I told them it was
their job to play in the games how you practice, and they did that tonight."
On Outscoring
NAU In The Second Half
"Well I think they bought into (the gameplan) and just took it to heart.
We talked about at half how we haven't handled coming out of halftime well for
the last couple games and I think they just took it to heart. Part of it was
Northern Arizona didn't have the fight that others had, but part of it was us
too. I don't know what the difference was maybe they just started listening."
On
Giving The Starters A Rest
"They need too, because the conference season is a grind. College
basketball is a long season, and sometimes as a coach you feel that more is
better with practice time and grinding them out but sometimes you really need
to listen and watch your team and see where they are at emotionally and
mentally because they just got done with finals and that is never easy. And we
needed a break and we need this next break, but we need to, throughout those
breaks, have great practices. That is where leadership and maturity of your
guys needs to take over. We have a four-day break here for Christmas and that
is an eternity for College Basketball. They need to make sure they get in the
gym, and get some cardio work and not just sit on the couch. I trust our guys
that they will do that."
On
Pre-Season Scheduling
"I knew it was tough before we started. Scheduling is not a science and
sometimes you have to get lucky. I really believe that the start of the
schedule this year that I over scheduled it a little bit but now I am glad that
we did because we have been successful for the most part. You never know; sometimes
you feel like you over schedule, and sometimes you feel like you under
schedule. I don't always have control over it either, there is a lot that goes
into scheduling and we have been lucky."
On G Askia
Booker's Shooting Game
"It was key for 'Ski to come off and make his shots, and he did. And he
had been spending a lot of time in the gym, the one thing about Askia Booker,
he is going to spend time in the gym, and he has been and we have stuck with
him, and this break was good for him. He got a little bit of his confidence
back and you could see it in practice and when he gets his mojo he is pretty
darn good and explosive, and obviously we need Ski to be at his best for us to
do our best."
On The
Team Moral When Emptying The Bench
"It was really good. What I was so proud of was that our freshmen were
not playing like freshmen, they were playing the possession they were not
playing the scoreboard. And when Ben Mills and Beau Gamble got in the game, our
starters on the bench were encouraging our guys; and when your starters are
doing that it sends a great message. And those guys have respect on our team,
they are important to our team, and they work hard just like everybody else, so
giving them some minutes; everybody felt great about that."
Northern Arizona Head Coach Jack Murphy
On Colorado
"I know that they had a few days off between games
for finals. I think coming in we were hoping they would be mentally gone for
the holiday and they were not. They were prepared and they shot the ball so
well and it snowballed on us and one thing led to another."
On What His Team Learned From Tonight's Game
"I think in the
second half we did a better job of taking care of the basketball and running
our offense. We can go back into our conference knowing that we have played
some of the elite teams and Colorado is definitely one of the elite teams from
the west and have one of the tougher home environments you are going to face. I
think even in a loss you can take something away from it especially for us as
we move forward into our conference."
On How Colorado Compares To Other Pac-12 Teams He Has Seen
"When they shoot the ball like they did tonight
they will compete with anyone in the conference. I think those three teams
(Colorado, Arizona, Oregon) are very, very good and I think right now as it stands they have three of the
best records in the conference. They are all well coached. Arizona's size will
present problems for the other teams in the league. Colorado has great guard
play from the young sophomores and when [Andre] Roberson and [Josh] Scott can
get the high-low action going they are going to be really tough to beat.
On If His Team Had Any Hope After The Early Colorado Run
"Not really, it was really a hopeless feeling which
you don't ever want to encounter as a coach. It just really snow balled on us
and we wanted to make the most out of it that we could which were good practice
reps and working on our stuff."
University of Colorado Student-Athletes
Sophomore Guard Askia Booker
On If This Game Was Just What The Doctor Ordered
"Yeah, it's always important for us to come out and
win, especially at home. Our last game was nine days ago so it was important
for us to get in the gym and work hard every day and get this win."
On How It Felt To Get Hot Early
"It felt pretty good. I knew that they were icing
ball screens, forcing me to the baseline a lot, so because they're big guys are
a little slower, it allowed me to get a few more open shots."
On If Xavier Johnson Will Gain More Confidence From Tonight
"Absolutely. He's very good, he's talented, he's
aggressive and I think that showed tonight, especially with him going inside.
Just letting him play freely tonight with the lead that we had will give him
some confidence and I hope it leads on to the next game."
On The Team's 24 Assists
"(Coach Tad Boyle)
was pretty happy about it, but we still had 16 turnovers. I mean, 24 assists is
a lot, but if you have 16 turnovers, it's not as great. But, at the same time,
all we did was just take care of the ball, play together and found the open
man."
On Improvements Needed Before Conference Play Begins
"On my end, I need to
work on decision making. Like I said, we had a lot of turnovers tonight. But,
at the same time, we were still being aggressive and were looking to try and
get the open shot. Some turnovers are going to happen, but if we can get
anywhere in the teens for assists and get 5 of less turnovers, that would be
great for the team."
Sophomore Guard Spencer Dinwiddie
On The Defense Tonight
"I thought it was a
great collective effort. I don't know how many points they had at the half, but
I know it wasn't a lot. They also didn't have a very good average field goal
percentage, so that's a good job by our defense."
On If There Was A Focus On Rebounding Tonight
"Rebounding is our number one focus all the time.
Being able to just practice for nine days, or whatever it was, gets those
fundamentals into your head more than if you were playing every day. I think we
did a good job tonight."
On Team's Morale Tonight
"Everybody is happy. We had people getting off the
bench. We are each other's biggest supporters. Most of the time you see the
guys on the bench supporting us and it was just a great opportunity we had to
be able to support them."
On How The Team Feels Heading Into Conference Play
"I think we are excited. Everybody is anxious to
get Pac-12 play started. I mean, moving to the Pac-12 is a big part of why a
lot of us are here. Opening up at Arizona is going to be a big game for us. Not
to look past Hartford, but we're definitely already thinking about conference
play."
-COLORADO-