Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-Arizona Quotes
February 10, 2012 | Women's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Linda Lappe
General
“I thought we came out ready to play.? Chucky hit that first three and set the tempo.? She took it with confidence, even if she would have missed it; she still had that same confidence. We were working all week getting our feet under us.? I thought they really came with that aggressive mentality.? Our defense really struggled in the first half but came out in the second half.? Our players really did a good job adjusting.? Anytime you get a win in the conference it's a good thing.”
On Playing a Full Game
“Yeah that was huge. Our players, hopefully we learn from mistakes. We did that early, made some adjustments and came out in the second half really strong, and we haven't done that in a while.? It was good for us to get back into the killer instinct mentality.? I thought we did a great job playing 40 minutes of basketball. ?I'm really proud of our three freshmen for playing hard.? I didn't think there was any time where we've done it better than today.? It's a lot easier when you're playing a full 40 minutes.”
On the Offensive Rebounding Effort
“That was the difference in the game.? We knew we had to box out, rebound, and get all the loose balls.? They were the aggressors [in Arizona], outhustling us and grabbing all the balls.? It was something we had talked about all week; we did a great job boxing out.? On the reverse side, they were small for much of the game; we had 18 [offensive rebounds] on them the last time.? We knew that was a weak spot of theirs. ?I thought we did a better job than other time [we played them].”
On Jasmine Sborov's Performance
“Jasmine is understanding the game and her role on the team. She's learning what it takes to play. She can guard a 2, 3, or 4.? She's rebounding well even if people are hanging on and grabbing her.? She's big and she can jump.? She has gotten better, more than anything, at knowing when to take a shot and knowing what's a good shot for her, just getting her feet set and knowing where to take shots.? Anything that she scores is a bonus.? She took some 15 foot jumpers today; she was playing with a lot of confidence and you like that.? She's going to be a role player offensively, but defensively she can set the tone for us and it's a huge help to our team.? She just has a better understanding of the game.? She's doing a better job in practice and knowing when we scout [and learning] how to play certain players.”
On Whether Jasmine Sborov Has Improved the Most on the Team
“We saw some good things in Jasmine early.? She was almost a deer-in-headlights in the games though.? As the season came along she didn't see much playing time.? But she had a great attitude and stayed with it and worked hard.? She's really persevered.? I know it's tough when she sees freshmen (like Lexy Kresl and Jen Reese) playing. ??She's wanted to learn and has had a passion to be on the floor.? From the first game from now, she's probably made the most progress of any player.”
On Chucky Jeffery Setting the Tone Early
“Chucky did a nice job tonight, I thought from that opening shot, she showed how she was going to play that game, just the confidence.? She really controlled the game from start to finish.? I thought she did a good job on [Arizona guard Davellyn] Whyte, just holding her below her [scoring] average.”
Colorado Players
Chucky Jeffery, Jr., G
On Finally Getting A Win “It feels great. I think a lot of our players got their confidence back tonight. We played a full 40 minutes and we haven't done that in a long time. We played defense, got loose balls, got on the floor; just did things that we weren't doing in these past few games. We were beating them to loose balls and we had 20 offensive rebounds, and I think that was great. We had players step up. Jasmine had a great game, Julie, Brittany; it was just an all around team win.”
On Her Career High Of Five Three Pointers “When I feel like my shot is good, I get encouraged to hit another one if I'm open, so I wasn't going to be hesitant. I missed a couple, but I just kept shooting when I was open. That's what I am told to do. We focus on catching the ball and getting ready to score every time.”
On If A Good Week Of Practice Translates To Wins “I think we had an outstanding week of practice. We switched up some stuff in our pre-practice; more attacking the glass, through contact we have been getting beat up all week, so we learned to take on that contact and we were going up and getting boards and finishing. I think everything translates. We were extremely focused in practice and I think that translated to our win tonight and our ability to play a full 40 minutes.”
On Being Able To Relax In The Final Minutes “It felt great. We earned it though. Nothing ever comes easy. So, it was nice to look up in those final seconds at the scoreboard and know we have this sealed. We didn't have to cram our brains with stuff like taking the last shot, if we are going to go into overtime and things like that. It's definitely a great feeling.”
Brittany Wilson, So., G
On Starting Out Fast “When you are disappointed, you are kind of encouraged at the same time. We're on our home floor, we knew we had to score, we knew we had to come out; we knew what we had to do to bring the dagger out early. We were discouraged from the Oregon game, but we came back and we fought and we kept our head up and we came here and won this game like we knew we could.”
On Their Week Of Practice “We practice hard every week. There's never a week that we slack off. There might be a segment in a practice that isn't so good, but we are always here working hard, whether it's right after a game or whether it's two days before preparing for a game. But our practice this week was really intense. The girls were really energized and we had our eyes on a goal that we knew we had to go out there and get.”
Jasmine Sborov, Fr., G
On The Improvement In Her Game “I think I just had to find myself and slow the game down a little bit for myself, just to feel more comfortable. But my teammates have definitely helped me with that and have kept encouraging me, so it's nice to have them by my side.”
On What Changed Her Play Tonight “Getting back to my roots and doing what I do best, basically just what they recruited me for: rebounding and defense.”
Arizona Head Coach Niya Butts
On Arizona's performance
“We turned the ball over and we had a lot of traveling. We didn't do a very good job catching the ball or passing the ball. We were really careless with the basketball and you can't do that when you're on the road. Colorado scored 13 points off of our turnovers. Anytime you do that, you're not going to win the basketball game.”
On turnovers
“It was very frustrating. The first half, you're shooting 64 percent and you're down three. You're shooting 71 percent from the three point line and 100 percent from the free throw line. It comes down to that we just weren't defending. We didn't get stops. When they got the shot, they were getting the offensive rebounds. The disappointing thing for a coach is that we're standing right next to them. We weren't physical. I'll go back and watch the tape. The one thing I always do is self-evaluate. I've got to figure out what it is that I need to do better as a coach. When I'm looking at it first hand, it doesn't look like anything as far as strategy. We've got to address that and make them better. That's my job.”?
?
