Colorado University Athletics
Colorado, Stanford Quotes
February 24, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General
"I don't have much to say after that one but that was just an old fashioned butt whipping. I'm disappointed and I know our players are disappointed, our fans are disappointed. We let a golden opportunity go right by us. The fans that showed up tonight and have been following us all year long deserve better from the Buffs. For that I feel bad and I apologize but now it is how we are going to rebound and go forward, and that is all I can do as a coach."
On Practices Leading Up To Tonight
"I felt like sometimes tonight we felt a little winded. I know we practiced the things we needed to practice to try to beat Stanford. I know we didn't execute our game plan defensively or offensively for that matter at all. That's disappointing for a game of this magnitude for conference standing. We had a lot more to play for than Stanford but we didn't act like it or play like it tonight at all. I didn't see this coming, I was a little surprised."
On Stanford Being A Difficult Matchup For Us
"They are not a good match up but matchups go both ways and they obviously have great size, great athleticism, they are strong and that is two games in a row that they just "beasted" us on the boards to where it is not even close. We have played against teams that are bigger, faster, stronger and we have competed against before, I know last year's team sure did. We are capable of doing it but we just haven't done it against Stanford for some reason or another and I'm just not sure why. However on the other end of the floor I think we are a bad matchup for them if we make them pay. But when you don't make good decisions and not attack the boards then you don't take advantage of that matchup."
On CU's Offensive Performance
"We never put a run together, and one reason we couldn't put a run together is because we couldn't get stops and rebound the basketball, and when you can't get rebounds it's hard to put runs together. I wouldn't say our guys had no answers I just think we had no answers, we just got beat. They tried, I thought our effort was good but our execution wasn't very good and we didn't get it done for one reason or another. And I didn't see any quit in our team and I didn't expect that. For some reason tonight our lack of offense effected our defense, and that can't happen."
On Not Seeing This Coming
"I don't know. I will be asking myself that question a lot between now and 1:00 tomorrow, but I don't know maybe more timeouts in the first half. But our players are mature, and with a mature group, whether you are winning or your tail is kicked they understand why. At halftime they understood why, I didn't need to say it. I don't know if there is more that could have been done and I think tonight was a night I was searching I tried to use our bench and I didn't have any answers and I am part to blame in this. It is on me as much as it is on our players."
On Sunday's Game
"They are the first place team in our league, it is Senior Night and we want to send them out on a positive note. I feel like our fans that came out tonight were cheated, so we have a lot of things to make up. We cannot and will not feel sorry for ourselves and wallow in self pity. We have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and get back to work and figure out a way to compete against Cal."
On The Difference Between Cal and Stanford
"They are not as deep as Stanford is, but they are a lot like Stanford with their first five guys. They have a good inside player just like Stanford. They execute well, they are well coached, they are very similar to Stanford but there are a lot of differences as well. Physically we won't be as overmatched as we were with Stanford; it's a different kind of challenge."
On His Players' Mindsets
"I don't worry about the mindset of our guys, I really don't. Cal is going to be a difficult game and we have to play well on Sunday if we expect to win. We've played well enough to beat some of the lower and upper teams in our league. But you don't do it with the way we played tonight. I don't have any answer why, but I wish I did, I am searching for answers. We will have a game plan ready for Cal I can promise you that."
Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
On Colorado's Success At Home-"They've played terrific here. I'm really proud of our guys' effort here. It's really fun to watch our guys grow in a game and work in an atmosphere like this."
On Playing Defense And Rebounding So Well-"When we can defend, which I think we've done a pretty good job all season long, we just need to compliment it on the offensive end. I think when those two things are working well for us we can compete. I think this is one of our best defensive efforts especially on the road which is more difficult. I give our kids a lot of credit for really grinding."
On How Big This Win Is-"I think this is a great win for us. We've got two more games to go in conference and we are just looking to continue to improve."
On The Game Plan Coming In-"We just wanted to come out, play hard, and compete. They (Colorado) are a great team and are well coached. They've been having a terrific season and we just wanted to come out and just try to compete with them here in such a great environment."
On The Bench Depth-"We wanted to keep guys as fresh as possible and I think we were able to do that tonight. The guys that were able to do that tonight and it gave us a lot of confidence."
Askia Booker, Fr., G
On How Disappointing The Loss Is-"It's disappointing. I mean, I think as a team we let our offense get to our defense. Shots weren't falling and I think that transferred right to our defense. Everyone's heads were down, didn't play defense, didn't get back on defense, and didn't catch shooters. So, I think it's just that we let our offense get to our defense."
On This Week's Practice-"We practiced hard. We seemed prepared. I mean we practiced every day, we didn't get a day off, and we worked our butts off. I can't say we weren't prepared. Coach felt we were prepared, we felt we were prepared, we just didn't come in and handle our business."
Austin Dufault, Sr., F
On Why Stanford Is So Tough-"They come ready to play. They are physical and they play hard for the full 40 minutes. When we go out there and have spurts where we just don't play hard, they are going to kill us. They're a great team. You just have to give them a lot of credit for playing as hard as they could for 40 minutes."
On Team Not Playing Hard In Spurts-"I don't know. I don't know if we were nervous coming into the game, if we were too excited, or what the deal was. But for whatever reason we just got down on ourselves the first few minutes of the game and we couldn't score. Instead of locking in, defending and rebounding, we just kind of folded and they really took it to us and we didn't have an answer for them."
On If Stanford Is A Bad Match-Up-"Maybe. You can talk about everything on paper or whatever, but when the ball goes up you just have to be ready to play and tonight we weren't and they were."
On Mood Of Team At Half-"We felt that if we got shots and rebounds, we could get back into it. But, it was going to have to be one possession at a time. Whenever you go out and give up a lead to somebody and just trade baskets for the rest of the game, it's impossible to come back and that's what we did. We just didn't execute offensively or defensively and they did. So, we just traded baskets the whole second half."
On If They Can Bounce Back Against Cal-"We have to. Our season is winding down and we are still, I think, one of the top teams in our league. So, we just have to look at this game, learn from it and move on. We need to put this in the rearview as fast as we can and get ready to play Cal, because they are the number one team in our conference. We have to bounce back. There is no question about that."
