Colorado University Athletics
Colorado, California Quotes
February 26, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General - "To me that's what Senior Day's supposed to be about, the energy and the effort, we made plays on offense and defense and (that's what it's about) to me. Colorado basketball (has been) undefeated when we get our opponents to shoot 41 percent from the field. We put "41%" on the front of our board. Every time we've held the defense to that, we haven't lost a game. We rebounded, defended and we did it. Our seniors weren't going to let us lose it; I have to give them a lot of credit and also their families for coming out."
On Losing to Stanford Thursday - "After Thursday's game, I'm done predicting what this team is going to do. I only know what (happens in practice). I do know that on Friday and Saturday we had very intense, spirited practices. Our guys were genuinely disappointed. With that, I'm not disappointed or surprised with what we did tonight. I still don't know how to explain Thursday, though."
On How to Explain the Team's Quick Turnaround - "Sometimes it's the perfect storm. Every time someone's making shots. You don't know (what's going to happen). That's what makes college basketball fun. You see funny scores and it only gets harder and harder to score. You see teams, how did they lose to that team. Good teams are getting beat. I'm just really proud of the way Buffs played today."
On Shutting Down Cal G Jorge Gutierrez - "We've done a great job on him. Spencer [Dinwiddie's] become a lock-down guy. [Nate] Tomlinson did a great job on [Allen] Crabbe. I though all of our guys did a great job on their perimeter players. [Justin] Cobb's a very good player, he went for 26, 28 the past few times. But I thought our perimeter defense was terrific."
On the Fan Support - "I think I want our young guys to understand (their importance). Guys like Austin [Dufault], Nate have talked our young guys to appreciate the fans. Second thing is that we owe it to them to provide a spark, provide a product for them to cheer for and see. We wanted to create a place for college basketball to be special. But, we still have work to do."
On G Carlon Brown's Recent Struggles - "For us to be good we need Carlon Brown to be effective. He's a big wing, he can stretch the defense. I was just telling him to just think about trying to get to the free throw line. We ran some post-up plays, he's been really good in there. We tried to get him the ball on the block. It's such a mental thing. There's nothing we can do and he's frustrated. He's handled it as good as a young man can handle it. There's no question he'll break out of it, it's just a matter of when."
On Getting a Top Four Seed - "We talked about it a lot. We're going to have to play the road well. We want one of those top four seeds. I think the Pac-12 tournament is setting up to be anybody's game. I'm not going to get too worried but it's obviously something we'd like."
On F/C Shane Harris-Tunk's Play - "Shane played great, his post game was great. We're going to need (people to step up during the tournament). It's important for those guys to play well for us to be a deep tournament team."
On Making the NCAA Tournament - "I don't think about it. The last year taught me that. It was a hard, gut-wrenching lesson. We were on the bubble and all that. I'm not into it. It's not just something that I'm going to let myself get into. We're just (going to) let the chips fall where they may."
On Colorado's Road Play - "I wouldn't say we've been consistent on the road. I thought we really competed. I looked back on our conference road losses; I don't feel like we really played well. UCLA stuck it to us. The rest of them, we won, I liked the way we competed at Cal and Arizona. Those aren't easy places to play. There are inconsistencies on any team in college basketball and we're one of them. I think we just beat one of the most consistent teams in the league. It's certainly an issue. The next step for our program, we have to be a quality program on the road. I think it'd be really good for our young guys and a great thing for our veterans. If we don't get it done this year, we just want to keep building. It'll happen sooner rather than later."
California Head Coach Mike Montgomery
General-"The one thing Colorado does is they will not let you get to the basket. They really load up at the basket. So, what we worked on was to try to get there and find the open guy. I wouldn't say we were highly successful in that."
On The Outcome-"We didn't defend very well. They [Colorado] really took advantage of their offensive possessions. They shot it well-we didn't. They took away some things and it frustrated us a little bit. I think more than anything else though, that our point of attack defense was not very good. We attack time after time, but they were able to get it to another guy who was able to score; that caused us all sorts of problems."
On Jorge Gutierrez Going Scoreless-"That definitely causes us a problem, but there's nothing wrong with him. He's had a hard time shooting the ball and that's been getting in his head a little bit. He did have nine rebounds and he did the other things that he does, but he's very conscience of the fact that the ball's not going in. If you look statistically, Jorge has one foul. We obviously just weren't doing a very good job with our perimeter people in terms of defending. They [Colorado] were able to get by us and get into the paint pretty much whenever they needed to.
On Potentially Finishing First-"It's a game. It's Colorado on the road and Stanford on the road. We knew these were two tough games. They deserve to win. They played better than we did. If we can't play better than that's what it is. The issue with finishing first, which is always your goal, is still on the horizon. It means we're going to have to win at Stanford, but we will know more going into the game whether Washington will lose on the road. It's still out there for us, but this makes it that much more difficult."
On Overcoming The Atmosphere-"Stanford played great, they shot lights out. Then next thing you know you are down 20. From a psychological point there's always them being "By God we've got to play better". This is always a hard road trip. We're coming from a further distant, there's altitude... and Colorado's good-don't make any mistake. They lost one game in league and that was the other night, so they were ready to play. They were gunned up and they fought hard. We just couldn't capitalize to put any pressure on them."
Nate Tomlinson, Sr., PG
On The Significance Of The Win - "It's unreal. The ride that me and Dufault have been on since we've been here, since freshman year, there is no better way. We looked bad on Thursday night, it's just fitting that we win against the best team in the league. It shows how tough we are as a group."
On The Last Five Minutes - "There was no way would were going to let that go. Thursday night was pretty tough. We ran into a pretty hot Stanford team. They shot the ball in an unreal way. Tonight there wasn't any way we were going to let that one slip."
On Tonight's Game - "We're playing for a Pac-12 title. We can't feel sorry for ourselves when we lose the Thursday game. We still have a shot."
On Jorge Gutierrez's Struggles -"I don't want to jinx it. He's a hell of a player. Spencer did a good job on him tonight. He's long, and we made him take tough shots. Jorge is a tough guy to play against."
On His Defensive Improvement - "I think I've been pretty good all four years. Since Coach Boyle has been here he's preached, 'Defense and rebounding.' If you come to work every day you know that's what we are. As a senior on this team that's what I've tried to do if I'm not scoring. I think that's why we win games. I'm just trying to do my part like everyone else."
On Leaving The Program Better Than When It Began - "Me and Austin only won nine games, and we were lucky to play in any of them. I think it says a lot about the people that have come through here, Alec Burks and Cory Higgins all those guys. It's not just me and Austin, it's the guys that are still here. Andre is by far the best rebounder in the league. We are proud of what this program is, I think it's only up from here. It shows by crowd attendance and 20 wins back-to-back is pretty good."
Austin Dufault, Sr., F
On The Difference Between Tonight And Thursday - "It's kind of unexplainable. It's college basketball that's all you really can say. Physically we were really ready to go Thursday night, but we didn't bring it mentally. We made a lot of mental mistakes. Tonight we were thriving mentally. We only had a couple turnovers, and when you do that and defend and rebound and not make many mistakes you definitely give yourself a shot to win. We were so jacked up and excited to have another opportunity. We just didn't play very well mentally. We made a lot of mental mistakes. We really got down on ourselves the first five to ten minutes of the game and that really hurt us. Tonight we stayed focused and throughout and sustained a win."
On The Last Five Minutes Of The Game - "Like Nate said, I didn't want to let it slip away. Especially on Senior Night on this last night to play in front of these fans, I think it is fitting the way it went tonight. We've had an up and down career, but I think we've been pretty resilient. Coming off that Thursday game to play the way we did tonight. Our main focus was to close it out the right way at home."
On Spencer Dinwiddie's Play Tonight - "It's huge. He had a huge three in the corner. They were making a run to come back in the end, but I think that was one to the plays that sealed it for us tonight. For a freshman he has so much confidence about himself. He's willing to take big shots in big moments. As he continues with his career I think attribute will make him a really great player, a very confident player, and he's not afraid to step up."
On The Change From Freshman To Senior Year - "It's night and day from when we first stepped foot here. We won nine games and lost about 20. Now we have the opportunity to win 20 games in back-to-back seasons if we can take care of business. If we continue to play well and do the right things we will be ok. The fan support has been incredible. I think that has to do with the way we play, we play so hard, get up and down and put a lot of points up. I think fans appreciate that."
On Playing Against California - "Last year when we played them at home, they had the same team. I think we match up against them well. We have a lot of similar type guys. Inside-outside guys that are skilled. When you have a matchup like that you know it's going to be a good ball game. I think we took a lot from the game at California about finishing games. We were up seven at halftime in both games, this time we decided to finish it."
Andre Roberson, So., F
On The Mental Approach For Tonight - "We just need to be ready mentally. We knew we got beat badly on the boards and points in the paint against Stanford. We just wanted to come out with a vengeance tonight, and I feel like we did that. Came out strong on the boards and points in the paint."
