Colorado University Athletics
Colorado, Oregon State Quotes
February 03, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General- "I was pleased with the way our guys came out ready to go tonight. I thought the whole key against Oregon State was that we prepared for them. We had to play 40 minutes because you watch that team when they were at Oregon, and they scored 23 points in the first half and then they came out and scored 50 in the second half at Oregon, which is not easy to do. We knew how explosive they were. I thought we did a great job on [Jared] Cunningham and [Ahmad] Starks. Nate Tomlinson, I think, one of the most underrated defenders on our team and in this league. He does a great job night in and night out. I thought Spencer [Dinwiddie], who started on Starks, did a great job. A lot of our guys had chances. Defensively, you hold them to 36 percent at home, you should win. We got out in transition and got some buckets and got the crowd into it, which is nice, we needed that. We talked about getting stops so we could get into transition. We had to keep Cunningham and Starks under wraps, and for the most part we did that."
On Oregon State's Zone Defense - "The best way to beat a zone is not let it set up. The way you can do that is getting stops so you can run. The transition game was key; most zones have trouble in transition. It doesn't matter who we play now in that regard. Oregon plays a little bit of a matchup."
On Askia Booker's Performance - "We talk about his fearlessness and his aggressiveness. He's perfect for us right now in the role of sixth man. I look at Booker as a sixth starter. He's playing starters' minutes, he played 20 tonight. It was one of those funny substitution nights. We have a lot of confidence in him, he came in and made plays. He's aggressive. We talked about not catch guard-to-guard too much. We had to attack that thing in the middle and get the ball in the baseline. When he came in the game he really gave us a lift and made some plays for us. It's kind of contagious, he makes a couple, then Nate makes a couple, Carlon makes them, Spencer makes them."
On Winning Every Four Minute Segment - "We talked about that at halftime, we're up 15 and it's about winning every four minute segment. We don't talk about that a lot in the first half. Four minute games and immediate things, but in the second half we give a lot of attention to it. It felt like if we could extend that thing we could put them away. It's a sign of progress and I'm happy with that."
On Andre Roberson's Performance This Season - "His numbers are ridiculous in terms of rebounding. If you look at it from rebounds-per-minute it's really staggering. I thought Andre got in the flow. He got 10 shots up, which is always good, and he made six of them. When he gets going offensively it fuels the rest of his game. The one thing he always does is rebound the ball and that's a nice constant to have. I wish I could take credit for coaching his rebounding, but he just does it."
On Upcoming Game With Oregon - "Four road games, they're a mentally tough team. They're a well coached team. They know what they do. It's not going to be an easy game. We're going to have to make plays and be aggressive. They have a great inside-outside presence. They have some good post players that are really athletic. They have perimeter plays in Beau Joseph and Singler who can shoot the ball really well from the perimeter. We will be challenged defensively and our post players, size-wise, will be challenged. They have a nice team, good players and well coached."
On Carlon Brown's Alley-Oop Dunk - "It got the crowd going and I thought it gave our players a lot of confidence. It was a heck of a pass by Nate and a great finish by Carlon. It was a big time play by a great passer and great finisher. It got our students into it and got our players juiced up and we took it from there."
Oregon State Head Coach Craig Robinson
General-"We weren't ready to play. The beginning of the game looked good. I don't know if it was the altitude or its complacency, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that they (Colorado) played really well. We didn't get back on defense that was a big part of it. There were so many points from the paint in transition that you just can't win that way."
On Colorado Shooting 60 Percent-"Even when we are playing defense poorly, we don't give up numbers like this. I have to really look at tape and see what exactly went wrong."
On How the Score Got Away So Quickly-"You have to learn how to manage a game when you're on the road. We are still learning on how to do that. I'll take the blame for that. I still have to be better on teaching these guys how to manage a game on the road like this-with a team who's at the top of the league."
On If the New Environment Had Any Effect-"We should've played better than we played. I don't want to say we were due to have a bad game, but this was a bad game and we hadn't had one in awhile. I have to do a better job in preparing these guys."
On If This Was a Letdown From the Oregon Game-"I don't know. It shouldn't be a letdown. When you win three in a row you should be looking to be really excited to win that fourth, but we are still learning. We have a lot of young guys out there and we might have been happy with just winning three in a row."
On If Colorado Did Anything Unexpected-"No, but there were plenty of things we weren't able to counter. They didn't surprise us-we knew they would get the ball up quickly and we did a really poor job on getting back on defense.
On Colorado Gs Spencer Dinwiddie and Askia Booker-"When you play defense like we did, they can have a lot of guys have a great night, and that's what they did. That's what good teams do, they take advantage of teams when they come into their place and play well. That's a credit to their coach and their preparation."
Nate Tomlinson, Senior, Guard
On Limiting Jared Cunningham To 12 Points - "He is a big part of what they do, so he is going to take most of their shots and there are only a few things you can do to limit them. We tried to make him take tough contested shots, I think we did a really good job of that tonight."
On Matching Up Against Oregon State - "They are a good team, I think we do a decent job of attacking their 1-3-1 zone and getting them out of it. Once they are out of it they are playing from behind. I don't think they can match up with us defensively."
On Playing Oregon - "They are a tough team, they have the most wins on the road in the conference. I am sure they will not be afraid to come in here. I think if we do the things that we do well then we shouldn't have a problem with them."
Andre Roberson, Sophomore, Forward
On Playing Up Tempo Against Oregon State's - "We just had to get out and run on them, we knew that they had a short bench. We also had to defend their jump shooters, they didn't do as much dribble drive in the first half as they did in the second half. But I feel like when we ran on them good things were happening."
On Another Double-Double - "I am just trying to be consistent night in and night out. I feel like I need to go out and play more aggressive than I have been. Coming off of a loss to UCLA we got out rebounded in that game and we needed to get up for tonight."
On Going Unbeaten At Home In Conference - "That was one of our goals to start out the season. We all got together and made a goal sheet and going unbeaten in conference play was a very common goal we all had."
Askia Booker, Freshman, Guard
On Attacking Oregon State's 1-3-1 Zone and Scoring Career-High 15 Points - "We needed to get open shots. Coaches told me to be aggressive when I got in, so I took advantage of their height because they had 6-10 guys in the lane so I knew they were not as fast as I am.
On The Team Registering 19 Assists - "When you are in that 1-3-1, if you can get through that line of 3 guys, there is only 1 guy back there, then I have two big guys and a wing cutting to the basket and that opens up options for us, the shots were just there which made it really easy."
