Colorado University Athletics
Colorado, Oregon Quotes
February 05, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General- "That was a heck of a basketball atmosphere. Somebody had to lose that game and I'm glad it was Oregon and not Colorado, because our guys really battled, we didn't play as well as we are capable of playing. It was one of those games where we tried to break it open a few times but every time we did Oregon had an answer. I have a lot of respect for that program and their coach because that is where I started off my coaching career. I'm really proud of our guys and their toughness they showed tonight. We got out rebounded, and we didn't hold them under 40 percent of their field goals which was one of our goals, but we battled. Nate Tomlinson's is emerging as one of the best defensive players in this league, Andre had seven blocked shots and our two freshmen right there playing great basketball. A lot of good things we can take from this. We attacked the basked at the end of the game with Nate and his smart last play. I'm really happy."
On The Game Ending Call On Nate-"You officiate the game from start to finish; if a kid gets fouled it's a foul. I had no problem with most of those calls. I want the game officiated from start to end just like Coach Altman and any other coach does. I had no problem."
On The Two Freshmen Performances-"What makes me happy is looking down at the stat sheet and seeing two freshmen who played their tails off and we got them for three more years and I am very pleased with them. I thought tonight was a game where those guys grow up. Next year we are going to have a lot of youth on the team. I was really pleased with our two freshmen tonight."
On Translating The Freshmen Performances On The Road-"Challenge them. It's mental toughness, its approaching the game the same way, its playing with the same urgency and toughness. Hopefully they can learn from the Arizona team that came in here and battled us, and learn from the Oregon team. We have to be that kind of team on the road, and sometimes that doesn't happen. When you build a program the first thing you have to do is learn how to win at home, then you have to learn how to win on the road, and then win against quality opponents. We have set the stage next Thursday playing a quality opponent on the road; it will be fun to see if we can make that next step."
On His Halftime Speech-"I told them offensively we can't panic. We can't panic, we expect sometimes at home that things are going to be easy and shots would go in and the crowd would be into it and so we said we can't panic and see what happens as well as taking care of the ball. We talked about getting more movement and cutters to their matchup zone. We had to rely on our motion, and motion is good when we have movement, not just passing around the perimeter and having one guy drive to the basket. We have to be basketball players."
On Booker's Performance-"The whole key with Askia is making good decisions; when do you pull up and shoot your pull up jumper, when do you attack the rim, when do you kick it out. Those decisions are hopefully getting better as he matures and grows. A thing I like about him is he comes in and watches film, where he can see. Basketball is such an instinctual game and you can't over think it, you have to use your instincts, and hopefully watching film can maybe help him with some of those instincts."
On His Team's Confidence In the Pac-12-"I don't think there is any team we can't beat, but I don't think there is any team that we can take for granted either. I think the whole key for us is you take the next task at hand and we have to be able to beat a quality opponent on the road. When you are in a league race, every game becomes more important than the last one. We just have to keep our nose to the grind stone, and our guys believe, and that's what it is going to take."
On Nate Tomlinson's Growing Potential-"It's great. When you look back there was about a four game stretch where Nate was really struggling, but I just have a belief in him because I think he is all about the team. He doesn't care if he takes a shot, and there are times where he doesn't care if he's on the bench. He wants the team to do well and play well; he is a senior who has worked his tail off. I have such a sense of pride with him and the rest of the seniors. I have to believe in our guys like they have to believe in themselves."
On The Atmosphere Of Coors Event Center-"It is becoming one of the tougher places to play at in the Pac-12. Some of the Oregon people said this was one of the toughest places to play. But I think the combination of altitude, our fans the energy in the arena. I've said this before but I think we have work to do until it's like that every single time, if we want this program to be as good as it can be. The fans are really enjoying themselves, and the great thing about college basketball is it is a participant sport not a spectator sport and I love the environment that our fans have created. It is so much fun coaching in a game like this one tonight especially a game like this one being so close the whole time. It was just a fun game. Hopefully we are creating this atmosphere where people can come and just have fun and enjoy themselves. We want to entertain our fans and get them excited and I think our players have done that."
Oregon Head Coach Dana Altman
On The Difference In The Game-"We didn't shoot free throws well, they beat us there and that was a big difference. We couldn't get the stops we needed to in the second half.
On The Ending Play-"Just part of the game."
On Colorado Doing Anything Unexpected-"Nope, just kind of expected them to transition fast in the second half. The first half we did a better job stopping them."
On Askia Booker Being An X-Factor-"No, he has been one of the leading scorers the last five games."
Askia Booker, Freshman, Guard
On taking last minute shots-"Coach called a set play out of the time-out. He just told us to attack because there was going to be holes in the zone they were playing. I just saw the middle was wide open and then everyone collapsed on me. Dinwiddie was wide open, so thank god he hit the shot."
On if he felt like he needed to spark the team-"I always feel like that. That's my job, to come off the bench and get my team going. Tonight I had to be a little more aggressive than I usually am, so, I feel like if I can come in and do that every game then we have a good chance to continue winning."
On stepping up for Carlon Brown-"We don't look at numbers when we are playing. We just see that the ball isn't going in. We can feel when we need to get more aggressive and when we have to attack. When you don't see shots going in and you haven't taken that many shots, I feel like it's almost your turn to go make something happen. I just tried to take advantage of that."
On homecourt advantage-"Most definitely (this is one of the toughest to play). Well, I want to thank the fans for that because they are for sure supporting us by making it really loud in there. I can't even hear myself sometimes."
On emotions-"We don't stop believing in each other. Whether its offense or defense, we just have to keep competing. We couldn't really pay too much attention to the score at the time. Because if you get too caught up in the score and everyone gets their heads down, there is no point in competing at the last second. So coach just told us to maintain our poise and just to focus on the next play."
On if they feel unbeatable at home-"We compete very hard at our house. I don't know about unbeatable, but I figure anybody that comes in here, they better have some kind of fear in their heart because we are not going to back down. If you come in here, you better be ready."
Nate Tomlinson, Senior, Guard
On his thoughts at the end of the game-"I had a quick look up at the clock and I saw that we had about four seconds left. So I made a play to put it in the refs' hands and luckily I got the call."
On Booker and Dinwiddie's play-"They were pretty awesome. Askia made a lot of plays and Spencer hit a big three down the stretch to get us out of the line there. They've been good the whole year and I didn't expect anything less from them tonight."
On if they can take this win and continue on the road-"Oregon is a veteran team, they didn't beat themselves. I'm not sure how many turnovers they finished with, but we had to beat them. I think that's the next step we need to take as a team. We are a little bit young, but I think if we can make that step, we are a tough team, we can compete, we just need to take that next step into being smarter and I think that will translate into wins."
Spencer Dinwiddie, Freshman, Guard
On what it was like in the locker room at half-"We knew we had to play better basketball. There weren't any feelings of despair or anything. We knew we were only down by four and that was with us playing bad. We knew we had to come out and play better post defense because they lived in the paint in the first half."
On Andre Roberson's seven blocked shots-"That's Dre. He gets a lot of credit and he deserves it. But we have come to expect that from him because that's just what he does. You guys don't see in practice, but he makes those plays all the time. So, we are used to it."
On if they felt Oregon could hold them down the stretch-"We know that they are a very good team and they are very well rounded. Joseph has got to be top ten in our league in scoring, Sim and Singler are both very capable shooters and Ashalou is a force down low. We knew that they had offensive weapons, and when you have offensive weapons like that you know they are going to score. They are a veteran team and we knew they were going to give us their best shot because they have been through it all before."
