Players Mentioned
CU-UCLA Quotes
January 12, 2013 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General
"Very disappointing and frustrating loss for our
basketball program; we have to get better in a lot of different areas. With
that said I credit UCLA, they made plays when they needed to, they made foul
shots down the stretch. Travis Wear was terrific tonight and my hat is off to
them, but our basketball team has to get better. We have to be more consistent
from start to finish to win games against good teams. That is the bottom line."
Positives From The Game
"I thought we played hard, our guys competed. We
executed our offense down the stretch like we needed to. But we didn't get a
couple of key stops, they made big time shots and made just enough free throws
to win the game. Some positives were our effort for the most part and execution
down the stretch offensively."
On Defensive Lulls In Second Half
"Maybe I am playing guys too many minutes; I don't
know, the only way to find that out is to use my bench more. I look at Andre
[Roberson] played 35 minutes, Spencer [Dinwiddie] played 36 minutes, Josh
[Scott] played 33. Everyone else was manageable. But that is the one thing I
can think of, because defense our guys know how to play, they know what to do,
we are a good defensive team when we want to be a good defensive team. I think
sometimes we don't pace ourselves, it's hard to play defense the way we want to
for forty minutes. I always look at myself as a coach and make sure the
rotation is right, are the minutes right? We shrunk our bench tonight, we went
with Jeremy [Adams] because of his physicality defensively against these guys
tonight instead of Eli [Stalzer] and Xavier [Talton]. I don't know we better
figure it out."
On His Confidence In The Bench
"I do have confidence; the thing with freshman is that I never want to put them in a position to not be successful. But I have confidence in them but I just have to be able to pull the trigger. If I didn't think they were any good I would not have recruited them. What it comes down to sometimes is do we have a better chance with Askia [Booker] or Spencer [Dinwiddie] in there or Eli [Stalzer] and Xavier [Talton] they have proven they can do it but some point you have to say we are 1-3 and now those guys deserve some chances and I thought against USC they really played well. It is on me as a coach and those other guys play better and more consistently and don't make those lulls to make those easier on me but life is not easy."
On Getting Good Shots Down The Stretch
"Absolutely, we drew that play up and got Askia
[Booker] a wide open three in the quarter and that would have put it into
overtime, right before that we told Spencer [Dinwiddie] to go to the rim with
ten seconds or so and take a two and put pressure on them at the free throw
line to leave time to get a shot off. We got seven or eight seconds to get a
shot off and got a great look. We got the shots we wanted offensively, we really
did what we set out to do in the last two or three minutes but didn't get a
stop when we needed to. They made a great penetration pitch to Wear, a big time
shot from a big time player. The thing is margin for error is so thin in these
games and we are playing like our margin for error is like we are still playing
Wofford or Texas Southern so this team is not anywhere where it needs to be, we
have got to keep plugging and we are going to do it. It is frustrating when you
know opportunities are there and you don't take advantage of them. The
conference season is long but we are 1-3 right now and now we have a home loss
on our record right now which stings and UCLA has two road wins."
Key To Getting Better
"Our players have to start taking ownership in what I am talking about and what we are stressing in practice and what our game plans are. If they don't do that, then they are fooling themselves because the reality is we are 1-3 and the reality is our coaching staff knows what we are talking about. We have some guys in different rolls this year that right now are not handling them as well as I would like them to handle it or they would like to handle it. They have to grow up and handle it. It's about saying 'I made a mistake, I accept the responsibility of it and I am going to get better.' Until our players can do that we have no shot. That is the key, taking ownership and accountability for your play and the way you execute on both ends of the floor."
On UCLA's Play
I think (coach) Ben Howland did a great job of using
his timeouts, they were tired early, the first part of the first half midway
through I didn't like the pace of the game. We talked about that at timeouts,
we want to get them up and down the floor, but that doesn't mean we want to
give them transition baskets, they wanted to run early. We gave up ten
transition points and the whole key to our game plan is to eliminate those
transition baskets, some of them were on made field goals, so our guys worked
hard too. I credit UCLA, I thought they used their subs and timeouts well, I
thought those kids did what they had to do at the end of the game. They made
shots when they needed to make shots and they made big free throws. I wouldn't
say they outworked us, our guys played hard they just out executed us. I will
give them that for sure."
On UCLA's Shooting
"I tip my hat to them, as a coach I am always
concerned on our team and where we need to get better and where our
deficiencies are and how we need to improve, that is always going to be my
focus. That is why I say my hat goes off to UCLA because they did what they had
to do to win the game and we didn't sometimes it just comes down to who is
making plays and shots and tonight they did and we didn't. We had 14 turnovers,
which is too many. We had some empty possessions, we were in the bonus for much
of the second half and we wanted to attack the rim, we just didn't do what we
needed to do."
On The Fast Break Offense
"When we want to be good it is good, when our guys
want to run we are pretty good, when they don't want to run they don't run and
our fast break is non-existent. It gets back to the consistency I was talking
about, you either are going to run the floor or only do it when you feel like
it."
University of Colorado Student-Athletes
Askia Booker, So., G
On Last Shot Feeling Good
"It felt pretty good. It was a little long though. Towards the end, I felt it because it was a
really high arching shot but I had a guy closing out on me so I knew I had to
get it off in time so I was hoping for the best."
On Getting Hit On The Last Shot
"It doesn't matter now. The game is over and we didn't get the call. If I did get hit I did. I'll watch it. I'll look at it but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. We lost."
On Playing Defense When Trying To Make Comeback
"I think a lot of the stuff they ran was
through their big guys and that's where they wanted to attack us. Travis Wear, being the player he is, he is
allowed to come off no matter where it is from, the three-point range to post
moves. He had a lot of big baskets for
them which I think was a key part of the game."
On Closing The Gap Down The Stretch
"We shouldn't have let it get to that point. We should have been winning throughout the
whole game. I thought we could have won that game but at the same time, we're
not satisfied but we're happy we fought and came back at the end and gave ourselves
a chance to tie the game and go into overtime. But at the same time, we
shouldn't let it get to that point."
On Miscues
"Another
thing is free throws. We shot better
tonight, 20 for 27 but then again, those seven free throws. If we make three of those than it might be a
tie game so that is just something that we need to continue to work on."
Spencer Dinwiddie, So., PG
On Last Shot
"That was
the play we ran. We ran a fake handoff
flare screen play and we got the look we wanted. Askia [Booker] is one of our best
clutch shooters so it's not the shot that were disappointed in because if
anybody should be taking the shot, it is him."
On UCLA F Travis Wear
"He was the best player on the floor out
of anybody. If you look at his numbers,
he shot way over 50%. He had four
rebounds to go with 23 [points] and only one turnover. You have to give him a lot of credit because
he made it hard. Some of our big guys
aren't used to guarding really skilled outside shooting big men. (KU's) Jeff
Withey was inside, (CSU's) Colton Iverson was inside, (USC's) Dewayne Dedmon
stretched it to 15 feet but didn't really go farther than that. You had whichever twin it was could shoot all
the way out to the three point line so you have to guard them in a different
way and he was a force."
On Time To Develop Sense Of Urgency
"Our team
not so much lacks a sense of urgency but we hit these lulls for whatever
reason. I'm not sure if anybody knows
exactly why but it is something we have to correct. We hit these lulls on both the offensive and
defensive ends. Even if it happens on
the offensive end, we can't let it happen on the defensive end because they
built a 15 point or 17 point lead, whatever it was, and we have an uphill
battle. We have to stay on pace and keep
executing and playing."
On Accomplishing Pre-Season Goals Of Winning The Conference
"If we had
the type of team who didn't think we could go 18-0, then we didn't have the
right kind of team because that was our belief.
These first four games haven't gone the way we wanted but we still
believe we can go 14-0 and become 15-3.
That is just our mindset and the way we think. Being realistic, you have to clean up the
things that have led to losses and pretty much it's just a second half 8-10
minute lapse on defense. If we clean
that up, we are 4-0 right now and we win most of our games going away. We win
Arizona going away and this one would have been close. But the bottom line is that 8-10 minute lapse
on the defensive end. You just can't hit
it."
On Second Half Lulls
"Honestly,
if I had an answer then we wouldn't be doing it. I don't know why but we need to fix it and we
need to fix it right now. It's not something that can wait on because we can't
afford to lose any more games. We want
to have the best record possible and try and win this conference outright and
then put us in a great position to get into the NCAA tournament without trying
to win the conference tournament. That
is something we don't want to happen to us again this year."
UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland
General
"This is a huge win for us. I thought we had some
great performances, and I am so proud of how Kyle [Anderson] knocked down his
foul shots. He gets a double-double. He had a double-double last weekend both
games against Cal and Stanford. He has a double-double today, he's playing
terrific. I thought Jordan Adams was outstanding, a big pass to Travis [Wear]
for that lay-up late in the game. He made a big shot. Shabazz [Muhammad] got in
foul trouble in the first half so I tried to play him two different instances
with two fouls really hoping he wouldn't get his third. But I thought everybody
did well; I thought Tony [Parker] and Norman [Powell] gave us great minutes off
the bench. David [Wear] had five big rebounds for us, and we ended up only
turning it over eleven times. We had too many in the second half, because we
had four in the first half it was really low. And to come here at 5,345 feet,
and win above sea level is a great thing. So I'm really proud of our team."
On Half Time Conversations
"I don't think it was a different team, we just
were right there and we came out. We're a good second half team, but they came
out and really executed. Shabazz [Muhammad] made a big three, and Travis Wear
was great. I can't say enough about how good Travis was today. He was really,
really good and hard to match up with for the opposing team. I wish that three
would've gone, that three at the top of the key. And there was a huge shot,
Jordan [Adams] shot in transition that put us up like thirteen with the foul
shot. So that was a huge play because you knew that [CU] was going to make a
run. I mean this is a good team that we were able to defeat today."
On Beating CU In A Tough
Environment
"It's the greatest feeling in the world, coming
into a tough environment like this where it's us against the world and winning.
We had very few Bruin fans here today, I didn't look but we didn't use all of
our tickets. Every win is tough, there's nothing easy here. I can't remember
when we had an easy win. It's just one game at a time, and this makes the trip
going home a lot better when you're coming off a "W," and to sweep a road trip
up here in the mountains is big for us. So I'm really excited for our team and
proud of them. I really feel blessed that we continue to stay healthy."
On Travis Wear's Experience
"Dave [Wear] and Travis [Wear] both are really
good because they're experienced veterans. Larry [Drew II] is an experienced
veteran. Those three guys in particular, they've been in tough places before
last year and years before so it's all good."
On Strategy Down The Stretch
"They got us on a couple plays, and what's hard is
on the second game of a road trip we had to go Salt Lake City, Utah to Boulder,
Colorado playing 7:30pm in Salt Lake, and noon here really makes it tough in
terms of how much you can really dissimilate. I thought our guys did a great
job learning stuff, but they had a couple late plays where they have a handoff
ball screen to a flare they got a three on. They did a nice job executing down
the stretch, were just trying to stay in front of the ball and make our foul
shots. We knew it would come down to foul shooting and they had a three to tie
the game; my heart was half way down my stomach on that last shot by [Askia]
Booker. It was the San Antonio play; it was the same play that Utah ran."
On Questions Going Down The Road
With Top Players
"Players, they love this environment. Players love
it like this. Players love to play, this is great. The best teams are the ones
that win on the road and enjoy being the spoiler on the road and winning in a
tough environment. That is what is fun. I mean they've all been in games like
this before but not to this magnitude in terms of the size of the crowd."
On Giving The Ball To Travis
[Wear] Down The Stretch
"We were going to him because he had it going. We
were looking for him, looking for him, looking for him. We had a great
offensive rebound sequence; we came out with nothing on that one sequence.
Again, I really command our players for their toughness today. And I'll tell
you what [CU's] players are very good in the back court; [Spencer] Dinwiddie
and [Askia] Booker are outstanding."
On Travis Wear Picking Up His
Play
"I think he's picked it up since the Fresno game.
It started that next game. And I think it's just that he's a good player, it
doesn't surprise me at all, not one bit. We tried to get him a timeout, and
some time here and there but we needed him in there because he had it going
today. He had it going at the end of the first half too, it kind of carried
over."
On Being 4-0 In Pac-12 Play
"We're where we want to be in the new season which
started last Thursday, and we just want to keep building and keep improving.
This team has a lot of room to still continue to grow and I'm just really happy
for our players because they're working really hard."
On A Pivotal Point In The Game
"I thought that we really did a good job battling
to start off the game, and we got off to a good start. And I thought the second
half when we made that run to go up thirteen we had some really good plays.
Shabazz [Muhammad] had a dunk in the open court. We had some plays. Jordan
Adams shot that put us up thirteen really gave us a shot in the arm, but I have
to go back and watch the game."
On Shabazz [Muhammad] Forcing
Shots
"You know he still ends up with fourteen points,
and it's not easy up here. I'll be the first to admit that, I was subbing more
getting guys in and out, in and out, trying to give guys quick breaks and
breathers. But there was one play I was so excited about for him, in that we
missed a shot and sprinted as hard as he could to get back and he was the guy
there that saved the basket from occurring for [CU]. Now that's what I'm
looking for. His offense is going to be fine; I'm not worried at all about him
offensively. That's the least of our worries."
On Being More Defensively Sound
"We're playing better defense, we're getting
better, were evolving and guys are learning. We were at 40% the last three
games, under 40% against our opponent today. They shot big down the stretch
because I bet you going into the last five minutes we were right at 40% or
under. I give them credit, you know, we made some layups late. We're looking to
hedge our screens for the most part and looking to double in the post when
there's a good post player. They got good young players just like we do. We're
happy, it's fun to win."
-COLORADO-