Colorado-Auburn Quotes

University of Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle

General

"It was a good night for the Buffs. I thought we played hard; I thought we played smart; I thought we played together. We put those three things together. One of the things we talk about with our team, we talk about some offensive goals, we talk about some defensive goals. We hit all of them tonight, offensive end and defensive end. When you do that, the score takes care of itself. We don't have to talk about winning or losing. I'm really proud of our guys. I thought there were some great performances. [F] Wesley Gordon was really good. [G] Jaron Hopkins, I thought, was terrific in the second half defensively. He came in and got us going. [F] Josh [Scott] was good. [G/F] Xavier Johnson was aggressive tonight. I thought it was a great team effort. [G] Xavier Talton took unbelievable charges. The kid is pretty special. We had some good individual performances and certainly the team performance was good as well."

On 24-0 Run In The Second Half

"I didn't even realize it at the time; I just knew we kept getting stops. We talked in practice the last two days about attacking their press. If they were going to come into this building and press us, we had to try to make them pay and I thought we did that in the second half. I thought [G]Askia [Booker] made some good plays; some pitch-aheads. Our guards pitched ahead and finished. I didn't realize it at the time it was a 24-0 run. I knew we kept getting stops. They were stuck on 46 [points] or so for quite some time."

On [G] Askia Booker's Three-Point Play

"It's ironic. Askia, he's missed, in the last two games – Drexel and tonight – he's missed some wide open looks, then he makes a shot like that. He's an enigma sometimes; I can't figure it out. But, he's dynamic, he is hard-pressing, and he's wired to score. That was a big play; it got the crowd going. It was a little of a back-breaker for them."

On Message to [F] Wesley Gordon To Be More Aggressive

"Absolutely. No question. 'Be more aggressive. Wes Gordon, you're one of our best players.' There's no question about it. We stat every practice. He's shooting something like 68% from two (point range), 45% from three (point range), 78% from the free-throw line. His assist to turnover ratio is two-to-one. He's one of our best rebounders. He's our best shot-blocker, him and Josh [Scott]. 'Golly, Wes. Those numbers are awesome.' Sometimes he doesn't realize how good he is and how good he can be. The aggressiveness part, absolutely. That was the message. He's not just getting it from his coaches; he's getting it from his teammates. His teammates know how good he can be as well."

On Big-Man Combination Of Josh Scott And Wesley Gordon

"I don't know if they are the two best big-man combo in the country, but I love them. The fact that they are both Colorado kids is pretty special. We knew that when we recruited Wes, and when we recruited Josh, we challenged them to say you're going to be the front-court of the future of Colorado basketball. Guess what, the future is now. They both bought into that vision and that message. I'm so glad that they did. I think they're glad that they did. They're both terrific young men and terrific teammates. I wouldn't trade them, I know that. I've always said I wouldn't trade Josh Scott, and the way Wesley played tonight, I wouldn't trade him either. He's got the chance to be a really special player. Confidence is key with him. When he plays aggressive and plays confidently, holy cow the sky's the limit."

On Fan's Support

"The MVP of the night was our fans. Our students were great. The energy in the building was terrific, but the community members that stayed up this late and came out and supported this team, I can't thank them enough. It means a lot. It's just another milestone for this program it continues to reach. A big part of it is our fans. It's tough building to come in to play. Auburn, like Drexel, got tired out in the second half."

University of Colorado Student-Athletes

Xavier Johnson, Jr., G/F

On Pushing The Tempo In The 2^nd Half
"Since we are playing at altitude we might as well, just keep running it and pushing it and throw it every time. That's what we do, and we know eventually that teams will get tired. And when teams get tired that's when we make our quick subs and we are off to the races and were out there winning. That's how we end up getting easy buckets. And they start fouling us and keep fouling us and we keep making our free throws and we keep getting easy buckets and keep going."

On The Altitude Effecting Auburn F Cinmeon Bowers
"He's a big guy at 6-7, 278 pounds. He's also going to get tired. We try to help out [CU F's] Wesley [Gordon] and Josh [Scott] by having our guards help with the rebounding. Like I said, we just keep going at them and they will get tired."

On The Student Body Turnout
"That was great, I didn't think that many people were actually going to come to the game. Because it's late and everyone wants to go to sleep. But I appreciate the support and it definitely helps us play harder with the crowd behind us."

Askia Booker, Sr., G

On Making A Big 3-Point Shot And Getting Fouled
"It's just another shot. I had to find my niche and I've been a little frustrated. I'm glad that shot sparked a run for my team. I was kind of shocked in my head that out of all the shots that's the one that goes in. At the end of the day it doesn't matter because it went in."

Missing Practices Due To Injury
"It effected my rhythm a little bit. I missed about six days of practice. I was able to practice one day before the last game against Drexel. I'm just trying to get back in shape and be ready for our next game against Wyoming."

On F Wesley Gordon's Good Game
"If you get Josh Scott and Wesley Gordon playing like that, you might have one of the best two big man combos in the country. I mean they are both so dominate, especially with Wes getting better offensively since he is already so good defensively. He just needs more touches, and coach made an emphasis about that these last couple of days, in the film sessions saying that he needs more touches. I think tonight he got those and made the most of them."

Auburn University Head Coach Bruce Pearl

General
"We didn't defend or rebound. We're not going to win many games getting out rebounded by 15 and letting a team score and shoot 59%. We obviously are short on numbers and size but we let the game get away from us. I have to give Colorado credit they're a terrific team. They're a very talented team. They're an NCAA tournament team and we're not there yet. Our focus is trying to get better."

On The Over 12-Minute Span Without A Field Goal In The Second Half
"We have to make shots. I mean, we have to make perimeter shots. [F] Cinmeon Bowers is the only guy that can really score inside forced off the post. I just thought we were taking the ball to the net way too often. Our drought had more to do with the fact that they were scoring on a pretty regular basis. We panicked a little bit and tried to get it back a little too quick. When you get out rebounded by 15 and the other team shoots for 59% you have no chance."

On Coping With Smaller Players
"I mean, you look at the stat sheet and see that [F] Cinmeon Bowers had 13 rebounds, and I have a bunch of guys that didn't rebound the basketball. We can't rely on him to do everything on the inside. We are a team that needs everybody to contribute for us to be successful. We had a couple guys that didn't show up and did not play well on either the offense or the defense. They were physically overwhelmed. That's going to happen some nights against some matchups."

On Impact Of [G] Antoine Mason Not Playing
"Mason is one of our better players. He's a fifth-year senior. He certainly would've given us another threat. I thought [G] TJ Lang did what he could but you know he doesn't squeeze off a shot in 18 minutes. He's a freshman, but it's great that he got the experience and got out there. That didn't cost us the game. Defensive rebounding is what cost us the game. When you only have seven assists we did not make plays for one another tonight. We didn't execute. We didn't make anybody better offensively or defensively on that one."

On [G] Tahj Shamsid-Deen's Performance
"He had two points. God bless him. We have eight scholarship guys, and our seventh guy is Tahj Shamsid-Deen in a shoulder sling. Give him credit for toughing it out. But, we're not making excuses. I still felt like we could do some things that would bother them and we did some things that bothered them in the first half and we just kind of ran out of gas."

-COLORADO-

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