Colorado University Athletics
CU-USF Post Game Quotes
December 04, 2014 | Men's Basketball
University of Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General
"Well we're still looking for the 40-minute game, I guess. We didn't play as well in the first half, but certainly better in the second half. I do think that the first half had a lot to do with what San Francisco did. We beat a good team tonight. They're a well-coached team, a tough team and a talented team. They're going to win some games this year and they're a lot better than their 4-3 record. They've gotten better with every game this year and I think at the end of the year we'll look back and say that San Francisco was a good win for us. The opportunity now is to go to Georgia and take our show on the road. Hopefully, we fare better in this road game than our last road game. It's a great opportunity for our guys and our program, so we're looking forward to it."
On The Defense From The End Of The First Half On
"I think our guys' intensity got a little better and I think that San Francisco wore down. I looked at the minutes at halftime and saw that few of their top guys had quite a few minutes next to their names. We did a good job of guarding their back screens, they set a lot of those. [Mark] Tollefsen is a good player. He's 6-9, they start him at the three and when they moved him to the four, we were switching ball screens. I thought Askia [Booker] made a great defensive play late in the game where we switched and he was on Tollefsen. They were trying to post him and Askia fronted the post and got a steal. With plays like that, you look at them and you understand that we have a chance to be pretty good, but we have to do it for 40 minutes. We didn't guard the three-ball very well in the first half, but did a better job in the second half."
On San Francisco's Fast Break Layups
"Oh my gosh, especially on free throws. I think they had three on missed free throws, when we have two guys on the top of the key and we give up a layup. That's the kind of stuff that makes me lose my hair and what I have left is grey because there's no excuse for that. That's the kind of things we'll watch on film, but our guys have to understand we can't give up easy baskets. We work too hard on defensive drills and intensity to give up easy baskets. I thought our transition defense in the first half was atrocious, it got better in the second half. We have a long way to go, defensively, we're not anywhere near as good as we need to be to finish in the top half of the Pac-12, I'll tell you that."
On Playing Without Xavier Johnson
"Anytime you're a man down you'll miss him, but I thought our guys did a good job. I thought [Tre'Shaun] Fletcher really stepped in and played within himself with four assists and one turnover. I thought he made good decisions and made some good post feeds. Our bench gave some good minutes, Dominique [Collier], Jaron [Hopkins] and the whole team really stepped up. It was a total team victory and when you have a guy down like that, you need someone to step up."
On Turnovers
"We had eight turnovers all night. Three of them were charges and three or four came in the last couple minutes on silly decisions. I thought we did a good job of taking care of the ball all night."
On The Play of Askia Booker
"That's the guy we see in practice every day. His teammates know how good he is, his coaches know how good he is and he knows how good he is. I thought he came out and forced a few things in the first half, but got into the flow of the game and played within himself down the stretch. In the second half, he made some big shots for us, which we need him to do. He's our senior. To see him going 5-for-6 from three and 8-of-12 from the field, holy cow, it's a good feeling. Those numbers probably won't continue all year long, but what we want is consistency and he started to bring that. I think that so much of it with Askia is mental. When he's in a good frame of mind, positive and dialed in, things are good. When he's not, things aren't good. So, I think it's all between the ears with him, I really do."
University of Colorado Student-Athletes
Askia Booker, Senior, Point Guard
On Shooting Well From Beyond The Three Point Line
"It's just building from the last game (against Lipscomb). I've been out before the game on the court for about two hours shooting a lot of shots. I've just been trying to clear my mind and be prepared for the game. I realized the last five minutes of the first half, once I passed to the post, get to the key and make a quick decision whether to shoot it or drive it. I brought that into the second half, but they kept leaving me open for the three so that's why I shot so many."
On Being A More Mature Player
"Maybe a year or two ago I would have kept shooting pull up jump shots or forced the issue in transition, or break down my man one on one when I didn't need to. I trust coach and the system we are running. He wants to get the ball inside, I think I have a little more patience with the offense, trust in my teammates. This guy right here (Dustin Thomas) kept getting the ball in the post and kept getting easy layups so why not keep feeding him. It's not just about me, and at the end of the day my assists go up when they get the ball down there and score, and that's always a plus."
On Playing a Full Game
"We are far from playing a complete game. Last game we played well in the first half and then we dropped the second. This game we didn't come out strong, but in the second half I think we played excellent. I think it's just our intensity level. Maybe it's because Xavier Johnson, who's one of our energy guys, was out and we had to find a way to do it without him. Maybe that was it and maybe it wasn't. Regardless of who's out and who's in we have to keep our intensity up for forty minutes and until we do that we won't be a great team we will just continue to be good."
Dustin Thomas, Sophomore, Guard/Forward
On The Defense Playing Better Near The End Of The First Half
"We just had to pick it up. We came out kind of slow and we didn't want another team coming in here and giving it to us in the first half. So we picked it up at the end of the first half and brought it with us to the second half."
On San Francisco's Energy At The Start Of The Game
"No, we knew that they were a good team coming in. We respect their college and their team. We just had to match that which we didn't do coming out of the gate."
On Winning Three In A Row Before The Next Road Trip At Georgia
"We have to go down there and prove to people that we can win on the road. And to prove to people that what happened in Wyoming isn't going to happen again. I think its going to be a big game for us and its going to tell us a lot about our team."
San Francisco Head Coach Rex Walters
On The First Half
"I just thought we did a better job of taking care of the basketball. [CU head coach] Tad [Boyle] made some good adjustments in the second half. I thought [CU G Askia] Booker really got going offensively. But, 18 turnovers in the first half – it was assists for buckets – but in the second half, it was turnovers for buckets. We have to keep them out of transition as much as possible. We didn't do a great job of that. It's really hard to get transition defense when you turn the ball over. We've got some tough physical guys and we do pursue the basketball. They also shot a better percentage so they didn't have as many opportunities. But, we had chances. We definitely had chances. I just thought our inability to take care of the basketball and make the easy play ended up being the difference in the game."
On The Second Half
"I think they came out a little more focused, made some adjustments. At the 16 minute mark I said, 'Guys, it's been four minutes and we have three turnovers.' That's the difference in the game. We never really got better over the course of the second half. I think it was a lot self-induced. I tip my hat to Colorado. They play hard, they're physical, they're tough. But, it's also hard to win a game when you shoot yourselves in the foot."
On His Expectations For Tonight's Game
"I expected to win. I expected to take care of the basketball and get paint touches and ball reversals. We needed to do a better job on [Askia] Booker. I thought he hurt us. He really stepped up. We were going to make other guys besides [Josh] Scott beat us. When you lose [Xavier] Johnson, that's one big piece of their puzzle. When we weren't able to keep Booker contained, it really hurt us.
On Askia Booker's Game Tonight
"We didn't do a good job on our ball screen defense with him. We got some good looks. Our rotation out of some penetration wasn't good and Booker got off. With a guy like [Xavier] Johnson out, you need someone to step up and he definitely did that."