CU-USC Post Game Quotes

University of Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle

General

"I thought it was a workman-like effort by our guys this afternoon. We did what we had to do. Offensively, we hit our numbers. We shot the ball well, our assist-turnover ratio was great and it's amazing when that happens how the percentages move in your favor. Defensively I thought we softened up a bit in the second half, but we did guard the three-point line well. To hold them to 4-for-20 from three was a key because it was a concern of ours coming into the game. They have capable three-point shooters especially if they get hot, but we never let them get hot. It was a good win with some good individual efforts and certainly was a good team victory."

On How The Team Has Responded To The Loss Of Josh Scott

"You never want any player to get hurt especially one of your best, but when Josh went down other guys stepped up. It's forced me to put guys in and play guys that may not normally be in the rotation and get them more minutes, so that's a good thing. I also thought our team has responded really well. We're certainly a better team with Josh rather than without him, but hopefully we've gained some confidence in each other. The guys off of the bench have performed pretty well the past couple of games and we're going to need that now that we go on the road. The environments will be more hostile and Utah will be different than the Coors Events Center has for the last two games, but I'm really proud of our team and the way that they've responded when Josh went down and we didn't have him this weekend. I'm glad we opened up at home I would not have wanted to have opened up on the road without Josh. "

On Team Cohesiveness Against The Trojans

"I thought that we played together early and late, but we hit a stretch there, especially in the second half against their zone, where we kind of quit working and letting the offense work. We needed to get the ball moving, cut through the zone and get the ball inside. The tendency when you have a 20-point lead in the second half is to take the foot off of the gas pedal, but we talked about how we couldn't do that every timeout in the second half. Overall, I was pretty pleased."

On The Play Of F Dustin Thomas

"I know that Dustin will compete every single time that he steps on the floor. He's a battler, has toughness and is a true competitor. He hasn't shot the ball quite as well as he's capable of until today. He's done it in practice at times, but hopefully this can be a spring-board and confidence builder for him because when he shoots the ball well and shoots it in rhythm like he did today, it gives us another weapon and will make us a much better team. We recruited him with the idea that he can play the four and stretch the defense by shooting it from the perimeter. Hopefully we can have him eventually play a little bit of the three like XJ [Xavier Johnson] is doing. His ability to shoot the ball was one of the things we liked most about him when we recruited him along with the fact that he's 6-foot 7-inches and he can compete on the boards and we loved his toughness. It's nice to see Dustin play well and hopefully his confidence can grow from his performance today."

University of Colorado Student-Athletes

Dustin Thomas, Sophomore, Guard/Forward

On Setting A Career-High With 17 Points
"It was a good day for both my team and myself. I've been in a little slump shooting three pointers lately and I think tonight I got myself out of that slump. As for our team, we were down a man since we didn't have Josh Scott today. Everybody stepped up, and we had people come off our bench and score. It was just a good day."

On Conference Wins Building Team Confidence

"It's a new season, we're not looking back or are worried about what happened earlier in the season. We're just looking forward, and now we have 2 wins out of the way and are looking for a conference championship."

Jaron Hopkins, Sophomore, Guard

On Getting The First Two Conference Wins

"I think this is a confidence booster for us. Two good wins without Josh Scott, that's pretty good, so when we get him back we are just going to be that much better. I think we will be ready for Utah."

On Team Coming Together Without Josh Scott

"It's just coming together as a team. When one player falls we just need to pick it up, and everybody just picks it up a little bit more and contributes a little bit more. [F] Tory [Miller] gave us a lot of minutes today. [G/F] Dustin [Thomas] gave us minutes too, along with him being hot. If everybody picks it up just a little bit more we can make up for him (Scott)."

USC Head Coach Andy Enfield

General

"Losing [G] Jordan McLaughlin hurt us, obviously he's our leading scorer, leads in assists and steals on the team. When you lose your playmaker and scorer it's tough. I thought [G] Julian Jacobs did an admirable job taking over as point guard. He played 34 minutes in this altitude, and our other point guard Chass Bryan is at home with the flu, so we were without two point guards today. It showed in the first half, I thought our skill level from a variety of players was not good enough, passing, shooting, ball handling, and making decisions. So, it was a tough game, give Colorado credit, they out-played us."

On The Difficulties Of Utah-Colorado Road Trip Without Starting Point Guard
"It is unfortunate (the injury to Jordan McLaughlin). Jordan is such a hard worker and a leader, and to lose him halfway through the Utah game, and then not be able to play here and we have no idea when he'll be able to be back. It's disappointing for anyone on our team to get injured, so we have to figure this out quickly, we have two games this week coming up and we have to go home and regroup."

On Changing The Game Plan Due To Colorado Playing Without Starting Forward Josh Scott
"Well, we thought we could attack them inside, and I thought our big guys did a decent job but our guards didn't perform well enough, our wing players, in the first half. We probably missed four or five layups in the first half, a couple in transition were point-blank layups, and they come down and get the rebound or steal the ball and it's a four point swing because they score in transition. It was a two possession game midway through the first half, but we missed a lot of easy shots and had a couple crucial bad turnovers, and all of a sudden it turns into a 12 or 14 point game in a matter of two or three minutes."

On Struggling Due To A Young Team
"I think the youth, you see our skills are not refined, the decision making, the ball handling, the rip-through moves, the post moves, and making open shots. So, yes, a lot of that is the youth; it's just a progression of players. You also look at our bodies, we're thin and Colorado is an experienced team and were really more physical than us. At the same time, these players are here for an opportunity to perform and play early in their career. We are not making excuses for our youth, they need to get better, they need to get in the gym, stay in the weight room with our excellent strength coach, Kurtis Shultz, they need to keep improving."

On Colorado's Hot Start To The Second Half
"Give them credit, I think it was [F Dustin] Thomas had the first two and he's a much improved player, he's been in the gym and I give him credit because he was 5-for-7 from the field, he scored 17 points and he deserves that, he played a very good game against us. Then [G] Askia Booker has always been a really good player, so that's what I'm talking about, they went out and made shots and beat us and shot a higher percentage, so our players need to get better."

Colorado University Athletics

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