Colorado-Oregon State Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle

General
“That was a great effort. The way we defended, the way we rebounded in the first half; we didn't rebound the ball exceptionally well. We were up one in rebounding margin in the first half and we ended up out rebounding them 15 so we were plus 14 in the second half. I thought Wesley Gordon's offensive rebounding combined with Josh Scot's defensive rebounding was the difference in the game. Wes got us extra possessions. Our defensive effort the entire night was pretty good. Gary Payton II is obviously a special player. He has 26 points and 15 rebounds with three steals. He's the real deal. Our guys did a good job of making him work for everything. We broke down a few times but for the most part I'm was pleased with our defensive effort.”

On Thomas Akyazili's Performance Tonight
“He was really guarding. Thomas is a tenacious defender. His assist to turnover ratio, you look in league play, is as good as anybody on our team, the best. He's really just one of those game time things, you have a feel and some of the other guys didn't have their best nights. Xavier Talton came out in the second half and tweaked his foot or ankle. I wasn't sure how his health was and he was guarding Gary Payton which is a tall task. I thought our bigs did a good job of switching off with Payton and making him make tough shots. Thomas finished the game because he's playing extremely well right now. We talked about playing he and Dom together and they did down the stretch. We wanted two ball handlers in the game because we knew they were going to press us. They went to that 1-3-1 zone and we wanted those guys out top so we could get to the base-line and get some plays.”

On Utilizing a Two Guard Offense
“It was good tonight. We could do it defensively based on the personnel. There are certain teams where it's going to be tough to play it because of the size thing. I'm fine with the two guard lineup. Again, they're all guards but Josh [Scott] and [Tre'Shaun] Fletcher and George King are tall. Look, those six perimeter players, the bottom line is that they're all going to have to play. Certain nights they're going to play better than others and it's up to us as coaches to decide who, night in and night out, is going to get those minutes, especially in the second half. The more consistent the guys play the more predictable it's going to be. The less consistently the guys play the less predictable it's going to be and that's just the decision I'm going to have to make. We have six very capable players. With that being said, [we had] 18 turnovers. I'm not a big math guy but 14 of the 18 turnovers came from perimeter players so post guys aren't turning it over. Those six guys have to take better care of the basketball.”

On Team Confidence Levels
“We never lost confidence. I think there are going to be a lot of games that come down to the last possession. Arizona were 1-2, they lost two on the road, one by an unbelievable shot and one in quadruple overtime. They're that close from being 3-0 to 1-2. That's how this league is. We didn't finish the Utah game, we didn't win. It's not because of any magical thing. We just didn't win the game. We won tonight. Trends are one thing. But it's all about what you're going to do to win the next game. If we can gain confidence from tonight then that's great. But, Oregon on Sunday is going to be a dog fight. Those guys are good.”

On Wesley Gordon's Performance Tonight
“I thought rebounding wise it was one of his best games. I still think Wesley can finish better than he's been finishing. He's three for six, we'll take 50 percent. But when he gets seven offensive rebounds, yeah. Defensively, he and Josh are so good together and so underrated; they had nine blocked shots between them. Wesley is that kind of player. One of the things we talked about after the Utah game to our players is 'what do you do as a basketball player on this team to help the team win that does not involve scoring.' If I can think of a guy on our team that does that and is the epitome of that, it's Wesley Gordon. Do we want Wes to score? Absolutely. When he has 12 points and 14 rebounds, it really makes us much much better. The thing about Wes is that he doesn't have to score to have an impact on this team. That's what I love about him and what makes him such a valuable player to this team. We have some other guys who, when they don't score, they're not doing much to help our team. That they're not rebounding or defending or taking charges. They have to figure that out.”

On Where the Team Needs To Improve
“We got out and ran better. Again, we got a lot of stops. We have to become a better finishing team in transition. We had opportunities to finish where we didn't finish. That's what we have to get better at. More fast break drills, more film watching; simple, quick decisions on the fast break. We have to do a better job of that. I thought our transition game was better offensively, we put pressure on them. We got to the foul line tonight. It's really hard for me, as the coach, to understand in non-conference play averaging 26 free throw attempts a game when going into conference game tonight, we were averaging 14. Tonight we shot 27 when against Utah, we shot four. Every game is going to be different when it comes to that whistle. We have to figure it out. Tonight we figured it out. I thought Josh [Scott] and Wes [Gordon] finished better in the paint being 11 for 17 between the two of them. If they can continue to finish like that and get to the foul line then we're going to be pretty good.”

On Offensive Aggressiveness
“I thought we were aggressive. With two and a half minutes to go when we were up twelve or so, that's when it was time to use the clock and use the 30 second shot clock to score in the last 5-7 seconds. Up until that two and a half minute mark, I wanted to continue to push, be aggressive, not get tentative and I thought our guys did a good job of that.”

On Tonight's Attendance and Crowd
“The students were awesome. At the beginning I was a little worried but I came out at half time and it was full and it was great. Hopefully those students had a good enough time that they'll want to come back on Sunday. We have seven conference home games left. The nine o'clock start, I get it with our community. It was probably our weakest crowd of the year for general public, non-students but I'm not blaming anybody for that. It's nine o clock. My kids didn't come to the game because they have school tomorrow. I totally get that and I know they'll be back. We need them on Sunday. I know the Broncos are playing but there's IPads now and you can watch the dang game at your seat in our arena if you want to. You can come and cheer on the Buffs on Sunday and also watch the Broncos, a two for one deal.”

Colorado Players

Josh Scott, Sr., F

On what was working tonight:
“We rebounded and played good defense. I think in the first half Payton was getting us in transition a little bit and in the second half we kind of contained him. We did well and coach told us to work in recipe.”

On team being tired this week and playing a late game:
“Yeah we have lost some close games. I don't think anybody was really panicking. We know we are a good team and we know that we compete hard. We play for each other so this game kind of demonstrated that.”

On Akyazili taking more shots:
“He is playing tentative is what it is. It is something we talked about over practice and everybody talked about if you have an open shot then you shoot it. I think tonight people said whether you make or miss then we're going to shoot it.”

Thomas Akyazili, Fr., G

On having a cut on his nose and getting physical:
“Yeah, at the end of the game. I was trying to fight [for position] in front of the big guy.”

On playing against Gary Payton:
“It was fun. He was really good. He scored a lot of points. So I just came out and tried to guard him as hard as I could. He gave me props after the game so it was fun.”

On playing last four minutes of game:
“It boosts my confidence. It's fun that coach believes in me. The last four minutes are really important so it is nice to know that he believes in me.”

On blocking shots from behind:
“I try to block every shot and hope it doesn't go in.”

On getting it going on offense tonight for the first time in a few games:
“Yeah for sure. I think I was struggling, but I was only taking about two shots a game. I scored zero out of two for three games and that is a little bit struggling. I was happy to make some today.”

Wesley Gordon, Jr., F

On confidence building on both sides of the ball:
“It is good that I played this well, but I just try to focus on defense mainly and let the offense just come.”

On Josh Scott and Wesley Gordon playing with each other:
“He is my twin. He does well, I am probably going to do well. He makes up a lot for everybody defensively and I think we play well off each other. When we came in out of high school we knew we would play well.”

On feeling pressure coming into this game and how big of win tonight was:
“Every game is pressure in this league. We are trying to win the league, which means every game has pressure behind it. You cannot drop games at home because it is hard enough to win on the road.”

Oregon State Head Coach Wayne Tinkle

On Shot Percentage
“We took a lot of bad shots. We don't have selfish guys, but I think guys were getting off the plan. We were supposed to penetrate. We know their two big's go to block everything—either find the open big or if one guy rotated to cover the open big, find the guy on the perimeter—we didn't do it. We didn't shoot great; we missed a lot of open shots. Give them credit, their defense was pretty solid, but we missed a lot of open shots and it was really hard on ourselves when we had chances.”

On Losing Momentum
“We couldn't get a big one to fall. We had a reverse layup taken off the glass that I thought was a huge momentum play. We had some guys that ran out of gas, that's why we tried to play a lot of guys early. I think our guys didn't win that mental battle and they gave it to them.”

On the Altitude
“It is a mental toughness that you have to develop at this point.”