Colorado - Washington State Quotes - University of Colorado Athletics

Colorado Head Coach Linda Lappe

General
"Obviously it's a disappointing outcome and I'm disappointed on how we played. It's a tale of two teams right now and we need to play more consistently and we need to play together. We just need to find the overall toughness it takes to win games in the Pac-12."

On Slow Start
"Our first couple of possessions were turnovers, and we're just not getting what we want to get. I just didn't like our demeanor today. It's the second game of a weekend series, and you need to be better and tougher then you were in the first game. You need to be able to fight through being tired and we need to find that ability to win tough games."

On Defense Against Washington State
"We knew that everyone of their players would be involved in the offense. We knew that they can all shoot threes. I thought for most of the game it was target practice for them, and we weren't doing anything to get them out of their comfort zone. We weren't doing a good job of denying the passing lanes and we were behind on everything. There were a couple of possessions at the end of the game, where we made them do something different and they missed some shots. Its amazing how that works, and we need to get that in our mind defensively. We aren't going to score a ton of points, and we feel as though we should only have to score 66 points to figure out a way to win. Right now I feel like we need to score 80 points to win."

On Jamee Swan's Injury
"It's her lower back, and it's too early to tell. Hopefully she'll respond and be ok."

On Team Depth
"I think we have good depth. When you look at other teams across the country they play seven to eight people. And those players go hard the entire time and find ways to make plays. I think we do have enough depth to be able to do what we need to do."

Colorado Players

Haley Smith, Jr., G/F

On Defending Bianca Blanaru
"We really were focusing on team defense on her – that she never felt like she was playing one-on-one, but playing one-on-five. We did a really good job of knowing where she was and limiting her and not letting her do what she wants to do most."

On Allowing The Other WSU Players To Step Up And Score
"I don't think it was that so much as just we weren't sticking to our principles in our defense. We were not being really solid. We were over-helping and letting go easy shots. We weren't making people do things that they're not comfortable with. Three-point shooters were hitting three-point shots, people were getting to the rim and post players were getting easy post touches. We didn't do a good enough job of keeping people away from what they want to do."

On Going Into A Tough Road Trip After A Disappointing Weekend
"This weekend could have been really powerful for us to start the Pac-12 season off strong. Like coach Lappe was telling us in the locker room, protecting our home floor needs to be really important. This is going to be a learning point for us. Having to travel for the next two weekends is going to be a bit tougher than being at home, but being able to take what's worked well for us and what hasn't and apply that to these next coming four games. We should have no problem going on the road."

On Playing Without Jamee Swan On The Floor
"We did a good job in that second quarter of finding other players. We didn't have as much of a block-presence, but we were doing really well in cutting, finding gaps and hitting easy shots like that. Once she got back in in the second half, we were able to hit her a lot more and she was able to get going. It was really good when she was able to come back in and reestablish that block-presence."

Kennedy Leonard, Fr., G

On Being Frustrated
"It's really frustrating coming out against Washington, who's a better team, and we almost win against them, then come out against a team you should beat and lose by that much. It's really frustrating for us as a whole."

On Not Carrying Over Positives From Washington Game
"That's on us. We have to have a different mindset when we come out to play. We seem to always start off slow; that's one of our downfalls. Throughout these next couple games and practices we're just going to keep up the energy and learn how to pick each other up and get back at it and try to get some wins."

On Improving Defensively As A Team
"I think our offense is one of our strong points. Ultimately, it comes down to team defense. Colorado plays defense, they always say. We need to get back to that, focus on that, focus on playing as a team in 'we' instead of 'I'."

Washington State Head Coach June Daugherty

General
"We're very pleased with the win tonight, I thought we played well after coming from Utah at high altitude and then even higher altitude here. We know they are a really good team, but we wanted to rotate our players early and often. Really try to get after them defensively and get into our running game. That's not always easy to do at altitude, but I thought our players really responded to that and it was a great team victory."

On What Changed After Half
"I thought it was rebounding and a couple other things. I thought rebounding was paramount for us and the other thing is I thought we took care of the basketball tonight, except for the very, very end. Other than that, we have been a little bit turnover prone all year, but for the most part I thought we were pretty clean with the basketball."

On Defensive Strategy Compared to Utah
"Both teams have tremendous front lines and they all shoot the three very well. We tried to go a little bit as much as we could one-on-one with (Jamee) Swan. She is such an outstanding player and to try to stay out on the rest of Colorado's shooters. That worked sometimes, sometimes we had some missed cues, but for the most part I thought we did a pretty good job. She was in foul trouble and had to sit, I'm sure more then she would liked to have done. Hopefully she's alright, it's tough to see a kid hustle and play as hard as she played to go crashing into the stands like that. We just wish her good health and hope everything works out well for her."

On Full Court Press Defense At The End
"We didn't handle it very well. I thought that we had our best free throw shooters on the floor anticipating that they might foul. We were a little bit sloppy with the basketball, which is something we can certainly address and improve upon."