Colorado-ULM Postgame Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General“Now we are off to New York. It’s hard not be thinking about moving forward now. I thought it was a great preparation for getting ready to play Notre Dame. Number one, we have great respect for Louisiana-Monroe’s players and program. They never quit and they beat us in the second half. Something we talked about at halftime is that our players need to understand that we need to play for 40 minutes with intensity, effort and focus. I thought that we lost some of that defensively in the second half. First half it couldn’t have been better. Not that I expected to hold them to 25 percent shooting for the whole game. There were seven different times in the first half that we got three stops in a row defensively. In the second half there was zero times that we got three consecutive stops. So, obviously our defensive intensity and effort subsided. ULM had something to do with that, they made some shots that maybe they missed in the first half. But not to that degree, I think that a lot of it had to do with us. We have to get better for 40 minutes, because Notre Dame shoots the ball better then ULM.”
On Using the Games in Brooklyn as a Measurement of Where Team Is
“Darn right I’m excited to play those games, and I’m sure the team is too. Games like this are fun to play in the preseason because you get a feel of where you’re at. There’s going to be Pac-12 level teams and programs, and we get to play two of them in New York. We know that we’re going to play Notre Dame. I’ve got great respect for Mike Bray and his program and what they’ve done. They’ve got a couple of Elite Eight appearances here lately, and they shoot the ball as well as any team in the country, from different spots on the floor and different players on the floor. So we’ve got to be ready.”
On Derrick White
“He can affect the game in so many different ways. He had 12 points midway through the first half. If Derrick was a selfish player he could have had 25 or 30 tonight, but he’s not a selfish player. He played unbelievably unselfish in the second half. We’re going to play him at the point guard position a lot, because we want the ball in his hands. It thought he made some terrific decisions, and the turnovers that he did have he was trying to make the right plays by getting the ball into the post. I thought we did a very good job of getting the ball into the post. It starts with him and I thought that he was extremely unselfish tonight. I thought that Wesley Gordon was unselfish tonight, four assists and no turnovers. He only got off four shots, but those guys are critically important to our team. But I can’t say enough about Derrick, about how he just affects the game in so many different ways. He just does it in different ways. The play at the end of the first half, he gets the offensive rebound off the free throw and Bryce [Peters] hits the three, and that’s a big play going into halftime. And that’s what great players do. They can make plays for other people, but they can also make plays for themselves. Derrick’s going to need to score for us a couple times this year for sure. But there’s going to be other times that he’ll need to distribute, getting other people involved. He’s just such a smart player; it’s a pleasure to coach him. My only disappointment is that we only get him for one year, so we’re going to enjoy every game. But I can’t say enough about him.”
On Getting to the Free Throw Line
“One of our goals every game is that we want to make more free throws then the opponent shoots. And the way that you do that is getting to the free throw line more, playing defense without fouling and then making shots when you get to the line. We’re trying to get the ball inside; it’s a concerted effort on our part. Not just to Wesley [Gordon], Tory [Miller] or to Xavier Johnson, we’re trying to get it to multiple guys. Derrick [White] and George [King] caught it on the post tonight. We’ve got multiple guys on this team that can post-up. And we put a lot of pressure on the defense when we do that. It’s by design, getting to the free throw line. Some nights you’re going to get the call and other nights you’re not so you’ve got to be able to put the ball in the basket. I didn’t think we shot the ball in the second half the way that we’re capable of, 36 percent isn’t good enough to beat an elite level team.”
On Bryce Peters
“Energy is the key word with Bryce. He’s brings it on offense and defense, and he had three steals tonight so he gets his hands on a lot of balls. He’s got a good feel for the game as well. He made some calls when playing the point guard position without me having to ask him to do that. We haven’t had a freshmen guard do that since I’ve been here. He made a nice penetration kick to Deleon [Brown] in the corner. Bryce is a guy who’s going to be a terrific player here. And tonight was the first night. It’s something to grow on and develop. He’s still a freshman so he’s going to have good days and bad days with some ups and downs. Where he, Deleon and Lucas [Siewert] are right now, we’re going to need them at times. And we needed them tonight so we’re going to count on them a lot, and I couldn’t be more pleased with all three of them.”
On Offensive Rebounding
“I thought that we got better in that area. We had 18 tonight which is a great number. We missed a lot of shots so you can look at that in two different ways. Our whole thing is that we want to be relentless on the boards. I don’t have the numbers with me right now, but I’ll have them tomorrow, we chart rebounding effort for every player on our team and for our team as a whole. That’s how you judge yourself rebounding wise, and we want that to be at 90 percent. The highest we’ve had it this year is 72 or 73 percent. So we’ve still got a lot of room for improvement there. When we get to the point that we’re going to the boards 90 percent actively then we’ll be where we want to be, we’re not there yet, so room for improvement.”
On Team’s Balance Offensively
“Having five guys in double figures is always fun. I’d like to have more a few more assists then 14. I liked our 29 assists that we had against Sacramento State. But again I think that was a result of shooting the ball well and we had some assists that weren’t assists tonight because we didn’t make the shot. But overall when the ball doesn’t stick and we can stay unselfish as a group, we’ve got a chance to be really good because we’ve got a lot of different weapons and a lot of guys who can put the ball in the hole.”
On Figuring Out Rotations
“It’s going to be a work in progress and I think it’ll be different from game-to-game. And that’s something we’ll manage as the year goes along. I think that each game you play you get a little bit better feel for it. I wanted to get the freshmen some quality minutes tonight. There’s going to be some games were they play 17 to 18 minutes like they did tonight, and there’s going to be games were they maybe play seven to eight minutes and those other 30 minutes are going to veterans. I think that’s something as a coach you need to be open to on a game-to-game basis depending on how guys are playing, foul trouble, matchups and a lot of different things.”
On Xavier Johnson
“It’s been a long road for him and he’s still kind of rounding into shape a little bit. He’s not as explosive or quick a player moving east and west as he was before the injury. I think that he’s doing some good things for us. He’s a tough matchup because he’s so strong. He’s not shooting the ball or finishing the way he’s capable of doing. He was four for ten tonight but I thought that he could have easily been seven or eight for ten. He’s still working and getting better. But he’s giving us some good leadership; he’s really talking and focused. He’s really trying on the offensive side. It’s a work in progress to get him back to where he was.”
On Lucas Siewert
“The thing about Lucas that I love is how coachable he is. I told him that he needed to work on his perimeter defense and I thought that he did a good job against ULM’s Travis Munnings, who’s a good player. He’s 6’6” and an athlete who can put the ball on the floor and shoot the three. Lucas really made an effort there. I told him, Lucas you need to be a better rebounder, and he goes out and gets six rebounds, four of them offensive. So the thing about Lucas is he does what you ask him to do and makes a concerted effort to do that. As a coach it just makes you feel so good because you know he’s going to get better, and he has gotten better, and he’s going to continue to get better. Lucas is frustrated because he was one for seven from the field. I don’t worry about that because I know that he can shoot, what I like is the fact that he’s made his defensive intensity and focus much better and his rebounding effort much better. The shots will come.”
Colorado Players
Derrick White, Sr., G
On Improving from Previous GameYes, we did better than last game, mostly. We still have a lot of work to do. Our second half defense was not where it needed to be. So now we just have to watch the film and keep learning from this.
On His Contributions to the Game
I just wanted to be aggressive and do what my team needed to help us get off to a good start. We didn’t really get off to a good start last game. So, George [King] came out and hit two threes for us, which is huge for us. We just played well from the start.
On a Strong Start to the Game
We always want to get off to a good start. It put a lot of pressure on our starters to come and be ready today, and have a lot of energy.
Evaluating the team
I mean we are not where we want to be, we have a lot to improve individually and collectively. Right now we are three and 0, which was what our goal was to start. We just have to continue to improve.
Josh Fortune, Sr., G
On teammate Bryce Peters’ debutI thought Bryce brought a lot of energy on the defensive level and that transferred over to offense for him and the team. I thought his energy from the get-go was fantastic.
On his Free-throws
We wanted to attack, play inside out and get to the line.
On the Defensive Play Tonight
I thought we did a good job defensively, for the most part. We kind of slacked off second half like Derrick [White] said. We just have to get better at playing 40 minutes of great defense.
Tory Miller, Jr., F
On teams’ reboundsRebounding wise, I think we just go out there. That’s what we do, whether it’s defensive rebounds or anything else.
On next opponent
It’s a big time tournament coming up. Notre Dame is a really good team; we play them first I think. Northwest Texas is a good team. So it’s a good field to play in. We are really excited to go out there and show them what we can do.
On improving offensively
I think so. For the most part, I’ve haven’t been playing too well in the first two games, in my opinion. I think tonight the focus was to go out and do better. We ended up playing off each other.
ULM Head Coach Keith Richard
On Playing Two Tough Teams in a Row (Texas Then CU)
“We just played two Power 5 conference teams that are probably going to do well in their leagues. The Big 12 and the Pac 12, you know. We lost five seniors, five very good players from last year’s team. Four of them were starters. I’m not surprised of the final score in both games. These are two good teams. Colorado is really good and they’re extra special here in Boulder. It’s a learning process for us.”
On What the Benefits Are in Playing in a Tournament Like the Legends Classic
“First off, you do it for the money that you get out of it. I don’t want to come here and play these guys. Then, we get to go battle at Eastern Washington against three other teams that are our level. CU will go onto New York, but there will be a war going on in Washington between four alike teams all trying to pick up some wins. There’s a benefit to that. We’ll play a couple neutral games along with playing this good competition.”
On His Team Looking Looser in The Second Half
“Colorado played really well in the first half. It was hard to score against them. They played great defense. I thought we played really good defense in the first ten minutes we just couldn’t hold on. We needed some offense but we could never find it. I think in the second half we did loosen up a little bit. We’re searching offensively for how to play with this new team. Give credit to Colorado, they were very hard to score against in the first half.”