Colorado-Eastern Washington Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
On The Game (General)
“It was a good win, especially given how we started the game and fell down 19-2, which is certainly not something I was planning on. We beat a good Eastern Washington team, a team that’s really hard to play against, I thought they were terrific. On our scouting report it was written that the (Bogdan) Bliznyuk kid might be the best offensive player we’ve played against all year, which is a pretty bold statement by Coach Prioleau after we’ve played Xavier, Texas, Notre Dame, and some pretty good teams. He is a good player, hard matchup. We didn’t do a very good job on him in the first half but did a much better job in the second half, we had to make some adjustments on high ball screens, and how we were guarding him. Our guys executed it well in the second half and it showed in our defensive numbers.”
On Chipping Away At 17-Point Deficit
“We talked about just chipping away, and the way you chip away is not by trading baskets. You have to get stops, and the stops hopefully can lead to some transition baskets. Play the possession, you don’t worry about the score when you’re up 17, you don’t worry about the score when you’re down 17, you worry about the possession you’re in. We knew the only way to get back in this thing is to get stops and try to get some easy ones, get to the foul line, which I thought we did a good job of tonight.”
On Defensive Adjustments On Bogdan Bliznyuk
“Wes (Gordon) has great size, he’s one of our best defenders. Derrick is one of our best defenders. The thing with us when he had 20 was we’re going to face guard him, we’re not going to let him catch it, if he does catch it it’s way out on the floor, and make him work to catch it. Don’t help, no help responsibilities. He can’t score if he doesn’t catch it. We did a better job in the second half but he still got some, he’s a good player, he’s crafty and gets to the foul line, but that was the adjustment on him. We started going under the high ball screen, we weren’t showing as hard in the second half.”
On Deleon Brown’s Play
“Del is just a grinder. He’s a tough, aggressive player. I’ve got a lot of confidence in him defensively. He’s going to do what you ask him to do. He had a breakdown at the end there, kind of a mental lapse when #44 caught it in the corner and shot in his face, but for the most part I thought he was terrific. That charge was a big time play. Xavier Johnson’s charge to start the second half was a big time play on the (Jacob) Wiley kid. Wiley’s a good player too and we got him in foul trouble. I thought we did a much better job in the second half of not settling for jump shots. One of the reason we fell down to begin with was we settled for jump shots, the jump shots weren’t going in, we weren’t getting offensive rebounds, and we’re on our heels. Defensively we were pretty good the first couple minutes then boom, Bliznyuk got going and our players got schooled a little bit, but they rose to that challenge in the second half.”
On Giving Up Offensive Rebounds
“It’s still a big concern. Defensive rebounding is not one person’s job. It’s our guards job, long shots equal long rebounds. They took 23 threes tonight, and long shots mean long rebounds, guards have to get their share of those long rebounds. We don’t run before we rebound. Right now we are not a good rebounding team which concerns me as we move into Pac-12 play. It’s something we’ve talked about in practice, before games, after games, in scouting reports, half time talks.”
On Defense
“Defensively, you look at our numbers and they’re pretty darn good. I think we’re a good defensive team, we’re just not a good rebounding team. It’s finishing the possession, you got the stop. They get 11 offensive rebounds and they’re not a formidable team on the boards, it’s not like Eastern Washington is coming in here with a +10 rebounding margin. It’s finishing those possessions, getting the guards in to rebound, and not leaking out, and just being committed to it.”
On Derrick White’s Play During Game Changing Run
“Derrick played in spurts a little bit. He played a lot minutes again, we probably need to get him a little more of a blow. He expended a lot of energy on the defensive end which sometimes can a little bit out of you offensively. His decision making was terrific, running the break, pushing it harder, he got Josh Fortune a couple of threes, he got a XJ an easy bucket pushing it ahead, and he got himself some buckets by driving. He’s probably our best perimeter defender and he’s certainly our best playmaker. He’s really been diming guys up, and we really haven’t been shooting the ball that well from three. When we get everybody clicking offensively on the same night, we’re going to be really dangerous. If we rebound at a high level, we’re dangerous.”
On Whether The Team Is Getting Closer To Reaching Potential
“We’re getting closer. Absolutely we’re getting close. We still just do it in spurts, in certain areas. We haven’t had all our guys playing well on one particular night. We’re 10-3 and one of the reason we’re 10-3 is because we have good balance. Tonight our bench helped win us the game, our bench are the ones who got us back in the game in the first half. We need to be at our best to beat the best, and that’s what conference play is all about.”
On Transition Defense
“Eastern Washington wasn’t really looking to get out. Usually transition defense is the #1 thing I talk about in our defensive game plan, it wasn’t even on the board tonight because Eastern Washington’s game plan was to slow it down.”
On Non-Conference Season
“We’re 10-3. The Colorado State loss still eats at me. I think at the end of the year that’s going to be a bad loss, BYU won’t be a bad loss, Notre Dame won’t be a bad loss, Xavier is a great win, and the rest of them I guess we just played through and took care of business. It was good, it wasn’t great. I really wanted to be 11-2 or 12-1, but we’re not. That’s water under the bridge, it’s time to get better and make waves in our conference.”
Colorado Players
Josh Fortune, Sr., G
On The Team’s Slow Start“We came out super slow. Our bench players gave us a big spark when we needed it and helped a lot.”
On His Two Three Pointers At the Beginning Of The Second Half
“We just stuck to our principles. On offense we like to run the floor and get the ball to the open man early. If you’re open, shoot it and that’s what I did off of a great pass from Derrick. We got the ball moving on offense a lot and it worked out better for us.”
On Coach Boyle’s Attitude At Half-Time
“At half time we had come back a little bit so their lead was cut down. Coach Boyle was trying to stay positive and come out in the second half and step on them early and not come out like we did in the first half in letting [Bliznyuk] go where he wanted to go on the floor. We tried to contain him and contain the other shooters.”
On What The Team Needs To Do To Improve
“It’s going to take discipline, mental toughness and concentration. It’s been tough staying consistent for 40 minutes. We know we can do it on the floor.”
Deleon Brown, Fr., G
On His Charge Call“We knew one of their players had the ball in his hand. The guy I was guarding wasn’t particularly a good shooter so I knew I could help handle it off the gap. He kicked it and my guy drove it and I was there to take the charge.”
On How He Helped The Team Tonight
“First off, I tried to focus more on the defensive end tonight. I feel like I can impact the game in other ways [besides shooting].
Derrick White, Sr., G
On How The Buffs Pulled Out A Win Tonight“You have to get stops. The only way to get back in the game is to get stops. Our bench did a great job of getting those stops, chipping away at the lead. Offensively we started making shots, moving the ball and getting great shots. It all sparked the defense so that we could get into transition.”
On Why The Team Struggled Early On
‘We just missed a lot of easy shots to start. Offensively we had a lot of great looks that we just missed. Defensively we didn't come ready to play. We let Bogdan [Bliznyuk] do whatever he wanted and that’s a problem. We need to come out ready to play.”
On The Importance Of Filling In Gaps
“I think we did a good job of filling in gaps. We talked about that at halftime, making them see a crowded floor and not having a big gap. We just wanted to make tough twos and try to get into the spot because we knew what he [Bliznyuk] wanted to do and that made it more difficult for him.”
On Team Consistency
“We just have to be consistent. That’s been the theme of our season; we’re up and down through stretches. Consistency would be huge for us. League play is going to really be important.”
On The Upcoming Break
“It’s going to be nice to go home and spend some time with our families. We have to stay mentally ready. We can’t just sit on the couch and eat cake and stuff like that. We still have a long season that starts over again on the First of January and so we have to get ready for that.”
On The Season Thus Far
“We’re 10-3. We feel like we should be better than that. We learned a lot that we can improve on and we have a good conference schedule coming up so we have to be ready for that.”
Eastern Washington Head Coach Jim Hayford
General“We would have liked to have won the game but we’re really happy with how we played. We took good care of the ball, we only have four turnovers, which is why we made it a game. Normally we shoot a little better than we did tonight, but give Colorado credit. Bogdan [Bliznyuk] was very special in the first half, but I thought that their coaching staff made some really good defensive adjustments to slow him down in the second half. I think the defense was a difference for Bliznyuk in the second half, as they kept rotating fresh guys on him. Colorado had the run where they got the lead to 10, but we answered it to get back to four. But they executed the last two minutes the way a well-coached team should on their home court. We came in here and we made Colorado a better team, and they certainly made us a better team.”
On Playing Third Game in Five Days
“The altitude doesn’t bother us; we play in the Big Sky Conference where there’s some high elevation locations. We did a pretty good job since the Xavier game, to not just physically rest the players, but emotionally rest them so they would be fresh when they came here.”
On Getting Off to a Great Start
“We were making a lot of shots, shots that we missed a little bit later in the game.”
On Starting Two Freshmen
“We started two freshmen tonight. We committed on this trip that this is who we’re going to go with and I think they’re going to keep getting better and better. And Luka [Vulikic] is a big guard which presents some problems, and he’s able to get inside. He needs to shoot his free throws better, but he’s going to have a big career for us.”