Colorado University Athletics
UCLA quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General“Let me tip my hat to UCLA first off. They’re a terrific offensive basketball team and are one of the better offensive teams I’ve coached against in 23 years of coaching. I tip my hat to UCLA head coach Steve Alford and his son Bryce [Alford] who had a great night. They just move and share the ball well making them difficult to guard. I thought that we did a pretty good job in transition defensively tonight. Our defense wasn’t good enough tonight, but there’s a lot of people who play UCLA whose defense isn’t good enough when you have the firepower that they have. I thought our guys battled hard and fought but we didn’t have an answer for Bryce Alford. Our offense was good enough scoring 89 points, we didn’t shoot the ball well from the free throw line. We took care of the ball but we didn’t defend and a lot of that credit goes to them.”
On CU Improving
“I do believe that our team is getting better. But it’s a hard road, playing Arizona on the road and then playing the number four team here at home. This is the best offensive team in the country and when they make 19-threes it’s hard to overcome that. Some of them were tough threes that were deep and some of them were well defended. Some of them were not defended and that’s what we need to work on is giving those open three pointers. In the second half UCLA freshman, guard Lonzo Ball really got them going a few times. He made a play midway through the second half where he sliced and hit Isaac Hamilton for a three that was kind of the one that I thought stuck a dagger in us. You can’t trade baskets with UCLA, if you can’t get stops then you can’t come back in these games. I’ve been here for seven years and after a loss I’m usually in here pointing fingers at either the coaching staff or the players but tonight it was more about what UCLA did do then what we didn’t do. There are times in life where you need to tip your hat to your opponent and they deserved to win tonight. And we need to learn from them about how they move without the ball.”
On Adjusting to UCLA’s Ball Movement
“You have to be there on the catch. And then when they catch the ball you need to have a high hand. You have to execute whatever the game plan says there is to do. If you don’t have your hands up UCLA will make those shots, and even with your hand up UCLA they can still make the tough shots.”
On UCLA Freshman Lonzo Ball
“He might be the best freshman I’ve seen since I’ve been here. Kansas’s Andrew Wiggins came in here but he didn’t play well against us. Ball is as good as it is. If there’s a better point guard in the country, I’d like to see one.”
On CU’s Shooting Tonight
“Sometimes the shots go in and sometimes they don’t. We shot well enough tonight, shooting 54 percent in the second half and we got to the free throw line 38 times. If you score 89 points in your own building it should be good enough but it’s not with the way that we defended UCLA tonight.”
On Sunday’s Matchup Against USC
“It’s a big game for us there’s no question about it. We’ve got to dig deep and find out what we’re made of on Sunday.”
Colorado Players
Derrick White, Sr., G
On Defending against UCLA“We didn’t do a great job of moving, moving without the ball. When they get hot and we let them get going, there is no one in the country that can really guard them. They move the ball really well, they use screens really well, so we can learn from that and put it into our offense.
On the Road Games in Arizona
They play two different styles of basketball but we can learn from each game, by seeing what we did well and seeing where we lacked offense of. We just have to keep learning for each game and keep improving and hope we get a win streak going.
On Turning Around the Conference Record
We just have to take it one game at a time. We cannot try to get four right away. We just have to focus on USC, try to beat them and get on a one game win streak.
George King, Jr., G
On UCLA’s Second Half“They came out and the started to play their UCLA basketball. Like Derrick [White] said, they did a good job of pushing the pace, moving the ball. They made some shots and they got going. It was hard to stop them after that point.
On Losing Confidence
“We just have to keep believing. We cannot get our heads down. In addition, we cannot look at the past and try to re plan that. We have to think about what we have next. Our next game is on Sunday. So, we got to prepare and try our best to get that W.”
UCLA Head Coach Steve Alford
General“This is huge for us. This is an experienced team. I have so much respect for Tad. I think they have won like 25 out of the last 26 games in this building, so I mean we knew this was going to be tough one for us. I think our guys really responded well. Offensively I thought we were extremely efficient like we have been all year. I thought defensively we got the stops especially to start to second half, to push that lead to 11 or 12 and then just maintaining it.”
On the Difference Between their First Half and Second Half Performance
“I thought we got some needed stops and we continued to shoot the ball like we shoot it so that can be deflating at time when you’re trying to come back and they make 2s and 3s and we make 2s and 3s. That can be deflating because they won the battle on the free throw line. We won one line and they won the other line. I am just really proud of my team. I thought if there was any kind of adjustment we talked about it was on board play. I thought our board play in the second half was much better. Especially in the second half, we held them to one shot.”
On Their Centers Being in Foul Trouble for the Majority of the Game
“That’s why again I’m so proud because we had Golman, Welsh, Leaf, and Okwarabizie all in foul trouble tonight and they did a good job, you have to give them credit for that. I thought we did a good job of playing with our bigs in foul trouble.”
On Bryce Alford’s Performance
“Well he made 9 tonight. He made nine against SMU, but one was a goal-tend so I never really gave him credit for that. He got me, the most I ever made as a player was eight, so I always thought I had him. I was not giving him the SMU game, but I have to give him this. He shot it well, all of our guys shot the ball well, but he obviously got into a really good groove tonight. He’s having a phenomenal career and at some point I think he’ll get his due.”
On Isaac Hamilton’s Performance
“He shot it well; we had a lot of guys shoot the ball well. I did not think Isaac forced it. I thought he took really good shots, he made shots. Aaron made his shots. We’re so efficient at moving it when we get open looks, more times than not we make a lot of them.”
On Whether or Not Colorado’s Defense Declined in the Second Half
“No I think they continued to play hard. It’s like I said, I think it can be deflating when you make a run and all the sudden we make some threes, but it’s not like I thought they gave up, I thought they really competed and continued to play hard. I think it becomes deflating a lot when you have a team that comes in and makes 19 threes, it’s not easy.”
On if This was a Big Win
“They’re all big wins. If you can win on the road in this league it’s big.”