Colorad-Air Force Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement:
“As we get ready for the jump ball every time we play Air Force I ask why the heck I scheduled these guys. They’re well-coached. I’ve got great respect for their players, not only as basketball players but just as human beings and what they do on a day to day basis down there to protect our country. Sometimes that gets lost in the game, but I have great respect for their players and their coaching staff. If they play like they did tonight, they’re going to win some games this year. They really shot the ball well in the first half, I wasn’t happy with our three-point defense in the first half. I thought we did a better job of that in the second half. It was a good win. It’s hard to win college basketball games, especially in November, and especially with a young team. We need to keep taking care of business, but we need to keep getting better. Next Saturday at 11 a.m. we’d better be ready to play because Colorado State will be a great challenge for us.”
On difference defending the three in the second half:
“I have to look at myself as a coach. Did we have a great week of practice? The answer is probably no, that’s probably on me. I need to do a better job with a young team of just staying on them and not letting them get fat and happy. Thanksgiving week you want to give them some time, but mentally we have to keep sharper. Air Force’s offense is predicated on two things: back-cut layups and three point shots, they don’t take a lot of mid-range shots. We did a great job of taking away their back cuts. In the second half we did a pretty good job taking away their threes, but in the first half we didn’t guard the three point line for anything. I thought we were lazy, soft, we didn’t communicate, and I think one of their eight makes was contested, the other seven were wide open. We didn’t have a great week of practice but I thought we had a good two days of preparation for Air Force, Coach Grier did a great job on the scout, they didn’t run anything we hadn’t seen or prepared for, but we didn’t execute in the first half.”
On Air Force’s dribble hand-off ball-screens
“Not everybody (runs that). It’s Princeton (offense). We’re going to see the same stuff when San Diego comes to town. This will be a great prep for us. This was a good win, it was hard fought, it didn’t come easy, and it’s going to prepare for the San Diego game whenever that one is. We’re going to see this again, not necessarily in the Pac-12. Discipline on defense is something we’re preaching with our young guys, but we still need to do a better job of it.”
On difference in assist-to-turnover ratio in second half
“Everybody calls them adjustments, I don’t know if we adjusted but we said here’s the game right now: we’re down one, we have nine turnovers and three assists, and (Air Force) has 24 of their 34 points from behind the arc. We have to share the ball better, we have to take care of the ball better, and we have to guard the three point line better. We did all of those things in the second and everybody says, ‘great adjustments’. I don’t know what adjustments we made, we just did a better job executing what we needed to execute. That’s really what it comes down to.”
On George King’s Performance
“He was a beast tonight. He let the game come to him. The best thing about his 25 points are that they came on 13 shots. Great efficiency. McKinley’s (Wright) 19 points came on 9 shots, so it’s not like they were volume shooters. That’s what we need to do, is be more efficient offensively. It’s just sharing the ball, moving the ball, and then we kind of got a rhythm going offensively. Then we went brain dead, had a couple turnovers and let them back into it. Those are the things we have to get rid of.”
On whether rebounding has become central part of George King’s game
“I hope so. It’s something we’ve talked about. We saw it in flashes last year, and we’ve seen it in flashes this year. Not that he’s going to have 16 every night, but he should be a double-double guy. No question in my mind George King should have 10+ rebounds every single time we play.”
On defensive effort
“I think it’s been good. I think the mistakes we’ve been making have been correctable mistakes, not effort mistakes. I do think we were a little out of shape tonight. A couple guys looked fatigued at times. There was a stretch in that second half where the under-12 media timeout didn’t come until 8-and-a-half minutes where we had some really tired dogs out there. Our guys are committed to defense, but we just need to stay committed for 40 minutes. The margin for error goes down as your schedule unfolds. Next Saturday at 11 o’clock in Fort Collins, our margin for error goes down. We need to be better for longer stretches. We’re a young team, we’re going to make mistakes, we just can’t let one mistake turn in to two because that’s where things can snowball on you.”
On McKinley Wright’s performance
“McKinley is tough minded. He knows that he over-penetrated some tonight. I think at times he was maybe playing for the whistle instead of to the whistle. That’s something we talk about a lot, you don’t drive in there expecting a whistle because the whistle may not come. For him, it didn’t come tonight. He got himself in trouble tonight, five turnovers has to get better and it will. His ball screen reads were a catalyst when we were able to kind of open it up offensively. We had some guys who didn’t play their best tonight and we still won. The beauty of this team is we go 10 deep, so when somebody isn’t playing well, I can put in someone who is that night.”
On Dominque Collier’s performance and foul trouble
“I was really frustrated for Dom. I think everybody in the building was frustrated for Dom. He has something about him the just attracts whistles, I guess. I’m hoping it won’t happen every night. He has to play smarter, both the fouls he committed in the second half were on him. One of the ones in the first half was a tough whistle, you’re going to have some of those so you have to control the ones you can control. But I was proud of Dom staying focused and then giving us some good minutes there at the beginning of the second half. It was a tough night for him. I felt as bad for Dom as Dom felt for Dom. Deleon Brown and D’Shawn Schwartz gave us some really good minutes off the bench. It says a lot about your team when your senior guard can have an off night and the team responds.”
On difference in officiating this season
“The emphasis for officials right now is travelling and illegal screens. We had two illegal screen calls on cuts where we weren’t even supposed to have screens on the plays. We just have to play smarter. As players, we have to adjust better. The guys that can do that will be on the floor, and the guys that don’t will be on the bench in foul trouble.”
On playing in Fort Collins
“Number one: you better your hard hat on. Nothing is going to be given to you, we have to go in there and earn everything we get. It’s going to be a loud, tough place to play. They don’t like us up there. We know that. We respect everybody, we fear nobody. Our freshman have to understand that it’s on. We have the mantra ‘it’s on’ when we come to practice before we take the court… at 11 o’clock next Saturday, it’s on. We know that CSU will be ready, they play us hard and we have to match that. Their coach really stresses playing hard and rebounding the ball, and we have to match them in those areas.”
On 11 a.m. tipoff against CSU
“We practice in the morning. Let’s tip it at 8, I don’t care.”
“As we get ready for the jump ball every time we play Air Force I ask why the heck I scheduled these guys. They’re well-coached. I’ve got great respect for their players, not only as basketball players but just as human beings and what they do on a day to day basis down there to protect our country. Sometimes that gets lost in the game, but I have great respect for their players and their coaching staff. If they play like they did tonight, they’re going to win some games this year. They really shot the ball well in the first half, I wasn’t happy with our three-point defense in the first half. I thought we did a better job of that in the second half. It was a good win. It’s hard to win college basketball games, especially in November, and especially with a young team. We need to keep taking care of business, but we need to keep getting better. Next Saturday at 11 a.m. we’d better be ready to play because Colorado State will be a great challenge for us.”
On difference defending the three in the second half:
“I have to look at myself as a coach. Did we have a great week of practice? The answer is probably no, that’s probably on me. I need to do a better job with a young team of just staying on them and not letting them get fat and happy. Thanksgiving week you want to give them some time, but mentally we have to keep sharper. Air Force’s offense is predicated on two things: back-cut layups and three point shots, they don’t take a lot of mid-range shots. We did a great job of taking away their back cuts. In the second half we did a pretty good job taking away their threes, but in the first half we didn’t guard the three point line for anything. I thought we were lazy, soft, we didn’t communicate, and I think one of their eight makes was contested, the other seven were wide open. We didn’t have a great week of practice but I thought we had a good two days of preparation for Air Force, Coach Grier did a great job on the scout, they didn’t run anything we hadn’t seen or prepared for, but we didn’t execute in the first half.”
On Air Force’s dribble hand-off ball-screens
“Not everybody (runs that). It’s Princeton (offense). We’re going to see the same stuff when San Diego comes to town. This will be a great prep for us. This was a good win, it was hard fought, it didn’t come easy, and it’s going to prepare for the San Diego game whenever that one is. We’re going to see this again, not necessarily in the Pac-12. Discipline on defense is something we’re preaching with our young guys, but we still need to do a better job of it.”
On difference in assist-to-turnover ratio in second half
“Everybody calls them adjustments, I don’t know if we adjusted but we said here’s the game right now: we’re down one, we have nine turnovers and three assists, and (Air Force) has 24 of their 34 points from behind the arc. We have to share the ball better, we have to take care of the ball better, and we have to guard the three point line better. We did all of those things in the second and everybody says, ‘great adjustments’. I don’t know what adjustments we made, we just did a better job executing what we needed to execute. That’s really what it comes down to.”
On George King’s Performance
“He was a beast tonight. He let the game come to him. The best thing about his 25 points are that they came on 13 shots. Great efficiency. McKinley’s (Wright) 19 points came on 9 shots, so it’s not like they were volume shooters. That’s what we need to do, is be more efficient offensively. It’s just sharing the ball, moving the ball, and then we kind of got a rhythm going offensively. Then we went brain dead, had a couple turnovers and let them back into it. Those are the things we have to get rid of.”
On whether rebounding has become central part of George King’s game
“I hope so. It’s something we’ve talked about. We saw it in flashes last year, and we’ve seen it in flashes this year. Not that he’s going to have 16 every night, but he should be a double-double guy. No question in my mind George King should have 10+ rebounds every single time we play.”
On defensive effort
“I think it’s been good. I think the mistakes we’ve been making have been correctable mistakes, not effort mistakes. I do think we were a little out of shape tonight. A couple guys looked fatigued at times. There was a stretch in that second half where the under-12 media timeout didn’t come until 8-and-a-half minutes where we had some really tired dogs out there. Our guys are committed to defense, but we just need to stay committed for 40 minutes. The margin for error goes down as your schedule unfolds. Next Saturday at 11 o’clock in Fort Collins, our margin for error goes down. We need to be better for longer stretches. We’re a young team, we’re going to make mistakes, we just can’t let one mistake turn in to two because that’s where things can snowball on you.”
On McKinley Wright’s performance
“McKinley is tough minded. He knows that he over-penetrated some tonight. I think at times he was maybe playing for the whistle instead of to the whistle. That’s something we talk about a lot, you don’t drive in there expecting a whistle because the whistle may not come. For him, it didn’t come tonight. He got himself in trouble tonight, five turnovers has to get better and it will. His ball screen reads were a catalyst when we were able to kind of open it up offensively. We had some guys who didn’t play their best tonight and we still won. The beauty of this team is we go 10 deep, so when somebody isn’t playing well, I can put in someone who is that night.”
On Dominque Collier’s performance and foul trouble
“I was really frustrated for Dom. I think everybody in the building was frustrated for Dom. He has something about him the just attracts whistles, I guess. I’m hoping it won’t happen every night. He has to play smarter, both the fouls he committed in the second half were on him. One of the ones in the first half was a tough whistle, you’re going to have some of those so you have to control the ones you can control. But I was proud of Dom staying focused and then giving us some good minutes there at the beginning of the second half. It was a tough night for him. I felt as bad for Dom as Dom felt for Dom. Deleon Brown and D’Shawn Schwartz gave us some really good minutes off the bench. It says a lot about your team when your senior guard can have an off night and the team responds.”
On difference in officiating this season
“The emphasis for officials right now is travelling and illegal screens. We had two illegal screen calls on cuts where we weren’t even supposed to have screens on the plays. We just have to play smarter. As players, we have to adjust better. The guys that can do that will be on the floor, and the guys that don’t will be on the bench in foul trouble.”
On playing in Fort Collins
“Number one: you better your hard hat on. Nothing is going to be given to you, we have to go in there and earn everything we get. It’s going to be a loud, tough place to play. They don’t like us up there. We know that. We respect everybody, we fear nobody. Our freshman have to understand that it’s on. We have the mantra ‘it’s on’ when we come to practice before we take the court… at 11 o’clock next Saturday, it’s on. We know that CSU will be ready, they play us hard and we have to match that. Their coach really stresses playing hard and rebounding the ball, and we have to match them in those areas.”
On 11 a.m. tipoff against CSU
“We practice in the morning. Let’s tip it at 8, I don’t care.”
Colorado Players
McKinley Wright, Fr., G
On the halftime conversation to eliminate mistakes“We started the game very flat. We weren’t moving the ball as well as we normally do. At halftime, we came together as a group and said that we needed to share the ball. Our coaching staff always stresses that the go-to-man is the open man. We did a good job in the second half of swinging the ball and finding people with open shots.”
On the defensive adjustments after Air Force started to make three point shots
“Coming into this game, the scouting report showed us that we needed to take away the three point line away. We did a poor job in the first half. Our presence wasn’t felt and they shot right over the top of us. At halftime we came together as a group and said we needed to focus on the defensive end. In the second half they hit two or three three’s, then we ran them off the three point line and forced them to take tough two point shots.”
On whether the break from the Paradise Jam caused a slow start against Air Force
“Overall as a team we’re playing pretty well. I don’t think it affected us that much. I think we’re in a good position.”
George King, Sr., G
On the expectance of solid rebounding against Air Force“Our main focus was playing Colorado basketball, our emphasis is to defend and rebound. Coach Tad put that emphasis on us even more because we haven’t been doing that the past couple games. I’m happy that we were able to come out and do that.”
On whether today’s performance was his best performance as a Buffalo
“Probably so.”
On whether he is happy with where the team is at
“Yes. I’m happy with our record. I’m not happy with how we sometimes can take some teams lightly. I want us to be woken up before we get down. I want to be the first one to punch. We can take a hit and still come out to win the game, but I’d rather hit first and bury teams.”
On Freshman McKinley Wright’s value to the team
“You guys see it. He can pass, score, get in the lane and create havoc. He can also kick it out to the shooters like myself, Namon Wright, and D’Shawn Schwartz. He makes the game really easy. All of our guards do. But, for him to be able to do that right now as a freshman is a testament to how good he really is.”
On the upcoming matchup against in-state rival Colorado State
“We’re going to have to elevate our game. They’re going to be ready for us. They’re going to be at home and we’re going to have to be in their environment. We have to play at a high level. It’s going to be a hostile environment. We can watch film from their last two games but they’re not going to be the team we saw on film. They’re going to be a better team. That’s something we’re not going to be able to scout. What we can do this week is really practice hard and prepare ourselves for war. That’s what we’re really going into.”
Air Force Head Coach Dave Pilipovich
General
“We got better as a team today but to get out rebounded by 21. There’s a glaring stat right there – Wow. George King, 15 rebounds, six offensive. We only had four as a team. That’s the glaring stat right there. Maybe that’s Pac 12 against Mountain West or maybe it’s just Colorado against Air Force. We have to fight and be a little more gritty there. We can’t get out rebounded by 21 and have a chance to win the game. On the other side of that, I thought we did some good things. I thought we managed the game for the most part for 32 minutes. I thought the last eight minutes went in favor of them. You take away some of our missed layups and missed shots at the rim, just open. I think we probably left three or four right at the rim, open. You can’t miss and unfortunately we did. It’s a twelve-point game. But really, it wasn’t a twelve-point game. It was pretty much a four or six-point game. You can’t miss those shots. This will be a good test to see how we move forward now with two more games this week and five in the next twelve days. We can’t get out rebounded by 21 on the boards and and have a chance to win. Any time we switched defense and went to a zone, gosh darn it they made a big shot. [George] King made one or [D’Shawn] Schwartz made one. The last thing I’ll say is McKinley Wright is a pretty darn good player. He is so fast, He may be as fast with the ball as he is without it. He is a good player. I like that kid a lot.”
On relying on three-point field goals today
“They took some things away. They obviously got to our shooters. We got some drives and opportunities to go inside we just didn’t capitalize.”
On Colorado being able to slow down the scoring of Lavelle Scottie today
“He got into foul trouble early. He got two fouls early by trying to press and rush – that’s just maturity of a player. This was a wakeup call for him. He never got on track for us and we need him.”
On having Pervis Louder return today
It helped but he tweaked his ankle in the first half and he wasn’t as sharp. Hopefully he will continue to get healthier. It was good to have him out there especially on the defensive end as well as having another athletic guard out there because again – McKinley [Wright] was pretty good.
On Ryan Manning tying a career-high five 3-point field goals made
“He made some big shots for us and that’s what he does. He’s a good shooter and had a big one late. I thought if that one went in it would be a six point game – and he missed the one. We did some good things and we have to build on this. We have to eliminate some of the mistakes we had that were point blank and then we have to fight a little harder on the glass.”
On what may have changed the tempo late in the game
I just think their ability to make a big shot. And defensively, they got down on us. They clamped down and took us away from some things which was good on their part – especially the perimeter.”
“We got better as a team today but to get out rebounded by 21. There’s a glaring stat right there – Wow. George King, 15 rebounds, six offensive. We only had four as a team. That’s the glaring stat right there. Maybe that’s Pac 12 against Mountain West or maybe it’s just Colorado against Air Force. We have to fight and be a little more gritty there. We can’t get out rebounded by 21 and have a chance to win the game. On the other side of that, I thought we did some good things. I thought we managed the game for the most part for 32 minutes. I thought the last eight minutes went in favor of them. You take away some of our missed layups and missed shots at the rim, just open. I think we probably left three or four right at the rim, open. You can’t miss and unfortunately we did. It’s a twelve-point game. But really, it wasn’t a twelve-point game. It was pretty much a four or six-point game. You can’t miss those shots. This will be a good test to see how we move forward now with two more games this week and five in the next twelve days. We can’t get out rebounded by 21 on the boards and and have a chance to win. Any time we switched defense and went to a zone, gosh darn it they made a big shot. [George] King made one or [D’Shawn] Schwartz made one. The last thing I’ll say is McKinley Wright is a pretty darn good player. He is so fast, He may be as fast with the ball as he is without it. He is a good player. I like that kid a lot.”
On relying on three-point field goals today
“They took some things away. They obviously got to our shooters. We got some drives and opportunities to go inside we just didn’t capitalize.”
On Colorado being able to slow down the scoring of Lavelle Scottie today
“He got into foul trouble early. He got two fouls early by trying to press and rush – that’s just maturity of a player. This was a wakeup call for him. He never got on track for us and we need him.”
On having Pervis Louder return today
It helped but he tweaked his ankle in the first half and he wasn’t as sharp. Hopefully he will continue to get healthier. It was good to have him out there especially on the defensive end as well as having another athletic guard out there because again – McKinley [Wright] was pretty good.
On Ryan Manning tying a career-high five 3-point field goals made
“He made some big shots for us and that’s what he does. He’s a good shooter and had a big one late. I thought if that one went in it would be a six point game – and he missed the one. We did some good things and we have to build on this. We have to eliminate some of the mistakes we had that were point blank and then we have to fight a little harder on the glass.”
On what may have changed the tempo late in the game
I just think their ability to make a big shot. And defensively, they got down on us. They clamped down and took us away from some things which was good on their part – especially the perimeter.”