“It certainly was not a thing of beauty, but we did what we had to do to get the win. I was really pleased with the second half. I think we really rebounded the ball well. If we had rebounded like that on Saturday we would be 8-0. It was a good bounce back win. We just have to keep learning. We knew that turnovers could have been an issue going in, but we talked about it and practiced it, but didn’t handle it well. Our second half defense was great, and we did enough at the end.”
On The Defensive Effort From The team
“The key to this game was transition defense and guarding the three point line. Almost half of their shots were from three, and our transition defense was bad in the first half because we kept turning the ball over. They had six threes at half time, but only three in the second half. There is a lot of room for improvement, but I was pleased with the defense in the second half.”
On The Play From Dominique Collier
“Dom (Collier) was really good in the second half. He played within himself, and didn’t force the issue. He let the game come to him, and I was really pleased with his effort.”
On Giving Lazar Nikolic The Start
“Laz (Nikolic) and McKinley (Wright) are our best perimeter rebounders. Laz got the start because he is rebounding the ball for us. Everybody is going to play, and every night there may be a different guy. Laz is a guy who I feel very comfortable with offensively and defensively. Our team functions well when he is in the game. He will get better and better.”
On The Play From Dallas Walton
“He had 8 rebounds in 15 minutes. Those are really good numbers. Dallas is going to get better and better, the more minutes he plays. I am very pleased with how he is playing, and he is gaining confidence.”
On The Freshman Class
“The freshman are a breath of fresh air for this team. We have said that since day one. I have a lot of confidence in every player that plays for us. They may not all play great every night, but when we start clicking we can do damage.”
On The Status of Lucas Siewert
“He started limping, so I took him out. We have to be healthy going into Xaiver.”
On How The Team Will Come Out on Saturday Against Xavier
“I believe in this group. We are going to compete and get better. I love this Freshman Class, and we have another one sitting in street clothes that is pretty good. The future is bright for Colorado Basketball, but the future is now, especially for our seniors. We are not waiting for next year. We are playing for this year, but the future is bright.”
Colorado Players
McKinley Wright, Fr., G
On the team’s turnovers tonight
“It started with me. I had 5, I just got sped up, made some dumb decisions instead of just slowing down. It wasn’t a really great press. They run and jump in full court man-to-man. We got sped up a little more than we should have. We just have to be patient with teams like that and that’s what we struggled with tonight.”
On the emphasis on rebounding coming into the game
“It was a huge emphasis. Something that we have to be better at in order to be a good team and be a tournament team. With our next game on Saturday against Xavier, a top 15 team in the country, rebounding is going to be huge. It’ll be the most physical game we’ve played all year and the best rebounding team as well.”
On Lazar Nikolic’s Athleticism
“Laz is sneaky athletic. One of the guys with the most bounce on our team and people don’t know it yet. CU fans saw it tonight and they’ll see it some more later in the season.”
On upcoming game vs ranked Xavier
“I’m excited. I have a friend from back home there. I know a lot of those guys. I was recruited there so I talked to those guys back before my commitment. It’ll fun playing in that kind of atmosphere against a top 15 team in the country so I’m looking forward to it.”
On Dallas Walton’s wide-open missed layup and his play tonight
“We told Dallas he has to dunk that. I don’t think he knew he was that wide-open. They denied me in the backcourt and he had the whole lane and his eyes got too big. Dallas is huge for us and he’s going to be huge for us for the rest of the year with Tory being out and him being our starting center. He protects the rim really well and his rebounding is starting to go up. Dallas is a huge part of this team and we will need him.”
On being a young team
“We know we’re a young team. We try not to look at it as we’re freshman. We’re division one players, we have to play at a high level for this team to win. We don’t pay attention to the 2021 class. We just do whatever it takes to help this team win regardless of age or class.”
Lazar Nikolic, Fr., G
On starting and stepping up
“It was definitely a great feeling that I’ve earned the trust from the coaching staff. I knew that we were supposed to rebound the ball today and I was looking to do that. I’m really happy about that.”
On hearing he was starting tonight
“The assistant coach told me when we warmed up and I knew that I had to step up to help the team win.”
On difference between starting and coming off the bench
“When I come off the bench I know that I have to do my job so it doesn’t really matter. I just want to help the team.”
On seeing Damien Collier on alley-oop
“I gave him the sign. He knows I can jump so he threw it up there and it was a nice play.”
On upcoming game vs ranked Xavier
“It will be a big turn for us playing a ranked team. Everybody’s looking forward to it and it will be a big challenge for us as a team which will hopefully change our season for the better.”
On Difference Between US and European Basketball
“Back in Europe, we have set plays but here we’re free to play and make plays. That’s the reason I came here. American players are better than European players because of that. They have more freedom while European players are limited.”
New Mexico Head Coach Paul Weir
On what the difference was between the first and second half
“I think that CU did a really good job over the course of the game of just continuing to get the ball inside and getting some buckets around there. They made some shots in the second half and they did a really good job protecting the rim. We got a lot of really good looks, I thought, around the rim. They just did a really good job of protecting the glass. We missed a lot of bunnies and some points at the free throw line. When you get twenty more shots than the opponent, you usually feel pretty good about what you did. We were just unable to convert a lot of shots around the rim, the layups and the free throws both hurt us.”
On starters’ shooting troubles continuing
“I don’t even know if it was necessarily shooting, our two point shooting percentage is becoming a real problem. We are among the bottom in the country at making two point shots. I feel really good about a lot of our looks. We are getting layups, we are getting shots right at the rim they just aren’t going down. You want to sit here and say that we have to find better looks but they are pretty good looks. We just missed a lot of layups tonight and that unfortunately has been a pattern for us lately, we spend a lot of time on it. I can sit here and say it is our lack of size or the rim protection our team has but at some point we have to fix it. We just can’t make three point shots for all of our points. We have to find a way to generate some two point offense. Again, I like the quality of our shot selections tonight. I didn’t look back as the game unfolded and think ‘man we just didn’t get a good look tonight’. We got a lot of good looks, Colorado just did a really good job of protecting the rim and we left a lot of points on the board. Again, when you shoot twenty more shots than your opponent I would like to think that you are in pretty good shape.”
On possibly losing energy late in the game
“I think that we missed a lot of easy looks. We obviously missed some free throws there that I thought hurt us, particularly when it was in that range. We had some O’s for twos, just didn’t make some shots and missed some free throws down the stretch. When you are late you are trying to trap or press more and we gave up some easy stuff in the back of it. At that point when you are down in the game you are just trying to come back.”
On how successful the trap defense was
“I think that defensively it was a step forward for us, particularly the first thirty minutes up to the last seven or eight minute mark. Then I think that we were just pressing, trying to get back in. We opened up some things, but I thought that our defensive energy was really good. Man, if we could find a way to convert some layups or free throws I think that it would put us over the top. Unfortunately we left another one out there.”
