Colorado University Athletics
Quotes
vs
California Baptist
Dec 1 (Mon)
7 p.m.
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement“That was a great win. That was my statement. What are your questions?”
On Team Growth Since The Oregon Trip
“The difference between or team now and a week ago is that we believe. Number two, we’re playing together and we’re playing with great energy. We have good moments, we have bad moments. We showed that today but we have a toughness that we didn’t show in Corvalis, we showed it at times in Eugene. That’s why I made a distinction between the game against at Oregon State and the game in Eugene where we still got beat but the toughness factor, the resiliency, the toughness was there in Eugene. We didn’t get the win but we came home and these guys took it upon themselves. At some point when you’re on a slide, your players have to see that they’re sick and tired of this and it’s time to turn up. Players win games. I haven’t changed anything other than my little bit of zone between the Oregon trip and this trip.”
On Playing Zone
“The key with talented teams is that you want to keep them off balance. We want to try to keep them off balance and I thought the zone helped do that. They were much more effective playing against it in the second half than they were in the first half. A lot of that had to do with our offense too because we turned the ball over twice in the first half and 13 times in the second half which allowed them to get out in transition. When Arizona gets in transition, their athletes are tough to stop. We need to our zone set. It wasn’t great in the second half. I told our team that any dunks or post moves that Deandre [Ayton] gets is on you. Any 15 footers are on me. I gave up some 15 footers tonight but I can live with that. I can’t live with the dunks and the second shots. But I thought our zone helped keep them off balance and keep them out of rhythm and they’re a rhythm team, when they get in that rhythm they’re difficult.”
On Difference Between First And Second Half
“We scored 45 points the first half so we got a lot of buckets so we were in the zone a lot in the first half. It wasn’t a steady diet of it. We just kept getting stops so that we could stay in it. I thought the second half we turned it over and let their post guys catch it in the paint in the second half which is why we lost it in the second half which was disappointing because we talked at half time about the game being 0-0 when we come out in the half and it’s jump ball. I hate not having timeouts in the end. It’s hard.”
On Stopping Offensive Runs
“Whether you’re behind or ahead, when the other team makes a run, you have to have the fortitude to stop that run. You have to stop it on defense, you have to stop it with good offense. As simple as it sounds, our offensive game plan tonight was to attack them and get great shots and we did that in the first half. We did that for the second part of the second half but we had a stretch there where we turned the dang thing over. It was the same offense, the same players, the same defense, the same game but you just hit that spot offensively and we need to get rid of that.”
On The Strong First Half
“The first half was very important for our young men’s psyche and we are a young team so the psyche when they see the ball going in and see us having success, it’s great and we need to understand what got us that. What got us that is ball security, sharing the ball, 10 assists and two turnovers is what we’re talking about, and getting great shots.”
On Dallas Walton’s Play
“I’m really proud of him. He’s growing up before our eyes. There’s an intensity in his eyes that I saw before the game, at half time, on the court. He was ready to play. He got really tired there in the second half, we had to give him a blow but we got him back in three. My challenge to Dallas is to kiss the ball in the block, I know he wants to score, but I need him to rebound the basketball both offensively and defensively. That’s a continued challenge I’m going to give him his entire career because I believe that Dallas Walton can be a steady double double guy. With the way he runs and his skill, he can step out and shoot it and he’s got a great touch and confidence. I want double doubles out of him. There’s challenges to every player. McKinley Wright’s assisted turnover range should be 10-2, not 10-7. Every young guy that we have is coming along, getting better. Dallas is still learning and I’m really really proud of him against two big time seven footers. He’s not going to play against better seven footers in our league.”
On The Statement Made By Wins Over Arizona and Arizona State
“The statement is that if we play the way we are capable of playing, we can play with anybody in this league. We still have to prove that on the road, that’s the next challenge for this team. We get an opportunity to do that in LA against USC on Wednesday night. That’s the statement that we’ve made and I believe in this group and I want them to continue to get better. They’re a joy to coach.
On Dominique Collier’s Play
“I said it on the radio that there’s not a player in the locker room that I’m happier for than Dominique Collier with what he’s been through his senior year so far. My challenge to Dom has been to just go ball, go play, to not worry about anything. I think now his teammates are telling him that too, telling him to not worry about anything else but playing his game. We know he’s a great shooter, he made big time shots today when we needed him to and that’s what seniors do. I’m really happy for him and really proud of him. He’s overcome some adversity and tough times not only this year but even last year. But he hasn’t quit, he’s stayed with it and we certainly haven’t quit on him and I never will.
On Mental Toughness
“It was mental toughness. It’s something that we talk about all the time but showing the mental toughness is when they made their run, our heads are down and we’ve turned it over. We have to get back to playing the way we’re capable of playing, get back to the first half Colorado team, not the last four or five minute Colorado team. That comes from toughness, mental toughness as much as physical toughness.
On If This Victory Over Arizona Holds Extra Satisfaction
“Absolutely there is [more satisfaction]. I have great respect for Sean Miller and the kind of coach he is. They recruit very very well. They’ve recruited very very well, their staff has. USC has recruited very very well. The two most talented teams in our league from top to bottom are Arizona and USC so hell yes there’s extra satisfaction [in this win]. Hell yes. I have great respect for Sean and what he’s done as a coach, great respect for Andy [Enfield] but to answer your question, hell yes.”
Colorado Players
McKinley Wright, Fr., G
On the ‘secret sauce’ in recent turnaround“There’s no secret sauce. In games like this we need to play with energy. I think we lacked energy from the start in the first two Oregon game but today we came out and tried to punch them in the mouth. I think if we play like this every night and play with this type of energy, we could beat anybody in our league.”
On back to back wins against top-20 teams
“It’s crazy. Nobody expected to win these ones except for the people in our locker room and our fans. All that matters is that we believe. We don’t care what any of the outsiders think, we saw them pick us to finish ninth in the Pac-12 so we’re here to make a statement.”
On what Dominique Collier has meant to the team
“He’s huge. He’s our senior point guard, being able to share the court with him has been great for me. Dom stepped up. Coach told Dom that he needs to show more emotion and tonight he showed a ton of emotion. He hit big time shots and was a huge key in this win.”
On whether the first half of today’s game was the team’s best half of the season
“I think that was our best half. We’ve been a second half team all year, having to dig out of holes and jump on teams in the second half, but tonight I think we proved that we’re not just a second half team. We can come out from the get go and play well.”
On defensive gameplan
“The zone has bothered the last two teams we’ve played and when something’s going good you have to stick with it.”
On hearing Arizona fans chants after one of his turnovers
“Turnovers start with me. I have to take care of the ball. I made some silly decisions in the second half. But the fans chanting ‘U of A’ didn’t really bother us, we know a lot of our fans aren’t here over break.
On how to take this success on the road
“We have to bring the same energy. We haven’t won a game on the road yet, but if we come out with this kind of energy, there’s no reason we can’t win on the road. The hoops are still 10-feet, both teams still have five guys on the court, so we have to go out and battle.”
Dallas Walton, Fr., C
On matchup with Arizona’s 7-footers“I can’t put into words how fired up I was. The opportunity to match up against two pros isn’t something you get every day. That’s kind of what we all signed up for when we came to CU to play in the Pac-12.”
On strong first half performance
“I think it helps not having to dig ourselves out of a hole. Unfortunately, we’re usually down going into halftime and I think it helps going into halftime with a lead.”
On hearing Arizona fans chants
“Get that out of our stadium.”
On what back to back wins against top-20 teams does for confidence
“It shows us that we belong. It’s something that we need to build upon going forward, starting in practice.”
On matchup with Deandre Ayton
“Attack him. One thing coach always says is respect everybody, but fear nobody. That’s something I took to heart, especially with the projected top-2 or top-5 draft pick… it does not matter. We attack everybody the same way. He’s a big body, he’s athletic enough to catch those lobs when they throw the ball up to him. We just keyed in, fronted the post, and played team defense. Everybody on our team has each other’s back, that’s something we’re collectively buying into.”
On perfect shooting night
“If you were to tell me I hadn’t missed come second half, I wouldn’t have known. I was just taking open shots.”
D’Shawn Schwartz, Fr., G
On scoring five straight points after Arizona cut the lead to three“My guy over here [McKinley Wright] is good finding open guys, but somebody found me and I just wanted to get it off. Coach Rohn and I went through a good shoot around yesterday and he told me to stay ready, so that’s what was going through my head.”
On when he felt something special brewing
“The first time we practiced at Coors Event Center, McKinley [Wright] came walking in (like he owned the place) yelling ‘I can’t wait to play in this gym, I’m about to go crazy for the fans.’”
Arizona Head Coach Sean Miller
Opening Statement
I thought Colorado first of all did a great job, they played with an amazing amount of energy in an overtime game the other night. For them to respond as quickly as they did for today’s tipoff at noon come ready to play with confidence and energy says a lot about them as a team and as a program.
McKinley wright is one of the most impressive guards that we have faced. My brother recruited him and he must be one of the dumbest coaches in college basketball to not have him as part of his program. That’s to Colorado’s benefit he has made such a big difference in their team. His attitude, he does it on defense, 10 assists, physically big and strong it’s like he’s an upperclassman. I was really impressed with him and George king, I’ve watched George develop and he’s one of those guys that represent college basketball in such a good way. Senior, paid his dues and plays hard. Always had. I thought those two guys, and collier another older guy had a good game today. I credit them and their freshman big guy, who they don’t really depend on a lot on scoring, he was really ready for the game, 7 for 7 from the floor? That’s a big reason they won.
They played hard and they played with a lot of energy.
What was working for you in the second half?
We tried a little bit harder in the second half—we didn’t give effort. Sometimes you lose and sometimes the coach he stars blaming the players, that’s the furthest thing that I’m going to do. I’m going to take all the responsibility when you have a team like ours and you win a game like we did in salt lake city, such a quick turnaround on the road like this, it’s your job to have your team ready. I did a terrible job of having our team ready. We weren’t ready. We didn’t have any any emotion, any togetherness. I didn't know really what button to push other than don’t play the guys that aren’t playing hard. But we played with more energy in the second half. I’m at least happy for our fans that travelled here, at least they saw twenty minutes of us playing for Arizona, because the first half we were disconnected, we didn’t play with a lot of energy, that’s on me and playing against a team that did a great job. You can’t control the time of the game, you only can control how ready and prepared you are. That’s my job to have our group ready to go and I didn’t have them ready, for sure.
Colorado took a different approach offensively, they played fast, shoot quick, thrive in transition do a great job on the offensive glass, they generally give the ball to McKinley Wright in the middle of the floor and allow him to make others better. I think once they saw that our guys were struggling they stayed with it. They were more deliberate but we had a lot to do with that as well. You always want your team to play for you as the coach and our guys they really struggled playing for me, they really do. Let’s see where we go from here.
What do you mean?
I can’t get them to play hard. We do it for a while, I know we’ve had a win streak. We also have a good team, we have good talent a lot of times our offense can get us to the finish line. But you have to play both offense and defense, any really good team or great program, you’re going to have those days where the ball doesn’t go in but you rely on your effort and togetherness and maybe your defense to keep you in the game. With our team it’s really hard to get our guys to run as fast as they can. That’s not them that’s me. I have a hard time reaching our guys.
Personality difference?
I don't know. I can only go on what I know of effort, knowing your team is really trying. Of giving everything they have. If they make mistakes and miss shots sometimes their execution isn’t well, sometimes—i’m sorry it happened today. You’re playing against a team that’s doing a great job so you have to give them credit, but with our credit we give Colorado, this team. I can’t reach them. I really can’t.
That’s unusual for you?
Yeah, obviously when that’s the case it falls on you and we have to see if we can fix it, because we have a long road ahead of us. It doesn’t get any easier. This game was really tough. We don’t overwhelm you, one through eleven, we have to play hard and play with confidence and play together like a lot of great teams in this country. That’s really missing with our team
On CU Running Zone
I didn’t think that that was really the problem.
I think that’s what Colorado’s zone did, it baited us into not playing together, not moving it. In the second half, we got a lot of good looks. That really wasn’t the problem today.
I’m not really talking about wins and losses, I’m talking about—you know when a group of guys is really playing for you. I can’t get those guys to play for me.
Have you ever had that before? Where you felt the team doesn’t play for you?
Not like this. So we’ll see. We’ll either fix it or keep getting our asses kicked.
On CU Storming Court
I would have stormed the court too, they should be proud of their team. They had a great weekend. It wasn’t easy for them. They came off the Oregon trip and the way they responded says a lot about that group.