Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“I want to thank the fans who came out to the game. They came out on a school night and a work night at 9 pm to support this team. Thank you to them, and thankfully we won. I don’t think I have ever been this upset after a win. We turned it over and gave up offensive rebounds. Thankfully we had McKinley Wright.”
The key to winning this game was limiting them to one shot and getting a good shot on offense. 19 times we didn’t even get a shot because we turned it over. We didn’t concentrate or play hard consistently.”
“He has heart, toughness, and grit. He has all of the intangibles. There are point guards who are better shooters and passers, but the intangibles that he brings to this team cannot have a value put on it. He willed us to a win tonight.”
“There are going to be times when you have to find a way to win when you aren’t at your best. We did that tonight. We weren’t playing our best but we also didn’t play with any energy or toughness. If we played like we did against Utah, we would be leaving here a lot more satisfied.”
If we play Sunday like we did tonight, Reid Travis will have 18 offensive rebounds by himself. We need to figure things out. That kid is playing as well as anybody in the country. We better bring our hard hats. If we play like we did tonight, we will have zero chance. If we play like we did against Utah, we give ourselves a chance.”
“Our guys weren’t playing with confidence. You have to relish playing against the zone. We turned it over 19 times.”
Colorado Players
D’Shawn Schwartz, Fr., G
On picking the team up after a run by Cal
“It was a little frustrating to see that happen but I’m just glad we pulled it out because that was a big game for us. Every game is a big game for us from this point on.”
On being more aggressive offensively
“Yeah for sure, that felt good. Just trying to find and pick my spots where I can go score. It was just in the flow of the game, a good play we ran, one of our solid plays that gets people to the rim. It’s usually Namon in that position but he obviously wasn’t playing so it was good for me to go in there and make a play.”
McKinley Wright, Fr., G
“I just called the guys together and told them us younger guys are playing for the seniors. We’re trying to do our best to get them to the tournament and we know if we had lost this game tonight there would be a slim chance at that. This was a huge game for us.”
“We have a very good chance to reach our goal and play in the tournament and win the Pac 12 Championship. The postseason is our goal. Me as a freshman, I’m trying to get the guys like George (King), Dom (Collier), Josh (Repine), and Tory (Miller-Stewart), our four seniors. To play in the tournament, they didn’t make it there last year so I want to send them out on a good note.”
“Just pass fakes. They got guys jumping in the lanes a lot so starting with me, I’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the ball. My energy from the start has to be better. These guys feed off me and my energy, so in order for us to win big games coming up, like Sunday versus Stanford, my energy has to be going from the start.”
“Yeah, our defense is definitely keeping us going. We turned the ball over 19 times. They had three guys in double figures. We try to hold guys under their averages. Darius hit two tough threes at the end of the game. Defensive rebounding is what we hang our hats on so that’s how we’ve won these last two games to be honest and especially this one today. We didn’t play to our expectations.”
“Just getting in the flow of things. Like I said before, my energy. These guys feed off me. It was terrible, our energy was terrible tonight. We just got to get in the flow of things. We shared the ball well. Tonight we struggled obviously, we had 19 turnovers like I said before. We got to do better. We’ll get back in the gym tomorrow, work on some things, and we’ll be ready for Sunday.”
“Yeah, our leaders in me, George, and Dom have to do a better job. Before the game, I think shoot around was pretty dead. We can’t take teams like this light. We knew that Cal was at the bottom of our league and to be honest we took them light. We came out flat and they had nothing to lose. They came out, they have tough players and a very young team. They played with a lot of heart tonight. That’s just something we got to do better, I got to do better, and we all got to do better. Just making sure we’re all prepared and having high energy during shoot around right before tipoff.”
California Head Coach Wyking Jones
On finding a way to win
Two teams trying to score, defense prevailing over offense. Neither of us could get into a flow. Our guys battled. Our star player goes one for 15, moving forward I don’t ever expect that again. But our guys battled they didn’t give up, they fought to the end. I’m happy with how hard we played.
We came in and knocked down three’s, I was happy to see that, but they were able to hit their free throws to close it out.
A couple opportunities at the free throw line to close the gap, then they obviously hit theirs in the end of the game.
Our defense was active and aggressive which lead to turnovers
I expected to see more, good days of practice. Our guys were locked in, but this is a tough place to play.
We tried to get the best feel we can. We switched back and forth. It worked really well the first half, but we had to change it up after allowing three corner threes’ in the second half.
California Forward Marcus Lee
Defensive wise we played really well. Those three 3’s hurt us, but we were able to overcome that for the most part. A lot of our players had a rough night, but we just have to bounce back from that.
Our team doesn't’t quit. We have a lot of guys on this team who are going to fight and battle and treat the game as if it’s 0-0.
One thing we stress as upperclassmen is to keep battling. The basketball gods just didn’t like us today. But all we can do is keep battling and keep our head up.