Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“A disappointing loss for the Buffs tonight. They deserved to win and we didn’t. I thought there were some really good things that came out of tonight’s game. I thought that with all the things we battled tonight, first half our defense was atrocious, for our guys to battle back with McKinley going out and the foul trouble we battled all night is a testament to our guys. You’ve got to build on the positives in a situation like this. We had a lot to overcome and I think our guys really competed. That second half mentality, defense and toughness we showed, if we play like that in the first half we’re not talking about a seven point loss I think we’re talking about a seven point win. 40 minutes of basketball is what it takes and we didn’t do that tonight and it’s disappointing.”
On the loss
“Any loss is tough, and any loss at home is even tougher. We’re one and three in the league and we’re looking up, not looking down. It’s early and there’s a lot of basketball left to be played but we’ve got to dig our heels in and get better and figure out how to win on the road because we’ve got three road games coming up. My focus as a coach is to make sure this team continues to get better, continues to improve, and we’re going to fight I promise you that. Our margin of error is pretty thin with all the things we’re dealing with but that’s life. We had enough guys in uniform to win tonight, we just didn’t play well enough.”
On Jaylen Nowell
“D’Shawn was terrific. We doubled Jaylen Nowell in the ball screens coming out of the game, our ball screen rotations were atrocious, and they scored ten points out of that. You can’t give up open threes, you can’t give up layups and ball screen rotations, but we did. So at halftime we decided not to double him and he goes off for 15 in the second half.”
On teams defense
“Defensively that first half is where we lost this game, and I want our players to understand that. But the second half and the toughness and the adversity that we overcame, I want to commend our players for that because I think they deserve it.”
“I’m not going to use youth as an excuse. It’s consistency, not youth.”
“The margin for error with this team in foul trouble and with McKinley going out shrinks significantly. But I can’t emphasize enough how proud I am of the way our guys responded and fought and competed in the second half.”
On Gatling controlling ball
“Make no mistake about it Shane Gatling is a good shooter. He’s a guy that we want to get shots. Washington did not want him to get shots and they did a better job taking his shots away than we did at taking Crisp’s away in the first half.”
On McKinley’s Injury
“A lot of people don’t know that McKinley hurt his shoulder after we came back from Christmas. He had an MRI and he’s been able to play through it but he reinjured it tonight, we don’t know how badly but we’ll get a better feel for that after we get into next week. I don’t know the answer to that right now but I do know that he has been playing at less than 100% and obviously we didn’t announce that to the world.”
“People need to understand how tough that kid is, when we went to Arizona we weren’t sure he was going to play and he ends up playing both games. He’s got the heart of a lion and that kid’s toughness will never be questioned. But in terms of the injury and what the prognosis is and what it means for the rest of the season, at this point we don’t know that.”
On upcoming week of practice
“I do think this week will be good for us. I told our team in the locker room that this week of practice is the most important week of practice that we are going to have all year long because we’re going to have to get better during this stretch before we play Utah on Sunday.”
Colorado Players
D’Shawn Schwartz, So., G
On how encouraging the play was tonight
“I really like the way Shane, Lucas, and Daylen stepped up vocally, myself included in that statement. I think we just came closer together and really battled together as a team. When McKinley went down it felt like something we needed to do in order to compete, to try and win that game.”
On what happened after cutting down the lead
“It’s a game of runs and there were a couple possessions, like we had a good shot to tie it up and missed it, they came down, we fouled the three point shooter and they made three free throws. That really hurt us and we just played catch-up from there on. It’s tough to battle from that adversity.”
On slow start to the game
“Yeah, we started off 10-0. We were trying to black on our ball screens. We just weren’t rotating well enough and they just kept getting layups and threes. From there it just kind of felt like it was just dragging on and we just couldn’t get shots. We might have been a little bit shook by that zone and just how high it was. You kind of have to just see it and feel it out before you can start making plays against it but I think we started to figure it out late in that first half.”
On his success in second half
“I’m going to be honest. They were from the bench pretty much saying that he’s not a shooter and by percentages I mean, you could say that but I know I’ve been in the gym so I was going to keep shooting it regardless. Once the jumper opened up, I could use a couple shot fakes and start getting inside and start making plays.”
On feeding off his confidence
“Yeah for sure. I heard the bench say, like one of the players from the bench say, ‘that’s not going in, no chance’. Alright, just keep shooting it.”
On feeling comfortable attacking the rim
“Definitely, something I’ve been trying to work on because if I get to the rim it that opens up our big men, that opens up our shooters. It’s all around good for the team.”
Shane Gatling, Jr., G
On his team’s gutsy performance tonight
“When McKinley went down, I was telling my team that we have to keep playing. McKinley’s a big part of our offense and our defense. Basically a big part of our team. In practice we play a lot without him so we just treat it just like practice playing without him. Just staying together, playing confident, playing smart, stay focused in the game.”
On getting the ball to his teammates
“Yeah, I noticed they were keying in on me. So I was telling my teammates extra passes because they’re going to be there. Played inside out, we hit the high post, looked down low. I knew they were keying in on me so I just had to make plays for others and help my team in different ways in scoring.”
On his role tonight being similar to his role last year
“Yeah, I was comfortable with this role because last year I had the ball in my hand a lot most of the game and I had the ball in my hand a lot most of the game this game so it didn’t fell much of a difference. I gotta pick it up more and be more of a leader and help us lead us to a victory.”
On what led to Washington’s hot shooting
“I think it was kind of both. We didn’t execute defensively very well and also they were making tough shots against us. They’re a good team and stuff like that happens. They work on shots like that. We just have to guard better next game and lock in defensively.”
On building from this game
“Oh yeah, definitely. We didn’t play a bad game, we just came out slow in the first half and then second half we played like ourselves. It’s a game of two halves so you have to play good in both. First half and second half. It wasn’t a bad game but we could definitely build from it.”
Washington Head Coach Mike Hopkins
On how impressive the last two games have been
“Well first of all, it is hard to win on the road and to be on this road trip against two really good teams. We had a lot of good stretches, the first half we played offensively making a lot of shots all over the place and that kept us in the lead. In the second half you could see the fatigue a little bit between the turnovers and Colorado pressure did a really good job. But to be able to win two games on the road against two quality opponents, I couldn’t be happier.”
On how important their senior leadership is to the team
“It really is. The big thing that we have talked about before is the way that we are scheduled, playing at Gonzaga and playing at Auburn, because I loved that crowd tonight. That crowd really got behind them, that was really cool to experience that. We made the plays that we had to play down the stretch, when they made ones we were able to stop it at one. It started to get scary but our guys were able to make the plays and were gritty down the stretch. We had to make the plays that they had to make to win.”
On the impact of McKinley Wright leaving the game
“You know he is such a good player. When he went down, I hope that he is better. They were able to put in another shooter in the game which spaced out our zone. They got the ball to the high post, they did a really good job attacking it. We went to a stretch offensively where we didn’t get a lot of movement, the ball stopped, we turned it over and had some foul shots; those type of things happen but you have to tip your hat to them. They kept on coming, they have a championship spirit and they just kept on fighting us. Our senior leadership was just huge, they calmed it down and Matisse made plays, David made plays, Noah made plays, and Dom made plays. I am just proud and happy for them too.”
On what it means to hold off CU for the win
“It reminded me a little bit of last year, we had a decent lead but they kept on coming back. We put the ball in Jaylen’s hands and he made a play, he did that last year. Players make plays, you know we put them in position and we are lucky to have good players. Hopefully the experience of last season and the experience of the tough non-conference schedule allowed them to perform at that level when it got pretty loud. I am just happy for the guys.”
On adjusting to the officiating throughout the game
“In the first half they went to the foul line a lot, while in the second half we went to the foul line a lot. Usually it evens out, it is a tough fast game out there. There are a lot of plays and a lot of calls but it just felt like we made some tough gritty plays that we had to make down the stretch to win this game. That is what it comes down to. I tell the guys all the time I don’t care if you can make or miss shots, at the end of the day you have to be tough and focused on our game plan in terms of how we are going to execute offensively and defensively. It is toughness and it is grit, tonight they showed a lot of grit especially down the stretch.”
