Colorado-Arizona Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement:
“Another great team victory for the Buffaloes. I thought we played with great toughness tonight. Arizona played well. They are a good team and played well tonight. We took their best shot, certainly in the first half. I say this every time, but when we play these guys, we have to go out and beat Arizona. They aren’t going to beat themselves. I felt like we beat them tonight with great toughness and resolve. We didn’t play our best basketball, but played well enough to win. I thought Arizona, in the first half, did a really good job of making us guard them and we expended a lot of energy on defense. It affected us a little bit midway through the first half of offense. We were standing a lot. A lot of it was because we were tired. We got the pace of the game going the way we wanted it at home and I like to think it wore them out in the second half. Both teams were playing seven or eight man rotations with pretty short benches. It was a great win. We took a good shot from Arizona. Arizona played well tonight.”
On Evan Battey
“Evan (Battey) takes on a challenge defensively. He wanted to guard (Chase) Jeter. I thought we did a really good job on (Jeter) in the second half. If you give him space down there, he is a load. He has gotten much better and they are playing through him. I think he maybe wore down a little bit in the second half. We did a much better job of fronting him and making him play in a crowd. If you let him go one-on-one in the post, he is going to score. I thought Evan played terrific defense. He loves that challenge. It was good to have him back, obviously with his back injury the other night. He played well tonight.”
On Lucas Siewert
“When I talk to the team after the game, I very rarely will single guys out. I will talk to our team about our team and grab guys separately and give them some feedback. In front of the team tonight, I said I thought Lucas Siewert played outside of his comfort zone. Lucas is not one of those guys that relishes contact or physicality, but tonight he made some tough, physical plays with the ball driving, rebounding with two hands, and getting balls outside of his area. He was terrific. I can’t say enough about him. He was the player of the game, in my opinion. McKinley Wright is hard to beat. Down the stretch, McKinley was McKinley. He is our guy and we know that, but hopefully Lucas can build off of this game in terms of his rebounding, toughness, and physicality.”
On Improvements
“It is the mental and the toughness in our hearts. We did a better job in the second half of making them guard us. we wanted to have longer possessions on offense and let them expend the energy on defense. Sometimes we get in the habit of relying on plays to score. Sometimes you have to rely on, whether it is our circle motion or ball screen motion, making them work on defense. We did a really good job of that in the second half. Even down the stretch, we had two possessions where we didn’t score, but used all of the shot clock and made them work. I think that led to them missing some free throws and jump shots on their end. What they did in the first half good, we did in the second half good which was making them expend energy on defense.”
On Rebounding
“We talked about Arizona being much like Arizona State in that they rely on points in the paint and are a good offensive rebounding team. They had 10 offensive rebounds. That is too many. Our rebounding needs to be better than that, but the fact that we outrebounded them was a positive thing. We hang our hats on defense and rebounding. Offensive rebounding is an area we still have to make improvements on, but I can’t say enough about our guys resolve and toughness in the way we are playing.”
On Beating Arizona
“Arizona is a good team. They have talent. They have had their struggles, obviously, but this is an important game for us. The reason Arizona has become a rivalry, as far as we are concerned, is because they are one of the best teams consistently in our league, year in and year out. They are one of the best road teams in our league. You want to beat quality programs. I am glad we didn’t storm the court. I want our players and fans to expect to compete with these guys. I would like to be able to compete with them down in McKale (Memorial Center). We have yet to beat them down there, technically. (Referring to their 2013 OT loss) I would like to get that one off of our list, but we won’t get that opportunity until next year if we are down there. It was a good win. They are a quality program and well coached. They played well tonight. If Arizona plays the rest of the season like they did tonight, they are going to get their fair share of wins. They are always a tough out. You have to beat them. They don’t beat themselves.”
On McKinley Wright IV
“We got him downhill on some ball screens. We made them expend some energy, and put their big guys on some high ball screens. He played with great patience on the ball screens in the second half. In the first half, he missed some reads. I can’t say enough about him. There are not enough adjectives to describe McKinley Wright and how good and important he is for us. He just makes big time shots and big time plays when they need to be made. Tonight, was a great example. They came back and tied it up and he took over.”
On Ricardo Patton Reunion Weekend
“These are always great weekends for our players, for the former players, and for the coaches we bring back. Coach Patton and his wife, Jennifer, enjoyed themselves. They got a chance to reconnect with some of the young men whose lives they influenced while here. Coach Patton was here for a good chunk of time. 11 (full) years as a head coach and 14 total. It is great to have him back and is always great to have Chauncey (Billups) back. It is great to have all of the players come back with their wives, kids, and families. They interacted with our players yesterday after practice. We had a luncheon and our players ate with them and we encouraged the former players to impart their stories about being Colorado Buffaloes from back in the day to our current players. Last night we had a reception. That was the time for the former players to tell stories and reminisce. It is a great weekend for all involved. I want our players to understand that every time they step on the floor and put their uniform on, they represent every former player that has ever played here. We lost a really good one today in Lynn Baker (played from 1963-67). I am so glad we honored him. He passed away this morning. Lynn Baker was a good player. I got to know him and he was a terrific man. I am sorry for that. It was a great weekend for those younger guys.”
Colorado Players
Shane Gatling, Jr., G
On the Difference Between Tonight Compared to the First Matchup in Arizona
“Yeah, that just shows the growth of our team since January 3rd. We learned that basketball is a game of runs. They’re going to going to go on runs, we’ve got to stay together. We can’t put our heads down when they make a shot, its basketball, they’re going to make shots. We’ve just got to stay together. Just stay together.”
On What’s Led to the Recent Success
“I think it’s executing plays and knowing personnel. When we execute, we get great shots. Even if we miss a great shot someone is there rebounding or we’re getting the ball back somehow, making hard working plays. On defense, knowing personnel, you got to know if you’re closing to the driver or closing out to the shooter, being in the help. We’re just playing more team basketball than we have in the past.”
On What it Took to get Momentum
“Extra passes, movement, that’s what coach really emphasized in this game. He likes us getting in the paint and making extra passes so that’s what we tried to do. We tried to get the best shots possible every possession.”
On What has Gelled the Team Together
“It’s like I said before, just focusing and concentrating on what we have to do. Once we do that, it just clicks as a team so like we’ll know, ‘Oh we have to be help side help right here’. We know ‘If I catch this, I’ll make an extra pass’. It’s just thinking plays ahead and focusing and concentrating on what we’re supposed to be doing.”
On if Coach Boyle Said Anything Different Before the Recent Success
“I don’t think he told us anything different. We’re just playing more confidently. We got tired of losing. We don’t want to lose, we don’t want to be at the bottom of the conference. We want be a top four team, we want to be a number one team but we’re just doing whatever it takes to win games.”
Lucas Siewert, Jr., F
On How he Helped CU Slow Down Arizona’s Late Run
“Yeah, whenever we go through adversity we just try to focus on anything to get us a win. That’s the little things. An extra possession, you know, a great shot. So just keeping that in mind when they make a run.”
On Seeing the Difference From the Win Last Year Versus Arizona to Tonight’s Win
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t try to focus on that too much but there was a big difference from last year to this year and I don’t know if that is because they’re not as good as they used to be or because its Sunday. I don’t know. I don’t try to focus on that, I just try to get a win and that’s it. But it would be nice if they came out to support more.”
On Slow Start to Second Half
“I don’t think we had as good of movement as we had in the beginning of the game. I don’t know if we were tired or not, but we can’t afford that too much so I’m glad we got ourselves back in the game. We just have to play through that stuff.”
On Game Plan to Attack Chase Jeter
“Our whole game plan was to attack them inside and play inside-out. We know they’re not as deep in the post as they are for guards. We just had to go at them. Offensive rebounding as well was a big part of the game because the scouting report said they’re not great at boxing out teams, so attack them in those two types of ways.”
Arizona Head Coach Sean Miller
On Tying the Game, and Allowing Mckinley Wright to Score 7 Straight
“No doubt, and that’s what really good players do. His shot in the left corner, you know he’s not a great three-point shooter, you see him get that look in a moment of great meaning, you just anticipate that it’s going in. That’s who he is and Lucas Siewart hit one in front of their bench, I thought both of those shots really broke the game open from what it would have been but you get those opportunities, you have to deliver. Down on our end, we had a couple opportunities as well and we weren’t able to deliver. Instead of a two-point game or four-point game, it kind of went to eight or ten. But, Colorado is a better team than we are but that doesn’t mean that our preparation and our team’s attitude really in both games, in Utah and Colorado, we had some segments in both games that were very good. We played good defense for a long period of time. You know our lack of depth hurts us defensively and on offense there are times like when we started the game off, you wondered if we were ever going to score but once we got through that patch, we played some good offense. So it’s about playing for forty minutes, we don’t have a lot of room for error and hopefully this week we can get there.”
On Not Leading at Any Point in the Game
“I mean there are a lot of things that are unusual for an Arizona team right now. I mean we’re just trying to be the best that we can be.”
On the Team’s Losing Streak
“It’s hard. In particular, harder in a place like Arizona where we have so much, and we have such a great tradition and we’re used to winning but these are our circumstances and I think for any player or coach or team, it’s fun to be in college basketball and things are going your way. When things aren’t going your way, that’s really the true test and I think this coming week, the following week, and the final week, because that’s where we are, three weeks away, my hope is that we can be our best. Maybe we can get Brandon Williams back, I think that alone makes a big difference but until that happens and if that happens, we have to stay on the course that we’re on. If we stay on course, we’ll break through.”
On if the Post-Game Talk was Big Picture or More About Tonight
“It’s more about moving forward, you know we return home, we’ll be off tomorrow and we have a game on Thursday and Saturday and I think as long as our guys have that same main focus that we had this week and we prepare well and we’re locked in, we’re hoping we can break through.”