Colorado-Oregon Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement:
“This was a great win. We rebounded and we defended. I think Oregon expended a lot of energy on Thursday against Utah. This (Utah and Colorado) is a tough road trip. We didn’t get their best shot. I have great respect for coach (Dana) Altman and their players. They are good and they didn’t play really well tonight. Hopefully we had something to do with that. I was extremely proud of our players for responding after a tough loss on Thursday. There is a guy named Dan Cashmore who is a firefighter. He graduated here in 2007. He dropped a letter off while we were practicing and talked about the resurgence of Colorado basketball since he was a student here. It gave great perspective of where this program is today relative to where it has been. After losses like Thursday night that are gut-wrenching for coaches, players, and fans, he brought perspective to where this program is. Our expectation levels have risen externally, internally, with our players, with our coaches, and with our fans. Let’s not forget about where it’s been. When he was a student here in his first couple of years, you could throw a rock in this place and not hit anybody. It has changed. The expectation level has changed. When you have a loss like that (Thursday night) people are upset and they should be. That is a testament to the players who have come before and how we have turned this place into a place where we can have games like we did tonight after a tough loss on Thursday. I want to thank Dan for the letter. I read it to the team before our pregame meal. It was touching and emotional for me. I could tell our players were really affected by it. Perspective is something that is difficult for a coach to keep during tough times. It was a great win for our team. When we start shooting the ball from three like we are capable of, this can be a scary team when we put it all together.”
On Tyler Bey
“I didn’t talk to Tyler a lot from Thursday to tonight. I stayed away on purpose. We did individual film sessions with each player that played significant minutes and coach (Kim) English had him in his film session. We didn’t watch film of the Oregon State game as a group, by design. We had a quick turnaround, but I wanted Tyler to see what he did and we he didn’t do Thursday. Boy, did that kid responded. He was dialed in tonight. He was dialed in, focused, made his free throws, and responded. That is a great, great sign. I love Tyler Bey. I always have and always will. I was really proud of how he responded from a disappointing performance on Thursday. He is not the reason we lost on Thursday. People need to understand that. When Tyler Bey brings it like he did tonight, he elevates this team. We need that consistency factor from his concentration, his effort, toughness, and all of the things he showed tonight. I couldn’t be prouder of Tyler.”
On The Defensive Performance
“We were dialed in for 40 minutes. We guarded in the last two games, the Stanford loss and Oregon State loss, in stretches really well, but we hadn’t done it for 40 minutes. Tonight, we did it for 40 minutes. The players did it. This game plan was no different from the Oregon State game plan or Stanford’s in terms of what we had to do to win the game. The difference is what our players did in terms of executing it for 40 minutes. We did that. That is why the numbers are what they are. We say that when you hold a team to less than 40 percent shooting and out rebound them by more than eight, wins take care of themselves. You don’t have to worry about the scoreboard.”
On Confidence
“I think it is a performance that can give our guys confidence. That is what this team needs and they should have it. Confidence is something, as a coach, that is hard to give to them. They have to get it themselves. Performances like tonight should help them in that regard. The one thing we have to do is make sure defense travels and rebounding travels. Shots go in and shots don’t go in. We were 3 for 20 from three tonight and won by 22. We didn’t just settle for threes. We got the ball in the paint (30 points in the paint) and got to the free throw line 28 times. We attacked the rim which was part of the game plan. When we start doing that and shoot threes, look out. This team can be really dangerous. That consistency is something everybody fights. Not just the Buffaloes. Young teams fight it more than veteran teams. That is why you see Washington at the top of our league. They have a lot of seniors who have been through a lot of battles. Oregon State beat Utah today. They have a senior and a fourth-year junior. Experience matters. We don’t have that, but we are getting that and building that.”
On The Three Point Shooting Struggles
“We saw it (good shooting) early. It is not because we are shooting it badly because we are taking tough, contested shots. We saw this team shoot 48 percent in non-conference play. We were really shooting the ball well in November and December. It has gone away, but I see us in practice every day getting a lot of reps. It will come in time, but if not we have to keep rebounding and keep defending. When it does come and we put those three things (defending, rebounding, three point shooting) together, watch out. This team can beat anybody. We have to be playing our best basketball in February, going into March. This is a step in the right direction.”
On preparing for Victor Bailey
“The big thing is, we wanted to make sure that any shot he took was contested. With Oregon, we’ve got to make sure that they are taking contested threes and take away their layups. We wanted to make Oregon beat us with tough two point shots. Louis King made some tough two point shots, Tyler (Bey) was on him and King made some tough shots. We’ll live with those shots. But, we can’t give up open three point shots because all Bailey has to do is see one or two go in. So we had to have contested threes and no layups. We did a pretty darn good job of that tonight. We got a good dunk there in the second half that was incredible. But, I thought our defensive effort and execution in the game plan was perfect.”
On taking good shots
“I thought we took a few ill-advised shots. Shane (Gatling) has two open threes he missed. He was open on both of them. I thought that the first one was ill-advised but the second one was close. He’s got take that shot, he’s too good of a shooter to not. It was understanding time and score. We were in this position a lot in Europe where we were up twenty-plus points with six minutes to go. But, that’s when the clock is your friend. You need long possessions. I thought we settled for some quick threes early in the second half without many touches. We dodged a bullet because Oregon was struggling offensively and shooting the ball. We can learn, we have a lot of things to get better at. It’s a lot nicer do it after a win rather than a loss.”
General
“Our challenge for our players is to be consistent. Nobody plays great for thirty games. The challenge for us is to put a consistent effort and product on the floor. The challenge for our fans is to show up whether it’s Oregon State or Oregon or whoever. It doesn’t matter if it’s November, December, January or February. We only have 15 or 16 home games depending on the year. Nobody can come every night. But, I always say to season ticket holders that if they can’t come, give those tickets to some friends. Make sure we have people in the seats. Because, this is a fun team to watch. Our crowd is really important to our young men. That’s why I shared that letter (see first quote) with them (the team). I want them to understand that there a lot of buff fans out there. Not just here, but people tune in on the radio and watch on TV. We represent a lot of people. I have a responsibility as a coach and the players have responsibilities. I want them to be inspired by our fans. Tonight the crowd inspired our players and our players helped inspire the crowd. Hopefully the crowd had fun and they’ll be back for the next game against Arizona State. We have two road games in Los Angeles. UCLA is up next. We have to figure out how we’re going to get better on Monday at practice. We’ve got to figure out how we’re going to beat UCLA. That’s our main focus right now and it’s not going to change. ”
Colorado Players
Tyler Bey, Fr., GOn Dunking Being Part of His Game Plan
“Yeah that was definitely part of the plan. I promised them that.”
On His Career Game Tonight
“To be honest I think I should give my teammates the credit because I had a bad game on Thursday and they were there for me. They always tell me to keep my head up and that’s something I’m still working on so I’m going to give the credit to them. They got me shots and they were there for me when I was in deep.”
On the Messages from the Coaches after Thursday’s Tough Outing
“Yeah, definitely. Me and Coach English talked about being focused. Being focused on defense, being focused on offense, knowing who I’m guarding, just doing my thing, picking my time in the post, and getting offensive rebounds because Oregon didn’t box out a lot so that was the scouting report. Those are the little things I should be doing.”
On What Lessons the Ups and Downs of This Season Have Provided
“Yeah, staying focused and playing for my teammates. Those are really the main things.”
Daylen Kountz, Fr., G
On Watching Tyler Bey’s Huge Night
“I love seeing T-Bey play like that. Especially since it was a big bounce back game for him. He got his confidence back right.”
On His Game Plan Going Into the Game
“Just being more aggressive, attacking the pressure, and just trying to make plays for everyone.”
On His Highlight Reel Dunk
“Yeah, it felt good to finally get me a nice dunk.”
Lucas Siewert, Jr., F
On Watching Tyler Bey’s Huge Night
“Man, I loved it. Me and T-Bey go back to high school so I’ve been watching him do that since I was in high school. To see him come out here and do his thing is pretty fun to watch.”
On Putting Together 40 Solid Minutes
“Yeah, I mean I’m really proud of us. That was something coached challenged us for like the past I don’t know how many games, but tonight we responded to it and you just saw how good we can be when we meet those goals.”
On if the Buffs Can Keep This Going
“Yeah, I think so. We just talked about it in the locker room. We’re the same team tonight that we’re going to be when we go to LA, same team we were Thursday. So I think if we can just keep this mentality going we can be the same team every night.”
Oregon Head Coach Dana Altman
On Message At Halftime“Well it was just awful shot selection, poor execution on the offensive end, we didn’t run anything and my guys were really just stuck in the mud. Defensively, poor effort, got beat on the boards, we got beat in every facet of the game.”
On Team’s Ball Movement
“Yeah the ball movement was awful, the first half was really bad but I thought the second half we got some good looks. We took 13 threes in the second half, I thought they were good looks, we got some good looks inside so I thought our ball movement was much better in the second have we just missed shots. In the first half we took bad shots, we dug ourselves a hole by taking bad shots, off the dribble, contested, and our ball movement like I said was awful.”
On Colorado’s Tyler Bey
“He just played harder than we did. He just got to the basket, he ran, he got two easy ones in transition, he just simply played harder than any of our guys. “
On Tough Road Trip
“Well you’re always disappointed when you don’t play well. I don’t want to take anything away from Colorado but we got beat in every facet, they shot free throws, we got beat by 13 at the free throw line. So like I said, if you get beat on the boards and you get beat on the free throw line, you don’t guard very well and you take bad shots, you’re going to get kicked.”
On If The Team Was Expecting A Second Half Comeback
“Well I hoped we would wake up and play but again, if you bury yourself like that, with poor shot selection and you know they scored 40 points and shot 50 percent in the first half and you’re (minus) 12 on the boards, you’re probably not going to win.”