Colorado-USC Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement:“Thank goodness college basketball is a 40-minute game and not 20 minutes because we didn’t answer the bell in the first half. We got off to a quick start and they called that timeout. They regrouped and took it to us. We were sluggish and out of sync in that first half. We let some of our frustrations on offense affect the defense. We didn’t have the eye of the tiger that I thought we needed. We challenged our guys at halftime, probably more than we have in quite some time. They responded and we played with more energy in the second half. We really rebounded the ball and guarded down the stretch. We have to do that for forty minutes, but we did in when we had to do it tonight. There was a point there where we were tied in rebounds. Down the stretch we really exerted our will. We have to do that. We had some great defensive efforts. USC has some talented, talented individual players. Bennie Boatwright is a pro. (Nick) Rakocevic is one of the most improved players in our league. Jonah Mathews can really play. He can shoot it and drive it. (Kevin) Porter Jr. is a future NBA guy coming off the bench and he is talented. They have some guys that can play. I thought Tyler Bey’s defensive effort on Boatwright was really good down the stretch.”
On What Changed Offensively Out Of Halftime
“We got the ball inside. That is what changed. We did something with it and attacked. In the first half, we got the ball in the high-post a couple of times and settled for 15-foot jump shots. That is the shot USC wants you to take. Lucas (Siewert) made one, but that lets them off the hook. It doesn’t put any foul pressure on them. Our depth along the front line is an advantage, but it is not an advantage if you take 15-foot jump shots. It is only an advantage if you get the ball inside, get it to the rim, and put some foul pressure on them. What that will do against the zone is suck it in and then we kick it out and make some threes. Our points in the paint was the difference in the game. You have to do that against a zone. The easy way out is to take that 15-foot jump shot or open three and settle for it and we did that a little bit more in the first half then we did in the second half. It was apparent on the scoreboard.”
On If He Has To Tell McKinley Wright IV To Take Over Offensively Late In Games
“I don’t have to talk to McKinley that way. I had to tell him to get his mind right. We rely so much on McKinley Wright. He brings so much to this team and more from an emotional lift. He didn’t have it there in the first half like he normally does. We put so much on his shoulders. That is where a guy like Evan Battey comes in and emotionally lifts out guys up. It can’t always be one guy. I didn’t have any specific things for McKinley other than he had to get himself going emotionally. Mentally and as a scoring threat he is really good at knowing when to try to score and when to pass. I don’t have to talk to him about that a lot.”
On Attacking Nick Rakocevic and Bennie Boatwright
“We wanted to go at Rakocevic and at Boatwright. Putting foul pressure on those guys, they become a different team. They don’t have a lot of depth on their front line. We had to go at those guys. We were fortunate and Tyler Bey did a great job. He drew two offensive fouls on Boatwright at the end. He is a really good defender, but Boatwright made some really tough shots. That is the kind of player he is. He is a good player. That is what pros do. Tyler played good disciplined defense and got some push off fouls a couple of times.”
On This Team In November Versus Now
“It is not even close the team today versus the team in January, and certainly in December when we were in Hawaii. I knew that coming into the season. I didn’t know that Namon Wright was going to lose the season to a foot injury. I didn’t know that Dallas Walton was going to get an ACL. I didn’t know that Deleon Brown wasn’t going to take care of business in the classroom. I didn’t know Eli Parquet would go down late in the season. But what I did know is that we were young and that the early part of the conference season would not favor us. We had to try to get off to a good start and didn’t. We went 2-6. I knew that if we could just keep getting better in practice every day, this team has what it takes. Now we have won eight of ten. The credit goes to our players for not giving up, not getting down, and coming to work every day and getting better. That is gratifying. The one thing I do as a coach every year, and I’ll do it this year, is look back and say, ‘Did our team get better from November to December, December to January, January to February, and February to March?’ If the answer is yes, I feel like our staff did our job. You have to being playing better in February and March than in November and December. I think this team is.”
On Sharing The Ball
“We are playing together and not caring who scores. Our best player is the guy who is open. It is the second game in the row we have had a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio. You take that every game. Our goal is 1.4:1. We have had 2:1 in back-to-back games. I love how our guys are sharing the ball. Multiple guys were in multiple figures. This is a team that has multiple guys who can score. We need Daylen Kountz, Lucas Siewert, and Alex Starting. We are an eight-man rotation right now. Four perimeter players and four bigs. We are going to need different guys on different nights as we head down the stretch.”
On Finishing Above .500 In Conference
“It is always difficult, any league that you are in. As I look around, you have teams that are two, three, or four games below .500 that are supposedly in the tournament. There is nothing we can do about that. All we can do is try to go out and win the next game. Especially when you start out 2-6. People used to look at how a team is playing now. How good is a team today? Nobody talks about that anymore. No one says, ‘In your last ten, how did you do?’ That isn’t in the conversation anymore. It is who you beat and who you played in November and that is the world we live in. I am not going to change it. All I know is that we are playing good basketball as we go into Vegas and we have a conference tournament that 12 teams have an opportunity to go and win. Somebody is going to come out of there with an automatic bid. It could be anybody this year. It is good to be a college basketball fan in the Pac-12 this year. Everybody talks about the lack of respect, and yeah it is there, but there is nothing you can do about it except to try to go out and win your next game. That is what we are going to try to do.”
On Why They Can Win The Pac-12 Tournament
“It could be us because we are defending, rebounding, and playing together. We are going to have to make some shots and have a little luck and have the ball bounce our way. We are going to have to win a close game, or two, or three, or four. We are going to have to play well down the stretch. You have to go win that tournament. The tournament t is not going to be given. You are going to have to execute. It can be anybody and it can be the Buffaloes because we are playing well right now. There isn’t anybody in our league that we can’t beat. But look at what Cal has done. They have won three straight. Washington State has one of the best scorers in the league. This USC team has four guys that are really, really talented offensive guys. UCLA is the most explosive offensive team in our league. It can be anybody.”
On Playing In Vegas
“Our last three games have been at home. We aren’t going to have home games in Vegas. It will be a neutral court and everybody else will be on a neutral court. Some teams travel better than others. Hopefully a lot of Buff fans are going to Vegas to cheer us on and to be loud and to be proud. We have to go play the game and take that energy to the floor every night. We can’t rely on our home crowd. I think our home crowd tonight really helped this team get going in the second half. Our crowd was terrific tonight. Our players responded to that, but we aren’t going to have that in Vegas. We are going to have loyal followers there, but it is not going to be an atmosphere like it was tonight. Coming out of halftime I was so angry at our team for letting that opportunity go in the first half. Our crowd was ready to get behind these guys, but we had to make the plays to let them do that. I didn’t want that opportunity go by the wayside, and we didn’t.”
On The Changes in the Second Half
“At halftime, I was upset with our team for letting the opportunity in the first half go. Our crowd was ready to get behind these guys. We have to make plays in order for them to do that. I didn’t want to let that opportunity go.
On Evan Battey’s Career Night
“Evan was terrific. I told him when he came out with his fourth foul, “you’ve got to stay out of foul trouble. You’re too important to us. That’s part of being a freshman. Tyler (Bey) went through it when he was a freshman. Lucas (Siewart) went through it when he was a freshman and now Evan is going through it. He’s a physical guy who is hard to officiate because he is so big and strong. Evan did great offensively in terms of slowing down inside and taking his time. He’s such a good post player and used his body really well. He’s a really good passer. He’s become very important to us. He and Tyler Bey have become monsters in the post. They don’t have to play perfect or play their best every game, but they have to play well when we head to Las Vegas.”
On the Late Season Decision to Start Evan Battey
“He does bring a lot of energy. Lucas (Siewart) brings an offensive punch off the bench. He can shoot the ball and stretch the defense. We have three starting post players. I don’t put too much into thinking about who is going to be starting in the post. Lucas is a starter, Evan is a starter and Tyler is a starter.”
On playing USC as a rivalry game
“It doesn’t feel different playing USC than other teams, not to me. I get stuff off my chest so I don’t have to bring it in here. It’s an intense game. But, it’s no more intense against USC than any other Pac-12 team. When we played there, it was different. We got the win out of there, it’s over with and I’m moving on. That’s all I can say about that. I don’t know how other people feel but I’ve moved on. Some people like it, some people don’t and that’s part of being a public figure.”
Colorado Players
McKinley Wright IV, So., GOn What the Talk Was at Halftime
“Our energy was just bad. It started with me. Coach really stressed that our defensive energy was terrible, and I told these guys that I was going to pick it up for them and just have them roll with me. Having these two guys next to me (Tyler Bey and Evan Battey) battle with their bigs down there, they did a great job. So just having them to help the rest of the team buying in on defense was really the key.”
On What Goes Through His Head in Clutch Situations
“My teammates. They tell me to get in my bag, so as soon as I hear that I know it’s time to go. Coach English tells me it too. I heard him on the sideline on that last possession where I got fouled. He told me to get into my bag and I saw the shot clock, knew it was winding down, so I just tried to create, and I got fouled so it was good.
On The Importance of the Momentum This Game Provides
“It’s huge for us. We know what we’re capable of. Us and everybody in the arena knew it was a terrible first half for us. Earlier in the year, we were only a one-half team and we’ve been stressing playing for two halves and today the first half wasn’t good but second half we did a very great job of bouncing back and guarding and making plays on the offensive end. Having a win like this on senior night for Namon Wright and going into Vegas with this momentum is huge for us.”
On Winning the Pac-12 Tournament is Still a Realistic Goal
“Very realistic. We got confidence, obviously we’re going in with the mindset that we can beat anybody there, we don’t care who it is, who we play. We’re going to be excited, we’ll come out there with high energy and defend and rebound. Do those three things and take care of the ball, I don’t see a team that really can beat us, so we’re excited about going to Vegas.”
On Tensions With Nick Rakocevic in Second Half
“Just emotion from both sides. He said something, I said something back. Back and forth, it is what it is. We’re passed that now and we’re just happy we got the win, that’s all that matters. The cheap stuff isn’t who we are so I’m just happy we got the win.”
On What is Needed Going on the Road For the Pac-12 Tournament
“Just stick together. Obviously, having all our fans behind us is huge but in the back of our head we know that they’re going to be watching from afar, so we’re just going to play for each other and fight. That’s really it. Just fight and go as far as we can in that tournament and try to win.”
Tyler Bey, So., F
On What Went Different in the Second Half
“I feel like we did play for each other on defense. I think we just like, yeah, just played for each other. That’s really it. We just changed our mindset from the first half.”
On Importance of Getting Their Frontcourt in Foul Trouble
“It was really important because last game Bennie Boatwright had a great game, he had 25 and I held him to nine today. So, by just taking him out of the game, it changed SC’s mindset. Like, who’s your go-to guy, stuff like that. It was real important.”
Evan Battey, Fr., F
On What Went Different in the Second Half
“Defended. Defended with a sense of urgency. That’s about it.”
On The Experience Playing in Such Meaningful Games
“Yeah, it means the world to us, to our coach, to our players. You know, the ability to go out there and fight and just really give it our all means the world.”
On Defending Their Bigs
“Uh, I was in foul trouble. I was trying to make it as hard for him to score as possible, as hard for him to get a catch as possible, and really get an angle when he caught the ball. Just really bothering him and being a constant nag when he catches the ball and when he doesn’t have the ball. Just really being a bother to him.”
On The Importance of the Momentum This Game Provides
“I think it’s a testament to our fight too. You know, we were down big at halftime, we really stressed the word fight in the locker room and my coaches stressed the word fight and just will to win. Just the word fight is just something we stay challenged to.”
On the Recent Flurry Of Assists the Last Two Games
“Yeah, I think that’s a testament to our love for one another. We love each other so much so we pass the ball to each other. We want to see each other succeed. It’s sharing the ball out of love and I think that as we keep progressing in the season we’re going to get more of that.”
On if the Utah Game Will Be on in Locker Room
“We had the Oregon State game on before our game today but we’re going to watch the Utah game for sure.”
On What Is Needed Going On The Road For The Pac-12 Tournament
“I think our mentality on the court at home and really having a presence at home is going to transfer into Vegas and take that defensive rebounding to Vegas and that’s how we’ll be successful.”
USC Head Coach Andy Enfield
On Expectations of the Game
We played well in the first half, defensively we had them under 30-points, and we were up seven. Second half both of our starting big members were in foul trouble and we got dominated in the paint. Tyler Bey had 17, Evan Battey had 21 all in the paint so, when we can’t go to the rim, it’s going to be a long night. We have to get tougher and we have to prevent them from catching balls, until we do that it’s going to be a tough go.
On Success Behind Arc in First Half, What Happened in the Second
We got some threes in the second half, but we could throw the ball inside too. Nick Rakocevic can score, he got fouled eight times tonight so we could score in the post. We couldn’t stop them from scoring in the rim. It wasn’t a decision not to shoot more threes in the second half, we just took the defense they gave us. We didn’t play poorly offensively but defensively we just gave up way too many points in the paint.
On Streak Coming in
Boatwright got two charges our leading scorer. There’s some flopping going on, its’ tough. They allow all that contact, their big’s got to our guys on the post. They had their bodies on our bigs all night and then they call some cheap flops. It’s hard on our guys because it threw our guys on the bench. I think Rakocevic played only 24 minutes it was difficult on us on rotation tonight.
On Losing Streak Going into the Tournament
The Pac-12 tournament is a lot of fun for everybody and it’s a new season so to speak because everybody’s 0-0. We’ve lost a few games here in a row at the end of the season and we didn’t finish like we would hope. We lost four close games in the second half of the Pac-12. We lost four games in the last minute, actually one was in the last 2 and a half minutes. But 3 at the buzzer when we had shots to win it, we couldn’t get a defensive stop when we had a minute left. we also lost a close game at home in the last 2 minutes. We’ve been right there, however, it comes down to a few key defensive stops, some toughness plays and some rebounds. And we got to make our free throws, we have missed some crucial free throws in ending moments this year, especially at the second half of the Pac-12. After 31 games you are wo you are and if we want to do anything in the Pac-12 tournament we will have to be a little tougher in the lane, make our free throws and keep shooting the ball.
On Colorado Stopping the Momentum
I think Boatwright’s fifth foul was a momentum change. That was a flop on his drive and then they scored 4 straight points and I think it went from six to ten very quickly. We didn’t get back into transition and we made a couple of defense mistakes when we were 60-all. One of our guards didn’t rotate over twice so that gave them two buckets in the paint. It wasn’t anything Colorado did, we knew they were going to charge, and they did, give them credit. Bey and Battey have really improved as players, they are really physical, and they had great games.
On Foul Trouble
It is hard when you have your two leading scorers on the bench for half the game especially on the road. Frustrating because our guys kept going up for jump hooks when it was flat underneath and there would be no foul called but on the other end, they would be a foul called. I think there were a couple of flops that we called. A foul is a foul but it’s hard when your two leading scorers have to go to the bench.