Colorado-Washington Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement“A great win against a really, really talented Washington team that is obviously young and they're trying to still find themselves. But boy, they're talented, and they've got some good players and talented guys. But they're young and they're still trying to find themselves a little bit, but I've got great respect for their program. Obviously, Isaiah Stewart is as good as advertised. He's a special player. Fans saw that tonight. I think our team saw that and we expected it coming in, but until you see a kid in person, I shouldn't say kid he's a young man, looks like a grown man, but he's a he's a terrific player. I thought we played well, especially in the first half. One of the keys for us offensively tonight coming into this game was to make sound decisive decisions against that zone. We did a really good job of that in the first half and at times in the second half. We got a little tentative against it and we got we got a little stagnant and didn't move as much. But overall, 22 assists and when you score 76 points when you don't make a three in the second half. There's some things we can really build on. I told our team, we got to feel good about where we are right now, but we certainly in no way can we feel satisfied. We want to compete for a PAC-12 championship and the only way to do that is to go in and win games on the road and we're going to have that opportunity ahead of us.”
On Struggles From Three in Second Half
“I just think we didn't make shots and we got looks. We were 0-8. So, we got open looks we just didn't make any. Sometimes it's gonna be like that and that's why offensive rebounding is key, getting the ball in the paint is key. You've got to overcome that ball not going in because sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. It was in the first half, it didn't the second half, but not letting that get you down and not letting it affect you on the other end of the floor. This team has made some strides in that area.”
On Defensive Effort Tonight
“Overall, plus nine. They shot 41%. RaeQuan Battle, that was disappointing in the first half. We knew he was a shooter. They started him and we let him get up eight threes in the first half. He can't get up eight threes. You got to take those away from him. You got to make shooters drive. We knew that Stewart was going to get his unless you double him or you zone those guys, which is not our style, you're not going to eliminate him. You just gotta make him work for everything. I thought there was times we could have dug on him a little bit more. There's areas we can still get better defensively but overall a great team effort. I thought our guys really battled and competed on the backboard.”
On Closing Out The Game In The Second Half
“You got to take care of the ball better than we did down the stretch. You got to have better offensive possessions than we had. We got stagnant offensively, we got a little stale, but we never let that lead cut into single digits too much. That was based on our defense and our rebounding. We dodged some bullets, but I thought Washington got tired. I love the pace in the first half. I looked out there and saw some guys from Washington huffing and puffing, I think altitude really helps and we want to get that pace of the game going up and down and they didn't make as many shots in the second half. We did a great job. We put McKinley on Battle in that second half, he kind of shut his water off. I thought Evan battled down there. Dallas gave us great minutes off the bench. Lucas battled, gave us good minutes and Tyler as well. Our front line, I thought did a pretty darn good job on them.”
On The Guards Rebounding
“Absolutely. I saw guys going in there. I saw Daylen in there, I saw Eli in there, I saw Maddox. We were going after them and that was another key, be physical on our box outs because if you get in a jumping contest with Washington, you're going to lose. At least the Buffaloes are. You have to be physical with your box outs. There was some grown men rebounding in there tonight. We were in there battling and that's what I like to see. I wish we would have seen that against Arizona on Tuesday.”
On Keeping The Momentum Rolling
“The only way you compete for championships is to figure out a way to win on the road. We've proven that we can do that, but we have to do it consistently. You don’t have to win every game but with that Oregon State home loss our margin for error slips a little bit. We got to make up for that with a couple of road wins, not just one. We got one against Arizona State. We're going to have to sweep somebody this season and maybe a couple of them to put ourselves in a position to compete for a championship. I'm not gonna think about 7 of 11 on the road. I’m thinking about what we have to do to win the next game and then just be focused on that whether it's at home or on the road. We've proven to be a good team away from home and we're pretty good team at home. The crowd tonight was fantastic. I was really, really pleased with the way the community turned out. Our students turned out. This team is gaining a little bit of momentum. We only have four home games left.”
On How It Feels To Be 16-4
“We talked in the locker room, we should feel good about where we are right now. But, in no way shape or form can we feel satisfied with where we are right now. I think that's the that's the key. I talked about it after the Arizona Game coming back. Mid January and February, if teams are improving, those are the teams people are gonna be talking about in March. Teams that plateau or start leaking oil, they're going to be the ones fading into oblivion. We don't want to be that team.”
On If CU Has Improved Overall Throughout The Season
“Absolutely. This team is together. Our offense has made major strides since the first of the year in 2020. Our defense is still pretty good. Sometimes it comes and goes. Turnovers continue to be an issue for this team. We showed those late, gotta be better. There's still room for improvement and that's what we have to focus ourselves on. Certainly, UCLA next game, what do we have to do to beat them? But Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Colorado has to get better in different areas of the game and if we will concentrate on that as a team and do that, good things are ahead.”
On Running The Zone Offense
“Tonight was a game that we told our guys, ‘plays are not going to win this game for us. Making plays is what’s going to win this game for us.’ Those were the sound, decisive decisions I talked about. We made those sound, decisive decisions for the most part. We had some miscues, you always do. Washington's long, they're athletic, they're going to get their hands on some balls. You're not going to go through with zero turnovers, but I thought our zone offense, we put guys in positions to make plays and then it's up to our players to make them and they made them tonight. It wasn't about a play we ran, even though we had a we had a play we ran two or three times in the second half that we got some good things out of. I thought our guys did a very good job offensively. 22 assists, that's a great, great number. Shane had five assists and one turnover. That's fantastic from Shane Gatling. We got great performances from him. I thought D’Shawn was good. I thought Lucas was good. I thought Dallas off the bench was good. Maddox keeps getting better and better. The depth of this team and the strength of this team is we can withstand foul trouble. Evan was in foul trouble tonight, we withstand that, even against Isaiah Stewart. Tyler was out on Thursday with a boo-boo, we can we can withstand that. That's why the depth of this team is so critical and important.”
On McKinley Wright Leading The Game In Rebounds
“That's who McKinley is. I talked to McKinley about that last week about how he let that part of his game slip. The thing that's beautiful about McKinley Wright and why I love him so much is he looked me right in the eye and says, ‘you're right, I'm gonna fix that’. And guess what, he went out and got six against Washington State and got eight tonight. He's a big time rebounder for a guy his size and we want him to continue to do that.”
On Maddox Daniels
“With junior college players, it takes them a good half year, sometimes even longer. He is coming from a different level. Whether it is high school or junior college, and especially going to the PAC-12 and playing against teams like Dayton and Kansas in the preseason, there is going to be an adjustment period for any freshman and certainly for even junior college players. Shane (Gatling) went through that last year. He is starting to feel more comfortable. He is another coachable kid. He is confident. The thing I love about Maddox is he can miss ten shots and he is still going to take that 11th one and expect it to go in, and it will. He has that belief in himself. It is the other parts of his game, the defense, taking care of the ball, and those sorts of things where his improvement has come and needs to continue to come.”
On Dallas Walton’s Improvements
“We have seen it in practice the last 2-3 weeks. The confidence level and balance are key for him. He is a weapon offensively for us. He gets the ball in the block and he can score the ball. He is a weapon down there and we need to use him. We did tonight and especially in that first half he made some nice moves. He made some nice moves in the second half too, they just didn’t go in. He has great touch and we know that about Dallas. I always say, ‘Injuries aren’t gone until they are gone here (in the mind).’ As long as that brace is on his knee, that injury is not gone. It is going to be there the rest of the year and I am fine with that. We just have to be patient with Dallas. We talked about it in the beginning of the year and we talk about it now, but you can see him just coming, coming, and coming.”
On Their Depth
“It is awesome, especially when you are at a game in altitude and the game is going and you can sub and they are a little reluctant to sub. The strength of this team is our depth. It plays out. It won’t play out every single night but tonight it certainly did and I thought it did against Washington State as well.”
On The Decision To Rest Tyler Bey On Thursday Paying Off
“It speaks to the depth. You have a guy like Lucas Siewert who started a bunch of games as a junior and who you know can come in and be effective and have 16 (points) and 10 (rebounds). Then you have a guy like Dallas Walton who can come in and be that third big. Then you have a guy like Alex Starting who is your fourth big. It gives you, as a coach, the ability to make those decisions and not even think twice about it. I didn’t even think twice about holding Tyler Bey, and not because Tyler couldn’t play. He didn’t practice on Tuesday and was very, very limited on Wednesday. If you can’t practice you can’t play, and I am not mad at Tyler. It is just like, ‘Take tonight off, get that thing right and be ready for Saturday.’ He was.”
Colorado Players
Tyler Bey, Jr., G/FOn Getting Back On The Floor After Missing A Game
“It felt great. It was great to go out there and compete with my teammates, especially in a “W” against a team we haven’t beat since we’ve been here. It was great.”
On If His Hand Was Affecting His Shot
“Not really. I was just missing shots. That is pretty much it.”
On Going Up Against Washington’s Bigs
“They are good players, especially (Isaiah) Stewart. He is long. He has a long wingspan. When we go up, we have to try to pump fake. He likes to block shots. He is good.”
On Out rebounding Washington
“I think we just rebounded as a team. McKinley (Wright IV) had eight. D’Shawn (Schwartz) had six. We rebounded as a team. The guards did and the bigs did.”
On His Shot
“In the second half, I didn’t want to think about my shot. I just wanted to shoot it. My teammates told me to do that. For the first half, we did get a lot of offensive boards.”
On How Many Family Members He Had In Attendance
“I don’t even know. I thought it was 15 but then it ended up being thirty. It was a lot.”
McKinley Wright IV, Jr., G
On Beating Washington
“It felt great. We have been preaching it since the Washington State game that this group hasn’t beaten Washington yet. We really wanted to dial into the scouting report and execute the game plan. It feels great.”
On Their Offensive Zone Set
“It has been a play coach has had since he’s been here, at least since I’ve been here. He kept preaching that they couldn’t guard it. They didn’t know what to do. They were getting confused and there was always going to be someone open. We just kept going to it until they were able to stop it.”
On Dallas Walton
“I had the Deandre Ayton flashbacks. Coach kept telling us he was a weapon and we had to get him the ball. He got a little angry. Stewart was talking to him and he went to work. It felt good to have Dallas starting to get his groove back. That is a guy we will need down the stretch.”
On Being The Game Co-Leader In Rebounds
“You know my motto, heart over height. It is weird, I don’t feel like I am the smallest dude. Everybody knows that. I could care less about my height. I am a competitor and I play to win.”
On Going On The Road
“It feels good to be 5-2 at home. We are a good road team. We can play on the road. We know what it takes to win at the LA schools. Our defense and rebounds will travel with us. I think we will be ready.”
D’Shawn Schwartz, Jr., G/F
On Turning Washington Over 20 Times
“They are a young team. They don’t really have a true point guard. We just wanted to pressure them and get stops. We knew we could run on them and not let them get set up in their zone. Pressuring the ball is definitely one of the points we try to get at.”
On Getting Back On Track
“I was just trying to get on an upward slope and try not to move backwards. As long as we get the wins, that’s all I’m concerned about. I didn’t play my best tonight but the guys around me brought the energy. Maddox (Daniels) played really well off of the bench. Dallas played really well. It was a collective effort and that is what we need to win games like this.”
Washington Head Coach Mike Hopkins
On his team’s effort in the first half“They (Colorado) fought harder, we just didn’t have that same pop at the beginning of the game that we needed to. We didn’t really have it against Utah either until after the half. Colorado came out ready to swing first, they came at us. They did a really good job, they were prepared and made shots. We didn’t defend the three point line, we didn’t rebound well. We have only a couple halves like that where both of those things weren’t working for us. So to give up 51 points that has only been one time since we have been there in the first half. When you get down 18 points to a top 25 team, with a great coach and a veteran team is hard to come up with.”
On not being able to overcome the deficit throughout the game
“We just wanted it one possession at a time, we felt like even when we made runs in the first half to get it back to eight we would just turn it over, take a quick shot - you know there isn’t a ten point shot. So I felt like we were really poised back to 10 but like any good team when you miss a shot they make a shot the crowd gets back into it and it’s like a shot of adrenaline for them. So many things have to go right when you are down; we missed some layups and foul shots and in those games when you are down 18 you’re fighting for that and that’s hard to overcome when you reach those.”
On what the difference in this game
“I think the beginning of the game, they just came out headfirst. Their aggression and their intensity; whenever you are playing a team you got to be able to match that especially on the road.”
On Jaden McDaniels not getting a lot of minutes tonight
“At the end of the day his ankle is still bothering him a little bit and a big thing for me is we are playing a certain way and that is how we want you to play. You can’t force things, you have to play as a team. If we play as a team we have a chance to be really special. If we play one-on-one we just aren't going to be.”
On potentially entering the ‘must win’ part of the season
“I just want us to play our best game. As a coach you are trying to do the process of getting us to play the right way, getting us where we can execute better down the stretch, and get these guys individually better. I think that is the biggest goal, tonight is a game that we lost and like the Tennessee game and every other game we just haven’t been able to finish. So if you take three or four of those and we are in the top-echelon of the league. It is that fine, but if you lose you lose - bottom line."