Colorado-Northern Colorado Quotes
Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“I thought it was good win. We beat a quality team, I think Northern Colorado, when they get in league play in the Big Sky, they're gonna win a lot of games. They've got some good players. They're still fighting themselves a little bit, but I thought we were really efficient tonight. Offensively, we shot over 50%, we haven't done that all year. Defensively, I thought we did a good job with our ball screen coverages because Northern Colorado is a good ball screen team. They're a good driving team and they're a good three-point shooting team and I thought we did a really good job defensively against them. They create some problems. Bodie Hume is a good player, I thought we did a pretty good job on him tonight even though we held him to 11. He's a heck of a player. Overall, an efficient game. I thought McKinley was terrific. He had seven assists and one turnover. He should have had eight assists and zero turnovers because the turnover came late there on a pick and roll with Evan that was a pretty simple play I thought. But, seven assists, one turnover, we’ll take that every night. Our two starting post guys, which we've tried to establish them at the beginning of every game. South Dakota, Kansas State and Tennessee. But tonight, to have them be nine for 13 combined. When that happens, we're going to be good offensively because we got some guys that can stretch the defense and make shots and I thought everybody that played had some really good things that we can build upon and I'm overall I'm pretty pleased.”
On coming out with a press defense
“We were really impressed. We just wanted to pick up full court and wear them down because I felt like our big advantage on Northern Colorado was our depth. If we could get into our seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th man on the bench, the advantage would be ours. We want the pace to be up and down. There was a period in the second half where the whistle didn't blow for about three and a half minutes and they got really tired and when we did too, but we fought through it and Eli got a bucket out of it in transition. We made some bonehead plays in transition during that time because of fatigue. But I think the biggest thing was we wanted to wear them, down wear their guards down. They brought it up with a different guy, they usually bring it up with Masten and we're going to have Eli hawk him because Eli’s good guarding the ball full court. We got to have other guys, whether it's D’Shawn, whether it's Maddox, whoever it might be pick up full and wear people down, because again I think our depth is a positive thing for this team.”
On having everyone available
“It's the first time we've had all hands-on deck and I think you saw that result. Great to have Eli and Luke back. It's great to have D’Shawn back. When we got all hands-on deck and we play unselfishly and play for each other and sacrifice for each other, this teams got a chance to be pretty special.”
On slowing down Bodie Hume
“We started out switching ball screens and I thought that helped us because I think UNC is such a good ball screen offense team that when you get into rotations, you can lose guys like Bodie and he can get open looks. He had a couple of them open, but I thought the switching was good. They started trying to expose us on drives as well as post ups against our guards. In the second half we didn't switch the whole half, we adjusted a little bit in the first part in the second half and then went back to the switching there late. I thought our ball screen defense was the key to holding them to 28% and not letting them get going from three. We got that lead in the second half, we talked about the fact that the only way they're going to get back in this game is with three-point jump shots and we had to take those away and we did for the most part.”
On the importance of this game
“Absolutely and especially for our young players because we've got some freshmen that are just learning the game at the division one level. In a normal year you have 31 games, this year we know the max we can have is 27 and 20 of them are gonna be league games, which are just going to be blood baths. So, this game, the game against Omaha are the games we have to take advantage of every minute, especially when those freshmen are in their late. It's not garbage time, it's time to get better, it's time to play unselfishly and play the right way and I thought for the most part, our guys did a really good job of that down the stretch. Alex Strating, he got a got a ball passed to him on a pick and roll and he made a heck of a pass to Luke O'Brien in the corner. A good looking shot a good-looking pass. We missed the shot, but it was the right play to make and the right shot to take. We wanted to make sure we take advantage of every minute that we have because you don't get as many of these opportunities that you would normally get in a normal year.”
On Eli Parquet and Tristan de Silva
“He's taken on his role as a defensive stopper. He's embracing that, but he also is a guy who's trying to make the right play offensively and he's taken what the defense gives him. I think that's the biggest thing about Eli. He just doesn't need to try to do too much, just take what it gives him, his jump shots we'll find him. We want him to run hard in transition, we want him to attack the rim off the bounce because he's a strong athletic guy. I thought he’s making great decisions. A guy that nobody's gonna look at when I look at the stat sheet is Tristan de Silva. To me, Tristan and Eli are a lot alike in the sense that the numbers don't pop off the page yet, but they just make simple, easy plays and that's what Eli has to keep doing for us in guarding his tail off. I's good to have him back because him and Keyshawn and McKinley now can let it all hang out. That's what we need to have happen to wear people down.”
On everybody making shots
“We got a chance to be really good. There's no doubt about. The one thing that's a little disappointing to me is we had 32 baskets and only 16 assists. I thought this could have been the been a 20 plus assists game. I got to watch the film and see if we're dribbling too much or a little bit too much one on one. I don't have a feel for that right now, but I thought we established ourselves inside. Evan, when he gets an angle on people is really good. I thought Dallas, that trail three he hit the second half was a great shot. We've got a lot of guys who can stretch the defense; Jeriah, D’Shawn. Maddox Daniels didn't even take a three tonight, but he was three for six and very efficient in his minutes. I'm really pleased with everybody that played tonight. We can still get better because 10 turnovers in the second half is a little bit of carelessness that we've got to clean up, we can't have that. We can't get careless with the ball because we only had four the first half. This should have been a single turnover game for this team, but it wasn't so that's something we can talk about and get better at.”
On the quick turnaround
“The players love it. They only had to practice once before they play and they know it's not gonna be a real hard grueling practice, so they love it. I do think we really got better, even though we're in finals. Finals is always a tricky time as a coach and your players because they got a lot of stress, they got a lot of time away from the court as they’re studying and taking tests and doing papers and projects. I thought we really got better in the practices we did have. We didn't go very long, but we went hard and crisp and we really worked on our transition offense and I thought we did some really good things with that tonight, we got to continue to build on. The biggest thing I keep harping these guys about is number one sacrifice. Some guys are going to sacrifice minutes. Also, don't count the time you're on the floor, make the make the time count. We cannot have guys pacing themselves. If we do that, we can wear teams down like we did tonight.”
Evan Battey, Jr., F
On Playing Inside
“We wanted to establish an inside presence every game. Tonight we did that. It is imperative that we play inside out in our games. We did that.”
On His Game
“It was about time I started making some shots. I feel like we played really unselfish tonight. We really looked inside. We played for each other. When the ball has that kinetic energy it is hard to miss shots so credit to that.”
On The Evolution Of McKinley Wright IV
“I think with every game you learn a little something new. You get more experience with every game. He is putting together all of his games throughout his career here. He is a hell of a player and makes the right reads every time. That is what makes him the great point guard he is. He is a team leader and leads by example. He works on his game.”
On The Piped In Crowd Noise
“We had an intrasquad scrimmage with the fan noise. It is kind of weird because it was louder today. I feel like it doesn't really affect us. We are used to playing in this empty gym. It is obviously tough to not have the fans here. I miss Dallas’ (Walton) dad here in the suit and jacket and my mom here dancing. It is tough to not have them here, but we push through and we know they are watching from home.”
Dallas Walton, Sr., F/C
On overall thoughts on the first home game of the season
“It was a little weird at first, but as far as playing at home, there's nothing not to love about playing, playing in this arena playing this in Boulder, Colorado. With or without fans, I know you can kind of just feel their presence. I know they're watching and just want us to play to the best of our abilities for the fans at home. It's like our coach always says, there's always somebody watching, so just feeling that presence and just kind of playing for something outside of yourself.”
On cleaning up his game
“It's just making sure that I don’t give the referees any opportunities to call any fouls on me. When I go to block shots, it’s just hands up and I know if I don’t get a hand on the ball then I’m not affecting the shot and that's one thing that the coaches have been really good about communicating with me is that ‘you know you're seven feet man’. You don’t have to touch the ball or block it, but just my presence and being there is enough. More often than not, this is kind of just me taking the time to realize that and then executing that in practice as well. It’s just been fun staying in the game.”
On the defensive effort
“Coach Ray gave us a great game plan to execute. He told all the players what they can and can't do and what their actions are and us as a team we really took that to heart and locked that in, and I think we were able to execute that very well tonight. For a little while there we were switching on everything and in order to switch on everyone, all ball screens need to have all five guys on the court attentive to what each person on the other team can do. I think that we were able to execute that game plan very well and shout out to Coach Ray for having us ready for that.”
On taking advantage of all the players
“One thing Coach Boyle has been telling our team is that we have weapons at all five positions. And we knew that we had an advantage down low. And in order to open up the floor for our shooters like Shawn and Maddox and to our guards like Keeshawn and McKinley. We need to establish ourselves down known and establish an inside presence. It was nice getting those looks early and seeing a kind of collective approach to our game plan and playing inside out, which is something we'd like to do and something that will look to continue to do, as the year progresses.”
On not having any family at the games
“I hear his voice- it echoes in the back of my head and in the jacket. It's just flashed in that spot of the band section across from the bench. No, I mean it's tough. It's tough and I'm missing my family at the games for sure as I'm sure all the guys do. But I know that my dad's at home with his jacket, screaming at the TV. I mean hopefully this year they can come up.I mean I don't know but hopefully, we can get some family in the games but it's definitely a weird adjustment and adjustment that I think the guys are handling actually very well if you play it with no fans. It's tough to kind of switch yourself into that mindset. So I'm very proud of our team for that.”