Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-Washington State Quotes
vs
Eastern Washington
Nov 8 (Sat)
2 p.m.
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
A win is a win, you can't ever complain about that. But I think anybody who watched that game tonight and saw how we played, especially towards the end of the first half offensively, and then in the second half offensively understands that Colorado's got to play better than that. I thought we got really lackadaisical with a basketball. We made really poor decisions offensively in the second half with the basketball. Turnovers have not been an issue for this team this year but they became one tonight and I don't know what, at what point we didn't have any turnovers, and then all of a sudden, boom, at the end of the half. That last offensive possession at the end of the half was indicative of kind of where the game was going offensively for us in terms of our lack of execution lack of toughness, lack of communication, and lack of decision making. We gotta be better than that, offensively. You guys know I always talk about defense and this team shot 56% in the first half and we come out in the second half we just mess it up, and we got to be better than that. 10 offensive rebounds, we gave up to Washington state. A lot of room for improvement for us. This is a win. Let's move on. Again, it's about improving and what disappoints me is Monday in practice we didn't get better. Tuesday in practice we didn't get better. And tonight we didn't get better. So, that's my job as a coach, I got to do a better job with our team and I'm going to do that starting tomorrow.”
On the tribute for Remember the 10
“I think that's something I'm going to talk to them about tomorrow. I think it'll be a great way to maybe start practice out and give them perspective. I still remember to this day where I was. I was an assistant coach at Wichita State, we had played a game in Wichita. They have a live call-in radio shows, and the assistant coach that does the Scout has to go and answer questions from the fans. And so it was great preparation for me, as an assistant at Wichita State to become a head coach, but I'll never forget this night 20 years ago. I know the restaurant I was in and a guy came up to me, I think our producer came up and showed me a note that a plane had gone down from Oklahoma State. All the credit goes to Dave Platey, our longtime sports information director of suggesting that we do that, I thought it was a class act and we want the people at Oklahoma State to understand that we understand the pain that they still go through and those families so it is something to talk to our team about. I didn't mention it before the game or in the locker room. But tomorrow is some time I will address it.”
On lack of energy in the second half
“I did sense the lack of energy it in practice the previous two days, and again, not like the practice was absolutely awful but it tailed off at the end in terms of our energy level. We didn't go from start to finish. These are the days where guys might be a little bit tired mentally, and that's something we got to talk about as a staff. I got to maybe talk to Evan and McKinley about that, maybe I need to shorten things up. I want to keep them on edge because I really felt like again, going back to back, Washington State was such an unusual schedule. I did not want our guys to take it and be lackadaisical. And I didn't think we were from the beginning because we came out ready to play. We played very well offensively and defensively, in that first half. But in that second half it just fell off. You gotta cherish these opportunities because you don't know when the next one's gonna come. We hope it's Saturday at 12:30 against Utah, but we don't know that. So, we have to embrace every opportunity that is given to us, and we didn't do that tonight for 40 minutes, which is what we talked about before the game.
On if the team went into cruise control in second half
“That's a question for the players, not for me. I mean we did. I don't know if it's because Isaac Bonton wasn't here. But there's no excuse for that because we talked about that at our shoot around today. ‘Hey Bonton is not gonna play’. We cannot let our guard down. We gotta hold ourselves to the standards of Colorado basketball and we didn't do that in the second half offensively. We didn't do that. We turned the ball over, we made bad decisions, we were lackadaisical with our passing. That's on us. There's no excuses, there's no reasons. That’s just it. That's the facts and we got to live with them. We can't always judge ourselves by the score and I mean that after a win. I also mean that after a loss. Sometimes after losses you're so disappointed and devastated because you lost and you forget about how you played. There's been a handful of times in my career when our team has lost and I'm fine with it because we played well and we executed a game plan, we played with energy, we played with toughness. They just took balls away from us. They did in the first half, they did in the second half. Gotta get better.”
On Jabari Walker’s Minutes tonight
“Jabari was late to shoot around today. We have a rule if you're late to shoot around or if you're late to a team bus on game day, that if you're a starter you don't start. You basically miss your rotation. If you're a bench player that comes off the bench, you miss your rotation. Jabari missed his first rotation so his minutes were a little bit limited in the first half. A great learning opportunity for him to make sure that doesn't happen again. So, that was the only reason. We'll move on from it, he'll learn from it. Those are the standards of a program that have been in place for 11 years and aren't going to change. It doesn't matter if it's Jabari Walker, McKinley Wright or Evan Battey. Just got to hold true to that. No big issues, but a learning opportunity for a young player and Jabari played with great energy and great effort when he was in there. I've got no issues with Jabari at all.”
On Turnovers
“I thought that a couple of our turnovers and our pocket passes by our guards, those live ball turnovers that we have, are going to convert to layups at the other end against a good team and against a Pac-12 level team. That's what happened. Our bad decision drives where we get called for charges on the ball, which happened three times tonight. If it happened three times against Washington State it's going to happen 13 times against Utah because they try to take charges on the ball all the time. We have to be smarter than that. We can't just put our shoulder down and go. We have to go around that guy. If he's looking to take a charge, just go around him or change directions. They're not worried about guarding the ball. They're worried about just getting their chest into you, falling down and getting the call. We have to be smarter. Those turnovers at least don't lead to layups. Those are dead ball turnovers. They are still not good, but better than live ball turnovers. We're past the point of saying our offensive struggles bleed to our defense. I'm tired of talking about that if it happens. What I have to do is I have to sub. I have to get guys out of the game and get guys in the game. That's something I have to do a better job of as a coach. I have to be consistent with it. That's another thing. I remember as a player, I really appreciated consistency from the coaches I played for. You knew what the deal was before. You knew there were certain times you're coming out of the game. The coach was consistent with that. I think if I've got a little bit of a fault it is I leave some guys in a little bit longer. I give some guys a little longer leash and sometimes deservedly so, but sometimes not deservedly so. I have to do a better job. Tonight is as much on me as it is our team. I'm just glad it didn't cost us a game and a win. We did win. We have to move on. We have to get better. That's the biggest thing, because again, this time of year there's two kinds of teams. There's not three kinds of teams, there are two. There are teams that are getting better, enjoying the process, and having fun, and there's teams that are getting worse, can't wait for the season to end, and trying to figure out what they can do for spring break given COVID.”
Colorado Players
Mckinley Wright IV, G, Sr.
On team’s energy
“Our energy was really bad, starting with me. When my energy is down, the entire team's energy’s down. So, I take full responsibility for that. I got to be better coming out of the second half, and not worrying about missed shots or the early turnover I had in the second half, just move on and keep playing. Our energy was just shot the second half.”
On why game was closer than expected
“We just weren’t being ourselves. We played down to the level of our competition tonight. Coach stressed and stressed to us not to do that, and we still did it. Me being the leader of this team, I have to be better and get on my guys, hold everybody accountable and just control the game. We had a lot of turnovers in the second half. We just weren’t being ourselves. We were just trying to do too much.”
On Washington State’s foul problems
“Yeah, we know the importance of putting foul pressure on teams. Coach always stresses that. We’re a really good free throw shooting team. It’s good for us to get to the line. Thankfully, we got to the line tonight because in the second half, shots weren’t falling. Turnovers were a problem for us. We got to the line a lot and we knocked down free throws.”
On how gameplan changed without Isaac Bonton playing
“With or without Bonton. With Bonton he would've taken a lot of shots. It’s a difference in our offense with him and without him. We just prepare for every team the same, no matter who plays and who doesn’t play. Bonton’s a good player but we weren’t really just focused on Bonton, specifically just him. They got a lot of guys who can play at a high level, obviously playing in the Pac12. We prepare for every team the same no matter who they got.”
On how team looks to improve
“A win is a win. But we’re not satisfied. We’re competing for a Pac12 championship. Tonight’s effort isn’t going to cut it. We’re going to watch film tomorrow. Got to get better in practice tomorrow and prepare for Utah on Saturday. Obviously, facial expressions ain’t too good right now. We’re a lot better than what we showcased tonight. We just got to be better if we want to contend for a Pac12 championship and make a deep run in the tournament, we can’t have performances like tonight. We had them down almost 20 in the first half. We let them cut it to six in the second half. We got to be better.”
Evan Battey, F, Jr.
On slow start to second half
“We just didn’t come out ready to play. We had a casualness about us that we don't usually play with. We struggled to get stops, we struggled to shoot the ball, and score the ball and we shot 37% in the second half. We just got to play to our standards and play how we are expected to play and we didn’t do that.”
On how to fix slow start
“I don’t know, I have no idea. It’s my job to find out. It’s my job to fix it.
We’re going to get back to the drawing board tomorrow. We won the game but we have to get back.”
On how they can play all 40 minutes
“Well we talk about 40 minutes. Playing how we play for 40 minutes. In the first half we did that. Second half not so much. I know I’m talking about the second half so much. It was such a letdown, honestly, the second half.”
On how Washington State played
“Yeah. Yeah because especially if you beat them the first time, they come back with a little more punch in their fight. They’re going to come back with a little more edge. They didn’t have their best player tonight. So, thank god for that. But, yeah it’s tough. Again, we got to expect people’s best shot and we got to want people’s best shot. We’re trying to be the best of the best and be as good as we can be. That comes with a price. That comes with everybody aiming at your head, and wanting to knock you off. We have to expect that. We have to accept that challenge, and tonight I just feel like we didn’t.”
Washington State Head Coach Kyle Smith
On confidence from the bench
“Absolutely very proud of Tj (Bamba). The way he was ready to go. He responded, not just because he scored his focus was good. He cares so much, he’s hearted. I’m sure he was upset he didn't play, but you wouldn't know. His parents did a really good job raising him. He is just a really even keeled guy he gave us a big lift and big spar. He was competing hard tonight, really proud of him. Jazz (Aljaz Kunc) did a great job coming off the bench. Dj (Dishon Jackson) didn’t score much but he helps us usually defend both sides of the ball and hopefully he gets in better shape we need by Sunday.”
On TJ Bamba starting second half
“Noah (Williams) said he didn't feel good. We were about to start the second half and we were looking for Noah who was in the bathroom throwing up. We were staring with the ball, we had to put someone in and Bamba was ready. Noah came out and competed darn hard and did a really good job.”
On young starting lineup
“I don't remember ever starting three freshman. We had one year at Columbia we played three freshman a lot. Those freshman turned out to be really good player who helped the program a lot. I trying to work through that narrative with this group because I think we have some good things going.”