Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement: “We were lucky to win tonight. I chalk this up one to Montana State and Duquesne that we played the Virgin Islands. We didn't need a three to put it in overtime, thank goodness, because I'm not sure we could have made one but we did what we had to do to win a game when we weren't at our best. And, to me you take a little bit of solace in that. But we have got to get better offensively. We had nine turnovers in the second half against a team that doesn't pressure. This should have been a single turn of turnover game and a mid single digit turnover, like six, seven turnovers not eight or nine and we had 14 so you know we're struggling to make shots right now, especially the second half. We were ineffective on offense and it really bled into our energy level. And that cannot happen. It absolutely cannot happen. Eastern Washington, give them credit. They're tough-minded kids and are a good program. They’ve been in the NCAA Tournament, they know what it takes to win and their coach does. So we were fortunate to win this game, they missed some open threes there at the end, thank goodness. But we were lucky to win this.”
On Second half shooting percentage going down
“I think it was and and energy level because the the turnovers, the poor shooting lead to poor energy level. Now, to our credit, this team was averaging 81 points a game coming in here. We held them to 57, we held them to 40%. That's the positive we take from that. But we also know how much better we need to get offensively and we hit droughts. We hit turnover runs that we cannot. We got to fix those things. At least Tennessee pressures. They climb up and and get after you. UCLA does the same thing. Eastern Washington doesn’t. So we got to take better care of the basketball and we got to cut harder we got to screen better. We got to have better recognition. We have to have better spacing. There's a multitude of things offensively we have to get better at.”
On shots not falling
“I mean, at some point you got to have open looks you got to be on knocking down at some point otherwise, you're putting pressure on your defense, then we did that tonight and our defense was able to get stops when we had to get stops. But yeah, I mean, look, as a coach, I've said this before I'll say it again. My job is to make sure our team is getting good shots. Okay, we've got some good shooters that are getting good shots that aren't making shots. That's part of basketball. I can live with that. That might frustrate me that might frustrate them. But it doesn't anger me; what angers me is our lack of fire or lack of energy. That's what I get angry at. I don't care if you miss a shot. What I care about is do you have a little life and fight, spunk to you when you're in the huddle, not head down. feel sorry for yourself. There's nobody that feels sorry for Colorado basketball right now. Nobody. You might have some parents that are feeling sorry for their kids because they can't make a shot. I just I want one guys are gonna hook it up and compete. And if you can't make a shot you can't make a shot. You better get down there and guard.”
On Venters
“He's a good player. We knew he can shoot it. He had 29 in a game earlier this year. Bergersen had 32 and a game earlier this year. Number 24 had 24 at Washington State so they've got multiple guys that can go off and Venters is one of them. We knew that was part of the scattering we had to take away his threes. We wanted to keep size on him as best we could because he's if you put a little guy on him he's you're gonna post them up or he's gonna back them down. He backed down KJ in the second half and just scored over him. I mean it's good defense by KJ, but KJ is six foot Venters six seven. Guess what? Welcome to being six foot in division one basketball, like you better figure out a way not to let him catch the ball or, use your quickness to keep out of the paint or whatever the case may be KJ is learning defensively. But Venters is a good player. The fact that he had for their five threes in the first half he only got one the second half. Again, to our guys credit they got seven threes. Our goal is six or less. We didn't hit our goal but they were averaging nine threes. You know as a team coming into the game and did a better job in the second half garden to three but they missed some open ones at the end that we got lucky on. That's why I say we're fortunate to win.”
On playing deep into the bench
“I mean it's some of those guys are again young, inexperienced guys that are getting second half minutes and there's no fast forward button for experience and Julian Hammonds getting experienced, KJ Simpson's getting experienced, Watson’s getting experience, Luke O'Brien is getting experience. Tristan and Jabari and Evan and Eli but those rest of those guys are but you know, number 24 for them is a young new guy and number 10 is a young new guy now, they're playing heavier minutes minutes sometimes than our guys are so yeah, I want to use the bench more I plan on doing it again on Friday and developing our depth because that's what we're going to need. In PAC 12 play starts.”
Colorado Players
Jabari Walker, So., F
On the overall feeling after the game“Yeah, I think we got to figure out how to get a lead and maintain a lead. Just keep creating separation. And I think the biggest thing for us is going into the film room and having that translate onto the court because we keep making some mistakes that might cost us some games if we can't create separation. So hopefully, this is the last one of those that we have, and we can learn from this one.”
On offensive struggles
“Yeah, well, they said that we moved the ball a lot better in the first half. And our percentage was higher because of that. And the second half they said it was a little more stagnant. So when I watch film, I probably see the same thing that they said maybe it was a result of that.”
Keeshawn Barthelemy, So., G
On differences between when he is playing well and when he is playing poorly“Well I'm not really worried about my personal performance on offense everybody knows when I'm going through struggles, whatever the case may be, but I'm worried about the wins and losses and being better defensively because that's one of the things that coach has been challenging us about, especially the guards and that's all I'm worried about. So the offense will come and go and I'll be fine.”
On zero turnover game
“One of the things that the coach has been talking about on offense is for us is to slow down and I feel like when I do that I'm able to see a floor better. If my shots not falling at least I'm not giving the other team the ball. So I really pride myself in that. Last year I didn't really turn the ball over that much either in limited minutes, but this year my role is to do that in increased minutes.”
Eastern Washington Head Coach David Riley
On Tonight’s Team Performance
“Yeah, I mean, we’re nine games into this thing. So the moral victories, we got to start cutting those out and getting real victories but there’s obviously some positives to build on, last two, three minutes. In the first half where things were rough. You can’t have those kinds of stretches, especially winning time at the end of the game.”
On Defensive Performance
“Great job sticking to the game plan. Our guys battled. We got physical guys out and they held their own against a really big, strong, tough Colorado team. I’m proud of how they defended. I thought they could have executed a little better offensively. But, you’re right there are some things to build on.”
On Rebounding
“Yeah, and we knew going in that this is what they did and we talked about in the halftime. They’re a great second-half possession team. They’re one of the best second-half offensive teams in the country. They still went out and got seven offensive rebounds in the second half and we’re physical. But you know, you hit it on the head, the second-chance points weren’t as bad as it could have been because our guys really moved on to the next play. We were terrible, our efficiency on second-chance points. So our guys just stuck to the next play mentality and body down and make sure they didn’t score in the second chances.”
On End of The Game Shots
“I trust those guys. I mean it’s fun to have five guys on the court that you trust offensively to make and take shots. I just wish they would have gone down.”
On Next Game against North Dakota
“They’re a good team. They’re physical. They’re going to be ready for us. They’re going to watch this game and be ready for us. We got to make sure we learn from this. There’s some really really teachable stuff we talked about in the locker room. We’re family. We’re in this together. We got a bunch of guys with a chip on their shoulder. It just sucks when we have those three four-minute splinters where nothing’s going together. So we got to work on that and do it together as a family.”
On Effort going Unrewarded
“You’re right and we’ve talked about it. We’re done with the moral victories. We came in here. We should have won this game, especially down the stretch. We were right there in it and we got to figure out how to capitalize that and make plays down the stretch.”