Colorado-UCLA Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
On Defense Down The Stretch
“Absolutely. We showed great discipline and great patience. You know, they got good players. I mean, Tyger Campbell's good. Jaime Jaquez is really good, Jules Bernard is playing at a high level, Johnny Juzang shoots as good as anybody in the country. Getting Cody Riley in foul trouble was a key to this game. We had talked about it as a staff and to our team. You know, before the game, we talked about it at halftime because he's so important to them. But yeah, I thought just our depth and our ability to close the game out by making plays and, you know, we played them in LA back in early January. They made the plays down the stretch, they got the stops down the stretch and they made the shots down the stretch. Tonight we did that and our guys played with great toughness, great belief and great heart, and that's what you have to do against UCLA. UCLA is a good basketball team. You have to beat them. They don't beat themselves, we were dialed in there down the stretch”On Discipline Tonight
“Yeah, because they’re physical and they get out in passing lanes, they try to blow up ball handoffs and they switch ball screens. We had zero at halftime. So all six of those came in the second half, I didn't even talk to our team about it at halftime. That was one of the reasons we were only down one at half, is because we took such good care of the basketball. At halftime they were shooting 50% from the field and they were plus four rebounding. I haven't had chance to look at the stat sheet. They beat us five on the boards, but they only shot 41% im the second half. And again, UCLA is a good team. They got good players, they run good stuff.
So, great, great win for our program and our team. On senior night, to have seven guys that you know, are so articulate and well-spoken and just wonderful human beings to see them have success. You know, UCLA came in here last year for those that don't remember and ruined our senior night. That’s the risk that you have of having it after the game, but I wanted these guys to get a chance to thank their teammates, their families, and their fans personally. And with seven seniors, you can't do that before the game, so kudos to our guys.”
On Late Stretch In First Half To Keep Game Close
“Really important. McKinley Wright, he stepped up, I think he scored all seven points, you know, cut that thing to one. Yeah, we lost our cool a little bit in that first half and you know, our guys are playing with emotion and I want them to, we just got to keep it in check, but McKinley was really good getting us back in that game and once we did, I felt like our guys had belief then. Like okay we can score on these guys, it's not gonna be easy, we have to work. I thought we stood around a little bit that first half and they switched ball screens, which sometimes gives us problems, but I thought in the second half, especially tonight, we did a great job of attacking that. Our bigs did a great job. Jeriah (Horne) slipped a ball screen in the middle of the floor and McKinley found him for an and one. I mean, plays like that are our key.
On Contributions Across The Board Tonight
“We did. Eli (Parquet) made a really tough finish in the lane. Evan (Battey) made some finishes. That dive on the floor for the loose ball and maintaining possession was a key play in that game. That was just all heart and toughness. McKinley (Wright) did a good job of playing off two feet in the lane because they were really sagging in and they were really concerned with his penetration. He found Jeriah (Horne) for a big time three. That was a big play in the game. Maddox (Daniels) missed a three, came down the next possession or two later, made a three. The guys, they have a belief in themselves and they have a belief in each other that is really special. And I've coached a long time and not every team has it. They fake it sometimes, they act like it sometimes, but this team really does love and believe in each other and they played like it tonight offensively and then defensively. The last 10 possessions, what my staff told me, we got stops, 8 of the last 10 possessions down the stretch. That's what broke the game open. So it really, again, I don't know how many assists we had, we only had nine, but I thought we shared the ball better than that. But our guys made plays.
On Guarding UCLA
“They run a lot of iso stuff. They have guys that are really good driving the ball. Johnny Juzang is a great shooter, but he's gotten better putting the ball on the floor. Jules Bernard put the ball on the floor. Obviously Tyger Campbell is really good in the pick and roll and he can attack. We talked about really shrinking the floor and getting into gaps, and understanding where Juzang was because he is a knock down three point shooter, not that the other guys can't make them. But our discipline defensively in the second half with shrinking the floor, helping out on spins, staying down on Jaime Jaquez’s shot fakes at the end. We didn't do it every time but we did it most of the time. Those stops are what won us the game, there's no doubt about it. The iso drives hurt us in the first half. Part of it was just challenging our guys. It was part of the game plan to start with one-on-one. We work on guarding the ball a lot in practice one-on-one and there's no help. The reality is when you play against really good teams and really good players, you have to help each other sometimes. You have to play with your hands off and when guys get downhill you have to shrink the floor. We did a really good job of that in the second half.”
On The Possibility Of Winning The Pac-12 Regular Season
“Every time I start rooting for another team that I want to lose, they win. I quit that a long time ago. We can control what we can control which is the next game. For us, now it's Arizona State. We need help for that to happen (winning the Pac-12). We tricked off a couple losses earlier this year. We know that. Our fans know that. We have to live with that and accept that. There's a lot of basketball ahead for this team. We have one more regular season game. We've got to take care of business. It's not going to be easy. Arizona State's a talented group. They can get it rolling. And then we have the Pac-12 tournament, which I don't know of anybody or another team in a conference that wants to play Colorado right now. We're playing pretty good. We're going to go to Las Vegas with the idea that we have another opportunity to win a championship. We probably won't do it in the regular season, unless you know everything falls our way. We get a chance to do it in Las Vegas. This team is a team that can win some games in the NCAA Tournament. We're going to have to play well and that's down the road. We have to worry about Arizona State and that's what our focus is going to be.”
On If He Is Confident The Team Can Stay Sharp Between Now And The Postseason
“I do because we have mature guys. If you heard them speak on senior night tonight, they're an articulate, smart bunch of guys. This is a team that rises to challenges. Every time they've been challenged they've risen to it. The challenge now is to get healthy. We have some guys that are nicked and bruised. We expended a lot of energy these last two games. We're going to take a couple days off, get our bodies right, get a couple sharp practices, and with Arizona State we have to take that seriously. Then we get another week to practice and prepare ourselves for the Pac-12 Tournament. We'll find out who we play as that last weekend kind of unfolds. I love the way the schedule kind of sets up for us. Our guys did such a good job throughout the season. Most of our opponents did too of staying healthy. We were able to play our games and that allows us now towards the end to get a little bit of rest, get some quality practice time in and stay sharp. We have to stay sharp, and I have no reason to believe that this team won't.”
On Maddox Daniels Attacking The Rim
“Maddox is such a good shooter that people are going to close out on him. They're going to run out on him. That's what you have to do. I mentioned Johnny Juzang earlier. That's been a development in his game because he's such a good shooter. He's really gotten better off the bounce and I think the same is true for Maddox. He's done a great job of attacking the close-outs and playing under control. When Maddox plays under control, he's a really good player. When he's open, we want him to shoot it, everybody does. He's added that (driving) to his game which has really helped us. Jeriah (Horne) has done the same thing. Maddox is a good athlete. What I love is he really, really competed defensively tonight against Johnny Juzang. I thought he gave us some really, really good defensive stops and effort against Juzang in the second half. Every time he and Jeriah get in the game all I talk about is defending and rebounding, because I know they're going to shoot it. And I want him to shoot it, and their teammates want them to shoot it. But if they defend and rebound and commit to that, which they've done here recently, that's one of the reasons our team has had the success we've had here recently.”
Colorado Players
McKinley Wright, Sr., G
Overall feelings on game and senior night: “Man, it was fun. It’s hard to put it into words. I love everybody on my team and the coaching staff. I just wanted to come out and be aggressive tonight. The last couple of times we played UCLA I thought I wasn’t aggressive enough and we lost the last three times we played them. So I put it in my mind that if I’m going to take 14 or 15 shots and if we lose like that then we lose like that. I just tried to stay aggressive, my teammates kept telling me to keep going and they were rocking with me so it was a big night.”Mindset after falling behind late in first half: “Like I said before I was just trying to stay aggressive. I felt confident in my matchup that I had with whoever was guarding me at the point so I made a couple of shots early and saw the ball go through the hoop and the basket was getting a little bigger for me. So I just tried to stay aggressive. We went down by eight, and I made a couple of plays and shots but ultimately what got us this win was our defense, especially in the second half and down the stretch.
Thoughts on taking over in games: “To be honest with you, it's not even me, my teammates tell me to go. They’re like ‘Okay ‘Kin it’s that time.’ And everytime it’s crunch time D’Shawn [Schwartz] is the one that always says ‘Yeah it’s that time 2-5.’ They believe in me and the coaches believe in me, and I’ve been telling you guys for four years, when you have a coaching staff like I do and teammates like I do that believe in you, it makes the game so much easier.”
Thanking people: “I want to give a big shout out to Abby over in compliance. She’s helped me through a lot, like FAFSA and making sure I was signed up for that, making sure I was staying eligible with people offering me stuff and with social media. And Mindy our academic advisor. She’s huge for us and we give her headaches time and time again. For everybody that knows me, I’ve struggled with school for a while. So the fact that I’m here, and I’ve never been ineligible and I’m going to graduate hopefully in May, if not then August but I am gonna graduate. So a big shout out to Mindy for helping me and staying by my side and sticking with me for these last four years with all the headaches I’ve caused her.”
Thoughts on speech given after the game: “I winged that. As everybody was going down I was thinking in my head and trying to put together what I was going to say in order and who I was going to thank in order but when I got up there I had a brain fart of course. That always happens when I get up in front of presentations and start speaking to people. So I kind of just went off the top of the dome with that one.”
Thoughts on Tad Boyle’s impact on him off the floor: “Coach Boyle has taught me a lot man. Off the court, he actually cares about my life outside of basketball. He knows my struggle and all the hard times I’ve been through. A big thing for me is he wants me to get my degree because one day this basketball is gonna stop bouncing and he wants me to have opportunities and to meet people and create relationships so I can be successful when the ball does stop bouncing. Coach Boyle has taught me plenty of life lessons and I am forever thankful and grateful for him.”
Thoughts on impressive stats in several categories last few games: “I’m a do it all point guard. I’ve been like that my whole life. I’m small. I'm 6-feet and an undersized point guard so I just try to find ways to impact the game. My defense is the area that I’m continuously trying to improve at because at the next level, it’s only going to get harder. I’m just trying to showcase what I can do in each area. I can rebound the ball, share the ball, score the ball, and do whatever the team needs me to do. So it’s been fun showcasing what I can in each area of the game.”
UCLA Head Coach Mick Cronin
On McKinley Wright“Well we did a bad job defending him, but he is a great player. He made a lot of tough shots, and I don’t know what our lead was in the first half. We had an eight point lead and he just said you know what, we’re not losing on my senior night. At that point on, he took the game over. But that being said, we had some massive breakdowns defensively.”
On second half struggles
“You know Ben, let me tell you about games like this in my opinion. I’d say you’re right, but the problem was we should’ve been up six or eight, but we weren’t, and when you should be up, because of our turnovers, and some guys not finding the open man on the break, we just had some really bad defensive plays in the game when it was around tied at that point. But we should’ve had a lead. You know, they’re just too good. We had just too many defensive breakdowns, just egregious defensive things that we’ve been over and over yesterday, last night, this morning. Some guys just weren’t ready to play defensively. I told the guys we’re going to find out by the end of next week what we’re made of. Are we a year away? Or are we ready for this? Or are we going to get better through each one of these trials? Are we going to be tougher at winning time like we talked about Wednesday at Oregon? Because it’s hard to win these games. Look man, they’re a hell of a team. Mckinley played great. I told them this was going to be brutal to get this win, and we started doing individual things. We got out of sorts defensively and we just had too many mistakes."