Colorado-Washington Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“Another conference win. You’ve got to take those, they're like gold. Especially early out of the gate and at home. Really important that we take care of home-court advantage. We were able to do that this weekend. Washington's a team that you never feel like they're out of it. They were down 14 against Utah the other night in the second half with like 13 minutes to go and they came back and won. When they cut it to six I said okay, here we go again. Our guys build their back and we did a much better job in the second half of taking care of the basketball. Obviously the 11 turnovers in the first half are what we want for the game, not for the half. We rebounded the ball well, had some really good performances off our bench, and figured out a way to beat you know, a good solid team tonight and it doesn’t get easier. Now we get to take this show on the road.”
How the team has responded
“We'll find out this weekend how well we've practiced because I do believe for the most part you play games how you practice. You see in practice and you think you're getting stuff done, you think you're improving, but you don't know that until you play the games. We're still a team that has a high ceiling that continues to get better at many many things. They find a way to win when things get tough. They didn't get too tough tonight but I’m really pleased with this weekend. Again, the things we have got to get better at, we’ve got to get better at. The transition defense is one of those things that'll be tested in Tucson next week. I can promise you that. In Tempe as well.”
On Tristan Da Silva’s improvement
“Tristan, we want him to be aggressive and he was aggressive tonight. When Tristan is aggressive and Jabari (Walker) is aggressive and Evan (Battey) is aggressive and Keeshawn, (Barthelemy) we play with aggressiveness. We're pretty darn good. Now the biggest thing I'm trying to impress upon our team is the fact that we have to try to make plays for each other. Being aggressive doesn't mean I didn't make a play for myself, but I'm getting the ball in the lane and I'm attacking. If two guys guard you, somebody is open and you got to give it up. That's where we have to continue to improve. Against Washington, State we had 17 assists. That's a great number. We want that every single night. Tonight we only had 13 on 31 baskets, which means we're doing a lot of stuff off the bounce and we're not maybe sharing it as much but I thought Tristan’s aggressiveness was good tonight. Jabari got in bad foul trouble early and eventually, I'm going to play him with two fouls in the first half day. I've done that once this year with Evan who is a guy I trust as much as any guy I've ever coached and he picked up his third before halftime. I didn't do it with Jabari tonight. He had five rebounds in four minutes in the first half. He really rebounded the ball well. We had good minutes from Luke O'Brien at zero points, but he had four assists and five rebounds. Julian Hammond played good minutes off the bench. Nique Clifford continues to come along. The depth of this team is starting to grow up.”
On Jabari’s growth
“I told him at halftime one of the reasons I do that is so now in the second half, you don't have to go out there worried to foul. If he picks up his third foul early in the second half, we're gonna keep playing him. He has got to figure out how to play without fouling. He did a really good job of that I think. It's the first half where we're gonna need you down the stretch and that's what you want as a coach. You want your horses down the stretch. You don't want them sitting there with four fouls afraid to foul but we let him play with three and he did a good job of that which is again growth and Jabari is growing up.”
On Julian Hammond’s success this week
“I think this week’s done wonders for him. I hope it's really helped his confidence because the thing I love about Julian is he’s got a short memory. He drove the ball in the lane and turned it over and then boom, we got a steal and hit him in the corner and he just rose up and shot the three like he expected to make it and he did make it. He's got a short memory and you have to have that. He understands when he makes mistakes, and he's going to get better with that just like all of our freshmen do. Julian was ready when his number was called when KJ went out with his concussion on Thursday night and he's really stepped up and gives me confidence, he gives us an added guy now when KJ does come back so we can we play deeper into our bench.”
On Tristan being unknown to Coach Boyle
“He was very much an unknown. We saw him on film. We knew his brother. His dad was a boxer. He’s starting to develop some of that boxing toughness. He made some nice moves tonight that were strong. His brother, the kind of player he was, what we saw on film and the people we talked to said he's every bit as good at the same age and has a chance to maybe be better. We just didn't know how good. When we signed Tristan and we signed Jabari it was during COVID so we didn't get great evaluations on either one of them. As you remember, we signed Jeriah Horne a grad transfer, just as insurance because if these freshmen aren't ready we are not going to take a step back last year. Jeriah came in and played great, and Tristan and Jabari didn't get the minutes that they would normally get as a freshman because we signed Jeriah but now sophomores, they're getting them and they're responding and it's going to be a continual learning curve and growth pattern for both of them and but I really love the track they're both on.”
On Luke O’Brien
“Big-time hustle plays. I love his energy when he comes off the bench. He plays hard and isn’t afraid to make a mistake. That's what we need from Luke. He made some some winning plays for us tonight. It was a great game for him personnel-wise because they went small for good stretches of those games and both in the first and the second half. We were able to switch ball screens and the matchups were good for him defensively. I was really pleased with Luke.
On Coach Boyle’s 300 wins
“I'll take a minute, we got tomorrow off. I’m going to go to dinner with my wife and my daughter and some friends. It means I've coached good players, I’ve had great assistant coaches and I'm very fortunate to be the head coach of Colorado but you don't get wins without good players. We all know that. We’ve got to continue to recruit. We got great kids from great families and we need to continue that mantra as we progress but 300 is just a number.”
Colorado Players
Tristan Da Silva, So., F
On if he is still improving
“Definitely, it's a steady process. Today I had the opportunity to play, was aggressive and made some shots. My teammates gave me the ball and that's all you can ask for. I tried to make the most out of it.”
On if he is working on being aggressive
“Yeah, definitely. Last year, I wasn't aggressive at all and I feel like and this year with rising confidence, I felt like I had to be more aggressive and I tried to do that. And today, it worked out really well.”
On how he chose Colorado
“My brother basically started off coming to college basketball at Stanford. Then I felt like I wanted to do the same thing. Playing professionally and combining academics with the sport. There's not really an option for that in Europe so his work kind of gave me the opportunity to y get more eyes on me. Colorado was just the best offer out of all the offers I had, Colorado's a beautiful place with great academics. Tad Boyle is an awesome coach. This team was ranked before I came here then ranked again the year I came here and now we’re still a great program.”
On Julian Hammond’s performance
“You see it in practice. He puts the work in and is one of our best shooters. He has a great IQ, he can read the game, used to play quarterback and got recruited for that too. He got the eyes and he got he got the passing skills from that. He’s now getting some minutes and showing what he can do.”
On team’s improvement this weekend
“We learned from every game you know, there's still stuff we’ve got to improve upon. I feel like our intensity was really good especially in the second half. It’s always just a steady process, trying to improve upon each game.”
On shooting struggles during road games
“When shots don't fall you have to rely on other things. Defense, rebounding and attacking the paint. That’s always things we want to do. We always want to play inside out. And then we are just looking for great shots on offense.”
Jabari Walker, So., F
On being aggressive while in foul trouble
“Yeah, I just tried to be a good leader off the court and just try to encourage the guys and just be a coach really. I understand that when I get two fouls like that I'm probably not going back in if I don't need to go back in, so just prepare myself to sit on the bench and see the game from that perspective and then get ready for the second half.”
On Julian Hammond’s performance
“Ever since he got on campus what I've seen the fans are just now getting a chance to see it but he does this consistently. So it's no surprise when it comes game time. He could take over practice hitting three threes in a row. He like a glue guy. He just does everything you need from the point guard position.”
On team’s improvement this weekend
“I think the starting five has done a better job in starting games off. In the past, we got down pretty much in the beginning of games and it just felt like we were always like having to come from behind and like play catch up. So we did better at that today.”
On shooting struggles during road games
“Shots haven’t fallen yet and we're still getting these wins and are doing what we have to do to come out with a win. So when they do start falling I think we just become that much of a better team, so I'm excited. There's just so much growth that we still have, we have a lot of depth that we're still finding out and guys are getting more opportunities every night. It could be somebody else's night as we saw it was Tristan’s tonight. Might be Evans one night, we just have so much versatility and the shots are going to start falling.”
On Tad Boyle’s 300th win
“I'm definitely proud. I didn't even realize, I feel like I'm always the last one to realize stuff because when Mckinley broke the record, I didn't realize until after the game and everyone else was cheering and same with Evan getting to 1000 points. I'm just not finding this stuff out. So I’ll definitely go talk to him and congratulate him.”
Washington Head Coach Mike Hopkins
On Colorado’s Size
“Their guards were big. They have really good length. When we took it to the basket, we had to kick (the ball) out. We were trying to challenge them and that's why our shooting percentage inside the paint wasn't where
it needed to be.”
On Colorado Outrebounding Washington
“We had seven second chance points. The reality of it is that we missed a lot of shots. The rebounds were more on the defensive end. We shot 30 percent from the field. It didn't kill us on second chance, but we have to be better in that area.”
On Washington’s Lack of Offensive Rebounding
We didn’t (do a good job), and they do a really good job. They forced us to stop moving the ball. They forced us to be one-on-one players. We played into that. We went at them and tried to shoot over them. That's not a good combination if you're not getting to the foul line. When they do that with their length, they can do it one-on-one. The (Buffaloes) did a really good job boxing out. The play night was going in and kicking it out. That's why (they) shoot decent numbers from the three-point line.”
On G Cole Bajema
“You have a game where you feel hot. He just had to have something positive happen. He was the best shooter in the preseason. He just had to keep shooting. You get one (three-point shot) knocked down and he’s (done that for) two games. Hopefully he can consistently keep doing it.”
On Bajema Getting More Shot Attempts
“It's not about trying to do it. Having the players that we have, it goes back to putting a puzzle together. If they're guarding Terrell (Brown), the way he is, he is going to make the extra pass. That means Cole will be open. It’s about putting guys in the right positions. We're going to win because we're a great team and we play together. Cole, having that threat, is huge. You're going to have to guard (our players). When you run a ball screen, they're going to have to decide if they’re going to tag, leave, or stay with them. If they stay with me, guy's are going to be wide open. Now that guy has to go and make a layup. The awareness of him tonight from his teammates was pretty cool.”
On CU’s Forwards Playing Well
“They're so strong at the four and five. Riley (Sorn) could have helped us tonight with his size in the paint. (Colorado’s) a good basketball team. (Tristan) da Silva played well today. (Jabari) Walker was a load down there. They didn't play a lot of minutes, but when they did, they were effective down there. (Evan) Battey only had five points but you could feel his presence ducking you in. They shot the ball better than I thought they would shoot the ball in the perimeter. That's something that they show me tonight.”
On F Nate Roberts’ Foul Trouble
“He's our best rebounder on the offensive and defensive end. He's got to be smarter. It's hard when you are guarding some big guys down there. We're scrambling a little bit, but he'll be better. It's just one of those games, a couple early reach-in, and then you're sitting on the bench.”
On How the Three-Game Road Trip Went
“We got a lot better to be honest with you. It's not an excuse for the game, but I felt like with the three games in six days, you can see that effect, playing against the team where it’s their second (game in six days). We need our energy. That's what scares me about Wednesday (at home against California), because we play on a quick turnaround with travel. It's part of the deal in terms of the way the re-schedule worked. I thought the Arizona game helped us become better. In the Utah game, we came back (to win). Tonight, we cut it to five in the second half. We had that end of the first half stretch where (CU outscored UW) 11-0. We went one-on-one too much and we just couldn't overcome it.”
On Switching to the Press in the Second Half
“It was the feel of the game. We had to try to create some turnovers. When you do that, it takes a lot of energy. You need a lot of energy. Over time, you need (to switch to the press). We just ran out of gas.”