Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-Nebraska Quotes
vs
Alabama State
Nov 17 (Mon)
7 p.m.
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“I think we saw two teams that are far from midseason form. There's no doubt about that. Nebraska has got a lot of new faces on their team this year. We got a lot of new faces in our team. So these exhibition games and the closed scrimmage that we had last week, it's all about figuring out what works, what doesn't work, what do we need to get better at. I think both of the scrimmages have served that purpose very, very well. Some really good things, and some things we can improve on and learn from with film. Were 0-0 so, even though every time you step on the floor you want to compete to win, - there's no doubt we do that in practice every day in our drills, that's never going to change - it's about learning what's going to translate to winning basketball games starting November 7th when we play UC Riverside. A lot of good things and a lot of things we can get better at.”
On defensive rebounding
“Yeah, I thought we rebounded pretty well. You know, again, in our closed scrimmage, we fouled too much. Then we fouled a little bit tonight, midway through the second half I looked up, we had seven team fouls they had two. I don't know if it's because we're not attacking enough offensively or we're fouling too much defensively, but I thought rebounding we had some really good efforts and even efforts where we didn't get the rebound. Javon crashed a few times. Luke O'Brien I thought was really active on the boards, Jalen Gabbidon, Tristan. We want to crash and second shots there's gonna be times this year where we're going to have to win a game or two with our offensive rebounding, so we want that to be a constant. If we can get second shots, it really helps because, we hit a really dry spell they're offensively last eight minutes in the first half and those droughts we got to minimize those a little bit by getting to the foul line. I thought defensively that we held them to six threes and sixty-one points. Fred Hoiberg is a heck of a coach. They run some good stuff but again, they're not in midseason form, so defensive rebounding is something we're always going to talk about. I don't know what they ended up shooting for the game. I didn't even look at that. 41%, again, we want it less than 40. We want to be plus eight, so that's two scrimmages in a row where we've hit our rebounding numbers, but we haven't hit our defensive field goal numbers.”
On what needs to be improved
“I think getting a great shot on offense every time. We want just great shots, and understanding the jump shots are not always going to fall. I think it would be our spacing and execution offensively. I think we can really get better and tighten up. We got to be able to make open shots and we did that early, but then we hit a wall where I thought we missed some wide-open threes. That's just a matter of getting in the gym and getting reps, and game speed reps when you're tired and your lungs are burning. I think in every area we can get a little bit better defensively, guarding ball screens. I think guarding the ball is always something that we work on all the time. There's a multitude of things we can get better at but I think offensively it's making sure we're getting a great shot and we're getting paint touches. I don't know what the numbers were the second half. But in the first half, we were like seventeen for twenty-nine scoring or getting fouled when we had a paint touch. We were one for twelve when we didn't. Those twelve possessions have to get down to like maybe one or two not twelve."
On So. C Lawson Lovering
“He was good. We the ran first play of the game for him. He made a nice play out of the double team. We got him one more and got a good look. Lawson is a weapon down there. He's seven feet. When they didn't double him, you saw in the second half he caught it, turned and he scored. I mean Lawson is still a work in progress. Look, he's still a sophomore. But really, he missed fifteen games in his freshman year, so he's not a true sophomore. He doesn't have the minutes on the floor that most sophomores have so he's going to continue to get better and better and better as his career unfolds. He's a weapon. We want him screening and rolling at the rim and finishing. He's become a better foul shooter. Now they started double teaming in the post, so it was good for him. He turned it over I think once out of that. He's got to understand when he becomes a low post threat, he's going to get double teamed. Now it opens it up for these guys who were diving to the rim or spacing the floor. It's really nice to have somebody you can throw it into.”
On the starting unit
“I think those guys [the starting unit] were ready to play. Their energy was good. Again, the one thing I think about this team is we got great depth and so what I don't want these guys to do is pace themselves because we're going to be able to play ten guys. RJ Smith didn't get a chance to play tonight and I wanted to get him some minutes. It just didn't work out. Joe obviously, there was some matchup problems for him when we put him in the game. That wasn't fair to him. That was our fault as coaches. I think our transfers, J’Vonne gives great minutes. Jalen Gabbidon I think is gonna be a great defensive stopper for us. We got multiple guys that can guard. He did a good job on Wilcher there down the stretch. So I just don't want to pace ourselves. But I was really pleased with our starting unit. Again, both last weekend in our closed scrimmage and today. They did what they're supposed to do, which is come out with great energy and kind of set the tone.”
On Jr. G J’Vonne Hadley
“Look, J’Vonne was five-for-nine from the field, had eight rebounds, one assist, no turnovers. I mean that's a pretty good line.”
On transitioning from preseason to game week
“Yeah it’s game week. Again, we got to have spirited competitive practices and that's one thing I'll say about this team is there's not a big gap between the first unit and the second unit because of our depth, quality depth. Guys like Javon Ruffin and Ethan Wright and Jalen came off the bench for us. We got some really good players, Luke O'Brien. We don't always go first unit, second unit in practice. In fact, we've only done it like two or three times. So I think getting that second unit, playing together a little bit more in practice and really sharpening each other. But our practices and the competitiveness that KJ is talking about, it's only going to help us and I think that's one of the reasons we've had some success here in our scrimmages against opponents, is our practices have been pretty good and spirited. I was really pleased with the way we shared the ball and made more passes tonight. I think passing the ball and catching the ball can still get better. We ran a play out of halftime and Tristan is wide open on a back cut. We got to find him. When guys are open we got to get it to them and then we got to finish. I think we could finish better whether it's open threes or at the rim, but that's going to come in time. It’s the first time with fans. These guys are sped up a little bit so slowing down offensively, making extra passes and getting great shots for our team. Once our guys settle in and feel a little bit more comfortable and confident out there, I like this team. I've said that from the get go.”
“I think we saw two teams that are far from midseason form. There's no doubt about that. Nebraska has got a lot of new faces on their team this year. We got a lot of new faces in our team. So these exhibition games and the closed scrimmage that we had last week, it's all about figuring out what works, what doesn't work, what do we need to get better at. I think both of the scrimmages have served that purpose very, very well. Some really good things, and some things we can improve on and learn from with film. Were 0-0 so, even though every time you step on the floor you want to compete to win, - there's no doubt we do that in practice every day in our drills, that's never going to change - it's about learning what's going to translate to winning basketball games starting November 7th when we play UC Riverside. A lot of good things and a lot of things we can get better at.”
On defensive rebounding
“Yeah, I thought we rebounded pretty well. You know, again, in our closed scrimmage, we fouled too much. Then we fouled a little bit tonight, midway through the second half I looked up, we had seven team fouls they had two. I don't know if it's because we're not attacking enough offensively or we're fouling too much defensively, but I thought rebounding we had some really good efforts and even efforts where we didn't get the rebound. Javon crashed a few times. Luke O'Brien I thought was really active on the boards, Jalen Gabbidon, Tristan. We want to crash and second shots there's gonna be times this year where we're going to have to win a game or two with our offensive rebounding, so we want that to be a constant. If we can get second shots, it really helps because, we hit a really dry spell they're offensively last eight minutes in the first half and those droughts we got to minimize those a little bit by getting to the foul line. I thought defensively that we held them to six threes and sixty-one points. Fred Hoiberg is a heck of a coach. They run some good stuff but again, they're not in midseason form, so defensive rebounding is something we're always going to talk about. I don't know what they ended up shooting for the game. I didn't even look at that. 41%, again, we want it less than 40. We want to be plus eight, so that's two scrimmages in a row where we've hit our rebounding numbers, but we haven't hit our defensive field goal numbers.”
On what needs to be improved
“I think getting a great shot on offense every time. We want just great shots, and understanding the jump shots are not always going to fall. I think it would be our spacing and execution offensively. I think we can really get better and tighten up. We got to be able to make open shots and we did that early, but then we hit a wall where I thought we missed some wide-open threes. That's just a matter of getting in the gym and getting reps, and game speed reps when you're tired and your lungs are burning. I think in every area we can get a little bit better defensively, guarding ball screens. I think guarding the ball is always something that we work on all the time. There's a multitude of things we can get better at but I think offensively it's making sure we're getting a great shot and we're getting paint touches. I don't know what the numbers were the second half. But in the first half, we were like seventeen for twenty-nine scoring or getting fouled when we had a paint touch. We were one for twelve when we didn't. Those twelve possessions have to get down to like maybe one or two not twelve."
On So. C Lawson Lovering
“He was good. We the ran first play of the game for him. He made a nice play out of the double team. We got him one more and got a good look. Lawson is a weapon down there. He's seven feet. When they didn't double him, you saw in the second half he caught it, turned and he scored. I mean Lawson is still a work in progress. Look, he's still a sophomore. But really, he missed fifteen games in his freshman year, so he's not a true sophomore. He doesn't have the minutes on the floor that most sophomores have so he's going to continue to get better and better and better as his career unfolds. He's a weapon. We want him screening and rolling at the rim and finishing. He's become a better foul shooter. Now they started double teaming in the post, so it was good for him. He turned it over I think once out of that. He's got to understand when he becomes a low post threat, he's going to get double teamed. Now it opens it up for these guys who were diving to the rim or spacing the floor. It's really nice to have somebody you can throw it into.”
On the starting unit
“I think those guys [the starting unit] were ready to play. Their energy was good. Again, the one thing I think about this team is we got great depth and so what I don't want these guys to do is pace themselves because we're going to be able to play ten guys. RJ Smith didn't get a chance to play tonight and I wanted to get him some minutes. It just didn't work out. Joe obviously, there was some matchup problems for him when we put him in the game. That wasn't fair to him. That was our fault as coaches. I think our transfers, J’Vonne gives great minutes. Jalen Gabbidon I think is gonna be a great defensive stopper for us. We got multiple guys that can guard. He did a good job on Wilcher there down the stretch. So I just don't want to pace ourselves. But I was really pleased with our starting unit. Again, both last weekend in our closed scrimmage and today. They did what they're supposed to do, which is come out with great energy and kind of set the tone.”
On Jr. G J’Vonne Hadley
“Look, J’Vonne was five-for-nine from the field, had eight rebounds, one assist, no turnovers. I mean that's a pretty good line.”
On transitioning from preseason to game week
“Yeah it’s game week. Again, we got to have spirited competitive practices and that's one thing I'll say about this team is there's not a big gap between the first unit and the second unit because of our depth, quality depth. Guys like Javon Ruffin and Ethan Wright and Jalen came off the bench for us. We got some really good players, Luke O'Brien. We don't always go first unit, second unit in practice. In fact, we've only done it like two or three times. So I think getting that second unit, playing together a little bit more in practice and really sharpening each other. But our practices and the competitiveness that KJ is talking about, it's only going to help us and I think that's one of the reasons we've had some success here in our scrimmages against opponents, is our practices have been pretty good and spirited. I was really pleased with the way we shared the ball and made more passes tonight. I think passing the ball and catching the ball can still get better. We ran a play out of halftime and Tristan is wide open on a back cut. We got to find him. When guys are open we got to get it to them and then we got to finish. I think we could finish better whether it's open threes or at the rim, but that's going to come in time. It’s the first time with fans. These guys are sped up a little bit so slowing down offensively, making extra passes and getting great shots for our team. Once our guys settle in and feel a little bit more comfortable and confident out there, I like this team. I've said that from the get go.”
Colorado Players
So., G KJ Simpson
On the intensity level after losing last year to Nebraska in an exhibition
“We have a couple of new guys and they don’t really know what happened last year. Us returners, we definitely had that edge to us. We just told the new guys that Nebraska is a great team, but this game was going to be kind of personal. I know it's an exhibition and it's not going to count but every game counts to us, especially this one, understanding what happened last year. I kind of told the new guys, let's have that edge to us, let's have that energy.”
On playing in a game compared to practice
“I just feel like going against each other every day, we go so hard and we push each other so much that sometimes you don't see all the good things we're doing because we're always going at it. But when you go out there and you face a new opponent, you get to see those sorts of good things. I felt like our spacing was pretty good, and just cutting, getting back on defense, that’s stuff we've worked on. It's just good to see that it's carrying over from practice, and now when we're facing these opponents, it's showing up out there on the floor. But like [Jr. G] J’Vonne [Hadley] said, we're still 0-0. So, we’ve just got to get better. Watch the film and get better.”
Jr., G J’Vonne Hadley
On how he’s adjusting to the team
“I feel like I'm adjusting pretty well. It was a cool opportunity. Just to get out there and play against different people than ourselves every day, but like Coach [Boyle] said, we’re 0-0. So we’ve got to watch the film and get better in the areas that we're not so good at right now, and get back to work.”
On the intensity level after losing last year to Nebraska in an exhibition
“We have a couple of new guys and they don’t really know what happened last year. Us returners, we definitely had that edge to us. We just told the new guys that Nebraska is a great team, but this game was going to be kind of personal. I know it's an exhibition and it's not going to count but every game counts to us, especially this one, understanding what happened last year. I kind of told the new guys, let's have that edge to us, let's have that energy.”
On playing in a game compared to practice
“I just feel like going against each other every day, we go so hard and we push each other so much that sometimes you don't see all the good things we're doing because we're always going at it. But when you go out there and you face a new opponent, you get to see those sorts of good things. I felt like our spacing was pretty good, and just cutting, getting back on defense, that’s stuff we've worked on. It's just good to see that it's carrying over from practice, and now when we're facing these opponents, it's showing up out there on the floor. But like [Jr. G] J’Vonne [Hadley] said, we're still 0-0. So, we’ve just got to get better. Watch the film and get better.”
Jr., G J’Vonne Hadley
On how he’s adjusting to the team
“I feel like I'm adjusting pretty well. It was a cool opportunity. Just to get out there and play against different people than ourselves every day, but like Coach [Boyle] said, we’re 0-0. So we’ve got to watch the film and get better in the areas that we're not so good at right now, and get back to work.”
Nebraska Head Coach Fred Hoiberg
On his immediate takeaways
"This game was perfect for us. We knew we were going to get tested and tested physically. They out "toughed" us in the first half. They had nine offensive rebounds. Second half they did a much better job -- only had three. This is the type of length and physicality we're going to see with 28 out of 31 high major games. It was perfect for us to face adversity and stay with it. To continue to fight and battle. We gave them a ten-nothing start and we didn't hang our heads. [We] Kept going. Keisei [Tominaga] took the lid off for us and hit a couple shots. I think 17 was their biggest [lead] and we cut it down to five. I thought we reverted back to what we did early and there are plenty of things we can take positive and negative from this game to clean up. I'm excited that we can open our playbook up as opposed to running the two plays or three plays that we ran and hopefully generate some offense. We're going to have to going into these first set of games. This is by design. We didn't want to show a lot. We have a bunch of new faces. We put in some new offense so I'm excited to get that started on the [November] 7th."
On his view about the offense's slow struggles
"Again, our [ball] movement wasn't very good. Even with that, we should still have better movement. Give Colorado a lot of credit on all of that. They blew up a lot of the dribble handoffs. We had two offensive fouls dribbling into them and making contact. Again, we haven't seen this type of language and pressure. As the game went on, I thought we handled it better. Went 3-10 from the line and 6-25 from 3 [point range] and we still had a chance. Again, clean that up and we obviously need to make our free throws when we get there and knock down a couple more shots."
On Oleg Kojenets performance
"I thought he was really good. I was really happy with Oleg. He's shown a lot of promise. He's gotten better since he's been in Lincoln. He's spending a ton of time [in the gym] and it's good to see it pay off. When he gets his first real minutes out there, yeah he was definitely a bright spot for us tonight."
"This game was perfect for us. We knew we were going to get tested and tested physically. They out "toughed" us in the first half. They had nine offensive rebounds. Second half they did a much better job -- only had three. This is the type of length and physicality we're going to see with 28 out of 31 high major games. It was perfect for us to face adversity and stay with it. To continue to fight and battle. We gave them a ten-nothing start and we didn't hang our heads. [We] Kept going. Keisei [Tominaga] took the lid off for us and hit a couple shots. I think 17 was their biggest [lead] and we cut it down to five. I thought we reverted back to what we did early and there are plenty of things we can take positive and negative from this game to clean up. I'm excited that we can open our playbook up as opposed to running the two plays or three plays that we ran and hopefully generate some offense. We're going to have to going into these first set of games. This is by design. We didn't want to show a lot. We have a bunch of new faces. We put in some new offense so I'm excited to get that started on the [November] 7th."
On his view about the offense's slow struggles
"Again, our [ball] movement wasn't very good. Even with that, we should still have better movement. Give Colorado a lot of credit on all of that. They blew up a lot of the dribble handoffs. We had two offensive fouls dribbling into them and making contact. Again, we haven't seen this type of language and pressure. As the game went on, I thought we handled it better. Went 3-10 from the line and 6-25 from 3 [point range] and we still had a chance. Again, clean that up and we obviously need to make our free throws when we get there and knock down a couple more shots."
On Oleg Kojenets performance
"I thought he was really good. I was really happy with Oleg. He's shown a lot of promise. He's gotten better since he's been in Lincoln. He's spending a ton of time [in the gym] and it's good to see it pay off. When he gets his first real minutes out there, yeah he was definitely a bright spot for us tonight."