Colorado-Tennessee Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“Number one, I got to just let people know how much respect I have for Tennessee and Rick Barnes and the program he has and he's put together here. We caught them on a night they probably weren't at their best and they missed some really open looks, but we you know, we did too, but I've got such respect for him as a coach and what he's done with his career and what he's done with this Tennessee program. I was here 24 years ago, so I know what a special place it is. But, you know, today was about Colorado. And this guy to my left was terrific. I mean, KJ, I thought really took the game, you know, in his own hands there down the stretch and really controlled the tempo. Found a good balance between being in attack mode because you don't want to start milking the clock too early. You want to stay in attack mode, but yet, find that balance of using the clock and in in attacking. So the way he rebounded I mean, the 23 points will have other nights still have other nights like that for sure. But the 10 rebounds were fantastic. And we had some I thought some unbelievable defensive efforts from different guys like Jalen Gabbidon, the job he did on Vescovi he’s a heck of a player. KJ did a great job on Zeigler, who's quick and fast. We had we had really good contributions from the bench. So I'm really proud of our guys.”
On Changing Up The Starting Lineup
“I just talked to KJ and Tristan in the hallway and I told them, they knew I was doing it after probably practice yesterday, and probably didn't like it too much. But I just felt like we got to send a message to the guys that start the game, that they have a responsibility to bring energy and be ready to roll. And because we do have quality depth on this team, and it was also a message to those guys in the bench that hey, you better be ready. And I thought those guys that did start the game, I mean, my goodness, at the media timeout it was right there. And you know, Javon Ruffin is a freshman to throw him out for his first career start He responded. He struggled a little bit early, but then he came back and showed fight. So again, we got a rotation at 10 guys right now, which is hard to play 10 guys on a given night tonight we had a lot of foul trouble that made a little bit easier, but I thought it was a message that I sent to both this guys to start the game and also the guys that are on the bench that we're all equally important. And we have to be ready to go every time we step on the floor because we weren't on Friday night and you know that I know that everybody that saw that game knows that. But really proud of how they responded.”
On Limiting Tennessee’s Santiago Vescovi
“Well, yeah, I think the key for Tennessee in my opinion is you have to get through screens. They set such good screens; down screens, flare screens. So we worked on that in practice. Yesterday. We worked on it before we left Boulder because we knew we were going to see it and these are guys did a great job of getting through screens for the most part and even you know, look late, they hit a couple of threes. They get they got some really good shooters on that team but you have to be dialed in when you're away from the ball. But with Tennessee, you know a lot of a lot of teams it's about their on ball screens, with Tennessee, it’s about their off ball screens and again, I thought our guys did a great job. From KJ to Ethan to Jalen to Julian all our perimeter guys, Nique Clifford. I mean, Nique was hampered with foul trouble tonight, it’s wasn’t his night, we’re going to need everybody on this team as we as we move forward to this season.”
On Defensive Turnaround From Grambling State
“Well, I think it's it speaks to the character of our guys. I mean, they are competitors. I mean, this guy, I mean, KJ is as good as competitors we've ever had in this program and we've had some good ones, you know, so they, they had a bad taste in their mouth and, and just like we all did, but they responded and that's that's the thing you want to see from your team and your players is how they respond to challenges that you throw at them. Whether it's verbally or non verbally or in a line up, shake up or whatever the case may be. But we've got guys the thing I love about our team, they really are very supportive of each other it really care about each other. So like KJ said, you know, the guys we usually start we're supporting the guys that were starting tonight and we've got to get a really good group of young men in our program and they care and they've got high character.”
Colorado Players
KJ Simpson, So., G
On Momentum After Half
“We just want to focus on coming out the second half we even more energy than we did in the first we knew they were going to come out and trying to you know, bring good momentum. Get the crowd more in to it started, you know, pick up their energy a lot pick up their defense and it just, we just wanted to really, really dial in and focus on you know, coming out even better than we did the first.”
On Lineup Shake Up
“Oh, yeah, I'm a competitive person. So yeah, definitely did but I knew what he was doing. I knew you know, the strategy behind it and I just, you know, gathered up the guys that usually didn't start and you know, just told him like ‘what coach is trying to do and how we have to respond,’ especially coming out against a really really good team like Tennessee, and we even talked to you know, the guys that were starting you know, we have all the faith in you. Were a really deep team. So we were just, you know, kind of pushing them you know, to just beat themselves just play hard and they will just come right in and follow their energy and build right off and we sure did.”
On Heading To Myrtle Beach With Momentum
“Yeah, for sure. Definitely going in with a lot of momentum, a lot of energy but the thing is, we can't just dwell on this point. I mean, just be hot headed about this when you know, it's a great win great against a great team, but there's a lot more games just a lot left to season, you know to be played. Still. We got to go up in Myrtle Beach and play a tough team. So we just got to keep our mind set on just maintaining that energy and really, really dialed in on what we're playing and stay levelheaded.”