Colorado-Texas A&M Quotes
vs
Montana State
Nov 3 (Mon)
7 p.m.
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
On Game To Game Ups And Downs
“Look, I told the team afterward in the locker room ‘Great bounce back win, but I’m tired of bounce back wins.’ We want to start building on wins and, and we haven't done that yet this year, we've won, we've lost, we've won, we've lost and we want you know, we can't be that inconsistent team. If we lose a game it's got to be because somebody beats us and not that we beat ourselves and I feel like you know again, no disrespect to UMass because they deserved to win the game, but we helped in them in a lot of different ways. So it's good win, and proud of this team. You know, I also told them, I felt at breakfast and even on the bus coming over here, that these guys, they care. They care about this team they care about this season, they care about winning. And as long as you feel that your players feel that way, it really helps as a coach even though t's no fun to lose. To know that these guys are with you. Win or lose is a good feeling. And I told him, you know, breakfast as well. I'm with you guys. Like I believe in every single one of the guys on our team…they wouldn't be at Colorado in a Colorado uniform. So I think belief is a big thing and it's not like we didn't believe against UMass. We just didn't get it done. But today we did share the ball 22 assists is always a good number. When you play unselfishly like we did a day you know we can we can beat anybody.”
On Needing A Strong Showing Sunday
“Yes, it’s big because whoever we play is good. The four teams and the losers side of this tournament…We all have at large hopes and want to play in the NCAA Tournament and these games matter. They're gonna come back in November and either there’s going to be a really good win on your resume or it's gonna be a bad loss. So we can't, we can't take those for granted. Every time we step on the floor. It's an opportunity to prove ourselves on a national stage. And you know, look, we've beaten two ranked teams, which is pretty special. I don't know if anyone else in the country's beaten two rank teams right now. But the fact of the matter is, it doesn't matter if you can't take care of business in any of those other games so that's what we've got to do. I said before this season started I said we're gonna go through some growing pains with this team. I was hoping that Javon didn't experience it even though he saw it KJ did experience that you know that the tough loss we took in November last year. And we can't we can't let that happen again. We've had we've had two, we can't let any more happen. And again, if we get beat somebody's just gonna beat us. You're gonna get beat by a good team. If we just do what we do. You know, I got to point out, you know, with Nique Clifford and Luke O'Brien and Javon the three of those guys 10 assists, no turnovers. I mean, they really took care of the ball at night. Luke and Nique had been struggling a little bit, Javon, like you said, he's just getting going in his career, thought they played the great and Lawson Lovering really shared the ball. We gotta get Lawson more than one shot. He got one late, we had to do a better job of finding him on rolls but he's really unselfish. You know, we do get the ball down there. He kicks it out. He had four assists. So again, sharing the ball, playing inside out getting paint touches, just keep doing what we're doing offensively. And if we put offense defense together, you see it a night like this.”
On Nique Clifford
“I grabbed him as he got on the bus. And I just said ‘Nique, today's the first day of the rest of your career. Like you've got to put the past in the past. Don't worry about what's in the past and wen you make mistakes, don't let your head go down. I know you've been struggling. We know that you know that. Parents know that everybody you know fans know that. We believe in you. And just just go out there play first, you know, first day the rest of your career.’ That was the message to Nique and I thought he really responded.”
On KJ Simpson
“KJ is a special talent. I think we all know that, his teammates know that, the coaching staff knows that. It’s just about channeling it and being efficient. If I think about KJ’s game tonight, it's efficiency - and steals were big. I mean, the activity in the zone there because we played funky lineups and we weathered foul trouble with our bigs with J’Vonne Hadley being out. So his activity on defense - he can be a great on ball defender - but the thing I want KJ to do is just be an efficient basketball player. Tonight he has 30 points on 17 shots, and last night here, 13 points on 16 shots. That's the that's the opposite, right? I told him the game is simple when he does make the right decision every time and that's what we're trying to do with all of our players. And that's why I mentioned Nique and Luke and Javon and you have 10 assists, no turnovers, you're making good decisions, and KJ is fully capable of that. But I think sometimes he wants to take on the world by himself. And when he does that, sometimes he gets himself in trouble, but he's a special player. I mean, he he really is so he's, you Now look he's just a sophomore. We have so many young guys in this team that are still growing up. That's why Ethan Wright Jalen Gabbidon are so critical to this team to have those guys come in. J’Vonne goes down, Jalen comes in the starting lineup. We don't skip a beat. Because those two guys, they're not afraid. They're not your typical freshmen.”
Colorado Players
KJ Simpson, So., G
On Bouncing Back
“You know, we don't never want to lose two in a row. Obviously we want to win every game but I think that's really a big key you know, we lose one game you know, we never want to lose two in a row because we that means we're learning from what we did wrong in the previous game and going out there and taking care of it whoever we play against in this game, but like Coach says just at this point, we don't want to learn that way. You know, we don't want to lose one win one, lose one win one want to be consistent and play the same way no matter the competition.”
On Not Allowing Texas A&M Back In The Game
“We handled that adversity well. I feel like last game in the second half – I took a lot of time watching the film, I'm pretty sure everybody else did too. We UMass pressured us we just all just scattered you know we couldn't handle their pressure. I feel like today, we kind of face that same pressure but this time we didn't scatter around we didn't you know go crazy. We just kept playing at our pace and kept playing under control. When we play under control like that, it's gonna be hard to be beat.”
On Career-High 30 Point Game
“I feel like today I wasn't going out to hunt for shots. I mean, it's just the way we moved the ball. You know, the way opportunities just came to us and just I was just ready for that but everybody on the team was capable of doing that. That's why we're so dangerous. You might see on the stat sheet that, I had a lot of points but it's the things that my teammates did that, you know, got me those points. So we are capable of doing that for sure we move the ball like that.”
Javon Ruffin, Fr., G
On Not Allowing Texas A&M Back In The Game
“I think it all came down to defense. We guarded, we weren't letting them get anything easy. We still need to do better on “O” boards but we won't let them get easy shots. We were turning them over getting them in transition and stuff. So I think a lot of it a lot of that was on us. And I mean we kept sharing the ball so we're in open shots. No one had to force today.”
On Mood After UMass Loss And Coming Back Today
“As soon as the buzzer sounded we were all disappointed. Not necessarily in the fact that we lost but how we did it. We know that we didn't put our best foot forward not just in the shooting, but our effort wasn't there. Our defense wasn't there. So like that's how we felt leaving the game. So we knew that we had one goal today and make sure that we don't lose the same way. I mean, today we made some shots too and that helped but our energy and intensity on defense and offense was way different.”
On His Growing Confidence
“I’m going to get comfortable the more that I play and I think it makes it easier to know my teammates trust me they keep looking for me they trust me with the ball in my hands. Like I know they're just all like for me they keep me up so I know that there's going to be ups and downs. I might not always be shooting great but knowing that they trust me know that the coaches trust me to give me those opportunities means a lot.”
Texas A&M Coach Buzz Williams
“They did great. We had not near enough competitive character. We gave up 88 points yesterday, Murray State shot 50 percent from the field. Today 103 points, Colorado shot 58 percent from the field. What we want to be about and what we want our identity to be about and what we’ve practiced before we came here has not been evident since we’ve been here. I don’t have the answer, I understand I’m responsible for trying to figure out that answer and will be held accountable. The tenets on what our defense is built on, we haven’t executed at any level since we’ve been here. We need our defense to help our offense and we’ve been doing it or trying to do it in an inverse way. At this level that won’t work. Whether there is defense or not, to shoot 58 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3, whatever level of defense that would be considered, it’s not near good enough.”