Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-Boise State Quotes
vs
Montana State
Nov 3 (Mon)
7 p.m.
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
On Game To Game Ups And Downs
“We have to get tough. We wilt like flowers when people get into us. There's no other way to put it, we wilt like flowers. We start feeling sorry for ourselves. We started looking at the referees. We start listening to fans We just aren't tough enough, mentally, we're not tough enough physically. UMass climbed up into us, we couldn't handle it, couldn't finish. Boise State did the same thing. Look, Toughness is making free throws on the road, get to the line, we had plenty of opportunities to do that and we didn't. They’re not listening to their coach. We're so poorly coached right now, that it makes me want to puke. Because, you know, we are not living up to our end of the bargain when it comes to wearing the Colorado basketball uniform. And our players need to understand that you know, any former player that watched this game tonight, they should be ashamed with the the toughness that we played. Look, again, Boise is a good team. They're very good. They got good players. We knew that coming in. We knew we told them hey, these guys, these guys have smacked good Pac-12 teams.”
On First Half FG Defense Struggles
“They made seven threes in the first half. Our goal is to limit them to six or fewer for the game. And they hit seven in the first half. So that's not knowing the scouting report that's not doing your job. Limit them to one shot. That was part of the game plan. We had to limit them to one shot, they get six offensive rebounds in the first half. We wanted to limit them to six or fewer for the game. So at halftime, they got more threes that were supposed to give up they got as many offensive rebounds are supposed to go for the game. They had seven points of offensive rebounds and 21 from three. Like holy cow, you're not gonna beat anybody doing that like and we're down eight, because we battled when we competed. But then, you know, we didn't play very smart in the second half. We couldn't get rebounds - two free throw box outs, we just get pumped. They're just tougher now. They are a tougher team than us. It's no more simple than that. It's just they're tougher, and they played like it. And that that really, really bothers me. They're tougher on defense and they're tougher on offense. They run their stuff better. They're tougher.”
On Tristan da Silva Not Playing In Second Half
“He took a shot to the head, you know Tristan struggles with migraines. Again that was part of it. So he wasn't able to come back. We missed him. You know Look, we beat Texas A&M virtually without him. You know but when he's out and J’Vonne Hadley is out, we're pretty exposed in that front line. I you know, I said before the season we have to stay healthy there and we have to get consistent play from the guys that are on the front line with but J’Vonne Hadley’s out, Tristan da Silva’s out, puts a lot of pressure on Lawson and Luke and Jalen Gabbidon, he's our next man up. Because you know, Joe, Joe Hurlburt I just don't feel like it's quite ready yet. And I'm going with 10-man rotation and with a guy out we're down to nine and with Tristan out, we're down to eight. Just the way it is. Work. Look, it's not like we were playing somebody that had size Degenhart It's a good player. He's a nice player, but you know we had a game plan against him. Milner comes in and does his role but he you know, he scored four points for them. He wasn't a difference in the game. So it wasn't it wasn't the size it was the it was the toughness.”
On Moving Forward
“We need to practice, we have had not had an opportunity to practice on this trip and it shows. We're going to practice and we'll travel back tomorrow. I was thinking about depending on how this trip went, you know giving them a little extra time this week. We're not in school. It's time to rock and roll man. It's time to get back in that gym and get out Tuesday practice is this we're gonna we're gonna hook it up. We're gonna hook it up. And our guys are gonna get tougher. I might have to go to a five-man rotation.”
Colorado Players
KJ Simpson, So., G
On Getting In Holes Early
“I just felt like we don't know how to respond. Like we're good when we're up and we have shots falling and when we move the ball and when everything's going good on the offense and but when shots don't fall we were just not responding. And today Boise State they shot the ball really well are pretty good but like, it wasn't crazy enough where they…that allowed them to just kill us like we didn't have no fight at all. That's why they deserve to win like we just we have to figure out a way to respond to these teams when our offense does not go on.”
On How To Regroup
“Work on everything that we need to, especially on the defensive end. I mean, I've talked to you before on what we learned on this trip, but I said you know, ‘we're gonna learn a lot about ourselves, playing you know, different teams having to learn to scouts real quick.’ And, you know, there's a lot of stuff that we can build and work on. I know it's still the beginning of the season. So within this week that we have coming out we just got to work on everything you know, watch film, start watching film. Then it starts on defense. Going through drills, you got to come in and get more shots up. Take care of the ball, my end as well. In rebounds just we didn't know we didn't work on a lot. There's not one thing we need to focus on.”
On Hurt Ankle
“(A guy) fell on my ankle. It is what it is. I'm not gonna quit on my guys. You know, we win together we lose together. I'll be fine.”
Nique Clifford, Jr., G
On Ups And Downs This Stretch
“So it's been a tough stretch for us. We keep going back and forth win loss, win loss. So you know, we just got to get back to the drawing board when we get back. Practice hard and just figure out what we're doing wrong. You know, we got to we got to play harder as a team. We got out tough tonight. So that's the biggest key for us. It's just getting tougher.”
On Getting Better At Rebounding
“We talked about that at half; we’re just getting pushed under the basket. You know, so we have to create space on our box out. There was a lot of long rebounds that should have been ours. We weren't getting 50-50 balls, you know, so it's just like I said it comes down to toughness and who wants it more on the glass.
On Team Free Throw Struggles
“It was an issue for us against UMass as well. Free throws are our gimme buckets and the team, the team just has to get in the gym and work on it on our own, including myself. We've missed a lot of opportunities where we could be a lot closer in these games just by making free throws. So you know, I think it's mental, just stepping up being confident at the line. And just taking our time I think we're rushing in some of our free throws. So like I said, we just got getting the gym keep working on it.”
Boise State Head Coach Leon Rice
General
“We knew we had our hands full tonight. I’ve watched them a lot and have tons of respect for them. They got my attention when they beat Tennessee at Tennessee and then they come here and score 103 on Texas A&M. We knew we had to compete with them on the glass, we had to limit to limit their 3-pointers because they had 16 of them the other night. They’ve some guys that if you let them shoot, they’re going to make them.”
On the improvement in the final two games
“We tell our guys we’re going to face adversity, well, good. That’s why you play good teams, that’s why you play in these events because the adversity early in the season helps you and forces you to grow. If we didn’t get any better, we were going to go 0-3 in this tournament. Credit to my staff the way they consolidated everything and simplified everything. You’ve got 100 things to correct this time of year and these guys responded and got better.
Boise State forward Tyson Degenhart
“We had a little heart-to-heart at halftime of the Charlotte game. We had to pick up our energy and I think we saw the benefits of starting off the game with energy and keeping that energy throughout the games.”