Colorado-UCRiverside Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement“It was a good win. First games are never easy. You never quite know what to expect out of your team. Number one, Riverside's a really good opponent. I think anybody that saw that game tonight saw they've got some guards that are really really good. Zyon Pullin, he can play. We play a lot of places in this country and as a senior point guard. We did a really good job of guarding the three-point line because they've got some shooters that we didn't let going tonight. I thought we guarded, we want to hold opponents to less than six threes a game and they only made four so I think that was a big part of the game, but our ball screen defense in the second half broke down a little bit, especially with our switches, which should be the easiest ball screen coverage that you're in. Then they went zone and we got some good looks. We missed them and then they scored four times in a row to kind of shrink it to I don't know 12 or whatever it was, 13 I didn't want to get that thing under ten. They got it to 10 a couple of times. Overall, some good things we can build on and a lot of things we can learn from. We can learn a lot from their point guard the way he uses ball screens and it gets downhill and makes some really really good decisions consistently.”
On the bench players
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in all ten of those guys and I've got confidence in some guys that are on the bench that aren’t playing. It's just hard to play more than ten guys and try to get a flow going and sometimes there's a player, it's hard to go in there and not get a little bit of a rhythm going. We try to let guys play through mistakes and I try not to have too quick of a hook but as we turn the ball over, that's the one thing with this team that I'm going to really keep a sharp eye on and I don't want guys turning over multiple times and look, I'll live with one but you get into two or three and it's like okay, let's get somebody else in there who will take care of the ball. Our bench is going to be a key for this team as the season unfolds. We have two kinds of different lineups when Lawson's (Loverling) in the game defensively where we've got a different lineup and then when Lawson’s out of the game, we have a different lineup and we're going to adjust that as the season unfolds.”
On the energy throughout the team
“It is. KJ (Simpson) is really energetic player. I think Jalen Gabbidon brings energy. There's a lot, there are multiple guys, you don't want one guy to be your energizer bunny, because if that guy doesn't have it on a particular night, and you're kind of flat. That's why this team, hopefully, we're going to have three or four guys that we can count on to energize the rest of the group with their play. When you see him (J’Vonne Hadley) make the play he made off that out-of-balance play that was kind of a broken play by them and he tracked it down and got down and got a dunk and got the crowd into it. Our crowd is going to fall in love with J’Vonne Hadley if they haven't already. I mean, it's only been one game, but I'm just telling you, he brings it every day. That's what makes him special.”
On Javon Ruffin
It's great. What's crazy about last year is I still didn't know what we had and even early this year, he was fighting some injuries and it wasn't until about three weeks ago when he had a strong couple of weeks of practices back to back to back that you saw what he brings and he's a really good player. What I love about Javon is he comes in and he doesn't play scared. He plays confidently, he's a good player, and he's a good decision-maker. Look, he's still a freshman, and he's going to make mistakes, but he's going to be a really good player here before it's all said and done. I look at him as a true freshman because he did not get a practice last year, but he's not playing like that. He comes in and I'm gaining more and more confidence with Javon Ruffin each and every day that he's on the floor, which we’ve got to keep on the floor and keep him healthy.”
On the top two scores being newcomers
“I think with this team, the balance and the depth that we've just talked about, it might be different guys on different nights and that's the one thing I've really tried to impress upon the guys is tonight might not have been your night, you may not have gotten the minutes or the or the shots, but next game might be. This is not going to be a team where we have to depend on one specific guy to go get us X amount of points every night. We've got a lot of different guys in this team that could score the ball in different ways. The fact that those guys were leading scorers tonight, our next game played it might be two totally different people, but I see a lot of balance. A lot of depth on this team.”
On the defense
“I thought it was great. We held them to [shooting] 35% [in the first half]. The biggest thing is they got nine offensive rebounds, that part of our defense wasn't good. We talked about that at halftime, they had 15 for the game. Again, we want that number below six. Just like the made threes below six, we want the offensive rebounds by the other team [below six]. We still want to be a plus eight on the boards. We were plus one. We were really close to our 40% shooting goal. If you'll remember we didn't hit that, but I thought in the first half it was good and second half it got sloppy. We missed a lot of ball screen coverages in the second half. You can't let that happen. Forty-minute game, this is a young team that's still learning but we better figure it out because we got five games away from our building. The hardest thing to do in college basketball is to win away from home so we have to figure that out quickly.”
On Lawson Lovering
“Lawson is just trying to go a little bit too quick right now. A couple of times we put him in really difficult situations, but I thought when he catches down a little block we've seen it in practice, I think right now he's just getting a little sped up. He's going to be fine. He's going to be a weapon down there for us. There's no doubt what Lawson's value to this team is, a lot of people may not see it, is on the defensive end or ball screen defense that he shows and gets back to his guy. He's a pretty good box out guy. He'll have better nights than he had tonight but I thought he's a little sped up and rushed and just got to slow down. He's going to slow down and take his time. He will.”
On the team sharing the ball
“I sure hope so because I think sharing the ball and again with our depth with our balance. The first thought for the day every year since I've been here for the 13th year now is it's amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit and if our players can play like that and think like that. We get a chance to be pretty good this year.”
On places to improve on the team
“I think consistently our ball screen coverage, again, we played against a really good point guard. Really good, an elite level point guard there were some NBA scouts here watching him. When you're playing against the big time point guard, you have to be on point with your ball screen coverages. Time and time and time again, you can't have breakdowns like we had tonight, so it's putting the 40 minutes together, and having the second half defense look like the first half. They're making tough shots, but we're not breaking down. We got to get to limit them to one shot, they had 15 offensive rebounds. Those are the two areas I think, off the top of my head I'll have probably three or four more when I watched the film. I think our transition offense after misses, it's got to get better, our spacing was bad. I thought we had some opportunities to score in transition that we kind of trickled off because we weren't in the right spots and we didn't make really good decisions but that'll come.”
On the pace of the offense
“It's key, and that's why especially at home in this building, we've got to play with a pace on offense that wears teams down and I think we did that tonight. Every time we get a stop I want to be running now. We may not score every time but at least they're having to sprint back and the defense isn't set, we get that ball moved. If you do that time and time and time again other teams will wear down and I think they did a little bit tonight. That's one of those that I think, maybe they didn't make as many threes, our defense was part of it but the other part was a pace of play and the altitude because the altitude is real. Especially teams go from California.”
On game against Grambling State
“The Pac-12 initiative that came about after the George Floyd incident and tragedy, trying to do something about social justice and playing a home and home with the SWAC teams and HBCUs. It's an opportunity for our players to understand what HBCUs are and go visit them and see for themselves and learn some of the historical significance of those institutions. For them to get to know us a little bit and the competition can bring out a lot of good things. It's not something we probably would have done on our own if the Pac-12 didn't, make it happen with the SWAC, but we're going to go down there and make the most of it and hopefully our players can, be enlightened a little bit. I think history is something that maybe young people today need to take a little bit more interest in. This is an opportunity for us to really let them know the historical significance of an institution like Grambling.”
Colorado Players
Grad., G Jalen Gabbidon
On getting a fast start being a point of emphasis - “Yeah, I mean, if you look at our roster it’s no secret that for this level, we're a little undersized, but we have the athleticism and the skill to back it up. That's one of our strengths is that we're fast, one through one through eighteen. We can all get out, we work on that in practice, we push the ball hard and so naturally coming out that was a big point of emphasis was that we are at altitude. We're going to run, we're going to push the ball, and we're going to play an exciting game.”
On how the depth allows you guys to play fast and furious every time every second you are on the floor - “Yeah, I mean, I've been around college basketball a lot and I've played in a lot of games. Against high level teams, and in practice any given day, anyone can be unstoppable, virtually and that to have that asset of depth is huge for us. Coach says, put it all out there in the time you have because we have the depth. We have ten, eleven, twelve guys who can all contribute at the highest level of ball, so there's no reason for us to hold back. We can crash the glass, we can push transition. That's a huge advantage we have and I think everyone you know throughout the summer, throughout the preseason, the coaches have pushed as hard, so we all have confidence in each others of abilities and know exactly what everyone can do. And want to set each other up for success.”
On what it says about this team for two newcomers like you guys to come in and just make an immediate impact - “I think it's a statement to the character of the guys on the team. When I was in the recruiting process, Coach Boyle told me this is a program where you're not going to worry about the character of the guys. This is the most unselfish group of guys you could find and since they've been here, that's been the truest statement ever. I feel like I've been here for years with these guys. The way we interact in the locker room and the way we hang out and off the court and on the court, the chemistry we have. I just think this is a phenomenal team. You know, it's a team.”
On playing well in his first game as a Buff - “Frankly, I don't think it's anything special. We say do your job. Everyone has a job on the team and do your job to the best and if you do it, good things happen. And we practice every single day our jobs so when you go out there, we're not doing anything special. We are not trying to make any special plays. We're just doing everything that we practice for the thirty practices we've had and the whole preseason, and the whole summer. When you really get out there, it's really simple to just execute when we have all the preparation we put in.”
On the challenge #5 posed to you guys - “We knew coming into the game that he could play at this level. He's a high level guard, he's shifty, he's strong, he has a good mid-range game, he can drive, he's a phenomenal passer and our game plan was to just try to keep him contained as much as possible. Good players are going to make shots, but our goal every possession is to get a contested shot, and he has some shots that he made off the dribble that were hard contested two's and you live with that, but just doing our best to make sure we stay solid on him, and don't give him any freebies to get him going. But that was mostly our game plan. He's a really good player.”
Jr., G J’Vonne Hadley
On the first official game - “Just right out of the gate, we had a lot of energy. We knew that, like Coach is always emphasizing, we were 0-0. Maybe not the Wyoming and the Nebraska scrimmages; this is the biggest. This is our biggest one yet. Just coming out here 0-0, we knew we had to bring it right away.”
On team comfort level - “We're pretty comfortable. There's always some, you know, tweaks here and there that we need to work on and stuff like that. You know, [we] just watch the film, and see our spacing, that’s one big thing that coach is always emphasizing. [We’re] just getting out and running, and just being in space, because it opens driving lanes and for us to get to the paint, kick [the ball] out for threes, or you know, finish all the way to the rack.”
On his confidence level - “Yeah, obviously I gained a little bit of confidence. I think I really found my confidence at Junior College though. I mean, I've always had that sort of grit to me, you know, growing up I've always been kind of counted out. Not a lot of people in this world thought I could play at this level. So, you know, that's one of the biggest things that I've come away with every single night: just proving that I belong here, [and] that I can play at this level.”
On what he learned in junior college - “I would say I really matured just coming into junior college. It's not what a lot of people think; not a lot of people can play at the junior college level, just being honest. It's physical, you don't get a lot of calls, almost like jail ball. But, you know, we created a family there too. But it's really physical, so that's where I had to grow up, you know, in the weight room and stuff like that because, you know, personally I didn't really look like this when I was a freshman. So, I just had to put on a lot of muscle and with that came confidence.”
On toughness and physicality – “Oh yeah, they're a physical team. Probably the most physical team that we've seen so far with Wyoming and Nebraska. We learned about their past with PAC-12 teams and stuff like that. So, we knew that, you know, they were going to come in here with a little bit of aggressiveness and, you know, grit, you know, to show that they belong and they can play at this level. So, we knew that that was coming. Sometimes throughout the game, we didn't really, you know, match that physical intensity, and that's one of the biggest things that coach talks about is being consistent. You know, just being consistent every single play, attacking 100% of the time. It goes back to that depth because we have 11 to 12 guys that can come in here and do the same thing. So, you know, give it your all and when you're tired, ask for the tired signal, and you come out and somebody else will come in and do the job.”
On the upcoming trip - “I think the biggest thing is just, you know, being locked in, night in and night out. You know, we got to just execute, and we’ve got to take care of our schoolwork and stuff like that, too. Both on the court stuff, and off the court stuff. And you know, it's going to be a challenge. It's our first long road trip. So, I mean, we just, we just kind of know that this is a business trip, and we got to take care of business.”
UC Riverside Head Coach Mike Magpayo
On the competition experience playing against a Power-5 school
“Yeah, you know the [whole] power five school thing -- we've done well before. In the last three years, we've beaten three power five schools and competed with everyone but I knew that they're just Colorado is just so well coached – Coach [Tad] Boyle does a great job. They’re so tough defensively and it really showed up today.”
On the adjustments they made at halftime
“I don’t think that we got into the rhythm of the game in the first half. It took us 20 minutes [to get a feeling for the game] especially just because nine new guys understanding what it's all about play in this kind of environment. They finally got their feet under them [and] played a lot better in the second half to give ourselves a chance to cut it but we've never really got ourselves in the game.”
On having nine new players and what their adjustments need to be throughout the season
“These types of experiences [playing Power-5 schools] are what's going to help us grow. So you hope that as they kind of experience these types of environments -- this type of physicality, it's going to pay dividends down the road.”