Colorado-Arizona Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“Boy, the difference between two nights. You guys were here on Thursday, you saw how angry I was, and as angry I was that night I'm as proud tonight because, make no mistake we beat a really good basketball team. And Arizona was maybe they were due for a letdown. I don't know. I think we had a lot to do with that. Our energy level tonight on offense and on defense was off the charts good. And it wasn't on Thursday, but we beat a good Arizona team. I've got great respect for Tommy Lloyd and, and the players that they have. They're legit, they're legit top-five teams in the country. So kudos to our guys and on a senior night. It's hard to write a script that's better than this without a doubt. Colorado basketball; is it's a step in the right direction for us.”
On turnaround from Thursday to today
“I was on edge. I mentioned to you guys on Tuesday, when we didn't practice well, I was nervous. I was on edge on Wednesday when we didn't practice well. And I tried to really get into our guys to try to get him ready for Arizona State and then I was on edge on Friday. Obviously, we watched the film and the thing that was so apparent after Thursday's game, and every film clip we watched with this team on Friday, from the Arizona State game had to do with toughness, do with effort because those are two things you can bring every night. You don't have to have the talent to play with toughness and to play with great effort. We've got talent on this team but when we don't play with effort and toughness you can beat by anybody. And tonight we played with unbelievable energy and effort and toughness. And we beat the number two team in the country. It's funny when you're the head coach, you're doing everything you can do to beat Arizona State and then you got a one-day turnaround a play zone and so you really have to rely on your staff. And I've got a great staff that are great basketball minds from Mike Rhone to Bill Greer to Rick Ray, every one of them is a former head coach.”
On Evan
“Evan and I share a trait in that we're both very emotional. We wear our emotions on our sleeves. So there were tears when he was introduced. There were tears in the locker room. He means everything to me because he's such a special unique human being. Forget basketball player. And like you said, there's been a lot of good players who come and go through this program through the years but there's nobody who has done as much for our athletic department. You look at his resume and all the committees he's done and, and the things he's tried to give back to the university, and then you know, you go out in the boulder community, you walk down Pearl Street, you go to 29th Street and he's taking pictures, he's, he's the mayor, everybody knows him. Everybody loves him and you know, see him get up on the scores table tonight and address the crowd to play that he wants to be the head coach at the University of Colorado someday. I mean, how many kids do that he loves this place and be special. I love Evan Battey.”
On starting Julian
“I don't want people to think I was blaming Keeshawn because I wasn't. I was just trying to shake things up. Let's rattle the cage a little bit. Part of it was challenge Keeshawn and man, how did he respond? I mean, the charge he took in the second half.I'm not sure he would have made that play. I mean, that was a big-time play he made on the baseline, and you know, he attacked and he didn't how he didn't put his head down and so look, and I told him I said, this is nothing more than to try to, you know, rattle some cages and see if we can get a little different Mojo going and coming off the bench. KJ and I have talked about KJ really like it. I thought about starting KJ, he didn't play great on Thursday. So I felt like Julian deserved it. Julian responded in a big way. So that's tough, that's a tough game to have your first start, you know, playing at home against the number two team in the country and you're a freshman in the way that kid responded really tells me something about what he's made. And so I was proud of Keeshawn I was proud of Julian I'm proud of our team we have an eight-man rotation right now nine if we need to go to will. We didn't do that tonight. But there'll be nights maybe we have to as this thing rolls down the stretch.”
On the points in the paint
“Arizona went small in the second half to get back in the game. It helped us offensively because they didn't have that size in there. So we had to make good decisions offensively where we're picking and pop and picking and rolling. Are they switching? Are they not switching? Those are all things we talked about at halftime and timeouts and our players went out and really executed I think offensively because it's all about making good decisions. And then defensively to me, that's where we started switching. So we switched that coverage, the last part of the first half and in the first part of the second half. Then we went back to the switching. So, you know, our guys did a phenomenal job tonight of executing the defensive game plan based on whatever our coverages were. And what their lineups work in Arizona, they can have that colloquial and bellow lineup. You better not play it the same way. Or you're gonna have problems and our guys did a really good job, the energy level on defense tonight was you guys were here Thursday. It was like night and day.”
On Tristan
“I thought it was really good against Washington here at home. And Tristan is a good player. There's no doubt about it. And again, when I think a lot of people are really concentrating on Jabari, he's our leading scorer, right. A lot of people are concentrating on Evan he's a 53% three-point shooter so you know, with Tristan at the three spots it really gives us, with his size 6’10. He's got a great shot fake. What I love is Tristan is that he doesn't get sped up. He's got a really slow-moving, you know. He's kind of got that old man YMCA game. He really finished well tonight because he hasn't been finishing as well as he's capable. But all our guys finished Jabari finished, KJ, Keeshawn, all down the line.”
On energy
“Well, our players have to have to understand the difference, because there's nothing more telling than saying, Okay, what happened Thursday and what was the result? What happened Saturday, what was the result? And if they can't connect the dots, they probably shouldn't be going to schools University-Colorado shouldn't have made it through the admissions department. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Like you've got to play with energy and toughness and effort every time you step on the floor, because other teams are too and maybe we didn't get Arizona's best shots and I'm sure you know Tommy probably is disappointed in his players and maybe he's madder at them. And you know, maybe they weren't at their best tonight. But I just know Arizona's really good team. They've proven it all year long and is a great win for us to talk about.”
On maturity
“It took a lot of maturity. We had to play with poise and stretch that was a high-level basketball game. Emotions were running high. A lot of loose balls in the floor, you know, physical. So you've got to when you're playing in games like that you got to play with great energy and emotion, but not let the emotion boil over. And I thought our guys did a good job of that and that shows maturity. It shows maturity we didn't do technical fouls and you know, letting our emotions get the best of us. So we played with what we talked about, especially down the stretch we got to play with poise can't let them speed us up. And our guys did a good job of that. So it's a sign of maturity.”
Closing statement
“It's about looking through the windshield, not the rearview mirror. We got to move forward with this and again, learn from what happened, why it happened. And use that going forward. Because it's it's hard to win games in February because basketball is even harder in March. We’re playing Utah on their senior night. They're gonna have great energy and emotion everybody goes to the PAC 12 tournament thinking oh, we can get on a roll and so whatever the first-round game is there is going to be a dogfight and a war. So yeah, we'll see how it all plays out. But we've got a week to kind of prepare to get better. But we just got to stay the course and worry about Utah next Saturday and enjoy this. And again, this night was all about our seniors. And I'm really really happy for them and proud of them. Because I'm hard on these guys when we lose I am and it's just my nature. You know, Mark Johnson asked me before the game did you talk about anything positive after Thursday's game, I said hell no. I didn't know there's nothing positive to talk about. It's really neat to see. So at the end of the day, I talked about with these guys all the time is every time they put that uniform on they're representing more than just themselves and their families, and the university, they're representing every player that played before him. They made them proud tonight.”
Colorado Players
So., F Tristan da Silva
On making a statement after halftime
“Jabari said it in the locker room. We've been in this situation a couple months ago at Arizona. We said to ourselves, we can't let this happen again. So we went out there and gave it even more than in the first half and paid off.”
On bouncing back after Thursday’s loss
“You know we watched a lot of film after Thursday night. It was kind of frustrating because we had such a good run before Arizona state and then they come into our house and rebound us out. Coach was really big on being tough out there. And I guess that's that's the main thing that changed today.”
On scoring in the paint
“We talked about this in practice and in scouting reports and you know Coach talks about that a lot that their bigs are really good shot blockers so we were going into that game with the mentality of pump fake and shot fake and taking it to the chin when we try to lay it up and that puts the pressure on them and not on us.”
On the role the seniors played in tonight
“The energy came from all of them. Ben Will and Eli are just as big as a part of it as Evan. It just felt great. We talked about it before the game and shootarounds, Play for each other and play for the Seniors. We came out gave it everything we got and it paid off.”
So., F Jabari Walker
On the strategy against Arizona
“Yeah, the plan was to just drive and penetrate and they over help a lot. So even if it's not open the plan was to pitch it out and get some open looks. So once we started dribble penetrating we got open looks and it just gave everyone confidence and we just really focused on the defensive end and that opened up the game.”
On the defense’s excellence tonight
“Their bigs get a lot of their points rim running, and I learned that from them when we played at Arizona. I tried to take that as a skill set learned from my opponent and apply it to my game just hurry up the court and getting the ball out and running because it was a lot of pressure on the defense. So today I was more prepared with that. I was back in transition after every shot went up, I was trying to get to the bigs to relocate and move my feet, trying to swivel and force them to the shoulder that they don't like shooting over just doing everything we talked about on the scouting report.”
Sr., F, Evan Battey
On his journey at Colorado“The journey was worth it honestly, and it's so gratifying to see that video of my former teammates, talking wishing us good luck, those guys mean the world to me and all my teammates. It's just gratifying and humbling I'm happy. I'm so happy.”
On his emotions pregame
“Yeah, I was a mess pregame. I thought I was going to be more of a mess after the game but I've probably used up all my tears pregame.”
On the halftime adjustments
“Social growth, we played them close in the first half at Arizona and kind of kicked it away the second half and it's about progression by profession. I said social growth and chosen charity. And so how far we've come even after the last game.”
On the love the fans showed him postgame
“I don't know why the school shows me the type of love they do. I feel like they recognize me for doing things that everybody should do like having school pride, treating people the right way. To be an example and inspire the next generation of buffs and the next generation of kids I'm at a loss for words honestly. I was in the middle of the whole thing just soaking it all in.”
Evan Battey On This Team
“When you play for each other like that that, you share the ball like that, you rebound for each other like that and you fight, it's a gratifying thing. When you go through something together, you go through a struggle together, that group is going to come out real close, closer than they were before prior to the show. So, hell of a team this year.”
Evan Battey On Mindset After Arizona State
“We didn't pass the ball well, we didn't make plays for each other like we did the previous week on the three-game road sweep so we needed to get back to that and Coach Grier said it, when you play like that you can beat anybody and tonight we played like that.”
Fr., G, Julian Hammond III
On when he found out he was starting“Coach Boyle told me today at shootaround so it was a couple of hours before the game and was kind of a shock. But I just went on and played my game.”
On his first career start
“It felt good obviously because you don't beat the number two team in the country every day. But once I settled in a little bit I got more comfortable.”
Arizona Head Coach Tommy Lloyd
On Colorado Bouncing Back from Thursday’s Loss
“You knew they were going to play better. Their program has had a ton of success. They have a successful coach. They’ve got a ton of pride. (Coach Boyle) really challenged them and they were great.”
On How Colorado Caused Arizona to Struggle
“They were way more physical than us and got the game on their terms when they got that lead in the second half and were able to control the tempo and everything.”
On if Arizona Played Well in Portions of the Game
“I didn't feel like we went on too many streaks. Not good ones.”
On CU Getting More Points in the Paint
“They had us spread out. We lost some of our gap integrity and rim protection. That’s something we’ve got to look at.”
On if Arizona Was Struggling Mentally
“We got beat by a better team that probably wanted it a little bit more than we did today and played a little bit harder.”
On More Physical Games in March
“These games when you get into March get tough (with) fewer and fewer foul calls. When we got advantages (inside), we couldn't convert to get fouls and to get free throws. We’ve got to be better.”
On C Christian Koloko’s Struggles
“Christian’s a really good player. Teams know that the only chance they got us to be really physical with him and hope that the game's called as such. That's exactly what happened. (The game was) called like that at both ends. That's just how it goes.”
On G Bennedict Mathurin’s Second Half Struggles
“They were doing a good job pressuring us. (Colorado) switched a bunch of things, and then they didn't switch things. They were able to take a little bit of our thrust away.”
in the second half, particularly. I mean, did you notice anything different?
On Colorado Defending Better in the Second Half
“We lost a little bit of our thrust. They did a good job guarding (us). I don't know if we played a little bit tired or desperate, but we’ve got to be better.”
On How This Game Impacts the Larger Picture
“This game, at the end of the day, has no impact on anything other than we got to get better. Win or lose, I would have said that. We haven't even talked about the Pac-12 Championship because it's all about the next game. We didn't rise to the occasion today, and we’ve got a tough game Tuesday at USC.”
On If Good Things Could Be Learned from the Loss
“I'm always a believer in whatever happens to you, you make the best out of it.”
On If Arizona’s Record in Boulder was Talked About
“This is the first time I've ever played here so no, not at all. You don't bring up history because it's not your history. It's not my history.”
On the Review on Dalen Terry’s Foul
“It’s a scrappy game. Evan Battey’s a really good player. He’s always in a bunch of these little melees. He's a good player and he's a super nice guy.”
On the Difference in the Game
“In the first half we weathered the storm and came in with a five-point lead. In the second half they came out way more spirit. We were never able to get ourselves collected.”
On Games Getting Tougher in March
“That’s March. What do you want me to say? (They’re all) hard games. Bring it on. That's it. I want to play meaningful games this time of year. Next up, we're excited to play at USC on Tuesday.”