Colorado - St. Bonaventure Quotes - University of Colorado Athletics

Grace College (Ind.)

Oct 19 (Sun)

12 p.m.

Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle

Opening Statement
“Let me first start with big picture stuff which is really hard after games so emotional like this and when the season comes to an end so abruptly at home. We got four really special young men who were seniors in this in this program. Evan Battey, Elijah Parquet, Will Loughlin, and Benan Ersek. All four of those kids have represented this program so well on the court, off the court, in the community, and I'm so proud of them and they're going to be great successful people as they move on in their lives. They are going to be great family men. Sometimes you got to look at that when it's all said and done, and understand that's part of this process. Obviously, the game itself was disappointing. You’ve got to give St. Bonaventure credit. They were the better team tonight, they were the tougher team tonight, they were the better executing team tonight and they were the team that didn't want their season to end more than we did. I told our team at shootaround today that the team that wins this game is going to be the team that does not want their season to end more now. Assuming we both don't want our season to end more, who doesn't want it and more for and it was St Bonaventure. All four of their first baskets were things we talked about it shoot around. In the first play of the game, they got the dunk, we walked through that, we talked about it, we watched it on film. They got two transition baskets, one layup, one wide-open three by their best shooter, we talked about that before the game started. We weren't locked in mentally or ready to play tonight for whatever reason and that's something I've got to look at myself. Maybe I didn't do a very good job getting our team emotionally ready to play tonight. Maybe I just took it for granted. I didn't take St. Bonaventure for granted I promise you that. Neither did our staff. Our team was prepped on how good these guys were. They were warned about their toughness and their ability to execute and we were not good enough defensively all night long. That team came into our building, shot 50% in the first half. We couldn't get stops. It's that's a helpless feeling when you're just trading baskets. We're up by three at halftime because our offense was good and we made shots in the first half. In the second half, we had too many empty possessions down the stretch and we had two shot-clock violations, one in the first half and one in the second half. That in itself tells you that your team is not mentally ready. You should never have a shot clock violation on March 15. You might have one on November 15 when your offense isn't gelled yet and you're still working on things but not on March 15. That tells you right there that our team was not mentally ready to go tonight. That's disappointing and that's on me as a coach so I have got to take responsibility for that. I wanted this season to continue, I wanted his team to get to New York and experience Madison Square Garden. I've experienced it as a player and I've experienced it as a coach. These guys won't and that's disappointing to me because I know how special a place that is. And in maybe St. Bonaventure will get there. I know they're a good team, they're well-coached, they have good players, and they're tough, but we didn't live up to our end of the bargain tonight. Our fans did. Tuesday night, nine o'clock, the student section was rocking and fans were great. We lost six games in this building this year. That's unacceptable. I'm angry because the season's over with and I didn't want it to end because I love coaching this group of guys. We've got to look internally as a staff. Every player that's returning has to look internally because we did not meet the standards at Colorado basketball that we've set for ourselves and that's not a good feeling.”

On Osun Osunniyi slowing Jabari Walker down
“He's a great shot blocker. We knew that coming into the game and we talked about it. Jabari didn't have his best game. Jabari made some really good plays for other guys tonight though. He had 6 points which is not him. 2-for-10 is not Jabari. He wasn't as best tonight but the kid has been consistent all year long with 17 double-doubles. The reason that I emphasize defense and rebounding so much is for nights when Jabari goes 2 for 10. Unfortunately, it was tonight, but we had a good look there in the second half at the rim. Evan had a great look from three. There's nobody I'd rather have at the rim than Jabari Walker. There's no one I'd have rather have to take a wide-open three than Evan Battey, the way he's been shooting the ball. We had our chances but we just didn't make shots when we had to make shots. We had too many empty possessions, a shot clock violation in the second half, a transition turnover, and another turnover. Too many turnovers down the stretch and empty possessions offensively puts pressure on your defense and our defense was not up to it tonight, as we haven't been many nights this year and that's frustrating because this is this was not a great defensive team and that bothers me as a coach. I feel like that's something I take pride in.”

On St. Bonaventure starts playing the majority of the game
“They did a good job and they went zone in the first half and to basically rest. ESPN 2 games have like three or four-minute media timeouts and that really is an advantage. You get into postseason play and the lack of depth even at altitude doesn't play as much of a factor as maybe it would have. They got tough kids and they're in great shape. When you play 37 or 38 minutes a game, you're in good shape, and they were and they're mentally tough kids. All five of them are seniors. I think they're all 22 years of age or older. They're tough and that's what our young guys have to understand. It doesn't matter the name on the front of your jersey. They had the emotional edge tonight. We're the power five conference, we're the higher seed but those kids got self-respect. They got a lot of pride and they played like it tonight. They beat us and that's something that we're going to have to live with all offseason: home lost in the NIT. I'm going to have to live with it, every senior is going to have to live with it the rest of their lives, the returning guys got to live with it. If it doesn't create a little bit of edge and a chip on your shoulder, we’ve got the wrong guys. This has got to be a great offseason for everyone this program, coaches, players, managers, you name it.”

On the Coming Weeks
“Obviously the season's over with - next week is spring break. I'm a sit-down immediate guy, so I'm going to give them tomorrow to kind of let things digest. I'm going to digest things tomorrow. I won't watch film because it’ll just ruin my whole day, but I got to sit down and talk to our staff about every returning player and the message that I need to give to them. I want to know what they're thinking, and we're going to meet with every returning player on Thursday or Friday. They'll go home for spring break, whatever you know they do for spring break. When you have spring break as a college basketball player, then it's been a disappointing year. You want to be playing during your spring break, but maybe our guys wanted a spring break. You'd have to ask them. I didn't. I'm going to meet with these guys immediately. Then I'll meet with them again when they come back from spring break because they'll have gone home and talk to their families. We'll kind of get a game plan as we move forward and then we'll start our offseason lifting and skill work and development. Offseason starts, and it starts for them tomorrow. It can't start for me tomorrow because we have to give them so many days off and look at the compliance issues that we have to deal with. They deserve some time off and whether we had spring break or not I would give them a week for sure. Mostly because I have to. Anyway, it was a good year. It was not a great year.”

On Battey Leaving
“It's funny I'm empty with emotion right now. I know how much I told Evan in the locker room how much I loved him, and he you know he reciprocated. My relationship with Evan is going to be rock solid as we move forward for the rest of his life. I always say when we recruit kids, this isn't a four-year decision, or in Evans case a five-year decision, this is a will be 40 years - it won't be 40 years for me because I won't be alive - but for the rest of my life Evan Battey has got a friend and advocate, somebody that will do anything in my power to help him. That goes for every senior as well. Evan is not the only one, but what a special kid. I didn't want to end like this. I would like to have won. You knew he was going to end at some point over the next couple of weeks, but I didn't want to end. I think Evans is a little bit numb to quite frankly. As emotional of a kid as he is, he's a little emotionless tonight, I saw it on the floor and I saw it in a locker room. It's not like him, but what a special young man. Evans is so unique and I've talked a lot about him, but what makes him unique, I think in today's day and age is that he is such a competitor. But he's such a gracious sportsman, who has empathy and compassion, not only for his teammates, but those are the plays against - that's really special. That's very rare. I've given him a lot of superlatives, and said a lot of nice things about Evan. I was thinking the other day, that's what really makes him different than most guys. It just does. He's always positive. St. Bonaventure, Congratulations to them. Evan Battey would have never done what their players did to an opposing students’ section at the end of the game. I'm not mad at St. Bonaventure, you won the game, do what you want to do, Evan Battey would never do that. That's what makes him special.”

On The Seniors Passing the Mantle
“That's what I've said since I got here 12 years ago now. I'm interested in building a program. I think we've done a good job of that. I'm not interested in building a team. I don't like the transfer portal, I'm not saying that we'll never get in it, we might be in it this spring. I don't know. We'll see what happens with my year-end meetings with our guys, but I want you know, Freshmen to come in this program, and learn from the juniors and the seniors. We had no juniors this year, we had seniors -, we had a great senior in Evan. So yeah, I want those young guys to learn and to carry on, and to have pride. That's what a program is all about. That's what a culture is all about, and we've been able to build that here. I don't want to get into the 'we're going to sign four guys from the transfer portal every year. I don't want to make a habit of that. I want the young guys to get better and improve, and I think they will.”

Colorado Players

So., G Keeshawn Barthelemy
On letting St. Bonaventure back into the game
“Definitely, we always talk about separation, and the only way to get separation in college basketball is getting stops and we couldn't string stops together after getting a 10-point lead so simple as that.”

On the energy level entering tonight after not making March Madness
“I mean of course, we're disappointed that we didn't make the tournament but it just felt like St. Bonaventure wanted to be here more than we did. And it showed in the first three minutes of the game every time they made a shot the whole bench, the whole team was hyped and we were just on our heels so that was probably what happened with us in terms of not making the tournament and just being ready mentally.”

On playing against a great shot blocker like Osunniyi
“It's tough because just his presence can really help his team defensively, their guards can pressure because they know they have somebody on in the backend of their defense. He (Osunniyi) did his thing today, he's a two-time A-10 Defensive Player of the Year for a reason.

On the mindset going into next year
“We were a young team this year. We didn't try to use that as an excuse, but we competed and as our season ends we're just going to take that in the offseason, get everybody better and see where it takes us next year.”

Sr., F Evan Battey
On the overall feeling after the loss
“We weren't ready to play tonight, emotionally, mentally. They were happy to be here and happy to be in the NIT and happy to have the chance to compete in the dance and we didn't play with energy.”

On the short prep vs. St. Bonaventure
“There were things we can't get through all in one day. We had to rely on our principles and our principles weren't good enough. So that's where the disconnect came from. They are a confident senior-led group that came to play today.”

On his initial feelings after playing his last game for the Buffaloes
“I would have rather played in this game than kept the storybook ending of us beating Arizona. To have the chance to play in front all these fans, the people I love and this community again. I'm all about the Buffs.”

St. Bonaventure Head Coach Mark Schmidt

Opening Statement
“I was really proud of our team's effort. I thought we had a lot going against us (with) flying four hours, the altitude, (and) coming off a tough loss. Give our (players) credit. They couldn't have played better. (In the) second half we played much better on defense, but we made shots. We got stops. It was a hostile environment, but (the players) really overcame it. I was proud of (how we did) dealing with adversity in the last week or so and getting this draw and coming out here. Everything was against us. I thought (our players) showed a lot of maturity and really did a great job bouncing back (from their loss against Saint Louis in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament).”

On Being Proud of Players’ Efforts in the Second Half
“I’m really proud. We’ve got character guys. They didn't feel sorry for themselves. We always have that 24-hour rule, win or lose. I thought guys showed what they're made of. (They’re) tough-minded kids that overcame some adversity. We were playing in the NIT. When we got the invite -- basketball as a microcosm of life -- you're going to get knocked down and it's how you recover. Some guys stay down, and some guys pick themselves up off the canvas and work. Those are the guys that are successful. Our guys showed tonight they get off the canvas and played extremely well. That's why they're going to be so successful in life.”

On Buckling Down Defensively in the Last Ten Minutes
“We got some stops. I thought Osun (Osunniyi) did a great job blocking shots. With the shots he didn’t block, (the Buffaloes) were a little bit intimidated and didn't go up. He's the big difference. We did a better job of keeping the ball in front of us in the second half, especially in the last 10 minutes of the game. We got down by ten (points). Offensively, I thought we executed well throughout the game. Defensively, in the last 10 minutes we kept the ball in front of us a little bit more. We were more disciplined. (The Buffaloes) love to shot fake and we were going to shot fakes early in the game. Osun, with those blocks, is the difference. When he's on the court were that much better. When he's active like that, we are a very good defensive team. We kept the ball in front of us to come back on defense. They missed some, which is going to happen, but I thought shooting was a huge difference.”

On Having Success in the Paint
“(With) the size and athleticism that Colorado has, we attacked. We went downhill. We hit some shots from the permanent that made them come out. We went 10-for-20 and we've been struggling from beyond the arc. We attacked the basket. When we play downhill, we're a pretty good offensive team. When we played sideline to sideline, we're not very good. We worked downhill and we were aggressive and get some (baskets) inside. Guys really executed on the offensive end.”

On the Altitude
“You can ask the players. They're the ones that were out there. It didn't affect me much. I thought they were fatigued at times. We put Justin (Ndjock-Tadjore) in there for a little bit (as well as) Quadry (Adams) in there to give guys a little bit of a break. The veteran guys have played a lot of minutes in their career. They’re used to it. They would probably give you a better answer than I can.”

St. Bonaventure Players

Kyle Lofton, G, Sr.
On Bouncing Back from the Saint Louis Loss
“It shows how special the group is. Whoever we play, we want to win, no matter if it is in the NIT or the NCAA (Tournament). Whatever game we go into, we want to win that game. It shows how tough we are. (Myself) mentally, from the last game, I needed this game. My teammates knew that. They asked us if we wanted to play and I told them ‘yes’ right away. I needed another game on my belt. We all came together (and said) ‘let's play.’ Now we’re here so we want to win it all.”

On Having a Short Memory from the Loss
“I'm blessed for having a short memory. Those moments, I don't shy away from them. I know it happened. I missed two free throws in the clutch (against Saint Louis), but those moments I want. I want to be the guy taking those shots and I think my team trusts me.”

On the Altitude
“I'm still licking my lips. The altitude was no joke. The fans were loud and chanting. you know? It was fun to play here and experience it.”

Jalen Adaway, G, R-Sr.
On His “Lob” Shot That Went in Late in the Game
“It was 100 percent a lob. I was pretty gassed at that point. I saw how the defense was playing me and I saw that Osun (Osunniyi) was wide open. I tried to get it to Osun. I shorted it and thankfully it went in.”

On His Team’s Fight
“We just came out and were hungrier. We knew we left a lot on the table and we had a lot we were hoping to do in terms of the (A-10) conference tournament (with) playing it and having hopes of winning it. It fueled us, not being able to do that. We translated it into today's game playing confident, trusting our abilities, trusting our shot, (and) trusting each other. It showed really well.”