Colorado - Washington State Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement“Well, our team, our players really deserve that win. I mean, for all the disappointment and frustrations we've experienced over the last three to four weeks. For them to battle and scratch and claw and be rewarded for it, as a coach, you're happy for them, and I'm happy for our players and believing in themselves. I told them after the game, I really believe that our two practices leading up to this game helped us win this game. Our guys were dialed in. They were focused. They were energetic. They were talking. A lot of credit goes to Jalen Gabbidon and having him back in uniform and having his defensive effort tonight. His unselfishness helped us but our team responded after our lack of focus and lack of energy at times against Washington, especially for the first 35 minutes of that game to come out and battle and beat a really good Washington State team. This team went into Arizona and won convincingly. They were ahead of UCLA 39 minutes. They've beaten some good teams and they're going to beat some good teams down the stretch. We only have them once. Thank God we don’t have to go to Pullman and play them this year but kudos to Washington State. They got good players, well coached and so that's what makes this makes this win satisfying.”
On KJ Simpson
“KJ is still learning. That's the thing we forget. He's a sophomore. He's still in a new role. Last year he came off the bench, energy guy, make shots, you know, come in play, play, get out, come in play. Now he's a heavy minute guy. He's a starter. His scouting reports are designed. Washington State’s scouting report tonight were designed to not let KJ Simpson get downhill especially in the ball screens. So he did a really good job I thought of getting off the ball, you know, in the ball screens and giving it to our bigs or the fill up guys and then he really probed well I thought in transition. That's where their defense is not set in transition. So that's a time where he can get downhill and be aggressive, which we want him to do and he made some good decisions. Look the first three possessions of the game we turned it over. He had a silly turn over there but he learned from it. He's still in the process of growing into a point guard and he's gonna be a darn good one before it's all said and done. There's no doubt. But the thing I love about KJ, is there's no fear in his heart. Absolutely no fear in that kids’ heart. He's not afraid of the moment. He's not afraid of competition. He's not afraid of me. He's not afraid of anybody and I appreciate him for that and respect him for that. So and again, nobody deserves it more than he did. I said after the game the other night he's a good player that's not playing well right now but tonight, he played well, and he's not perfect, but he's growing. He's developing and that's what you want to see from every one of your players.”
On Lawson Lovering
“Huge. I told the team he's averaging over 15 points a game in league play coming in here. Now he's hampered with a little bit of foul trouble but when he was in there, we needed Lawson in there because he makes it tough on guys and he's really smart and he clogs the middle and people have no idea how he helps our defense when he's in there. I know offensively again, he's still a work in progress, but he's a willing passer and he's a capable free throw shooter. We all are. But we overcame 17 turnovers. We overcame poor free throw shooting again. At some point those are going to cost us games. They have already. They will again if we don't get better in those areas. But our competitiveness, our toughness, our resiliency defensively was where it needed to be.”
On Defending Washington St
“Well, we talked about it. Late when they went small, we switched. Our guys did a great job of attention to detail on the scouting report. They had two threes in the first half and two in the second half. Our goal is six or less. They've been averaging nine a game. Big time effort by our guys. That's the focus. That's the attention to detail that I'm talking about is understanding what other teams’ strengths are and taking that away. We did that tonight. Our pressure affected them.”
On KJ Simpson’s Matchup vs TJ Bamba
“Yeah, they're both really good players. They're both really competitive. TJ Bamba is a hell of a player. He puts a lot of foul pressure on you and he's physical. He creates contact on his drive and so you really have to show your hands, run with the ball which is legal, and try not to foul him. We put him at the line too much tonight but it wasn't because we weren't trying. You know, so I got a lot of respect for TJ Bamba, a hell of a player. KJ Simpson is a hell of a player. So yeah. Kudos to him.”
On tonight’s win
“Tonight’s win was important. There's no doubt about it. But again, all I want to see is our toughness. I want to see our competitiveness. I want to see you know our willingness to fight loose balls rebounding, we said you got to get ready for a UCLA kind of rebounding effort. You know, Jaime Hawk gave it to us in LA a week or so ago, and they got two guys, Andrej Jakimovski and DJ Rodman, who pin their ears back, and they crash every single time so you had to hit them, get a body on them and create space because if you don't, they'll come to get it from you. And they got a few of them, but our guys got a few too. So. Yeah, it was. It was a great effort from that standpoint.”
On 2nd half turnovers
“I don't know if we did anything differently. We just talked about it before the game, and at halftime, so it's just that being strong with the ball and not having turnovers is a form of toughness. Rebounding is a form of toughness, taking charge, a lot of forms of toughness that offensively, we don't talk about this a lot. We had to be tough tonight. We had to be tough, and we had to be patient. We had some really good possessions in the second half. We were patient. We moved the ball and scored late in the clock against their zone against their man. You have to show toughness and patience because Washington state is well-coached. They're well drilled, they're well-schooled, and they got good players. So that's what PAC 12 basketball is all about. And that's why you know fans that watch this team, and you know, I know it's frustrating at times, but man, what an entertaining game, even though it was kind of ugly from an offensive standpoint. What a battle that goes down in the last shot.”
On Jalen Gabbidon
“He's important leadership-wise. He's important voice-wise. Jalen talks in practice more than anybody he gets on, and he's been honest with teammates about energy. He brings energy and gives energy to our guys, so it has him back in the lineup is big. I told him going into the game I said, you're not in game shape, but maybe short stints, two, three minutes at a time, come in and defend your butt off, rebound your tail off and then get out and he did a great job of that tonight.”
On Javon Ruffin
“Javon wasn't feeling well, and he's also got the knee issue, so we just told him to go home and rest up, and I think he should be fine, but I don't know about the knee. We'll get a feel for that probably on Tuesday because we'll be off tomorrow playing this Sunday game.”
On team toughness
“The last two and a half three minutes of the Washington game was a step in the right direction. But the toughness wasn't there in the first 37 minutes of Washington. Attention to detail wasn't there. The energy wasn’t in there until the end. While playing catch-up, I told our team that you don't have to be full-court pressing to be aggressive. You don't have to be full-court pressing to be energetic. You can do that with your half-court defense. We did not do that against Washington with our half-court defense. We let them kind of run their stuff and dictate things, and nobody took a challenge on Brooks. I mean, he's the 6’7 and 130-pound Dude. We couldn't stop him. But tonight, we took a challenge, and even TJ Bamba was getting downhill and creating fouls. I mean, at least we were battling him, and that's all you can ask.”
On Tristan da Silva
“Tristan has been good at home, but Tristan has struggled on the road. So now is an opportunity for Tristan to take his game on the road to Oregon, in Eugene on Thursday and then Corvallis on Saturday, and prove that he can do it on the road because at home he's as good a player in the league as there is and he can do that on the road too. He just has to prove that and have 27 points on 13 shots, it's pretty darn efficient. Tristan was terrific tonight.”
Colorado Players
Jr., F Tristan da Silva
On going 11-for-13 from the field“I'm a player that lets the game come to him so I was just out there trying to make the right play and today I guess that was scoring the ball into the rim and getting to the rack. I just tried to get as many easy shots as I can.”
On how much this win matters
“It was huge. The past three losses I feel like could have gone out either way. We could have come away with a W too but we kind of let them slip away. Today, kind of with the work and energy that we put in these past couple of days in practice, and then today on the court, I feel like we earned it and it was a great play at the end, Mr. KJ Simpson to kind of save the day.”
So., G KJ Simpson
On the last play of the game“We had multiple looks and depending on their defense, and just however they were guarding, then we would just attack, we wanted to attack kind of later down in the clock. It wasn't exactly how it was drawn up, but I mean, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do sometimes.”
On the big moments during crunch time
“Oh, it was good, especially us (Tristan Da Silva) being leaders. We had to set the tone, we have to set the example. We can't let the game get so far apart from us and we know during crunch time like that, we have to step up. It’s just a testament to our hard work and being ready for the moment.”
On guarding G TJ Bamba
“He's good. We were kind of going back and forth, a little jarring there, but it was all friendly, and competitive. He's a great player, we respect one another, but it was just fun to go against a guard like that, especially a big guard like that, strong, and looks like a running back but it was just fun.”
On having fewer turnovers in the second half
I think just playing at our pace, not letting the teams speed us up. When we take we just move the ball and don't care who gets the shot and just play at our pace our game then that's when you see our turnovers are like a low number. We just have to start doing that from the beginning of the game.”
Washington State Head Coach Kyle Smith
On Overall Performance of the Team
“We competed a lot better than we did against Utah. Our defense was excellent throughout the game, but struggled with the Buffs pressure defensively. I am proud with TJ Bamba for giving us a chance to win the game, however Mouhamed Gueye was compromised physically, and he tried to give us his best, but it was just a tough loss. I give credit to KJ Simpson for making the shot at the end of the game. We had a shot to tie the game and it did not work and we even had a chance to get up by 1 and get a stop, but we went 1-for-2 from the line and they made the last shot of the game, and we just came up short. We still have to improve our ball handling and hopefully some guys will bounce back for the games against the Arizona schools.”
Overall Thoughts on Tristan da Silva
“We gave him some easy looks, but to his credit he just made everything. He started off the game with a 3 and he was really clever. He would get you up, spin, and go both ways, and overall, he just played really well.”