Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-Washington Quotes
vs
California Baptist
Dec 1 (Mon)
7 p.m.
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement –
“It was a gritty win, obviously, with adjusting to being without one of your best players. Tristan da Silva had five minutes of practice to go yesterday, and nobody was around him, and he just rolled his ankle. It's just a freak deal, so I knew we had enough talent in our lineup in that locker room to win this game. Still, I also knew our margin for error with Tristan going out and already being short-handed with not having RJ and not having Cody. When you keep losing quality players out of your lineup, your margin for air goes down significantly. I think you saw that tonight. The good news is we didn't play our best. And we found a way to win this game. And that's what good teams do. That's what high-character teams do. That's what teams with toughness do, and we beat a quality team, a talented team in Washington. So, I am really proud of our guys and how they handled the adversity from the practice yesterday to the game and during the game when we certainly didn't play our best.”
On tonight's win –
“It's a great win because, number one is when you're at home, you feel like you have to hold serve at home or any league or race that you want to try to be a part of, which I want to be a part. I want to compete for a championship this year. I think we have the talent to do that now. We have to get healthy, but you have to win games like this in order to do that. And we did what we had to do again, very proud of our guys. I told them at halftime that I felt like we were playing 50 to 60% of our capacity in the first half and that if we just play how we're capable of playing, we're going to be okay. Because we're guarding, we're rebounding, and we got six kills in the first half. So now we turn it over nine times. We missed foul shots. We didn't finish the ball like we're capable of finishing the ball around the rim tonight. So we didn't do many things well, but we did enough to figure out how to win a game.”
On Eddie Lampkin Jr. –
“Eddie is such an inspirational leader for our team. He plays with great energy, and sometimes he needs a little more focus on honing what's going on the floor rather than celebrating the play that just happened. But that's what makes him who he is. And I don't want to take that away from him. Eddie was terrific. And we knew he's a force down there to be reckoned with. And I think he would tell you he's capable of finishing better than he did, and we had five turnovers. He's a he's a good passer, he's a willing passer. But, sometimes in Washington I think, was trying to play him one on one, and if they're trying to play your one on one, man, you got it. You got to make them pay. Now when the double team comes, that's when you become a passer. thought that he was terrific and he takes up space down there, and he's just a presence. We didn’t win this game without Eddie Lampkin tonight, no question about that.”
On Javon Ruffin –
“He's been practicing for the last seven or eight practices under his belt, and he's practiced well, and when I say practice, he's been going up and down for court, banging and bumping and grinding. We don't take it easy on each other in practice. So, his knee was fine. So, I asked our trainer. Obviously, we wanted to make sure he wanted to do it. We wanted to make sure his parents were on board and our team doctors, so it was a collaboration but I give credit to Rawley Klingsmith, our trainer. And because I asked him, I said, just explain to me why he can practice and he can't play the game. He played, and I wasn't gonna play in the heavy minutes tonight. He played you know, six and a half, almost seven minutes. So, it did some good things for us. But at some point, he's got to kind of jump in the pool. And so it's good to have him back. He's not in tip-top shape. We know that he's not going to be playing heavy minutes, but hopefully as the season progresses, he's a guy that can make shots. He's got a good feel for the game. He's smart.”
On how long Tristan da Silva will be out
“I don't know. Ankles, they're finicky and sometimes when you've sprained an ankle multiple times you can get back a little sooner rather than later. A lot of it depends on the swelling and the pain. That's the biggest thing with that and I know one thing, Tristan will be back as soon as he can be back. People don't realize this last year, but he came down on a guy's foot in the UCLA game late in the year, and he was not 100% down the stretch last year, but he played through it. He didn't use it as an excuse so Tristan has got a high level of toughness about him. He's a team guy, he wants to be there for his teammates, he loves his teammates, and his teammates love him, so he'll be back as soon as he can be back but I don't know when that'll be.”
On the crowd
“The crowd was great. Obviously the students aren't here for the next two home games, but man our community showed up tonight and supported this team and the building started feeling like the CU Events Center should feel every single game, we’ve got nine left. I thought our players responded and the crowd responded to our players.”
On if there was any panic during the game
“I was as frustrated and mad as I've been at this group for some time because I looked up at the board with 11 minutes to go see everybody's got three files except for Eddie and the whistles are coming. We're following, we’ve got eight team fouls, if they're just going to drive it and drive it and try to foul us out and being shorthanded and I said okay, and I knew going into this game, we're going to maybe try some zone, so I went zone. The thing about zone, the way we play zone, is the zone is designed to take away threes. A lot of people think you played zone to protect the paint and not that we don't want to protect the paint, but we want to take away threes from shooters. They had two shooters in the game. They had (Moses) Woods and they had (Keion) Brooks and they made three threes in a row bang bang, bang and we're in two zones. We're supposed to take those away. One of them is that after a made basket I lost it. Maybe that was my fault as a coach, but I told our team, and I explained to them why we were doing what we were doing. Now if we give up a 15-foot jump shot, I think Wheeler hit a 15-footer against our zone, we'll live with that, that's on me. That's not going to beat us but when they hit five threes bang bang bang and the lead goes away, we're down seven, I was trying to get to the six-minute mark and then finish the game out so we needed five minutes of good zone, we were atrocious, so areas to get better at. That really bothered me, but with that being said, in their last 12 possessions of the game, we got nine stops we held them less than 40% and we outrebounded them by 18. When you do that give yourself a chance. We weren't at our best tonight we found a way to win a game, KJ Simpson spoiled us because I feel like after the game I'm like God KJ can play so much better. He had 21 points 10 rebounds seven assists, one turnover, and three steals. The kid’s amazing. He'll be the first probably to tell you that he wasn't at his best tonight but he had a hell of a line. The kid, he's a warrior. All of our guys, I thought Luke and Julian battled. J’Vonne Hadley, good team victory.”
On Bangot Dak
“I'm hoping he'll practice tomorrow. I talked to him today, he was a little under the weather when he came back from Christmas, so I expect him to have a practice tomorrow. He'll have one practice under his belt so I don't know where his conditioning will be but he's a big body that is long and protects the rim and I know Washington State, they pound the ball inside there. They've had a good nonconference portion of their schedule. Quick turnaround for them and for us, but thank God we're at home but good to have Bangot.”
On the quick turnaround to Sunday’s game
“We're gonna gameplan, scouting report, and we will not have anybody twist an ankle at practice tomorrow. We will be extremely light and get their bodies and their minds ready for noon on Sunday.”
On KJ Simpson
“He's having an All-American kind of year. Looking at the numbers, he's the best point guard in the Pac-12, it's not even close, it's not even up for debate in my mind, but I think he's one of the best in the country and I've said that for the last two-three weeks now. Top 10-point guard in the country without a doubt and he's not on the preseason Cousy list, the hell do people know, that's ridiculous. Preseason, first-team all-league guy. He doesn't get the credit he deserves but he will. The thing I love about KJ is he's got a chip on his shoulder, he uses that as fuel to his fire and I love that kid. I was really hard on KJ, early in his career, probably harder than I should have been as I look back on it. I told him that, and I told his dad that but I couldn't be more proud of a guy than KJ Simpson right now.”
Colorado Players
KJ Simpson, Jr., G
On Playing without Tristan da Silva, Cody Williams, etc.
“Yeah, we for sure miss those guys out there, but it's just next man up at that point. And our team with our depth, everybody's capable going out there and you know, we trust everybody out there on the floor.”
On Playing (Nearly) 40 Minutes
“Yeah, he (coach Boyle) told me to expect to play 40 but, I'm conditioning them well enough to play those minutes. Credit to the team again, I say I came out and he was able to go in a little bit of run, it's not just me out there. It's the whole team.”
On When Washington Went Up Seven Late
“More than enough time you know, to come back and I think we just went with this team. We really want to guard we want to guard and string together stops and especially down the stretch like that, you know, we didn't even care about what the score was. We just wanted to get those stops and just run a transition.”
On Momentum From J’Vonne Hadley’s dunk
“Yeah, for sure. I told him about the game. I knew he was gonna win after he did that. I mean, everybody just roared in there and it was a that was an awesome play, shout out to J’Vonne and played excellent tonight. And when you have plays like that, it kind of keeps us going. It gets the team, you know, feeling really good and we got the momentum on our side.”
On Javon Ruffin
“Yeah, I mean, I tell him, he knows this crazy, you know, it feels good to see him out there. It's been a minute since I've been on the floor with him. We're more more experienced and more reps, coming off an injury you know, he's gonna get back to where he was and he's going to be that X factor for us for sure. But it was just great to see him out there. I know he was excited to go out there.”
On Mindset After Free Throw Struggles
“Nothing really. I mean, I shoot free throws all the time. I mean, my percentage is really good. I just missed a couple tonight. I was frustrated with myself a little bit but understanding that you know, I had all the confidence in the world just two more free throws. Ff I dwell on those misses then I probably missed those two again. So just going up there and understanding that, you know, this is what the team needs. I have shot thousands and thousands of free throws before and these are just adding to that.”
On Mindset of shutting down opponents’ top scorers
“I'm just understanding who their go to guys are and knowing your assignment. We have to go off to the guys who the head of the state and understanding that their offense that runs to them and you know, credit to their guys, they hit a lot of tough shots. But when you got when you hit tough shots like that, you also tire them out for sure.”
On Harrison Carrington’s Play
“We love Harry. since he came here, and I've been I've been telling coach, I think he should play a lot. We both trust him and his whole team trusts him out there on the floor. I know you all don't really see it, but in practice, he killed it. And he just he's just someone that does everything right. You know, he might make a mistake or two but so does everybody else. He's just out there trying to get the win and he's a really great teammate.”
Eddie Lampkin Jr., Sr. C
On playing bigs
“My first step is most likely quicker than them and if they don’t notice I will make my move fast, getting that first step on them.”
On Energy In the building
“Oh, man a lot. I mean, shout out the fans. Because, I mean, I played in the Big 12 to come to the Pac 12. I wouldn’t expect them to be like that and imagine if the students were there. That’s what I expect fans showed out and so did we and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.”
On Prep For Sunday after playing heavy minutes
“Right now I'm gonna go go do treatment. Hot tub, cold tub, go stretch and then a light day tomorrow. Get a game plan, and go kill on Sunday, get a win.”
Washington Head Coach Mike Hopkins
Opening Statement
"[At] the start of the game, I felt we started off pretty hot offensively, but we were trading baskets. We had a hard time stopping them in the paint. We started playing zone which I think helped us -- the first time we played it all year [on] multiple possessions. I think it hurt their rhythm a little bit and we got in a position [where] we missed probably six or eight layups -- point-blank layups where we just kind of got behind and they had that six point lead at halftime. In the second half, it felt like we were more relaxed, moved the ball, hit some shots. [We] took that seven-point lead with five minutes to go and then we made a couple of stupid fouls away from the basket. They were in the bonus. They went to the foul line and then the [Sr. C Eddie] Lampkin was just too much in the paint. [Sr. C] Braxton [Meah] fouled out. Tip our hat to them, they executed down the stretch. We had a hard time, scoring down the stretch and when you're on the road, you have to keep scoring somehow, some way."
On starting Pac-12 play and trouble scoring
"Yeah, it slows down. They went to a foul line -- a little bit more aggressive. They went to the foul line. Eleven times to our one. They were 40 to 28 in the paint. They were really physical. The big numbers -- they killed us on the glass with 12 offensive rebounds, but we scored them 9-7 on second-chance points. Those plays late game -- the dunk and drives. The Lampkin pick play -- he's like a good offensive lineman for a good running back. When they were able to get to the basket, that's when Braxton fouled out."
On Jr. G KJ Simpson's Performance
"He's a heck of a player. He does so much from that team and we knew he's step up a little bit more with [Sr. F] Tristan [daSilva] not playing. He did and the other guys stepped up. He makes everybody run. Big plays down the stretch. He got to the foul line twelve times. Him and Lampkin got to the foul line twelve times a piece. That's a big number."
Opening Statement –
“It was a gritty win, obviously, with adjusting to being without one of your best players. Tristan da Silva had five minutes of practice to go yesterday, and nobody was around him, and he just rolled his ankle. It's just a freak deal, so I knew we had enough talent in our lineup in that locker room to win this game. Still, I also knew our margin for error with Tristan going out and already being short-handed with not having RJ and not having Cody. When you keep losing quality players out of your lineup, your margin for air goes down significantly. I think you saw that tonight. The good news is we didn't play our best. And we found a way to win this game. And that's what good teams do. That's what high-character teams do. That's what teams with toughness do, and we beat a quality team, a talented team in Washington. So, I am really proud of our guys and how they handled the adversity from the practice yesterday to the game and during the game when we certainly didn't play our best.”
On tonight's win –
“It's a great win because, number one is when you're at home, you feel like you have to hold serve at home or any league or race that you want to try to be a part of, which I want to be a part. I want to compete for a championship this year. I think we have the talent to do that now. We have to get healthy, but you have to win games like this in order to do that. And we did what we had to do again, very proud of our guys. I told them at halftime that I felt like we were playing 50 to 60% of our capacity in the first half and that if we just play how we're capable of playing, we're going to be okay. Because we're guarding, we're rebounding, and we got six kills in the first half. So now we turn it over nine times. We missed foul shots. We didn't finish the ball like we're capable of finishing the ball around the rim tonight. So we didn't do many things well, but we did enough to figure out how to win a game.”
On Eddie Lampkin Jr. –
“Eddie is such an inspirational leader for our team. He plays with great energy, and sometimes he needs a little more focus on honing what's going on the floor rather than celebrating the play that just happened. But that's what makes him who he is. And I don't want to take that away from him. Eddie was terrific. And we knew he's a force down there to be reckoned with. And I think he would tell you he's capable of finishing better than he did, and we had five turnovers. He's a he's a good passer, he's a willing passer. But, sometimes in Washington I think, was trying to play him one on one, and if they're trying to play your one on one, man, you got it. You got to make them pay. Now when the double team comes, that's when you become a passer. thought that he was terrific and he takes up space down there, and he's just a presence. We didn’t win this game without Eddie Lampkin tonight, no question about that.”
On Javon Ruffin –
“He's been practicing for the last seven or eight practices under his belt, and he's practiced well, and when I say practice, he's been going up and down for court, banging and bumping and grinding. We don't take it easy on each other in practice. So, his knee was fine. So, I asked our trainer. Obviously, we wanted to make sure he wanted to do it. We wanted to make sure his parents were on board and our team doctors, so it was a collaboration but I give credit to Rawley Klingsmith, our trainer. And because I asked him, I said, just explain to me why he can practice and he can't play the game. He played, and I wasn't gonna play in the heavy minutes tonight. He played you know, six and a half, almost seven minutes. So, it did some good things for us. But at some point, he's got to kind of jump in the pool. And so it's good to have him back. He's not in tip-top shape. We know that he's not going to be playing heavy minutes, but hopefully as the season progresses, he's a guy that can make shots. He's got a good feel for the game. He's smart.”
On how long Tristan da Silva will be out
“I don't know. Ankles, they're finicky and sometimes when you've sprained an ankle multiple times you can get back a little sooner rather than later. A lot of it depends on the swelling and the pain. That's the biggest thing with that and I know one thing, Tristan will be back as soon as he can be back. People don't realize this last year, but he came down on a guy's foot in the UCLA game late in the year, and he was not 100% down the stretch last year, but he played through it. He didn't use it as an excuse so Tristan has got a high level of toughness about him. He's a team guy, he wants to be there for his teammates, he loves his teammates, and his teammates love him, so he'll be back as soon as he can be back but I don't know when that'll be.”
On the crowd
“The crowd was great. Obviously the students aren't here for the next two home games, but man our community showed up tonight and supported this team and the building started feeling like the CU Events Center should feel every single game, we’ve got nine left. I thought our players responded and the crowd responded to our players.”
On if there was any panic during the game
“I was as frustrated and mad as I've been at this group for some time because I looked up at the board with 11 minutes to go see everybody's got three files except for Eddie and the whistles are coming. We're following, we’ve got eight team fouls, if they're just going to drive it and drive it and try to foul us out and being shorthanded and I said okay, and I knew going into this game, we're going to maybe try some zone, so I went zone. The thing about zone, the way we play zone, is the zone is designed to take away threes. A lot of people think you played zone to protect the paint and not that we don't want to protect the paint, but we want to take away threes from shooters. They had two shooters in the game. They had (Moses) Woods and they had (Keion) Brooks and they made three threes in a row bang bang, bang and we're in two zones. We're supposed to take those away. One of them is that after a made basket I lost it. Maybe that was my fault as a coach, but I told our team, and I explained to them why we were doing what we were doing. Now if we give up a 15-foot jump shot, I think Wheeler hit a 15-footer against our zone, we'll live with that, that's on me. That's not going to beat us but when they hit five threes bang bang bang and the lead goes away, we're down seven, I was trying to get to the six-minute mark and then finish the game out so we needed five minutes of good zone, we were atrocious, so areas to get better at. That really bothered me, but with that being said, in their last 12 possessions of the game, we got nine stops we held them less than 40% and we outrebounded them by 18. When you do that give yourself a chance. We weren't at our best tonight we found a way to win a game, KJ Simpson spoiled us because I feel like after the game I'm like God KJ can play so much better. He had 21 points 10 rebounds seven assists, one turnover, and three steals. The kid’s amazing. He'll be the first probably to tell you that he wasn't at his best tonight but he had a hell of a line. The kid, he's a warrior. All of our guys, I thought Luke and Julian battled. J’Vonne Hadley, good team victory.”
On Bangot Dak
“I'm hoping he'll practice tomorrow. I talked to him today, he was a little under the weather when he came back from Christmas, so I expect him to have a practice tomorrow. He'll have one practice under his belt so I don't know where his conditioning will be but he's a big body that is long and protects the rim and I know Washington State, they pound the ball inside there. They've had a good nonconference portion of their schedule. Quick turnaround for them and for us, but thank God we're at home but good to have Bangot.”
On the quick turnaround to Sunday’s game
“We're gonna gameplan, scouting report, and we will not have anybody twist an ankle at practice tomorrow. We will be extremely light and get their bodies and their minds ready for noon on Sunday.”
On KJ Simpson
“He's having an All-American kind of year. Looking at the numbers, he's the best point guard in the Pac-12, it's not even close, it's not even up for debate in my mind, but I think he's one of the best in the country and I've said that for the last two-three weeks now. Top 10-point guard in the country without a doubt and he's not on the preseason Cousy list, the hell do people know, that's ridiculous. Preseason, first-team all-league guy. He doesn't get the credit he deserves but he will. The thing I love about KJ is he's got a chip on his shoulder, he uses that as fuel to his fire and I love that kid. I was really hard on KJ, early in his career, probably harder than I should have been as I look back on it. I told him that, and I told his dad that but I couldn't be more proud of a guy than KJ Simpson right now.”
Colorado Players
KJ Simpson, Jr., G
On Playing without Tristan da Silva, Cody Williams, etc.
“Yeah, we for sure miss those guys out there, but it's just next man up at that point. And our team with our depth, everybody's capable going out there and you know, we trust everybody out there on the floor.”
On Playing (Nearly) 40 Minutes
“Yeah, he (coach Boyle) told me to expect to play 40 but, I'm conditioning them well enough to play those minutes. Credit to the team again, I say I came out and he was able to go in a little bit of run, it's not just me out there. It's the whole team.”
On When Washington Went Up Seven Late
“More than enough time you know, to come back and I think we just went with this team. We really want to guard we want to guard and string together stops and especially down the stretch like that, you know, we didn't even care about what the score was. We just wanted to get those stops and just run a transition.”
On Momentum From J’Vonne Hadley’s dunk
“Yeah, for sure. I told him about the game. I knew he was gonna win after he did that. I mean, everybody just roared in there and it was a that was an awesome play, shout out to J’Vonne and played excellent tonight. And when you have plays like that, it kind of keeps us going. It gets the team, you know, feeling really good and we got the momentum on our side.”
On Javon Ruffin
“Yeah, I mean, I tell him, he knows this crazy, you know, it feels good to see him out there. It's been a minute since I've been on the floor with him. We're more more experienced and more reps, coming off an injury you know, he's gonna get back to where he was and he's going to be that X factor for us for sure. But it was just great to see him out there. I know he was excited to go out there.”
On Mindset After Free Throw Struggles
“Nothing really. I mean, I shoot free throws all the time. I mean, my percentage is really good. I just missed a couple tonight. I was frustrated with myself a little bit but understanding that you know, I had all the confidence in the world just two more free throws. Ff I dwell on those misses then I probably missed those two again. So just going up there and understanding that, you know, this is what the team needs. I have shot thousands and thousands of free throws before and these are just adding to that.”
On Mindset of shutting down opponents’ top scorers
“I'm just understanding who their go to guys are and knowing your assignment. We have to go off to the guys who the head of the state and understanding that their offense that runs to them and you know, credit to their guys, they hit a lot of tough shots. But when you got when you hit tough shots like that, you also tire them out for sure.”
On Harrison Carrington’s Play
“We love Harry. since he came here, and I've been I've been telling coach, I think he should play a lot. We both trust him and his whole team trusts him out there on the floor. I know you all don't really see it, but in practice, he killed it. And he just he's just someone that does everything right. You know, he might make a mistake or two but so does everybody else. He's just out there trying to get the win and he's a really great teammate.”
Eddie Lampkin Jr., Sr. C
On playing bigs
“My first step is most likely quicker than them and if they don’t notice I will make my move fast, getting that first step on them.”
On Energy In the building
“Oh, man a lot. I mean, shout out the fans. Because, I mean, I played in the Big 12 to come to the Pac 12. I wouldn’t expect them to be like that and imagine if the students were there. That’s what I expect fans showed out and so did we and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.”
On Prep For Sunday after playing heavy minutes
“Right now I'm gonna go go do treatment. Hot tub, cold tub, go stretch and then a light day tomorrow. Get a game plan, and go kill on Sunday, get a win.”
Washington Head Coach Mike Hopkins
Opening Statement
"[At] the start of the game, I felt we started off pretty hot offensively, but we were trading baskets. We had a hard time stopping them in the paint. We started playing zone which I think helped us -- the first time we played it all year [on] multiple possessions. I think it hurt their rhythm a little bit and we got in a position [where] we missed probably six or eight layups -- point-blank layups where we just kind of got behind and they had that six point lead at halftime. In the second half, it felt like we were more relaxed, moved the ball, hit some shots. [We] took that seven-point lead with five minutes to go and then we made a couple of stupid fouls away from the basket. They were in the bonus. They went to the foul line and then the [Sr. C Eddie] Lampkin was just too much in the paint. [Sr. C] Braxton [Meah] fouled out. Tip our hat to them, they executed down the stretch. We had a hard time, scoring down the stretch and when you're on the road, you have to keep scoring somehow, some way."
On starting Pac-12 play and trouble scoring
"Yeah, it slows down. They went to a foul line -- a little bit more aggressive. They went to the foul line. Eleven times to our one. They were 40 to 28 in the paint. They were really physical. The big numbers -- they killed us on the glass with 12 offensive rebounds, but we scored them 9-7 on second-chance points. Those plays late game -- the dunk and drives. The Lampkin pick play -- he's like a good offensive lineman for a good running back. When they were able to get to the basket, that's when Braxton fouled out."
On Jr. G KJ Simpson's Performance
"He's a heck of a player. He does so much from that team and we knew he's step up a little bit more with [Sr. F] Tristan [daSilva] not playing. He did and the other guys stepped up. He makes everybody run. Big plays down the stretch. He got to the foul line twelve times. Him and Lampkin got to the foul line twelve times a piece. That's a big number."