Colorado - USC Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
"If you let a team come in your own building and shoot 57% from the field and out rebound you by eight it's going to be tough to win a game unless you're really making shots and executing your offense at a high level which we did at times tonight, but we didn't do it consistently. USC was the better team, they kicked our a**."
On the inconsistency against USC this season
"The one thing we know about the 2022-23 Colorado basketball team through 29 games is we're not a consistent group. The two USC games are the epitome of that. We've proven that through 29 games, that's just who we are. But on any given night, we can beat anybody, we've proven that. So I guess you take the good with the bad. You'd like to get rid of the bad from a consistency standpoint. I felt like the last time we got beat like this was in Utah. But I felt like in Utah we had some fight defensively, even though we didn't guard like we're capable of guarding and we still had some fight. Tonight, I just didn't feel that fight was there, and I don't know why. We better figure that out, because if we don't fight on Sunday, against UCLA who is ranked fourth in the country., no disrespect to USC who isn't ranked in the top 25. They came in here and kicked our a** in every way; offensively, defensively, rebounding the ball, passing the ball, they were much better passers than we were. Boogie Ellis played a phenomenal game, he's a terrific player. He wasn't gonna let them lose and I felt like he made every big play. Even when we made a little run in the second half he had an answer for everything and we had no answer for him. We couldn't guard him going to the basket, we couldn't guard him as a three-point line, we had no answer for Boogie Ellis."
On Quincy Allen
"We've had a couple injuries. Obviously, Jalen Gabbidon wasn't in uniform tonight, Javon Ruffin wasn't in uniform tonight. Quincy Allen was the next man up and I thought he responded great. He's practiced hard, he stayed diligent. He wasn't perfect but I don't expect him to be perfect by any means. I thought he did some good things but it was the next man up. So we went with an eight man rotation tonight. We didn't get a great effort from some guys and that's the way it goes."
On the role players from USC
"USC has got good players. We've talked about Kobe Johnson and Tre White. Tre White went five of five from the field. Kobe Johnson was six for nine so those matchups hurt. We didn't do our job there either. That's why it's a collective thing defensively. Everybody thinks offense is a team thing and defensively you guard your man, and you guard your man. Tonight, we got beat on the drive. I know at halftime they had four layups and six threes. It's eight points from layups, and that's 18 points from three. That's 26 of their 43 points. We talked about taking away threes and taking away layups to make them beat us with mid-range jump shots. Which they're capable of making, Drew Peterson can make mid-range jump shots, Boogie Ellis can make shots in the mid-range. But mid-range jump shots by and large will not beat you. But if you let them make mid-range jump shots, and you give them layups and they make threes. We didn't guard anybody."
On Tristan da Silva’s game tonight
“It was just an off night. They doubled him on the block a little bit, but it was just an off night for Tristan. And we got to look at him more on the block when he's got mismatches and I don't think we did a great job of that tonight. Offensively, I thought we did some good things, but I think we had too many passes deflected. We had some guys open at the rim, but we couldn't get it to them because the past was deflected. It wasn't always stolen. Again, we did a good job with six turnovers, but had lots of deflected passes that didn't get completed, you can't finish on. There were a couple in the first half that I remember distinctly but offense is not why we lost the game. We lost this game because we couldn't guard anybody.”
On missing Jalen Gabbidon and Javon Ruffin tonight -
“No, no, no. Not having Jalen or Javon had nothing to do with tonight's performance. I'm not going there.”
On adjustments for Sunday vs. No. 4 UCLA
“Well, you have to get these guys' minds right. I think you just have to challenge them. If, again, you can't get up for number four UCLA, and I know it's not like we weren't up for tonight's game, but yesterday's practice we had great energy, a great focus. I thought our game plan was solid coming in and we didn't execute our game plan for crap. And we did not execute. There was no ball screen defense. There's no ball screen defense that we can run against USC. We tried plugging in at their place, gave up dunks, tried hard showing tonight, gave up layups at the rim, threes. We tried switching, gave up threes, gave up drives by our bigs. Other people have figured out how to guard ball screens. It's not like USC’s God's gift to Earth with ball screens, but against Colorado they are. We can't figure it out. We better figure that out because UCLA is a very efficient offensive team. And if we guard like we did tonight, UCLA doesn't play at a fast tempo, but they'll score 80 points, maybe 90 on us if we don't compete better than we did tonight defensively. We got two days, and normally I say that's not a good thing when you're playing at home, but maybe it's a good thing for this group, but I'm disappointed in tonight’s performance.”
On how to adjust when Tristan da Silva isn’t scoring
“Well, we have to have somebody give us something efficiency wise and finishing wise. You look at USC. Boogie Ellis was terrific tonight. And Drew Peterson played a good game, but he's 5-for-12, nothing special. But again, you look at Kobe Johnson who's 6-for-9, who's a role player for USC - but they're Boogie Ellis and Drew Peterson driven. Their stats show that, but Kobe Johnson went 6-for-9. Josh Morgan goes 4-for-6. Tre white goes 4-for-5. That's what we need. That's what we need. We need our supporting cast to step up when KJ or Tristan don't have their best night so it's a great question. That's my answer.”
On Jalen and Javon's status for Sunday and Quincy Allen stepping up
“I have no knowledge of where they are. My guess is no. Quincy, I think, has earned some playing time. There's no doubt about it. Now he's, again, got to be a little more solid and consistent. But he did some good things for us. It's his first college game. He's been practicing well. So, we'll see. We'll see what happens. I don't know who's available. I'll find that out. I don't make those decisions. Sometimes our trainer doesn't make those decisions. Sometimes the players just say, “You know what, I'm out.” No, I'm not saying that's happened with these two, but it's happened before. So as a head coach, I have zero knowledge sometimes of who's going to play, who's not going to play, who's going to practice, and who's not going to practice. I'm just going to coach the guys who show up and are in uniform. I'm going to coach the best way I can coach, and tonight I didn't do a very good job of that.”
Colorado Players
Fr., G/F Quincy Allen
On his full-game debut“It felt good overall. It would have felt a lot better if we could have pulled the ‘W’ out, but personally, I’m just trying to get out there and just do what I could to help us win and just do what coach says.”
On staying ready and focused
“Just in practice, stay locked in and when coach calls my number, just be ready and go out there and play. It was a little nerve-wracking at first, just getting the jitters out. Going forward, continue to stay ready and just continue for my number to be called out.”
On if he expected to play today
“He (Coach Boyle) kind of hinted at it yesterday in practice, but he told me that I was most likely going to go in in the first half, this morning at shoot around. I just mentally locked in a little more than usual.”
So., G KJ Simpson
On the defense, tonight compared to the last USC matchup“That was the main thing we just talked about right now. The reason we lost is because our offense had like 22 turnovers or something like that. I think we only have six or seven tonight and I don't know what it was our energy was down, we couldn't guard, just simple things, getting through screens, transition defense, rebounding. We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and pay attention to the film and make sure we learn because we have a tougher opponent coming up: UCLA.”
On guarding Drew Peterson
“He's a hell of a player, him and Boogie (Ellis), they're a two-headed monster for that team. A couple of times when I got switched on him, just having to guard good players, that's what Pac-12 is all about. Everybody has good opponents and you just have to be ready. Obviously, he's like, 6’8, I'm like 6’2” but sometimes it's heart over height, I can't look at that, I’ve just got to lock in and play defense.”
On Tristan da Silva
“I talked to him a little bit after the game. He was disappointed in his play but I told him there's going to be nights like that. I've had countless nights like that and where you've gone off and had 20-point games for I don't know how long in a row and I'm over here with single-points, same thing like I think he was tonight. I just told him you can’t just focus on shots not falling, you’ve just got to try and do other things. Obviously, he means so much to the team but he was obviously disappointed because he felt like he could have done more but I just wanted to reassure him, he's, he's so crucial to our team and even though he may not play his best, just having him out there is what we need.”
On guarding three-point shots
“I think it was just defensive lapses. Going into the second half, we want to hold them to six or less threes and I think at halftime they already had six threes so I think a lot of it was just off our ball screen defense. We didn't have high hands, passes were just going straight through the defense, and we were having guys who were wide open. They’re division one players, and just because they're not Boogie (Ellis) or Drew Peterson, they're going to make a three if it's open. I think we just got to do a better job of rotating on defense and making that extra effort fly around.”
On playing without a few key players
“Jalen (Gabbidon) is a big energy guy for us. Even J’Vonne Hadley being out, he's a big energy guy. Ruff (Javon Ruffin) was playing great, not having him out there hurt us. Obviously, it sucks not having those guys but at the same time we can’t make excuses as to why our energy wasn't the way it should be. Everybody's out there playing, everybody's out there trying to win so obviously we would love to have those guys, we miss them but we just have to step up and be better.”
On Quincy Allen
“It was exciting to have him out there. He's been working hard, he's proving it in practice and even today he did some really good things for us out there. Credit to him, he waited patiently and he was ready when his number was called. We really need that, especially with a couple of guys being down. If we could have Q come in and do what he did tonight, that would be so amazing for us and help us down the stretch for sure. It was good to see him out there for sure.”
USC Head Coach Andy Enfield
On Team’s Performance Tonight vs Colorado
“Yeah, very proud of our team for sharing the ball, making plays, taking shots, and their transitioning from time to time, three-point to rebound, and then our players really drove the ball and made plays.”
On Stopping Tristan da Silva
“Well, first of all, Coach Capko had the scout and did a great job of scheming da Silva out. We switched things around in this game. I give our guys credit. They listen to the scouts. Then, Kobe Johnson, I said he’s the best player in the Pac-12. But this was really a team effort. Everybody’s getting engaged and doing their job.”
On Reese Dixon-Waters
“Yeah, he's played great since his injuries. We missed him for three weeks but he came back and he played really well in our last game against Stanford. He played a very efficient game tonight. He had a great week of practice as well. He just calmed down and is making quick decisions and the right decisions. He was terrific.”
On Kijani Wright
“He got a little tired with the altitude so we have to be careful with him on the bench but he’s very active and can switch on the ball screen. He had that big offensive rebound and that really good pass down the post. So Kijani is really improving as a player.”
On Tre White and Offensive Weapons
“Yeah, Tre he helped get us off to a quick start in the first half and made some shots and you got the first three. He does a good job rebounding. I thought this was the best game in a few weeks that he’s played.”