Colorado - UVU Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“Yes, disappointing. Obviously, we wanted to advance and we didn't. You're playing at home and the crowd was great. I mean they showed up and we really appreciate their support all year long. And Utah Valley is a good team. We knew that coming in. They proved it tonight. To me, that's an NCAA tournament caliber team that we just played. They won their league. So 27 wins tonight and their 12th away from home. So, they're good. Their guards are, holy cow, good. If you want to be simplistic about this game tonight, the reality is they had Trey Woodberry and we didn't. We had no answer for him. Our ball screen coverage wasn't good enough and our one on one defense wasn't good enough. We just weren't good enough. And he was terrific. So, they deserved to win. They were the better team tonight. And that's a hell of a team we just lost to. There's no doubt about that. We couldn't string together stops. So it's teams that advance this time of year are the teams that guard. That's the bottom line. I don't care if you're in NIT or the NCAA tournament. I watched Michigan State against SC today. They are guarding at such a high level. It's like holy cow. Now I look at our team and it's like, we're not there. We're a long way away from that. So, we got a lot of work to do.”
On Lawson Lovering’s game tonight
“He's played against one of the best shot blockers in the country and I thought Lawson did a great job. He's got great size and he's working on his low post game. I've said it all year long. He's a work in progress, offensively. He's really good for us defensively, an elite level defender. But tonight, you saw I think the culmination of the hard work that he's put in before practice, after practice. He played within himself and that is a bright spot. There's a lot of bright spots down the stretch for this team individually. We need to get better collectively. Luke O'Brien, really good. Some really good things last three, four weeks of the season, Julian Hammond did some really good things. What you have to understand now it's not about playing well one night, you have to be playing well consistently. And that's what good teams do. That's what good players do. Not that you're going to go 35-0, you're not, but we got to be more consistent than we were this year, individually and collectively. But Lawson's game tonight was definitely a bright spot and hopefully, a springboard and that's why you want to play in tournaments like this. So you can play against teams and players like this and use it as a springboard into next year as a confidence builder.”
On what was missed on defense tonight
“No, it's a lack of focus. It's a lack of respect for the scattered report. It's a lack of toughness at times. I don't think our guys are lazy. I don't think we're always playing very smart. I mean there's a lot of things that go into being a great defensive player. You have to be smart. You have to be tough. You have t0 want it. You can't put your head down. You can't. You have to take on a challenge. We have a lot of guys with an offensive mindset. And the only guy I can say in our team that has a defensive mindset is Lawson Lovering and that isn’t enough. It's not enough. And that's why our team was 18-17.”
On why Julian Hammond III did not start
“He was late to a film session two days ago. He was late to practice yesterday. Now I haven't had an issue all year with Julian or any player on our team, but you got to send a message that being on time is important and respecting your teammates is important and he failed in that regard. So, he didn't start.”
On importance of playing in postseason
“Well, again, it's an opportunity for our players to understand competition outside our league. Seton Hall's from the East Coast and the Big East Conference. They finished at the lower end of that league with 10 and 10 record. They're a good team. They got good players. You're playing Utah Valley, who went into Oregon and won, now they came into Colorado and won, they beat BYU, and they won 27 games. They have good players. It's having your players respect the other teams in college basketball that they don't see on a day to day basis. They see the Pac-12, they see whoever we are playing in a non-conference, but they don't see other teams. So, seeing other teams, seeing how they execute, and seeing how good the players are that you're playing. It's an eye opener. And it's the experience factor that you've have to understand as you go into your offseason as a basketball player, because right now, it's about how each player can get better individually between now and next November. And every game you play and every experience you have is an ability to understand that a little bit better. Whether that's like I have to get better at this or that or that or it could be Lawson Lovering who says, ‘I can do this because I did against one of the best shot blockers in the country. It was a seven-footer. I can score on anybody.’ So, that said experience factor, the confidence factor, maybe the factor of, ‘Hey, maybe I'm not as good as I think I am,’ factor. We have to get better. I have to get better as a coach, our assistant coaches have to get better, and our players have to get better. Bottom line.
On using the seven-man rotation
"We couldn't guard anyone. You can make a case for anybody, why didn't I play Amondo Miller Jr., why didn't I play Cody Mains, why didn’t I play Greg Gerhardt? I could have played anybody tonight. You can look at this team and their defensive performance, and you can second guess me and it's very valid. The guys that played didn't play good enough. In the NIT the timeouts are forever. There's five of them in the second half. There's a stoppage of play every three minutes for the first 10 minutes of the second half, so fatigue was not a factor. You go with the guys that you believe can get stops. But, I believed wrong tonight because we couldn't stop them all game long. Didn't matter, first half, second half couldn't get stops."
On meeting with players after the season
"We'll do a meeting with players by the end of this week, I'll give them a couple days. You have to give guys time off in terms of physical activity, but I want them to talk to their families and whoever they get to talk to and I want to sit down whether it's Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday but it'll be sometime this week. The next week is spring break, and then they'll come back, so they'll have a good two weeks off which they need and they should take that. What I want to know as a coach is who's got two feet in, who's got two feet out, and who's got one foot in one foot out. I'm not going to wait till May to figure that out, I'm going to figure it out now and I want our players to be honest with me and I'm gonna be honest with them. We do it every year and it's no different this year. Tristan is going to test the waters and get his feedback from the NBA. My guess is KJ might do the same, which is fine. We'll see what that is and then we move forward. I'm really excited about the guys that redshirted, RJ Smith and Joe Hurlburt. I'm excited about what we got a lot to look forward to in this program. The guys that are coming back made some strides this year. We have to continue to make strides."
Message to the team after the game
"My message is always after the last game to the seniors. Cody Mains, Ethan Wright, and Jalen Gabbidon don't have another chance, everybody else in that locker room does. So my message is this stinks, we didn't want it to be over. You guys kept playing and competing. We just weren't good enough tonight, they were a better team, so now it's now time to move on. It ends quickly, it always does. When it's over, it's over. There's no tomorrow. I just feel bad for those three seniors because I got great respect from all of them as young men and young adults. I feel like we let Ethan Wright down, Ethan Wright didn't let us down. When we recruited Ethan he was really disappointed he'd never played an NCAA tournament at Princeton, they always lost to Yale. He came here to play in an NCAA tournament, we let him down, Ethan Wright didn't let us down. Jalen Gabbidon gave us everything he had this year and Cody Mains is as hard-working tough as anybody. They're all going to be successful in life without a doubt. They're great kids."
Colorado Players
Jr., F Tristan Da Silva
On what they knew about G Trey Woodbury coming into this game
"I mean he was on fire coming in this game. You know he was shooting over 50% from the three-point line so our mission was initially to get him off the three-point line. He's not a one-dimensional player so he can get downhill. He can make plays off the bounce. He shot a couple of really tough layups and a couple of really tough pull-ups -- and step-backs. They're a good group of players and well coached."
On what the future looks like for Colorado Buffaloes basketball
"Yeah, [we've set a] new standard, the developments and the improvements that we've made this season, especially throughout the season -- towards the end. I feel like they were really important for us to know what it takes for next year. I feel like with the same group of guys if we come back next year, with new guys coming in, people coming out of their redshirt year. I feel like we have a really, really good group of guys that we could definitely build on how we improved this season."
On where he is at regarding a potential NBA opportunity
"Yeah I feel like I should definitely test the waters -- See how it goes and get some feedback. That doesn't tie me to anything. That's kind of a process for the summer and I haven't made a final decision yet. You guys are going to be the first ones to know."
On if the talent coming in will play a role in that decision
"Not really. That shouldn't really be a factor for me. I've played with really good talented players prior to this year -- this year and last year, the year before that. I feel happy for the talent that we got coming in -- not only [5 Star F] Cody [Williams] but all the other players that we have coming in at the guard spot and at the center position too. Obviously our red shirts, they're going to be playing next year. So I'm looking forward."
On how he feels like he grew and improved as a player
"I'm definitely more experienced -- [I have] more confidence. With confidence, I feel like there's a different volume of shots that you can take or you feel confident taking in a game. I feel like I've had a couple of games this year where I shot it really well and my confidence rose a little bit and I was able to kind of lead my team in that way. I feel overall I've also made developments off the court. It's always a new season with new guys and stuff like that. So it's always a constant fluid motion."
Grad., G Ethan Wright
On why it was difficult to matchup defensively
"They have really good players. I mean they have 26 wins. They have a lot of shooters -- it's a lot to handle. We couldn't hit shots. We had some good-looking shots. On ball screens, they were getting downhill and they were rebounding on offense. We could've played a lot better."
On his best games coming at the end of the season
"Yeah, it's always frustrating to lose. We were down some guys so it was my time to step up. The one thing I can be proud of and happy about is that I had some good games towards the end and started to come on. It's never really about me -- I just want to win. Obviously, that's what we wanted tonight and it wasn't a good night."
On what his emotions are like after his final college basketball game
"Yeah, I mean, it's definitely emotional. I've only been here for a year. These guys mean so much to me -- this program, this school. I've had a great experience here. I don't know what the future is going to be yet but I'm just grateful to play for another year -- to come out here and be accepted by these guys. These are guys that I'm going to have around for the rest of my life. That's the most important thing is your relationship so obviously [this was] not how we wanted to end the season but I'm really happy to have been around these guys."
On C Lawson Lovering's career high in points
"We've all had confidence in him the whole year. We see how hard he works every single day in practice. I think with him, it's a lot about his confidence. He's really, really coming to himself and he knows we trust him. He knows that we believe in him. Today, he was just playing free just taking what the defense gave him and he's got all the ability in the world and I think he showed that tonight. I'm really, really proud of him."
On the challenges he faced coming to the Pac-12 this year
"The level of [the] athletes. The speed of the game. Guys are, on average, a couple of inches bigger, a couple of pounds heavier -- faster, more athletic. Every team is really really good. Obviously. I've seen that with what Princeton is doing right now but it's just the speed of the game, the level of the game the intensity of practice -- the offseason, When I was at Princeton, I could go home in the summers. I was here six days after I graduated. I mean for most of the summer. I definitely learned a lot. It definitely took a little bit to adjust but the other day there's there was high-level basketball from the 'Blue Bloods' to the lowest majors. It's just about how you perform and your confidence and your ability. It's just a game for everybody.'
On if he is surprised about Princeton's run in the NCAA tournament
"No, I mean, people say upset all the time, you know, but when I was there, we beat a lot of good teams. A lot of the guys that we had last year are still there and they're really talented. There were a lot of freshmen that were ready to make the jump. There are really really talented basketball players anywhere. You look at this Utah Valley team like that's a really really good basketball team. I know they've shocked the world and all this stuff, but those guys can play. The Ivy League is a really good being and Princeton has a really good team and a good coach. So you know they're showing the world right now."
Utah Valley Head Coach Mark Madsen
Opening Statement & Biggest Takeaways
“The biggest takeaway I thought in the first half, we weren't playing great defense. We talked a lot about it at the half. We talked a lot about it in our timeouts. We said, hey, we got to start getting three stops in a row which we called it and killed. We started doing that more in the second half. We started rebounding better. I give Colorado a lot of credit. They're a very well-coached team. They have a lot of weapons. This was an absolute tough game, one of the toughest games we've had all year, and Tad Boyle does a great job. I was proud of our guys. We got a little bit of separation late and we built on that separation.”
On Mental Toughness & Winning on The Road
“Well, that's been something that's kind of been a hallmark of this year's group is winning on the road and so it's nice to see that that could carry over into a PAC-12 arena with an unbelievable crowd. But road wins for whatever reason with our group, yeah, I don't know if they like the more hostile environment but it brings out the best in a lot of them.”
On Preparation Going into the Next Game vs Cincinnati
“The prep is going to be, we will probably do a film session tomorrow and a walk-through and keep it really light and let our guys rejuvenate and recuperate. We’ll come back and practice a little bit harder on Tuesday and then go out there and throw the ball up against Cincinnati on Wednesday with a lot of preparation in the books.”