Colorado - Utah Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“Senior Night is always special and as a coach, you cross your fingers and hope your team plays well and you play well enough to win and send these three kids out on a high note, which we did today. It's been up and down year there's no question about that. The challenge I gave our team today before the game was, we are going to finish this year with a winning record or losing record in the regular season and it was their choice. We got three seniors who deserve to be sent out the right way and it was their choice, and our guys played their tails off. We were not planning on playing 38 minutes of zone, but it worked, and we stuck with it and they did a good job for the most part. We let Utah get free a couple times in the second half from the three-point line, but we shot enough threes ourselves to win this game and held them off, so it was a great way to finish the year. I thought our guys played with great effort, great focus. And for the most part except for letting Gabe Madsen get free I thought we played smart.”
On playing zone
“I felt our guys felt comfortable in it. I'll be honest with you I looked at their lineup and we had Ethan Wright starting and Julian Hammond starting and we're going to have to put Ethan right on Ben Carlson, who's six foot eight, six foot nine, so we just started out in the zone, and it worked.”
On offensive performance
“I thought we moved the ball and shared the ball extremely well. I thought for the most part down we played smart. We had a couple silly decisions and silly passes there at the end you know mid midway through the second half when we had the game under control. We wanted to long possessions we always want to look for layups, we always want to be in attack mode, but you got to make Utah work a little bit. When we made them work, the breakdown would come and we could capitalize on it, but you can't get impatient against it. I was disappointed in our turnovers. We had 14 for the game eight in the first half and six in a second. We had six against Utah in Salt Lake for the whole game and we really took care of the ball. Overall, offensively I thought we made some shots, we moved the ball side to side, we got paint touches, and for the most part made good decisions with the ball.”
On Jr., G Nique Clifford
“He was terrific tonight rebounding the basketball for us and he made some plays off the dribble and Nique is getting better and especially with KJ Simpson being out, Nique is an important factor. Tristan is hobbled a little bit and he wasn't 100% tonight by any means, but he was efficient when he was in there. I didn't want to play him too much because that ankle is not 100% yet and we need it to be 100% by Wednesday. So hopefully it gets better each day, but Nique Clifford was terrific.”
On So., G KJ Simpson's Status
"KJ -- he's got mono and he'll be out for the Pac-12 Tournament. It’s unfortunate timing. He was devastated when he found the news -- as we all were but in the grand scheme of things, it could always be worse and he's got a great attitude. I thought he was great on the bench tonight with his energy and KJ is going to be okay. There's no doubt about it because at least it's not something that's going to hold him out indefinitely. It's just going to be a couple of weeks.
On having four players with double-digit scoring
"Yeah, we have a lot of guys that are capable of scoring the ball and making shots and if we just share it and move it like we did tonight, we have a chance to be pretty darn good down the stretch. We're going to play Washington in the Pac-12 tournament so we're going to need to make some shots against them. That's one thing we haven't done a very good job of at times this year -- making shots when we got them and tonight we made shots when we needed to make shots and made free throws down the stretch, which you have to do in games like this to put them away. So you have to do those things to win and we did tonight and I'm proud of our guys for it."
On G Julian Hammond's performance
"Yeah, thirty-six minutes [with] five assists [and] one turnover. You'll take that in Las Vegas. Absolutely. Five assists [and] one turnover from your point guard. You will take it all the time. And Julian's capable of making threes he didn't make threes tonight but he's one of our most capable shooters. So yeah he was ready when his number was called. And that's what you have to have on your bench and we had it tonight at the gym. It's good to have [G] Jalen [Gabbidon] back he gave us some good energy off the bench offensively and defensively. So good effort -- good team win.
On if they will play zone defense against Washington in the Pac-12 Tournament
"We'll see. You know it's something we'll talk about but I think the one thing about Washington is they've got very talented players and they're very capable. And we haven't beaten them. You know, it's funny. Washington State's probably playing better than Washington right now. We beat Washington State but we couldn't be Washington so we're going to need to move the ball like we did tonight and play inside-out like we did tonight and share the ball like we did tonight and make shots to give ourselves a chance. We'll see about the defensive game plan this week. We had a great show tonight.
On what they can improve upon heading into the Pac-12 Tournament
"We have to be rock-solid with our defensive game plan because you get to [Las] Vegas, and it's not always the best team that wins. It's the team that plays the best and gets hot at the right time. And so for us, it's our defensive game plan -- whatever that ends up being against Washington, we have to go execute that. It helps to make shots and to have performances like we did tonight with four guys in double figures. If you do that in Vegas, you give yourself a chance to win. If you have four guys in double figures, share the ball, move the ball and execute your defensive game plan. It's one game. We have to go there thinking we have to beat Washington. We've gotten to Vegas at times riding high and feeling good about ourselves and gotten taken out early. Whereas other times we've limped in there a little bit and come out pretty, pretty successful, whether it's getting to the semis or the finals, or whatever the case may be or winning it. It's been a while since we did that. So it's going to be a battle. We just have to figure out how to beat Washington."
On G Ethan Wright's impact on the team throughout the season
"Ethan's fought through stuff this year. He hasn't played as well I think he expected himself to play and sometimes we expect him to play [at a high level] but he's not [healthy]. I think about three or four weeks ago, he finally mentally just flipped the switch and said, 'You know what, I'm going to quit worrying about it. I'm going to quit getting down on myself. I'm just going to go play.' That's what he's done and that's what he did tonight. Ethan Wright's a good player. And it was nice to see a couple of those threes go in because he has not shot the ball this year from three like he's capable [of doing]. I think against [Texas] A&M, way back when, he was five for six from three we haven't had that performance [from him] in a while. To get a couple of those to go in is huge. We're going to need that in Vegas where I need him to make some shots especially with KJ being out and being down there. Thank you."
Colorado Players
Gr., G Ethan Wright
On Senior Day
“Yeah, definitely bittersweet. I think the feeling that comes to mind is just grateful. You know, being able to play in front of these fans and have my family out here. I’ve only been here for a year but these guys are my brothers. I'm really close to them. They accepted me right away. So it's been a pleasure to play with them and to play on this floor with so many people supporting us. So I had a lot of fun tonight and we got the win and that's the most important thing.”
On takeaways from playing at the Power 5 level
“Yeah, it was definitely a jump and you know, the season’s been all over the place with injuries and stuff and different lineups but I think that I proved myself to others in practice. I think I performed well. I think that I can live with how I've played but it's not really about my performance. I think it's about my relationship with these guys and just finishing the season out strong.”
On strength and physicality
“I guess so man. I just try and attack when I can. I'm a little smaller than a lot of the guys out there so you can't really back down from anybody. I think it was Carlson, he's a really good shot blocker but if you get scared or kind of go away from his shots and don't attack him then you're not putting any pressure on him and making it worse. On that play, Lawson was right there so I figured I might as well go into his body and see what happens. I think it rimmed out but that's a shot that I think I can make. So keep going.”
Jr., G Nique Clifford
On zone defense
“I'll take this one. You know, we weren't planning on going zone the full game, something coach talked to us about. We were going to start off in zone and see how it went and then go man, surprisingly it worked out. It worked out really well for us. So we just stayed in it. A lot of guys stepped up in different positions that they're not usually used to playing. We ran them off the line and we're rebounding well so it was a really good game plan by the coaches for us.”
On double-double
“Yeah, a few games ago I had zero rebounds and that was something that the coaches stressed to me. I got to be a better rebounder and I agreed with them. I got to be better on the boards. I took that personally and tried to get some more rebounds for the team. That's something I got to keep doing for us and as a collective group we got to be a team that rebounds, especially going into this tournament.”
Jr., F Tristan da Silva
On being healthy
“Yesterday in practice I felt pretty comfortable. You know, we taped it up pretty good yesterday in practice and then I just gave it a go and it went pretty well. I figured I could jump out there and see how it goes. At any point where I don't feel comfortable or don't feel like my ankle’s healthy, I definitely tell the coaches and I sit back on the bench and give energy from the outside. But I felt stable enough to push through and play today. So I tried to do that.”
On what worked offensively
“I feel just sharing the ball and looking out for each other and then making the easy plays. We sometimes struggle I feel like when we try to go one-on-one too much or try to make the hardest play that might look the coolest or whatever and then doesn't work. So we just got to keep making simple plays and look for each other.”
On team chemistry with Ethan Wright and Jalen Gabbidon
“I feel like it's been pretty easy. They're high-character guys, both of them so it's easy to make people like that fit. They're both pretty funny too. So it's easy to get along if you got a sense of humor too.”
On the win and positive momentum going into the Pac-12 Tournament
“Yeah, it's huge. Finishing the season off on a win that kind of gave us the winning season here for this year at Colorado, and just kind of building momentum to go into the tournament and do what we do.”