Colorado-Arizona State Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle:
On if there would have been a result if they played the first half like the second half:
“We win it going away. Absolutely it's a different result. Without a doubt. I mean, you have 10 turnovers that lead to 20 points for Arizona State in the first half. You cut that in half, you're in good shape.”
On a lot of the first-half turnovers being live ball turnovers:
“Yeah, pick-sixes we call them. I know it's a football term, but yeah, the pick-sixes that go in for layups or wide-open threes. Again, 20 points off 10 turnovers. That's not gonna cut it against the team that was in first place with Oregon and now they're 4-0 and we're 2-2 and had a chance to even it up. We didn't do it. Really disappointing because it was a winnable game and we knew that coming in, but we didn't get it done.”
On what the challenge was defensively:
“The key was to play every shot high and take away threes from their shooters, especially if they started making a couple, which again, they made six threes in the first half. Our game goal is to have six or fewer for the game. They end up with eight. We did a good job if we guard the three-point line in the first half like we guarded it in the second half, we win the game. If we take care of the ball in the first half like we took care of the ball in the second half - we had three turnovers in the second half - we win the game. So you can look at turnovers, you can look at threes given up as the two reasons, in my opinion, why we lost this game. Because that's it. I mean, it's as simple as that. And so we've known turnovers have been an issue for us all year, cost us the game tonight, and guarding the three-point line when you get in league play. Especially with a team that shoots a lot of them. It becomes really important.”
On getting Forward Tristan Da Silva back:
“I was not planning on playing him for 36 minutes. That was not the plan. I kept asking him how he is and he wanted to play. Obviously, he showed great toughness tonight, without a doubt. But all of our team in the second half showed great toughness. So I was pleased with our second half effort but really displeased with our first half. Our effort wasn’t bad, it's just our execution, the ability to take care of the ball.”
On not seeing as much of the crisp motion and passing that had marked Colorado in the non-conference:
“Well, the problem is teams are pressuring us now, whereas we got pressured a few times - like Florida State pressured us. We didn't handle it very well. Right? The scouting report out on Colorado is when you pressure them, they'll turn it over. The new offense that we're running, the five-out, is designed to handle pressure. To be able to back cut it and have spacing to drive. I thought in the second half we did a great job of executing our sets and our half court offense, so that the guys did a great job. Just again, 20 points off 10 turnovers in the first half. It's the ball game. I mean, I just keep coming back to that and the threes given up. So, our offense is fine. It’s just we have to trust it a little bit more, especially in environments where the crowd gets into it. We've got some really talented players in this team that feel like they can make plays at any given time and we want them to make plays, but we want them to make plays out of the offensive flow. We have some areas we can get better at that. So, we have to watch some film on it and I think we have to practice. We'll get one good day of practice on Monday on this trip and a little bit on Tuesday. But, we have to figure out a way to beat Cal on Wednesday and it's not gonna be easy because Cal plays hard and they're in a lot of games. It's just we're gonna have to execute.”