Colorado-Cal State Fullerton Quotes
Colorado vs. Cal State Fullerton
Nov. 13, 2024, CU Events Center
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“You win by win by 30 at home, defend pretty well, and rebound the ball pretty well. There is a lot to be pleased with. I thought we really took a step forward offensively tonight in terms of our ball movement and the ball not sticking in people's hands for very long. We had 22 assists on 30 baskets, which is phenomenal. We'll take that every night. That was a pretty common occurrence with last year's team, but with this year's team, it hasn't been. So, it's nice to see that because we talked about how against Fullerton, if we moved the ball, moved our bodies, and made ourselves hard to guard, it should be a 20-plus assist night. We talked about that before the game, and the guys went out and did it. So, I'm pleased with that. I still have to figure out our turnover issues. It's amazing. We just find new ways to turn it over, like we had one tonight, where we wide open on a back screen, and we're not looking for the ball, and it goes out of bounds. I've not seen a turnover like that in maybe 15 years. There are our footwork turnovers, which were stepping out of bounds. These are all the things that we can correct. A good thing is the turnovers we're having, we can correct them. So, that's obviously room for improvement, but we shot the ball well. It's nice to see Andrej come out and make a few and get himself going because we've been struggling from three a little bit consistently, but we got great looks.”
On the defense the team put forth tonight:
“I think we wore them down a little bit. I think it was part of it because we're playing at altitude. They're coming from sea level. I know I talk about that a lot, but it's a fact. I thought our depth really imposed itself on them. I really like the way we finished the game. To me, there are no garbage minutes with this team where we are because we have so much inexperience on our team. Those last five to seven minutes of the game are really important to us. Now I feel bad that we didn’t get our walk-ons in, but this is a year and this is a team where we've got it. We've got to get guys minutes and get guys some experience so that when the stakes get raised a little bit, they got a little bit of something to fall back on in terms of learning from, from the things they do well and the things they don’t. I thought we finished really well tonight. Assane Diop just deserves a lot of credit. The guy played almost 19 minutes and didn't take a shot. He's plus 25. He leads us in rebounding. That is the epitome of being unselfish and being a team guy. You, look at the stats, nobody's going to talk about that, but it's important that I mention it. There's a selflessness about him, and he plays it extremely hard. He's just a great teammate from whom we can all learn. And I want our guys to understand that.”
On the rotation of players in this game:
“I wanted to get guys minutes. Harrison Carrington is a good player. He did some good things. When he was out on the floor tonight, he did some things that he could learn from, just like everybody else. Getting RJ Smith minutes. Getting Felix minutes. Getting Sebastian minutes. I look at Assane and Bangot Dak as freshmen. They played a little bit last year, but they didn't get meaningful minutes last year, so we got a lot of returning guys and new guys that are inexperienced. Now, Elijah's got a lot of experience, Trevor's got a lot of experience, and Andre's got a lot of experience. Maybe not altogether, but again, they played a lot together. They played a lot together against Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado. So, it was nice to see our offense take a step forward tonight when the lights were on because that's the team that we've seen in practice. I mentioned I'd seen that in practice. Maybe not for the first 30 practices, but certainly last probably 10. But then the lights go on, and that ball gets sticky, and guys get a little bit trigger-happy. We wanted to play a lot of guys tonight. That was the idea going into the game, and we were able to do that.”
On the pressure the defense put on CSF to not move the ball:
“Well, going into this game, the number one thing on the board defensively for us was to guard the ball. Now, I don't know how many we gave up in the second half, but in the first half, 16 of their 29 points were just guarding the ball. This is a team that plays a lot of isolation basketball. They look to get downhill. They look to attack the rim. Coming into this game, they were averaging 24 free throws attempted per game. They got 17 up tonight, which is more than our 14, which usually doesn't happen at home. It was a big game to guard the ball, and when you play ISO basketball, you're not going to get a lot of assists. So, it was a great game for us to learn on guarding the ball. I don't know how many points we gave up in the second half while guarding the ball. Against Eastern Washington, we gave up, I think, 16 points guarding the ball against Northern Colorado. I bet we gave up probably at least 25, if not more, tonight. But that's what Fullerton does. So, you got to just play without fouling, keep the ball in front of you, and contest shots. We knew that they would have trouble with our length scoring over us because we have more size than them, and they did. So, we got to keep on playing without fouling."
Coach on the team starting to mesh together
“Again it’s playing how you practice, play how you practice. When you come out here and the lights are on, the stands are full and cameras are rolling, you don't become a different dude. But we had some guys playing differently the first two games, especially on offense. I think that's a step forward, and we got to build upon that. Our guys have to understand that's what's going to make this team good. It's not going to be one guy. Elijah Malone had 27 points the other night against northern Colorado. Guess what? He had 9 tonight. That's going to be part of it. He had three assists, no turnovers. Played really within himself. So that's what we all have to do. If we'll all buy into that, this team's got a pretty high ceiling.”
.
Coach on Julian’s performance tonight
“Fantastic. At halftime I looked at Julian, Ruff, and RJ, and I think they all had zero turnovers. Our turnovers came from, I think Trevor had a couple and I think Sebastian had a couple. But we had eight in the first half, eight in the second half. I'm gonna start naming these turnovers, like traveling is gonna be an apple turnover and bad passes are gonna be a cherry turnover. We gotta come up with a lot of fruit groups. We figure out new ways to do it. It's unbelievable. But we got to grow. We got to learn. We got to get better. That's what practice is for.”
Coach on Sebastian getting hurt in the second half
“You know he banged his knee, and you always would rather have a guy bang his knee than twist his knee. He's a tough kid. Sebastian, the thing I love about him is he wants to be coached. He's unbelievably gifted offensively. I don't have to worry about talking to Sebastian about his three point shot. Or his ability to run the floor and score the ball and shoot the ball. Sebastian's really gifted there. What I've got to talk to Sebastian about is how to guard and how to rebound. He had two rebounds in 18 minutes. You should have at least six rebounds in 18 minutes. That's areas of improvement for him. He's six foot 10, he should be a great rebounder. Especially on the defensive end and offensive end. To me, Sebastian's a guy that is important to this team, because he can score the ball. He can shoot the ball, and he's consistently shot the ball well from three every scrimmage we've had in practice. He can score the ball. We have to get him to defend and rebound at the Colorado basketball standard level, and then you're going to have a hell of a player on your hands.”
Colorado Players
Julian Hammond III, Sr., G
On teams best defensive effort this season:
“We talk about it in practice every day. We want to lock in on defense, make everything tough. We have a scout on teams now. We have a better feel for what they like to do. We just want to wear them down, pick them up full court, get them tired, because you're gonna start missing more when you're tired. So we tried to lock in and play a full 40 minutes today.”
On what went into the defense today:
“We look at the scouting report a day before and the day of. We really want to know our matchups, know our guys. So we just have to know who we're guarding, which guys we can hold off of their team that I see downhill and get to the rim. I think just taking away good threes from good shooters is a really important thing.”
On Coach Boyle telling the players to slow it down:
“I think it's not as much slowing the pace down but just slowing down in our decision making. Because we did have a few turnovers today where we're just sped up. Whether it was our feet or trying to make a drive too fast. We want to play fast regardless, but we don't want to play out of control. So we just want to slow down, get our composure, and if we don't have anything in transition, then get into our offenses. We have a bunch of guys who can score the ball. So it's not really a matter of “Oh I gotta go get this bucket right now,” or anything like that.”
On if the team is meshing:
“Oh, yeah, I think so. We're a team with a bunch of new guys. We have some grad students, but we also have some freshmen. We have some guys that didn't play last year. So it's going to take a few games here and there, but we just want to come in and play with effort every day. And if we're playing hard and rebounding and not turning the ball over, then we can be a really, really good team. It's just, it's going to take time.”
On holding CSU Fullerton to only four assists:
“We knew that coming in that they're more of an ISO type of team. So we had a focus on guarding the ball because we know that they run their actions, and we knew their actions. Coach (Danny) Manning did a great job with the scout and put us in great positions. And so then it just came down to us guarding the ball one on one. So that's really what it was.”
Andrej Jakimovski, Gr., F
On his performance tonight
“I made my first shot and then I got an extra boost. My main focus is on defense, rebound, take care of the ball and then take good shots. I think all the shots that I took were great shots, and my teammates were great at finding me open. I think we moved the ball really well this game. We had 22 assists and 30 field goals, which is awesome, and it's a really good win for us.”
On the defensive game
“I think our depth is good for us. I don't think there's a guy who played more than 22 minutes in this game, and that shows that we have a lot of players on the team. The minutes that we play out there, we can give everything we have, and then sub on and sub out and rest and come back, so we can be at maximum every time.”
On improvements before playing Harvard
“Our main concern is turnovers. If we get better there, we’ve got a chance to be a really good team this year. We're good, offensively and defensively, we just have to get better on turnovers and don't turn over the ball.”
On ball movement and improvements on offensive flow since playing UNC
“Our offense is really good when we move the ball, and you can see we had so many open shots, you just have to make them. Coaches emphasize every day that we have to keep moving the ball, especially in this offense. I think the opposing players did a really good job because they were doubling Elijah, doubling Trevor, and they found the shooters, and we make the shots. I think our offense is definitely getting better, we just have to fix the turnovers and we’ll be fine. I think we gave up 16 points of guarding the ball in the first half, which is a lot, but we fixed it in the second half and did a really good job on the guards, making it hard on them to score.”
Nov. 13, 2024, CU Events Center
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“You win by win by 30 at home, defend pretty well, and rebound the ball pretty well. There is a lot to be pleased with. I thought we really took a step forward offensively tonight in terms of our ball movement and the ball not sticking in people's hands for very long. We had 22 assists on 30 baskets, which is phenomenal. We'll take that every night. That was a pretty common occurrence with last year's team, but with this year's team, it hasn't been. So, it's nice to see that because we talked about how against Fullerton, if we moved the ball, moved our bodies, and made ourselves hard to guard, it should be a 20-plus assist night. We talked about that before the game, and the guys went out and did it. So, I'm pleased with that. I still have to figure out our turnover issues. It's amazing. We just find new ways to turn it over, like we had one tonight, where we wide open on a back screen, and we're not looking for the ball, and it goes out of bounds. I've not seen a turnover like that in maybe 15 years. There are our footwork turnovers, which were stepping out of bounds. These are all the things that we can correct. A good thing is the turnovers we're having, we can correct them. So, that's obviously room for improvement, but we shot the ball well. It's nice to see Andrej come out and make a few and get himself going because we've been struggling from three a little bit consistently, but we got great looks.”
On the defense the team put forth tonight:
“I think we wore them down a little bit. I think it was part of it because we're playing at altitude. They're coming from sea level. I know I talk about that a lot, but it's a fact. I thought our depth really imposed itself on them. I really like the way we finished the game. To me, there are no garbage minutes with this team where we are because we have so much inexperience on our team. Those last five to seven minutes of the game are really important to us. Now I feel bad that we didn’t get our walk-ons in, but this is a year and this is a team where we've got it. We've got to get guys minutes and get guys some experience so that when the stakes get raised a little bit, they got a little bit of something to fall back on in terms of learning from, from the things they do well and the things they don’t. I thought we finished really well tonight. Assane Diop just deserves a lot of credit. The guy played almost 19 minutes and didn't take a shot. He's plus 25. He leads us in rebounding. That is the epitome of being unselfish and being a team guy. You, look at the stats, nobody's going to talk about that, but it's important that I mention it. There's a selflessness about him, and he plays it extremely hard. He's just a great teammate from whom we can all learn. And I want our guys to understand that.”
On the rotation of players in this game:
“I wanted to get guys minutes. Harrison Carrington is a good player. He did some good things. When he was out on the floor tonight, he did some things that he could learn from, just like everybody else. Getting RJ Smith minutes. Getting Felix minutes. Getting Sebastian minutes. I look at Assane and Bangot Dak as freshmen. They played a little bit last year, but they didn't get meaningful minutes last year, so we got a lot of returning guys and new guys that are inexperienced. Now, Elijah's got a lot of experience, Trevor's got a lot of experience, and Andre's got a lot of experience. Maybe not altogether, but again, they played a lot together. They played a lot together against Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado. So, it was nice to see our offense take a step forward tonight when the lights were on because that's the team that we've seen in practice. I mentioned I'd seen that in practice. Maybe not for the first 30 practices, but certainly last probably 10. But then the lights go on, and that ball gets sticky, and guys get a little bit trigger-happy. We wanted to play a lot of guys tonight. That was the idea going into the game, and we were able to do that.”
On the pressure the defense put on CSF to not move the ball:
“Well, going into this game, the number one thing on the board defensively for us was to guard the ball. Now, I don't know how many we gave up in the second half, but in the first half, 16 of their 29 points were just guarding the ball. This is a team that plays a lot of isolation basketball. They look to get downhill. They look to attack the rim. Coming into this game, they were averaging 24 free throws attempted per game. They got 17 up tonight, which is more than our 14, which usually doesn't happen at home. It was a big game to guard the ball, and when you play ISO basketball, you're not going to get a lot of assists. So, it was a great game for us to learn on guarding the ball. I don't know how many points we gave up in the second half while guarding the ball. Against Eastern Washington, we gave up, I think, 16 points guarding the ball against Northern Colorado. I bet we gave up probably at least 25, if not more, tonight. But that's what Fullerton does. So, you got to just play without fouling, keep the ball in front of you, and contest shots. We knew that they would have trouble with our length scoring over us because we have more size than them, and they did. So, we got to keep on playing without fouling."
Coach on the team starting to mesh together
“Again it’s playing how you practice, play how you practice. When you come out here and the lights are on, the stands are full and cameras are rolling, you don't become a different dude. But we had some guys playing differently the first two games, especially on offense. I think that's a step forward, and we got to build upon that. Our guys have to understand that's what's going to make this team good. It's not going to be one guy. Elijah Malone had 27 points the other night against northern Colorado. Guess what? He had 9 tonight. That's going to be part of it. He had three assists, no turnovers. Played really within himself. So that's what we all have to do. If we'll all buy into that, this team's got a pretty high ceiling.”
.
Coach on Julian’s performance tonight
“Fantastic. At halftime I looked at Julian, Ruff, and RJ, and I think they all had zero turnovers. Our turnovers came from, I think Trevor had a couple and I think Sebastian had a couple. But we had eight in the first half, eight in the second half. I'm gonna start naming these turnovers, like traveling is gonna be an apple turnover and bad passes are gonna be a cherry turnover. We gotta come up with a lot of fruit groups. We figure out new ways to do it. It's unbelievable. But we got to grow. We got to learn. We got to get better. That's what practice is for.”
Coach on Sebastian getting hurt in the second half
“You know he banged his knee, and you always would rather have a guy bang his knee than twist his knee. He's a tough kid. Sebastian, the thing I love about him is he wants to be coached. He's unbelievably gifted offensively. I don't have to worry about talking to Sebastian about his three point shot. Or his ability to run the floor and score the ball and shoot the ball. Sebastian's really gifted there. What I've got to talk to Sebastian about is how to guard and how to rebound. He had two rebounds in 18 minutes. You should have at least six rebounds in 18 minutes. That's areas of improvement for him. He's six foot 10, he should be a great rebounder. Especially on the defensive end and offensive end. To me, Sebastian's a guy that is important to this team, because he can score the ball. He can shoot the ball, and he's consistently shot the ball well from three every scrimmage we've had in practice. He can score the ball. We have to get him to defend and rebound at the Colorado basketball standard level, and then you're going to have a hell of a player on your hands.”
Colorado Players
Julian Hammond III, Sr., G
On teams best defensive effort this season:
“We talk about it in practice every day. We want to lock in on defense, make everything tough. We have a scout on teams now. We have a better feel for what they like to do. We just want to wear them down, pick them up full court, get them tired, because you're gonna start missing more when you're tired. So we tried to lock in and play a full 40 minutes today.”
On what went into the defense today:
“We look at the scouting report a day before and the day of. We really want to know our matchups, know our guys. So we just have to know who we're guarding, which guys we can hold off of their team that I see downhill and get to the rim. I think just taking away good threes from good shooters is a really important thing.”
On Coach Boyle telling the players to slow it down:
“I think it's not as much slowing the pace down but just slowing down in our decision making. Because we did have a few turnovers today where we're just sped up. Whether it was our feet or trying to make a drive too fast. We want to play fast regardless, but we don't want to play out of control. So we just want to slow down, get our composure, and if we don't have anything in transition, then get into our offenses. We have a bunch of guys who can score the ball. So it's not really a matter of “Oh I gotta go get this bucket right now,” or anything like that.”
On if the team is meshing:
“Oh, yeah, I think so. We're a team with a bunch of new guys. We have some grad students, but we also have some freshmen. We have some guys that didn't play last year. So it's going to take a few games here and there, but we just want to come in and play with effort every day. And if we're playing hard and rebounding and not turning the ball over, then we can be a really, really good team. It's just, it's going to take time.”
On holding CSU Fullerton to only four assists:
“We knew that coming in that they're more of an ISO type of team. So we had a focus on guarding the ball because we know that they run their actions, and we knew their actions. Coach (Danny) Manning did a great job with the scout and put us in great positions. And so then it just came down to us guarding the ball one on one. So that's really what it was.”
Andrej Jakimovski, Gr., F
On his performance tonight
“I made my first shot and then I got an extra boost. My main focus is on defense, rebound, take care of the ball and then take good shots. I think all the shots that I took were great shots, and my teammates were great at finding me open. I think we moved the ball really well this game. We had 22 assists and 30 field goals, which is awesome, and it's a really good win for us.”
On the defensive game
“I think our depth is good for us. I don't think there's a guy who played more than 22 minutes in this game, and that shows that we have a lot of players on the team. The minutes that we play out there, we can give everything we have, and then sub on and sub out and rest and come back, so we can be at maximum every time.”
On improvements before playing Harvard
“Our main concern is turnovers. If we get better there, we’ve got a chance to be a really good team this year. We're good, offensively and defensively, we just have to get better on turnovers and don't turn over the ball.”
On ball movement and improvements on offensive flow since playing UNC
“Our offense is really good when we move the ball, and you can see we had so many open shots, you just have to make them. Coaches emphasize every day that we have to keep moving the ball, especially in this offense. I think the opposing players did a really good job because they were doubling Elijah, doubling Trevor, and they found the shooters, and we make the shots. I think our offense is definitely getting better, we just have to fix the turnovers and we’ll be fine. I think we gave up 16 points of guarding the ball in the first half, which is a lot, but we fixed it in the second half and did a really good job on the guards, making it hard on them to score.”