Colorado University Athletics
Colorado, Texas Quotes
February 26, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General-"We knew we would have to play really well to beat these guys, and in the second half we sure did. I think that says something about our character and toughness, both mentally and physically, to compete in the second half like we did and overcome a 15-point halftime deficit against the number four [five] team in the country. It says something about our guys. We're very proud of them."
On what he talked to the team about at halftime-"We talked about rebounding. We talked defense, and we talked about executing on offense. We were shooting 48 percent in the first half, so execution wasn't. We were down 15 [points] because we were down four on the boards, and they were shooting 56 percent. We had to do a better job defensively. We had to rebound, and I just didn't think we were competing. At the end of the day, you've got to do those three things, but you've got to just compete. We just didn't compete. I thought it was the first time all year long where we got outplayed significantly in our own building. Even against Kansas, I thought our guys competed for 40 minutes, but we didn't compete that first 20 [today], and that was disheartening. The zone was good to us. It kind of got us back in it the last five minutes of the first half, but that's a last resort for me. When you see me go 2-3 zone, I'm one step away from a white towel over there, but our guys executed it. We came out in the second half, went man and started getting stops. We held them to 29 percent [field goal shooting] in the second half. We shot the ball well all day, which you need to do against these guys because they are one of the best defensive teams in the country."
On CU's free throw shooting-"I trust our team with free throws. Today was atypical of our team. We're third in the country in free throw shooting, so I trust our guys at the line. We'll take a free throw shooting contest with anybody, because I trust our guys. We don't normally hit them like we did today, but we hit them when we had to. Andre [Roberson] stepped up and hit two big ones, and Alec [Burkes] wasn't himself at the line, obviously. He's a great free throw shooter, but he has his normal day at the line, he has 40 [points] today. I wasn't worried about the free throw shooting. I trust our guys."
On the shift in momentum-"I looked up and we had cut it to five and the crowd had really started getting into it. That's where I felt like we had a chance, when we cut that thing to five. I looked up another time and we were up five. It was 70-65. It you do the math backwards to halftime, that was an unbelievable accomplishment. I forget how much time was left, but when I saw the scoreboard at 70-65, and we kind of had control of the game, that's when I felt like we can finish this thing off. They didn't make it easy for us. Jordan Hamilton is a heck of a player, and he hit some big time shots there down the stretch. He's a tall wing, and we were right there on him, but that's about the time I thought we had it under control."
On Alec Burks' performance-"Alec got us going offensively. Obviously he's a special offensive player, and we all know that, but what I like about Alec's game today is that he had four assists and one turnover. Obviously he went off for 33 [points] and he made some big time plays for us, and I think his getting us going offensively got Levi [Knutson] going and Cory [Higgins] going a little bit down the stretch, and it just kind of fed off of itself. I thought Austin Dufault's tip-in late in that shot clock was a big time play and a big momentum boost for our guys. I think that's when our guys felt like, 'We can win this thing.' Alex was terrific today, and we know what he is capable of offensively, but he didn't force it too much today. I didn't think he took a lot of bad shots. He got 33 points on 21 shots, whereas you look at Hamilton who had 21 points on 24 shots; that's pretty good efficiency."
On Levi Knutson's performance-"I thought Levi stepped up, too, in the second half and made some big shots. Our players are obviously looking for Levi to make those shots for us, and they're counting on him. Even Alec [Burks], he's driving a couple of times and a guy is on him, and he is trying to find Levi. I thought unselfishness was really the key. We had 21 assists today. We haven't done that since Iowa State, and we shot 53 percent. If you look at the numbers against Iowa State, I think we shot 55 percent when we share the ball like that."
On competing with a top-five team in Texas-"It's just the mentality. We don't have better athletes. We don't have more size, we just battled, and that's the 'competing' that I was talking about at halftime. It was a war down there. Bodies were flying, guys were hitting the deck, and guys were coming over the bench with cuts on their arms. We just had to compete, and rebounding is a mentality. Our guys, when they play with that mentality, they're the top team in the league. It shows you what we're capable of."
On what the win does for the team-"It's huge. It's a marquee win for us. It'll go on the top of our resume. K-State is playing awfully well, and we swept them. Missouri is a good team, and we beat them. We've had some good wins and we have to continue to win, and we have to continue to play well down the stretch. Iowa State on Wednesday is a huge game, but we can finish strong. They take 68 teams. All I want to do is keep playing well and try to win games. The next opportunity is Wednesday night at the Hilton Coliseum on their [Iowa State's] Senior Night; it's a hell of a challenge for our guys."
On Nate Tomlinson's return to the lineup-"Nate was terrific. He had three assists and no turnovers. He's like that oil you need for your machine to run smoothly. He makes the right plays. He doesn't force things, and he makes guys better. I think he guarded well. In the second half, I think his minutes were terrific. We made our big run when Nate was on the floor. He's an important part of our team and how we function offensively. I think you see that offensively versus how we've been playing since got back. I thought Nate was terrific."
On being embarrassed in the first half-"I didn't sense anything from them. I wish I could say I felt it coming. Coming out there, I was like, 'I hope we can keep this thing and not get embarrassed in the second half.' I was embarrassed at halftime. It's not being down 15 [points], it's the way we were down 15, not competing. If you don't compete, it's hard to have any self respect. I didn't yell and scream; I probably should have at the half, but I did challenge them. I said, 'It's not about X's and O's, guys. The game plan is there. We got a great scouting report; Coach [Mike Rohn] was at Texas A&M the last three years, so he knows Texas as well as anybody in the league. He had a great scouting report put together for our guys. J'Covan Brown, we wanted to make him a driver. It was like shooting fish in a barrel there in the first half. You've got to know where he's at. You've got to make him put it on the floor, and we weren't doing that. We weren't playing smart. I didn't know what to expect coming out of halftime, but our guys delivered."
On whether the team talked at halftime-"No, it was mostly me. I was hoping they would, but you know, it's not about the talk, it's about the walk. As long as they walk the walk, I don't care if they are quiet or not. We have a quiet group; I wish they were more vocal. If there was one guy that was kind of getting after people in some timeouts and huddles, it was Nate [Tomlinson]. He was disappointed in the way we were playing, and he let everybody know about it, which I liked to a certain degree."
On Andre Roberson-"Since conference play has started, if you look at his numbers, they've gone up dramatically, so I wasn't surprised. He's been rebounding the ball since we started Big 12 play. He's our leading rebounder in Big 12 play. I did look out on the floor a couple of times, and he was gassed."
On Colorado's style of play-"I think the way that we play, the tempo we played at, you saw them miss a lot of free throws down the stretch. You saw them miss a lot of shots down the stretch. There's something to it. The style of play that we are playing is the right way to play in Boulder, Colo. They are not the first team to get gassed in the second half. They had some good free throw shooters missing free throws, too."
On the sellout crowd-"It was terrific. It was the fourth sellout of the year. I didn't do it on the radio, but I would like to challenge the fans to come out and have a fifth sellout a week from today against Nebraska on our Senior Night because we've got five seniors who deserve to go out on a high note. Obviously, everybody wanted to see what the No. 4 team in the country looked like with Texas, and they saw that. They're a hell of a team. The crowd all year has been terrific. Our students have been great. I want to have the best home court advantage going forward in the Pac 12, and the only way we are going to do that is to keep doing what we need to do on the court, playing the right way and playing with unbelievable energy and having a second half effort like we did tonight. I think we're worthy of support."
Texas Head Coach Rick Barnes
General-"It's pretty simple. The team that played for 40 minutes won the game. I didn't think we had a real sense of urgency defensively from the get-go. For the first four minutes of the game both teams were scoring pretty easily, then we really had a pretty good stand from the 16 minute mark in the first half defensively until the last four minutes, we could have done a better job. In the second half there was not a real sense of urgency. Again the team that played 40 minutes won the game and they certainly deserved it."
On the second half-"They got to the free throw line a lot. They spread you out some. When you play against a team that is going to open the floor up like that, you still have responsibilities where you got to try to shrink the floor to not give so much open space. They were driving the ball. They did exactly what we said they were going to do at halftime being down like that. They would want to put it down and drive it. They got the officials involved in it. At the beginning of the game I don't think that many free throws were shot by both teams. We didn't play, defensively, and on the offensive end we came down and didn't stay together and didn't execute. I don't want to say anything that takes away from Colorado because, I'm telling you, they played for 40 minutes and deserved to win."
On similarity to last week's game against Nebraska-"Defensively it was almost an identical game. We came out and didn't do what we needed to do with a sense of urgency defensively and then on the other end just simply not staying together and playing together."
On offensive play-"We have to play with a purpose. That was the problem. We have got to play. A big lead early in the game; I've seen those things evaporate quick, but you can certainly help the cause by not making them defend or simply just not executing. And we didn't, we just simply didn't execute."
On letting up after a big lead-"I think it's just human nature when a team gets up and thinks it's going to be easy. Even in the first half, I think they shot 53 percent in the first half, so even at halftime, we talked about that. They scored too many things away from the scouting report; some back-cuts on us and some things like that that we don't want to give up. First half, all the way to the end we really did a good job of executing. We get shots that we practice. I don't think there is any question that human nature can do that, but we've dealt with it, it seems like for the last month, a lot; where we didn't close out the half and then the second half we came out with not the kind of urgency that you have to have, especially defensively."
On Levi Knutson-"You can't leave him. It goes back to the scouting report and a sense of urgency. It's really having your head into the game. I told every guy after the game, I said, 'Every one of us can look at this and we all could have done something to help us maybe win this game because the fact is we didn't.' It's easy to talk about it after the game, but during the game we have got to have the urgency that we need to have when we got down ten. Like I said, after the 16 minute marker, we didn't do a very good job."
On reacting to a loss-"I'm not going to overreact. I don' think that [we're in a rut]. I think we played two games that, certainly on the road, that people are excited which is great for our program. In some ways I could say, we are starting two freshmen and a sophomore, but it wasn't those guys, it was all of us. You have got to finish it. I don't think I would call it a rut, I don't think I would say that. I just think it's basketball. You have got to play the game. I think you have to play it for 40 minutes and you have got to do the things that we talk about, the things you practice for months on months. And if you don't do that, this time of year, conference play, post -season play, there are so many teams that are capable of winning."
On Colorado taking the lead-"They started driving the ball. In the first half they were 3-for-7 [free throws]. They were 19-for-32 overall. So that's [16 points]. That is where it is. They were driving the ball."
On defending Alec Burks-"Yeah, there is no doubt you can defend him. You have to stay in front of him. Every game, I said all year, every game is a puzzle. Officials every game are different. It seemed like for a while there, everything was called. It was a tale of two games. I can't tell you why. They drove the ball we were trying to go inside with it too. I don't know if the officials saw something they felt like they needed to clean up or whatever. But this time of year, you have got to play through whatever you have to play through."
On the rest of the season-"I'm not concerned about it. If we are good enough, we're good enough. If we're not, we're not. We have done a good job up until this point. But, if we are good enough, we're good enough. I told the team that. I told them that yesterday before we left. That's what I believe."
On defensive problems the last two weeks-"Helping each other and staying with our scouting report. The details; staying on screens, ball pressure not being what it needs to be, and today too we gave up some huge offensive rebounds. That's finishing the possession. We have been a pretty darn good defensive team all year, but we have to finish plays. I am sure everybody says the way to beat Texas is to spread them out and drive them, but we've seen that all year too. We know what we are capable of doing. We need more defensive rebounds and to do a better job on the offensive end. It's mental. There is no doubt it's mental. I can't tell you why. Like I said, it was a total team loss. I would like to think that at some point in time, we'll learn from it. We've been here before, we have had big leads. If I was coaching against us I would tell them, 'They can get a lead, but we have got a chance to come back because we haven't proven yet that we can sustain it.' We have to give them credit. Teams have come back and won. We are playing against talented teams, teams that can play, but we need to be better."
On the loss-"I don't think it's any tougher for me. I don't think I feel any different than when we lost to Pittsburgh or whoever. I think I have been around long enough to know this time of year, it's real simple. If you are going to be the team you want to be this time of year, you will be. There are still two games left, the swing, the conference tournament, and the NCAA tournament. The message all year is that we have to continue to get better and we have for the most part, we just haven't done the things that we need to sustain once we get leads."
Colorado Student-Athletes
Cory Higgins, Senior, Guard
On the first half - "We weren't playing like ourselves. They were out-hustling us, out-rebounding us. I think that was the biggest thing. We knew we had to change that in the second half."
On being part of a comeback - "I've been part of a comeback before, but never of this significance. We said we were going to put everything into defense, and let the offense take care of itself, just leave it all out there."
On Alec Burks' stretch in the second half - "He was huge, on the offensive end he really put us on his back. Him and Levi [Knutson] especially putting down big shots the whole second half. I think him, as well as Levi, had unbelievable second halves and put us in the position to win the game."
On the season being on the line at the beginning of the second half - "If we wanted to do what we set out to do this year, we had 20 minutes to turn around. If we wanted to do things in the post-season, it's going to come down to the second half. We just left it all out there."
On Jordan Hamilton's three-pointers - "I think if we hadn't have been in that position before, we would have been anxious. Like Levi [Knutson] said, we've been in so many games like that and we knew what to do. We just had to defend as best we could, make rebounds, and make our free throws. For the most part, we did it down the stretch to get the win."
On winning - "It feels amazing. I always wanted to be a part of that since freshman year. With so many missed opportunities, to capture one feels so good for us seniors. Being here for four years, I can't describe how good it feels."
On the crowd - "The crowd was huge. They don't get enough credit. I don't think we'd have such a good record if it wasn't for them. This game, we knew we had them behind us. It's huge to have them in our corner."
Alec Burks, Sophomore, Guard
On thoughts at halftime - "We had to keep fighting. We all had the same mindset to force this upset."
Levi Knutson, Senior, Guard
On the atmosphere at halftime - "I wouldn't say we were calm, because we didn't play a good half the first half. We were pretty amped up actually, because we knew we could play better, especially defensively. We really let J'Covan Brown get going too much the first half. We were focused at halftime and knew what we had to do the second half."
On team effort - "I think we did a great job of sharing the ball. We have a lot of guys who can make plays. We've been staying aggressive all year. I just had some opportunities because I had some guys make some great plays for me."
On the defensive focus - "We wanted to make sure we got out on the shooters. Locating shooters was one of the biggest things. Other than that, just our effort, taking charge, and finishing with rebounds."
On the last 30 seconds of the game - "I've actually been in that situation before, up one or two possessions with less than a minute left. It wasn't any different than any other game where we had to get a few defensive stops and a few rebounds and make free throws."
On the post-season - "I think it puts us in the mix. Everyone is still packed together even though we're at the end of conference play. I think we're in the conversation now and we have to take care of business. These two games are probably going to determine that."
On the team's attitude going into the last two games - "It makes those games all the more important. Coach [Tad Boyle] is always saying small opportunities lead to bigger opportunities. So we've led up to these last two conference games."
