Colorado University Athletics
Players Mentioned
CU-Air Force Postgame Quotes
November 30, 2013 | Men's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
On Getting First True Road Win Of The Season
“Winning on the road is never easy, and this was nice to get this, and do it in the fashion we did, kind of convincingly. The biggest (margin of victory) I think since we've been here, I'm not sure, but seems like the best in terms of margin we have had in the last four years, so that was good.”
On Josh Scott and Wesley Gordon's Return Home
“It was a big game for them, in front of their friends and family. Colorado Springs, and this community, means a lot to both those young men and their families – their families are obviously both still here and part of this community. So, it was big for them, and I was happy that they both played well. So, it was a good – good feel good victory for both those young guys.”
On Fast Offensive Start
“It was nice to see Ski [Booker] come out and hit some shots, and get us kind of going, and then we kind of took it from there. We got that lead, but I thought we should have been up by 14 or 16 at halftime, and they cut it to 10. We came out first part of the second half and made some buckets and extended that thing and never let them get back in the game.”
On Being Able To Attack The Zone
“It's not fun playing against the zone for 40 minutes. We tell our guys all the time, the reason they are playing a zone is because they don't feel like they can guard you (in man-to-man defense). So, we have to be patient, and get the ball moved. Our guys would rather play 40 minutes against the (man-to-man defense), but we're going to see a lot of the zone. It's just the way college basketball is being called now, and people trying to stay out of foul trouble.”
On Attacking The Paint
“Absolutely, we wanted to get the ball inside. I thought we really did a good job of attacking the high-post area and the baseline against the zone in the second half. That's the one thing you can't do is settle for early and quick jump shots against that zone. You got to work it inside and play inside out, and I thought our guys did a good job of that, especially in the second half.”
On Getting Second Chance Points
“The one hard thing to do in a zone is box out. So, that allows for a lot of offensive rebounding opportunities. Josh [Scott] did a good job, Wesley [Gordon], Xavier Johnson got his hands on a lot of balls. It's something we want to get better at.”
On Continuing Series With Air Force
“I would love to continue this series. Obviously, for Wesley [Gordon] and Josh [Scott], but I think it's good to play Front Range schools to generate interest in college basketball (along the Front Range). Especially in November and December, these games are good for our state in terms of basketball. So, this is better than going on a road game in California or Texas, or some other place. It's good for our fans, it's good for Buff fans in the southern part of the state, and it's good for everyone I think.”
On The Importance Of Sweeping The Front Range Schools On Its Schedule
“It's important. Listen, these games mean more I think emotionally to Colorado State and Wyoming than they do to us – that doesn't mean we don't take them serious, because we do, and they are important games to us, extremely important – but those teams want to beat us, and they want to beat us in the worst way. The fact that we're playing them, gives them that opportunity, we better be ready for them. We found that out when we went to Wyoming last year, and we found that out two years ago when we went to CSU and loss by a bucket. It's going to be a tough, tough, environment on Tuesday night and we're not going to take anything for granted.”
University of Colorado Student-Athletes
Josh Scott, So., F
On Playing Well In His Return Home
“It feels good, it's good to show up for the home crowd, I won't lie, so it's nice.”
On Attacking The Zone
“First off, [Askia Booker] was pretty hot, and we were shooting the ball well. I think one of the beauties of our team is that it doesn't have to be one person scoring a load through the whole game. Granted, sometimes we focus on shooting more than we do posting me up. I think in the second half, we just found dead areas and passed the ball well inside and rebounded harder and got in the lane. It was Ski [Booker], and Spencer [Dinwiddie], and Jaron [Hopkins] in the first half, and I think me and Wesley [Gordon] helped out a little bit in the second half.”
On Being Prepared For Colorado State
“CSU is a different beast. They led the nation in rebounds last year. They play hard – granted they lost a lot of people (from last year's team) – but they're still going to play hard, they still have a good coach up there. They are two different teams (Air Force and CSU). I wouldn't say it's a good warm up per se because it's two different styles of play.”
On The Amount Of CU Fans In The Stands
“I knew it would kind of be like that, just because me and Wesley [Gordon] are hometown kids, and [Air Force] is struggling a little bit, and also our fans travel real well in the state, so it's cool.”
On Seeing More Zone Defense This Season
“Me and Spencer [Dinwiddie] were talking and we said during the game, that we've faced more zone this year combined, than we did all of last year. It's kind of been more of a learning process, and learning how to attack it. I think you are kind of seeing us learn different ways of how to attack the zones. We're getting better slowly but surely, but were getting there with it.”
On Getting Some Rest Over The Holidays
“We practiced all week, practically, but we got some good rest. It was nice not having class for a week; nice not having to go to class right after you have practice or something. Yes, it was very restful, very restful.”
On This Being A More Memorable
“It's nice to be home, don't get me wrong, but I'm excited for us to get into the meat of our schedule. I think that is where I will be more looking back towards when it's all said and done for the season.”
Wesley Gordon, Fr., F
On Returning Home
“It felt good to play in front of our friends and family that we haven't played in front of in a while. So, people like down the street and stuff could come see me play.”
On His Development While At CU
“I'm just trying to play within the offense and make my teammates better, rather than just focusing on myself a lot.”
On Establishing A Physical Presence In The Game
“We wanted to come out (fast), because we knew if we let them hang around long enough there was a possibility that we could lose, they had home floor advantage, so we wanted to come out and kill them early.”
On Attacking The Zone
“We knew they were going to zone us the whole game, so we didn't want to make it a perimeter game, we wanted to play inside-out. We knew that if the ball went inside, a lot of outside shots would come, so we just wanted to get the ball inside a lot. It was kind of difficult, they were collapsing on me and Josh a lot, so it was pretty difficult. Once I got the ball in the high-post, I was just looking for Josh down low and we executed well.”
On Halftime Adjustments
“Just getting the ball in the dead areas, we were passing it around the perimeter too much, trying to make it into drives. So, we just wanted to swing the ball really fast, make the defense shift, and give a chance for the defense to mess up.”
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