Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-San Diego Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement:
“It was a rough night for us. Offensively we couldn’t make a shot, and that got to us. We got our heads hanging. We did a really good job of getting back into the game in the second half by getting to the foul line which is what we had to do because our shots weren’t falling. We got a couple of stops at the end, but couldn’t get the rebounds. I am really disappointed.”
On The Defense From San Diego:
“They are a great help-side team and they rotate. You aren’t going to beat them on one play. There was a play where we made 7-8 passes, and finally got the ball to where we wanted it. We think we are going to get that after one or two passes, or off of one ball screen. We don’t have that ability right now. We want it to be easy, but it isn’t going to be easy. You have to work for everything. Also, when you have open shots you have to knock them down.”
On How The Team Can Do A Better Job Of Coming Out Aggressively:
“It comes down to execution. Part of execution is making the open shot. You have to find a way to win games when you aren’t making shots, and that is by getting to the free throw line. I wanted the team to get into the bonus early on, and we did that in the second half. We are a one half team. We had defensive breakdowns at the end of the first half, which costed us.”
On The Play From Tyler Bey:
“Tyler (Bey) is active. They had a small lineup so we went with a small lineup down the stretch. He is going to be a good player. He was active on the boards, and he got a big time offensive rebound which we couldn’t convert.”
On The Play Of Isaiah Wright:
“He is a good player. He is getting minutes now and is playing with confidence. He is a good shooter and playmaker. He is a PAC-12 caliber player.”
On What The Team Can Do Better Moving Forward:
“We have to control the things we can control. We can’t control whether the ball goes in, but we can control how we react, our effort, our fight, and our competiveness. We’ve had two really disappointing outings back-to-back, so I have to look at some things.”
Colorado Players
George King, Sr., G
On what San Diego did defensively
“They were very sound defensively. They packed it in the paint, when we did get it in the paint off of our drives they were tough. They played great team defense and it showed tonight. It wasn’t anything that we haven’t seen. When you play a good defensive team, offensively you have to execute. Your execution has to go up to another level and that was our challenge coming into this game. We knew already and we weren’t able to execute at the end of the game. That is why we still defend, we did that for a while. We held them to I believe under fifty for a while they had forty-six or forty-nine, then they started scoring which I blame on myself.
On where to go from here
“Short memory. We have a game coming up here pretty soon, another good team coming in here. We have to go out and really just respond, we haven’t be able to do that since Saturday’s game.”
On what he said to the team postgame
“I apologized to the team. In the second half, like I said we were holding to under fifty I believe that they had fifty-two at the time when this happened but it was a key moment for us. We were really starting to get back into the game, our momentum was really building defensively. But then my man drives right past me for a layup. Then there was another incident when we got a stop and I didn’t box my man out and he ended up getting the offensive rebound off of me. That is going to keep me up tonight for sure. That is why I feel like I do because I know for a fact that if I would have gotten that stop or those two stops we would be in a great position to win the game. I wasn’t able to do that, that burns me.”
On slow start to season
“We aren’t as good as we think we are. We can’t allow just because a team isn’t necessarily in our league; we have to respect everybody. But we fear nobody like coach says, I don’t think that we respected San Diego enough coming into this game. I think it was clear as day in the first half.”
Dominique Collier, Sr., G
On whether or not he was surprised how the game started
“Yeah I was a little surprised because of how we got beat over the weekend to Xavier. We just didn’t have enough energy for today and then San Diego took advantage of that.”
On what attributes to poor performance from beyond the arc
“I don’t really know. We got a lot of good shots today, they just weren’t falling. That is on us, we have to make those open shots. So whatever it takes us whether that be spending more time in the gym. In the second half we executed a little better and then we started getting some open looks, they just weren’t falling.”
San Diego Head Coach Lamont Smith
On Gameplan
“Coming into the game, Colorado was outstanding on getting to the basket. Therefore, we first and foremost wanted to try to limit their paint touches. I thought our guys did a great job. I think from there, that is how they get their three pointers. And so, we wanted to keep the paint tight and then from there, we had to have high hands and see if they can make them. They’re +7 on the glass coming into tonight, so we knew we had to rebound. That had been a strong suit for us all game, but our guys bought into the game plan. Our guys went out and executed.”
On halftime speech
“We knew. We talked about it before the game, there’ s going to be spurts. It’s a game of spurts. We knew there was going to be some adversity at some point in the game. We talked about that saying, ‘hey lets come out the first four minutes. It’s a crucial part to see if we could bury them away and our guys did. Credit to Colorado, they came back out and punched again, then they got it down to four. Then our guys just kept fighting and showed some great grit. I really believe the games on the past on the road that we played close at Grand Canyon and New Mexico St really gave us some confidence in this game and know that we could have some success down in crunch time. “
On keeping up the pressure and tempo when CU cut down the lead
“We just stuck with what we do. We didn’t try to do anything, we didn’t try to do anything that we weren’t coming in to the game. We even said at halftime, no home runs. We want to hit singles. Our guys did a great job, executing everything we needed to on both sides of the ball, I couldn’t be more excited for the program and these young men.”
On Williams clutch free throw shooting to end the game
“For Williams, he does this. As a freshman at Petco Park against SDSU, he iced the game with two free throws. Down the stretch at New Mexico State a week ago, he hits another two big free throws. He’s the guy who loves the moment. He has confidence every time he steps up to the line and makes shots. “
On tough environment playing in boulder
“I have great respect for Colorado and Coach Boyle. HE’s doing a great job , I was in the Pac -12 at ASU and suffered some losses in this building with the altitude, the crowd, and how well he coaches, so again I credit our coaches and guys for sticking through with the game plan. Not being too rattled and did a great job of executing.
Best start For USD since entering Division 1.
“Very positive. Everyone see’s this part, but they didn’t see when last year we won 9 games, last year we won 13 and this year being able to have some success, so I’m just really happy for these guys. When we recruited all these young men, we talk about not being ordinary. We talk about leaving a legacy, so this is something that they will go down in the record books until someone else tries to beat them, so I’m just very happy for them.”
On signature win
I think it’s a great win . I like all our wins, I want more. We understand, we are not going to sneak up on anybody anymore. It’s different when you’re in the hunt rather being hunted. We gotta go home and make the home stand until January, take care of business there. …. I want to add about Juwan Gray. He played his tail off, on both ends of the floor. He was crucial in us being successful tonight.
On leading into tough environments in WCC
“That’s why we set this schedule up, all to prepare us for WCC play. We’re not naive we know there’s some giants in our league. Keep growing before we enter our conference, and we’ll see where the chips fall.”