Colorado-New Mexico quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“Good win for the buffs tonight. It wasn't pretty at times. We still have a lot of work to do in a lot of different areas but our guys show grit and toughness when they need to and for us to extend leaves and kind of put games away. We've got to become better defensively. And we've got to become better at taking care of the basketball. We had 16 turnovers against Montana State with 18 tonight against New Mexico. That is an area of concern for us in practice the last three weeks so at some point, if we don't get that under control, it's gonna cost us a game but didn't didn't cost us Tuesday didn't cost us tonight, but we got a lot of improvement to make but overall, some guys did some good things and they made some plays and and we're gonna continue to move forward and get better.”
On the team dynamics
“We've got a competitive group and we talked about it last spring with the returning guys; Evan, Eli, and then the freshmen class that are now sophomores. We talked about the fact that just because we lost a bunch of seniors and we're going to be young, we're not going to use that as an excuse and we got to bow our backs and so we've got a competitive group that that wants to maintain the standards that this program has set for itself, over the past several years, so we've got tough kids that are competitive. I thought the play of the game was a loose ball in front of their bench where Jabari got on the floor and Keyshawn was right on top of it, they once got the loose ball and got a timeout. I mean, those are the plays, early in the second half. House did it across from our bench and he got the loose ball and the timeout so our guys responded. They're a competitive group. But again, lots of lots of room for improvement in multiple areas.”
On rebounding
“It is something we stress every single day, every single game, it's just nothing that's going to go away and plus 20 is a great number. KJ has eight in 18 minutes as a guard. That's fantastic. It's not going to be one guy. Jabari led us tonight with 10 but we had some guys, Nick has been our most consistent rebounder but we want all five guys on defense rebounding and our three, four or five guys like Tristan. Offensively, they need to make their presence felt because there's gonna be nights where we don't shoot the ball well and stretches where we don't shoot it. So we got to rely on offensive rebounding as part of our identity.”
On the importance of these early season match-ups
“I think it's important. I think it's important for guys, but they have to understand that, the things that we've gotten away with against Montana State and New Mexico, we're not going to get away with against UCLA, Stanford, who are our two league games here in December, coming up. So for the Pac-12 that the margin for error goes down that's why the daily improvement from game to game improvement, now we need to see it. We need to see it go from 16 turnovers to 14 and then 14 to 12 and 12 to 10. Now we're where we need to go from 16 to 18. That's trending in the wrong direction. So something you have to take individual pride in is how you guard and how you rebound and, and and how you take care of the ball.”
On KJ
“He's got he plays with great energy. He's got great speed. He's gonna be a really good player here. He's really coachable. He really is. I mean, he made some plays off two feet tonight that three four weeks ago, he would have left his feet charged or turned it over. When he's really trying to do what the coaching staffs asking him to do and he did a great job. But it's a learning curve for him. You know, he's playing against you know, veteran guards, I mean House is a junior Mashburn has played in the Big 10 for the last couple years. So he's playing against experienced guards and he's gonna keep getting better and learning and losing to those two are getting the majority of minutes from a freshman class, but it is going to be a quick turnaround for Maine. But I hope we can get deeper into our bench and start developing some depth because we didn't get Luke in the second half. We shortened our rotation a little bit. Julian hasn't played the first two games. He was a little under the weather yesterday with practice, but I want to get those guys some extended minutes because I think they're gonna be times where I need those guys this year. So we have to keep getting better and gaining experience and learning and getting better.”
On Keeshawn
“We know Keeshawn can score the ball. That's the one thing, he can shoot it and you can get downhill. What I'm trying to stress about this team is we cannot have an agenda. We got to share the ball because we got multiple weapons. Evan is a weapon, Lawson's a weapon, KJ is a weapon. We have every guy that's in our lineup that is a weapon offensively. Keeshawn is a guy who can get a shot because he's quick and he's got a good release. And so we know he can score. And now he's trying to figure out how to run a team and score and take care of the ball and score and that's the learning curve. He's trying to figure out but he can get buckets for us and we need him to score at times. There's no doubt about it, but it's gonna be a different guy on different nights. And that's what I want our team to understand that it may not be every night, but we got to be threats. We got to be aggressive, but 14 assists on 28 baskets is not enough. It means half the time we're doing it without making a play for somebody else. We're doing it off the bounce or whatever.”
Colorado Players
Evan Battey, Sr., F
On getting to the free throw line“We want to be in attack mode in regards to attacking the bigs or attacking from outside and inside so we have some really versatile players and some good players so I think we have really hard players to guard, obviously us attacking is good for us.”
On trying to defend New Mexico
“Yeah, they're just so ball screen reliant. Continuous ball screening, continuous tests of your ball screen defense. Jalen House and Mashburn are good players, they have ultimate confidence and they have the green light to shoot whenever and you don't really make plays with whatever they have. So just containing them the best we can ultimately.”
On K.J. Simpson’s rebounding
“It kind of shows flashes of Mckinley (Wright), the way he gets it off. He gets his own miss sometimes, sometimes he gets it off the glass, we missed that here in the last six months. It's different with a guard, able to get the ball off the glass, push it and get his own rebounds so that's big for us.”
On Keeshawn Barthelemy’s ability to score
“We always knew that Keeshawn could fill it up. That was never a question. Keeshawn is one of the top scores on this team. You've seen it, he can shoot it, drive it, pass it. He knows how special a player he is. He knows how special a player we think he is. So we're going to have him play with that confidence and play free.”
On cleaning up turnovers
“I think turnovers are going to clean itself up as we keep progressing, keep knowing what we're looking for, slowing down and there's multiple factors you can attribute to turnovers but it's across the board, we can take care of the ball better.”
Jabari Walker, So., F
On getting to the free throw line“Yeah, Coach Boyle preaches playing inside out and the shots aren't always going to fall. We have one of the best post players in America here so just getting him the ball and we know that once you get it to him something good is going to happen.”
On his block late in the second half
“I think it came from practice. I think I kind of saw the play breaking down a little bit. I knew the big was going to be late because he had to show for that guard. And so I just kind of timed it. I didn't know if I was going to go take the charge or if I was going to block it. So I waited a little bit. I knew he was going to go up. So I was just like, alright, I'll meet him at the rim and the results were in my favor.”