Colorado-Harvard Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“Well, good win against a really, really good program, Harvard. I said this out there on the radio but got a lot of respect for Harvard as an institution, but also Tommy Amaker and the kind of coach he is, the kind of human being he is. It's always good to compete against people like that, but good win for us. I'm glad we played Harvard now, with a bunch of those guys as freshmen, because I think in two or three years, they're going to be really good, if they can keep that group together. We did a much better job in the second half, much better job taking care of the ball. We had three turnovers in the first 17 minutes in the second half. We had two of them there late, the last after the last media time out. So we did a better job there. They only made two threes in the second half, did a better job of guarding the three point line. We felt like at halftime, that's the only way they'd get back in the game is if we continue to turn it over, eight times, like we did in the first half and then they made a bunch of threes like they made in the first half. That allowed them to hang around a little bit longer than they should have but 18 assists, we shot the ball and were pretty efficient offensively. I thought we had some finishes at the rim that we could have finished very easily, and we didn't, for whatever reason, gotta work on that, obviously. But overall, pretty pleased.”
On defensive performance
“Yeah, we had a lot of difficulty switching. When you switch ball screens against a team that has a bunch of shooters, like Harvard has, and they're still getting threes up, there's something wrong. There's something wrong with the communication. There's something wrong with what you're doing in that ball screen switch, because a ball screen switch should take away any threes from the ball handler or from a pick and pop guy. So, our communication has to get better with that, and that's nothing new. We've struggled with that in the first part of the season for sure. Harvard puts lineups on the floor that really challenge. On one end, they're really looking to, especially when they went small, number 13 [Chandler Pigge], number 15 [Thomas Batties] were really looking to attack Elijah Malone off the dribble, which is something Elijah's got to improve on. And he's getting better, for sure. Nights like this will help him, because people are going to do that. They're going to try to attack him off the dribble if he's switching. We have lineups that can do a lot of different things, and we just got to continue to be good at what we're doing at that particular moment in time. We got to have the flexibility to be able to change throughout the game to keep other teams and guards off balance, whether that's hard showing on a ball screen, whether that's switching, whether it's double teaming, whatever the case may be.”
On his message to the team at halftime
“Well, look, the first five baskets of the game were threes for them. They had 15 points, five threes. Like we talked about media timeouts and at halftime, we talked about it again. At some point what you talk about, whether it's in the game plan or scouting report, whether it's at a media time out, whether it's at halftime. You don't want it to be after the game, because after the game is too late. We've got to be better at the game plan, because part of the game plan was to take away the threes. Transition defense was another part of the game plan, we did a pretty good job in the first half with our transition. Second half, they got it out quick, made one of those two threes in the second half off a (CU) made field goal, they got another layup off a (CU) made field goal. Those are the things that can't happen for us to be successful at the level that we're going to need to play. We can't have those kinds of breakdowns, you have to minimize them.”
On Trevor Baskin Start
“Yeah, Trevor gives us really good size. That [Robert] Hinton kid is averaging 20 points a game. We knew we wanted to put Andrej [Jakimovski] on him because we wanted to put size on him. He's listed as six five, I'm not sure he's six five, but we thought, you go by the numbers. So putting Andrej on him, allowed us to now put Trevor on number 13 [Chandler Pigge], which is a really tough matchup, and allowed Assane [Diop] to get on number 15 [Thomas Batties]. Those three guys were their dudes, we thought coming into the game. They had 43 of their 67 in their last game. So those were the matchups. The reason Trevor got to start and Ruff [Javon Ruffin] didn't, was size and matchups defensively, but obviously Ruff is a starter, he came off the bench and played great. We got a rotation of 11 guys, and I feel really comfortable with all 11. Hard to get them all minutes every night, but it's a long season, and so we're going to need all 11 at some point, and they just got to keep understanding that that's a sacrifice they have to make as players. And I feel good with where we are right now doing that, but we got to continue it when bumps in the road come.”
On Assane Diop
“He’s doing a lot. If he can just take care of the ball, Assane will have as many minutes as he wants. Because he defends, he rebounds, he's just got to take better care of the basketball. He'll score when he has the opportunity to score and finish. That’s going to be a work in progress for Assane. But the reason that he's in the starting lineup is his ability to rebound, his ability to defend, and his unselfishness. He made a couple skip passes tonight for threes. I don't know if he got the assist, because I don't know if we made the shots. But for the most part, he’s trying to make the right plays. I really appreciate that about Assane.”
On preparing for Maui
“We gotta have ball movement, which has been a lot better the last two games. Again, we had 22 assists against Fullerton. We had 18 tonight. But against Michigan State, they're going to be a physical team. They're going to be bigger, they're going to be stronger, they're going to be more athletic, they're going to be more physical. We've got to be able to handle that and match that. It gets back to getting a great shot every time we have the ball. Not turning it over, and defending and rebounding at a high level. If we do that, I think we can play with anybody in the country. But we have to do it consistently for 40 minutes. We don't have to play perfect. Nobody's perfect this time of year especially. But I like the direction we're heading. I look at Maui as a midterm exam. It's not a final exam, it's not a quiz, it's a midterm. The midterm means something for a final grade. We'll see how we do on the midterm exam. With three games in three days against quality teams. There's no gimmies over there. There's a good team, I don't know who it is. But there's a really good team that's going to come back from it 0-3. Extra Credit is part of the exams. You can always get extra credit by the way you play, the way you compete, and the toughness. The thing about Michigan State, I've got so much respect for Coach (Tom) Izzo and his career. Just what he's done for the game of college basketball over the last 30 years. The one thing you know about Michigan State, you better put your hard hats on. You better be ready to buckle up and box out. We better box out better against Michigan State more than we have any of these four games or it's going to be a problem.”
On turnover numbers improving
“I'm happy to see it. But Harvard's not a big pressure team. Fullerton is not a big pressure team. But neither was Pomona Pitzer in our exhibition game. Now Texas pressures, and we turned it over 23 times against them in our scrimmage. UNC really didn't pressure. With teams that don't pressure, you turn over against them, it's gonna be a problem. But the teams that do pressure, now you really got to take care of the ball. And be strong with the ball. We're going to go through every turnover these first four games, and every player is going to know what their issue has been. It’s multiple things for multiple players. It's not just one guy who's turning over. We're turning over as a team. We’re going to really dive into that. And challenge these guys as we head over there for these games and that we make progress in that area.”
On rebounds
“We should be a good rebounding team. With the length that we have, the style that we play, the philosophy that we have, we should be a good rebounding team. We're not out in the lanes gambling. We want to pressure passes, but we don't necessarily want to gamble. Keep the ball in front of us. One thing we have to do a better job of is box out. We track box outs every game. We had like 22 no or bad box outs against Fullerton. Now, Fullerton didn't make us pay. I don't know how many we had tonight. They had (11) offensive rebounds. We want six or less so we didn't hit that number. We have game goals that we gotta continue. If we hit four to five of our game goals, winning takes care of itself. If we hit one, two or three, it's gonna be a toss up game. If we hit one or two, we're gonna lose.”
Colorado Players
Javon Ruffin, Sr., G
On second half defense
“We really just took away the threes. That was a big emphasis of ours coming into the game. We knew that they shot 31 threes last game, which is a lot, so our goal was to take as many away as possible. We didn't do that in the first half, and we also gave them easy offense by just giving them turnovers and free buckets. I think that's what changed in the second half defense. Everyone talked at half time, we’ve had three games where we’ve turned it over too much, so we really made that an emphasis, and we did a pretty good job for the most part. Things still could have been a little better; we had some sloppy turnovers. To start the half, we all just missed a lot of layups; a lot of easy shots that we normally make. We just started making those. We were still getting good shots, I thought, from the start.”
On the team’s strengths
“I think defense and rebounding, those are the core values of this program. That's what Coach Boyle really wants us to hang our hat on. If we can guard and we rebound, I think we're 96 and six or something (93-6), when we out-rebound a team by eight and hold them under 40%. That's the goal every single game.”
On career-high and efficient effort
“I mean, it feels great, especially on an efficient night where I'm not taking any shots. really just shows you how good this team is. Half of my shots were assisted, and if they weren't assisted, they were wide open because someone else made an extra play. It’s not that I did anything different, I was just aggressive and ready when the opportunity came.”
On preparing for the tournament next week
“I think we have a great opportunity. We have a week to practice, and we see things that we got to work on; to watch film, and to give us a week to get better; a week for us all to get in the gym and also get our bodies right in recovery. I think we just come to practice, go hard, do the recovery stuff you normally do, and then be ready when your numbers are called in Maui.”
On if anything changes facing more athletic teams in Maui
“I mean, nothing changes. The way that we prepare and practice and the way that we try to play every game. It should never change. There's no different approach or anything to it. We just know it's going to be a battle. We step out there in Maui, and it's a big time tournament with big time teams, so it's going to be a fight.”
Andrej Jakimovski, Gr., F
On second half defense
“I think that in the second half we did a much better job taking care of the ball. For the first 17 minutes, we had only three turnovers, which is great. At the end, we got 13, which is our season low. It's not the best, but I think we're moving in the right direction.”
On second half improvements
“I think we did a really good job playing inside out. Our big did a good job just finishing and finding open shots. Second half, I think we moved the ball better than in the first half. We had 18 assists, which is good. Offensively, we are fine, just defensively we’ve got to fix some things.”
On keeping momentum behind rebounding
“I think our goal for the game is to get 10 plus rebounds. I think we're good there. We're really huge. We have a lot of versatility; a lot of size. We started the game, Trevor with the three and me with the two, and we knew that we can get rebounds. I don't think they're a really good box out team. That's why our game plan was just to attack the glass and get as many rebounds as possible.”
On his confidence in the offense moving forward
“I think we got better today. Coach is always saying, no matter how many minutes you're playing, you gotta give your everything. I think we got better today. Obviously, in the next couple games, the competition is gonna be at a high level, but I think we're gonna be ready for sure.”
On the slow start and how to change that in the upcoming tournament
“Just be ready from tip off. Coaches emphasize that a lot. We got to do a better job. The first four minutes, first media time out, we got to be ready to go. I think our main thing is to take care of the ball. If we take care of the ball, we're getting wide open shots, easy dunks and easy layups. We're going to have a good test. I think our main goal is just take care of the ball and then everything else will come.”
On his shooting improvement from the first two games
“I think nothing, honestly. I've been doing the same routine, same things that I've been doing for the last four years, and I'm not going to change it. Obviously, I left some wide open shots on the table, but usually I'm making those. Sometimes you're not going to make all the shots. I think for us, it's just, maybe for me, just to keep shooting the ball. I'm confident every time I shoot the ball, I think it's going in so that's my main focus.”
On preparing for the tournament next week
“We got a day off tomorrow, and then, Tuesday, we're going to be here at 7: 30 ready to get better. I think that's our focus, just game by game, day by day, we just have to keep getting better. The competition is getting better, so we gotta make sure we are ready and we will be sure. We just have to play our game. That’s it. Nothing, nothing more than that.”
Opening Statement
“Well, good win against a really, really good program, Harvard. I said this out there on the radio but got a lot of respect for Harvard as an institution, but also Tommy Amaker and the kind of coach he is, the kind of human being he is. It's always good to compete against people like that, but good win for us. I'm glad we played Harvard now, with a bunch of those guys as freshmen, because I think in two or three years, they're going to be really good, if they can keep that group together. We did a much better job in the second half, much better job taking care of the ball. We had three turnovers in the first 17 minutes in the second half. We had two of them there late, the last after the last media time out. So we did a better job there. They only made two threes in the second half, did a better job of guarding the three point line. We felt like at halftime, that's the only way they'd get back in the game is if we continue to turn it over, eight times, like we did in the first half and then they made a bunch of threes like they made in the first half. That allowed them to hang around a little bit longer than they should have but 18 assists, we shot the ball and were pretty efficient offensively. I thought we had some finishes at the rim that we could have finished very easily, and we didn't, for whatever reason, gotta work on that, obviously. But overall, pretty pleased.”
On defensive performance
“Yeah, we had a lot of difficulty switching. When you switch ball screens against a team that has a bunch of shooters, like Harvard has, and they're still getting threes up, there's something wrong. There's something wrong with the communication. There's something wrong with what you're doing in that ball screen switch, because a ball screen switch should take away any threes from the ball handler or from a pick and pop guy. So, our communication has to get better with that, and that's nothing new. We've struggled with that in the first part of the season for sure. Harvard puts lineups on the floor that really challenge. On one end, they're really looking to, especially when they went small, number 13 [Chandler Pigge], number 15 [Thomas Batties] were really looking to attack Elijah Malone off the dribble, which is something Elijah's got to improve on. And he's getting better, for sure. Nights like this will help him, because people are going to do that. They're going to try to attack him off the dribble if he's switching. We have lineups that can do a lot of different things, and we just got to continue to be good at what we're doing at that particular moment in time. We got to have the flexibility to be able to change throughout the game to keep other teams and guards off balance, whether that's hard showing on a ball screen, whether that's switching, whether it's double teaming, whatever the case may be.”
On his message to the team at halftime
“Well, look, the first five baskets of the game were threes for them. They had 15 points, five threes. Like we talked about media timeouts and at halftime, we talked about it again. At some point what you talk about, whether it's in the game plan or scouting report, whether it's at a media time out, whether it's at halftime. You don't want it to be after the game, because after the game is too late. We've got to be better at the game plan, because part of the game plan was to take away the threes. Transition defense was another part of the game plan, we did a pretty good job in the first half with our transition. Second half, they got it out quick, made one of those two threes in the second half off a (CU) made field goal, they got another layup off a (CU) made field goal. Those are the things that can't happen for us to be successful at the level that we're going to need to play. We can't have those kinds of breakdowns, you have to minimize them.”
On Trevor Baskin Start
“Yeah, Trevor gives us really good size. That [Robert] Hinton kid is averaging 20 points a game. We knew we wanted to put Andrej [Jakimovski] on him because we wanted to put size on him. He's listed as six five, I'm not sure he's six five, but we thought, you go by the numbers. So putting Andrej on him, allowed us to now put Trevor on number 13 [Chandler Pigge], which is a really tough matchup, and allowed Assane [Diop] to get on number 15 [Thomas Batties]. Those three guys were their dudes, we thought coming into the game. They had 43 of their 67 in their last game. So those were the matchups. The reason Trevor got to start and Ruff [Javon Ruffin] didn't, was size and matchups defensively, but obviously Ruff is a starter, he came off the bench and played great. We got a rotation of 11 guys, and I feel really comfortable with all 11. Hard to get them all minutes every night, but it's a long season, and so we're going to need all 11 at some point, and they just got to keep understanding that that's a sacrifice they have to make as players. And I feel good with where we are right now doing that, but we got to continue it when bumps in the road come.”
On Assane Diop
“He’s doing a lot. If he can just take care of the ball, Assane will have as many minutes as he wants. Because he defends, he rebounds, he's just got to take better care of the basketball. He'll score when he has the opportunity to score and finish. That’s going to be a work in progress for Assane. But the reason that he's in the starting lineup is his ability to rebound, his ability to defend, and his unselfishness. He made a couple skip passes tonight for threes. I don't know if he got the assist, because I don't know if we made the shots. But for the most part, he’s trying to make the right plays. I really appreciate that about Assane.”
On preparing for Maui
“We gotta have ball movement, which has been a lot better the last two games. Again, we had 22 assists against Fullerton. We had 18 tonight. But against Michigan State, they're going to be a physical team. They're going to be bigger, they're going to be stronger, they're going to be more athletic, they're going to be more physical. We've got to be able to handle that and match that. It gets back to getting a great shot every time we have the ball. Not turning it over, and defending and rebounding at a high level. If we do that, I think we can play with anybody in the country. But we have to do it consistently for 40 minutes. We don't have to play perfect. Nobody's perfect this time of year especially. But I like the direction we're heading. I look at Maui as a midterm exam. It's not a final exam, it's not a quiz, it's a midterm. The midterm means something for a final grade. We'll see how we do on the midterm exam. With three games in three days against quality teams. There's no gimmies over there. There's a good team, I don't know who it is. But there's a really good team that's going to come back from it 0-3. Extra Credit is part of the exams. You can always get extra credit by the way you play, the way you compete, and the toughness. The thing about Michigan State, I've got so much respect for Coach (Tom) Izzo and his career. Just what he's done for the game of college basketball over the last 30 years. The one thing you know about Michigan State, you better put your hard hats on. You better be ready to buckle up and box out. We better box out better against Michigan State more than we have any of these four games or it's going to be a problem.”
On turnover numbers improving
“I'm happy to see it. But Harvard's not a big pressure team. Fullerton is not a big pressure team. But neither was Pomona Pitzer in our exhibition game. Now Texas pressures, and we turned it over 23 times against them in our scrimmage. UNC really didn't pressure. With teams that don't pressure, you turn over against them, it's gonna be a problem. But the teams that do pressure, now you really got to take care of the ball. And be strong with the ball. We're going to go through every turnover these first four games, and every player is going to know what their issue has been. It’s multiple things for multiple players. It's not just one guy who's turning over. We're turning over as a team. We’re going to really dive into that. And challenge these guys as we head over there for these games and that we make progress in that area.”
On rebounds
“We should be a good rebounding team. With the length that we have, the style that we play, the philosophy that we have, we should be a good rebounding team. We're not out in the lanes gambling. We want to pressure passes, but we don't necessarily want to gamble. Keep the ball in front of us. One thing we have to do a better job of is box out. We track box outs every game. We had like 22 no or bad box outs against Fullerton. Now, Fullerton didn't make us pay. I don't know how many we had tonight. They had (11) offensive rebounds. We want six or less so we didn't hit that number. We have game goals that we gotta continue. If we hit four to five of our game goals, winning takes care of itself. If we hit one, two or three, it's gonna be a toss up game. If we hit one or two, we're gonna lose.”
Colorado Players
Javon Ruffin, Sr., G
On second half defense
“We really just took away the threes. That was a big emphasis of ours coming into the game. We knew that they shot 31 threes last game, which is a lot, so our goal was to take as many away as possible. We didn't do that in the first half, and we also gave them easy offense by just giving them turnovers and free buckets. I think that's what changed in the second half defense. Everyone talked at half time, we’ve had three games where we’ve turned it over too much, so we really made that an emphasis, and we did a pretty good job for the most part. Things still could have been a little better; we had some sloppy turnovers. To start the half, we all just missed a lot of layups; a lot of easy shots that we normally make. We just started making those. We were still getting good shots, I thought, from the start.”
On the team’s strengths
“I think defense and rebounding, those are the core values of this program. That's what Coach Boyle really wants us to hang our hat on. If we can guard and we rebound, I think we're 96 and six or something (93-6), when we out-rebound a team by eight and hold them under 40%. That's the goal every single game.”
On career-high and efficient effort
“I mean, it feels great, especially on an efficient night where I'm not taking any shots. really just shows you how good this team is. Half of my shots were assisted, and if they weren't assisted, they were wide open because someone else made an extra play. It’s not that I did anything different, I was just aggressive and ready when the opportunity came.”
On preparing for the tournament next week
“I think we have a great opportunity. We have a week to practice, and we see things that we got to work on; to watch film, and to give us a week to get better; a week for us all to get in the gym and also get our bodies right in recovery. I think we just come to practice, go hard, do the recovery stuff you normally do, and then be ready when your numbers are called in Maui.”
On if anything changes facing more athletic teams in Maui
“I mean, nothing changes. The way that we prepare and practice and the way that we try to play every game. It should never change. There's no different approach or anything to it. We just know it's going to be a battle. We step out there in Maui, and it's a big time tournament with big time teams, so it's going to be a fight.”
Andrej Jakimovski, Gr., F
On second half defense
“I think that in the second half we did a much better job taking care of the ball. For the first 17 minutes, we had only three turnovers, which is great. At the end, we got 13, which is our season low. It's not the best, but I think we're moving in the right direction.”
On second half improvements
“I think we did a really good job playing inside out. Our big did a good job just finishing and finding open shots. Second half, I think we moved the ball better than in the first half. We had 18 assists, which is good. Offensively, we are fine, just defensively we’ve got to fix some things.”
On keeping momentum behind rebounding
“I think our goal for the game is to get 10 plus rebounds. I think we're good there. We're really huge. We have a lot of versatility; a lot of size. We started the game, Trevor with the three and me with the two, and we knew that we can get rebounds. I don't think they're a really good box out team. That's why our game plan was just to attack the glass and get as many rebounds as possible.”
On his confidence in the offense moving forward
“I think we got better today. Coach is always saying, no matter how many minutes you're playing, you gotta give your everything. I think we got better today. Obviously, in the next couple games, the competition is gonna be at a high level, but I think we're gonna be ready for sure.”
On the slow start and how to change that in the upcoming tournament
“Just be ready from tip off. Coaches emphasize that a lot. We got to do a better job. The first four minutes, first media time out, we got to be ready to go. I think our main thing is to take care of the ball. If we take care of the ball, we're getting wide open shots, easy dunks and easy layups. We're going to have a good test. I think our main goal is just take care of the ball and then everything else will come.”
On his shooting improvement from the first two games
“I think nothing, honestly. I've been doing the same routine, same things that I've been doing for the last four years, and I'm not going to change it. Obviously, I left some wide open shots on the table, but usually I'm making those. Sometimes you're not going to make all the shots. I think for us, it's just, maybe for me, just to keep shooting the ball. I'm confident every time I shoot the ball, I think it's going in so that's my main focus.”
On preparing for the tournament next week
“We got a day off tomorrow, and then, Tuesday, we're going to be here at 7: 30 ready to get better. I think that's our focus, just game by game, day by day, we just have to keep getting better. The competition is getting better, so we gotta make sure we are ready and we will be sure. We just have to play our game. That’s it. Nothing, nothing more than that.”