Colorado-Bellarmine Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“It was a great win. These games are always tough. The game before you go into finals, and then the game when you come out of finals, with the break that's ahead for us that is much needed. I think everybody needs a little break this time of year in college basketball, and our guys are no different. I was really pleased with the first half defensive effort, obviously holding them to 16 points, and I thought we were dialed in on that side of the ball. The second half I was really disappointed. I thought we just kind of mailed it in at halftime, so I didn't do a very good job there. I challenged him. Talked about winning the second half and not playing the scoreboard, but playing the possession. But obviously they didn't listen to their coach very much there. So that's disappointing, but overall, I thought we shared the ball well. I think Andrej is really one of our unselfish, really unselfish guys. He’s our leading scorer and takes three shots. I thought he moved the ball well. It’s kind of a working man’s effort, happy with the first half but disappointed in the second half.”
Talking about Andrej and how he has signs of being a veteran player…
“Absolutely. You watch him on the defensive end and he's locked in. He's kind of taken that role on for us, which I appreciate, where he really takes every possession pretty seriously. Shots will come, shots will go. And that's why my philosophy on basketball, and I know our fans probably get really, really sick of hearing it from me, but that's why I believe in what I believe in. Because you might go through shooting slumps, you might go through droughts offensively as a player or as a team. In the second half we went one for 12 from three. If we're a mature team, we find a way to hold them to 29 points in the second half, instead of 39. We are not where we need to be yet, we’re there in stretches but Andrej is not the issue.”
On Assane Diop being rewarded for playing and being in the starting lineup…
“The way they guard him, just the first possession, they sucked in, and they were going to take Elijah out, and Assane hit that first 15 footer, and he got some open looks tonight, which, if they're going to guard us like that, that's what Assane needs to do, not that he's going to get that every night. We may or may not be guarded like that every night, but you got to take what the defense gives you. And I thought Assane did a really good job of that. Played a really mature game. I was disappointed in him defensively on the ball. I thought he got beat off the bounce. I know he gave up six points there. Their first six points were on him. In the second half, number 11 just kind of went by him like he wasn't there. So I keep challenging him on that end of the floor, because that's what Assane can bring to us every single night. But I thought offensively he was great tonight. Defensively, I didn't think he was as good as he could be. Elijah got doubled. Thought he handled double teams really, really well tonight, found some guys we passed out of, got some wide open looks, and that's what we have to do against double teams. Now we're going to see double teams on December 30 that are a little bit better than the double teams we saw tonight. We still got to attack them the same way. Still got to execute the same way, because you have to make people pay for doubling you.”
How great was the football/Heisman celebration for the program?
“Yeah, it's great for the university to have a Heisman Trophy winner, and to celebrate that with the community and the kids and even the adults that are really excited about that award, as they should be. And we're proud of Travis. We're proud of the football team, and obviously they're going down to the Alamo bowl on the 28th while we open up conference play on the 30th. Quite frankly, I think the core of our fan base for the basketball program has been very loyal and good. But if people think that the non-conference attendance is going to allow us to be successful in the Big 12 as we move forward, unless it changes, they're sorely mistaken. We got to fill this thing up starting December 30, and so this is a step in the right direction. Today was a great day to honor the football team and Travis and Shedeur, and have no problem with that at all. I just would like to see this place sold out every night like it is in Ames, Iowa, like it is in Lawrence, Kansas, like it is in Waco, Texas, and all the places that we're going to play. So, if it is, it is, if it isn't, it isn't, there’s nothing I can do about it. My job is to get our team better, and again, I didn't do a very good job in the second half of doing that tonight.”
On using this game moving forward
"The only thing that you can ask for out of your team, whether it's an individual player or whether it's your team in general, is that they learn from their mistakes. The people that don't learn from their mistakes, guess what? They keep making the same mistakes. If we don't learn from today that it takes 40 minutes of a defensive effort, then guess what? We'll have a big fat "L", we'll be 0-1 in the Big 12 on December 31st. If we learn from our mistakes, we got a chance. That's where this game could benefit us, but we won't know that until December 30. We have four days of practice when we come back from break to get ready for Iowa State. They spanked us in every aspect of the game, physicality, toughness, turning us over, scoring on us in the second half, and doubling us. I mean, you name it. They beat us like a drum in Maui. So, are we going to learn from that? We'll find out. That's what college basketball is all about. Can you do that, and if you can't, how can you bounce back from it? We got a 20-game gauntlet in front of us over a 10-week period of time."
On the growth of the team in nonconference play
"I think we've made progress in a lot of areas, on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively. We've shown in stretches we can really guard, and we can really defend, that we can understand a scouting report and play for each other. I think offensively, we share the ball. We had 22 assists tonight and 10 turnovers. We've done a better job taking care of the ball here lately. Now that will be tested sorely in our first conference game, but I think we've gotten better in a lot of areas, I really do. I still worry about our rebounding when we play a big, physical team, and that's going to be the ultimate test. The one thing you have to understand in conference play is that you don't know where the next win is coming from, so you had better try to win that one right in front of you. For us right now, it's Iowa State on December 30, and that's not we know that's not going to be easy. We have to play really, really well to beat that team."
On being excited to open up Big 12 play with a top-five opponent
"I've always said this, you can't beat teams like that unless you play them, and we're playing them, and we got them in Boulder. Now, we also played them in Maui, and we saw what happened. As a competitor, as somebody who wants a challenge, and if our players feel that way, we'll be fine. I know I feel that way. I got a lot of respect for their program, their fan base, and their university. Look at their football program, you look at their basketball program, and their women's basketball program has been good through the years. I don't know who the President is at Iowa State. I know the athletic director, but obviously, they've got great leadership there. Because when you have great leadership and you have your football team successful, and your men's and women's basketball teams are successful, I don't know about the other sports there, but those three I know have been successful over the course of time, which leads me to believe they've got great leadership, and we need to make sure we are successful. That's my job as the men's basketball coach to make sure this program is successful. 9-2 in non-conference, we'll take that. I'd like to be 10-1, ideally 11-0, but we're not, because of Maui, getting spanked by Michigan State and Iowa State, but we had a great win against UConn, which I think is going to become a better and better win as the season goes on. They haven't lost since they were on that island. We put ourselves in a good position. Now where do we go from here, that's where I plead to our fan base, we need you, because college basketball, this building, when it's full, can help us win. It can help us win. The fans that do come are great. We need this thing sold out."
On selling the CU Events Center out every night
"We'll see. When people show up to see Iowa State, but they don't show up to see Bellarmine. Or they show up for Iowa State, but they don't show up for Kansas State. What does that tell you? What we need is a fan base, an arena that's full every night, no matter who we play. I've said that for 15 years now, and I think it was our second or third year here, we had sold out season tickets before the season ever started. We haven't come close to that since, and that's a little disconcerting. But again, I control what I can control, and that's our team, that's our performance, that's how we recruit, that's how we come to practice every day and work every day. Again, I think if we win and we continue to be successful, I know the fan base is here. It's just not here every night."
Colorado Players
Assane Diop, So., F
On getting touches in the first half
“I feel like it's just my teammates getting me open every time and passing the ball. It was just about my teammates. It was not about me at all.”
On joining the starting five
“I’m just trying to do my job every time, every night that I play. Just trying to do my job every time. Just trying to do whatever coach wanted me to do.”
On leading the game in scoring
“It feels good to just score the ball when you can. But like I said, it was not about me at all. It was just my teammates getting me open. It was not me doing nothing special.”
On defense leaving him open and him being able to shoot
“Yeah, for sure. I feel like just developing my shot every time I'm open because they were leaving me open the most today, so I just have to just knock those out so they respect me for that.”
On how the team has improved through non conference play
“I think I will let the like media talk about that because I feel like we don't have nothing to prove to nobody. We do our job every day, when we are on the court. So we let the media do that.”
RJ Smith, So., G
On presence that Diop brings to the team
“He’s very unselfish. He plays the game the right way, and I feel like we all do. We tried to play the game the right way, and he really does that and he's really effective. He runs the rim really hard. He rolls hard, and that's how we found him tonight. Julian found him early a few times just because he was rolling hard. Those little things carry over, and we try to emphasize those things in practice, and he's been doing a good job with that.”
On Heisman celebration before the game
“It's awesome to see our community come together and support each other. They had a crazy year, and they're still going. I thought it was cool that we had a chance to show support and honor them during our lineup and during the game. It was really cool, really fun to see and good to be a part of.”
On having the right mental focus before conference play
“Yeah, for sure. The first 20 minutes we played really good basketball, but we let up at the end second half. I'm not sure if we lost the second half or not but that just can't happen, and that can't reflect over to the Big 12 play. But besides that, I think we had a really good game. Got all the walk ons and got players that haven't been playing in, and that was a good team win.”
Smith on contributing from the 3 point line
“I feel like I can contribute a lot. My shots been feeling good as of late, but it's just repetition. I shoot every day, and it's just taking that and carrying it over to the game. It's doing nothing different from practice to the game, just being confident and just knocking down the shot when I'm open.”
On holding off their offense
“We knew that they're all pretty good shooters, a good program, but it really is running off the line, a big thing for us in practice. Just knowing scouting report. I thought we did a good job at that. They had some deep shots at the end. They had four threes in a row. But besides that, I thought we did good with the scouting report.”
On supporting the walk ons
“It's huge because they don't get the recognition they deserve. They're doing a scout team every day, like they prepare us every single game that we play. They prepared us for going against them, guarding them, and they make us better. So they're important to our team, and we're all brothers at the end of the day. We all support each other. They support us throughout the whole game, throughout the whole season, and it was good to return the favor.”
On playing a team they have already played against for first conference game
“I think it's good that we know what's coming. We're prepared. We know the players they got, but we need to lock in and practice and fix the mistakes behind the first game to be better at this point.”
On having a strong start to the season
“We know the opportunity that comes with it, and you just got to take advantage of it. We have a great home court. Altitude is amazing, so we got to take advantage of it. And who knows what can happen after that.”
On having a winning game heading into conference play
“It's good that we can carry the momentum to the next game. Obviously, we're going back home for Christmas. Some of us are going back home for a few days, but when we come back, we need to be dialed in. We just finished finals too, so we need to be dialed in.”
Opening Statement
“It was a great win. These games are always tough. The game before you go into finals, and then the game when you come out of finals, with the break that's ahead for us that is much needed. I think everybody needs a little break this time of year in college basketball, and our guys are no different. I was really pleased with the first half defensive effort, obviously holding them to 16 points, and I thought we were dialed in on that side of the ball. The second half I was really disappointed. I thought we just kind of mailed it in at halftime, so I didn't do a very good job there. I challenged him. Talked about winning the second half and not playing the scoreboard, but playing the possession. But obviously they didn't listen to their coach very much there. So that's disappointing, but overall, I thought we shared the ball well. I think Andrej is really one of our unselfish, really unselfish guys. He’s our leading scorer and takes three shots. I thought he moved the ball well. It’s kind of a working man’s effort, happy with the first half but disappointed in the second half.”
Talking about Andrej and how he has signs of being a veteran player…
“Absolutely. You watch him on the defensive end and he's locked in. He's kind of taken that role on for us, which I appreciate, where he really takes every possession pretty seriously. Shots will come, shots will go. And that's why my philosophy on basketball, and I know our fans probably get really, really sick of hearing it from me, but that's why I believe in what I believe in. Because you might go through shooting slumps, you might go through droughts offensively as a player or as a team. In the second half we went one for 12 from three. If we're a mature team, we find a way to hold them to 29 points in the second half, instead of 39. We are not where we need to be yet, we’re there in stretches but Andrej is not the issue.”
On Assane Diop being rewarded for playing and being in the starting lineup…
“The way they guard him, just the first possession, they sucked in, and they were going to take Elijah out, and Assane hit that first 15 footer, and he got some open looks tonight, which, if they're going to guard us like that, that's what Assane needs to do, not that he's going to get that every night. We may or may not be guarded like that every night, but you got to take what the defense gives you. And I thought Assane did a really good job of that. Played a really mature game. I was disappointed in him defensively on the ball. I thought he got beat off the bounce. I know he gave up six points there. Their first six points were on him. In the second half, number 11 just kind of went by him like he wasn't there. So I keep challenging him on that end of the floor, because that's what Assane can bring to us every single night. But I thought offensively he was great tonight. Defensively, I didn't think he was as good as he could be. Elijah got doubled. Thought he handled double teams really, really well tonight, found some guys we passed out of, got some wide open looks, and that's what we have to do against double teams. Now we're going to see double teams on December 30 that are a little bit better than the double teams we saw tonight. We still got to attack them the same way. Still got to execute the same way, because you have to make people pay for doubling you.”
How great was the football/Heisman celebration for the program?
“Yeah, it's great for the university to have a Heisman Trophy winner, and to celebrate that with the community and the kids and even the adults that are really excited about that award, as they should be. And we're proud of Travis. We're proud of the football team, and obviously they're going down to the Alamo bowl on the 28th while we open up conference play on the 30th. Quite frankly, I think the core of our fan base for the basketball program has been very loyal and good. But if people think that the non-conference attendance is going to allow us to be successful in the Big 12 as we move forward, unless it changes, they're sorely mistaken. We got to fill this thing up starting December 30, and so this is a step in the right direction. Today was a great day to honor the football team and Travis and Shedeur, and have no problem with that at all. I just would like to see this place sold out every night like it is in Ames, Iowa, like it is in Lawrence, Kansas, like it is in Waco, Texas, and all the places that we're going to play. So, if it is, it is, if it isn't, it isn't, there’s nothing I can do about it. My job is to get our team better, and again, I didn't do a very good job in the second half of doing that tonight.”
On using this game moving forward
"The only thing that you can ask for out of your team, whether it's an individual player or whether it's your team in general, is that they learn from their mistakes. The people that don't learn from their mistakes, guess what? They keep making the same mistakes. If we don't learn from today that it takes 40 minutes of a defensive effort, then guess what? We'll have a big fat "L", we'll be 0-1 in the Big 12 on December 31st. If we learn from our mistakes, we got a chance. That's where this game could benefit us, but we won't know that until December 30. We have four days of practice when we come back from break to get ready for Iowa State. They spanked us in every aspect of the game, physicality, toughness, turning us over, scoring on us in the second half, and doubling us. I mean, you name it. They beat us like a drum in Maui. So, are we going to learn from that? We'll find out. That's what college basketball is all about. Can you do that, and if you can't, how can you bounce back from it? We got a 20-game gauntlet in front of us over a 10-week period of time."
On the growth of the team in nonconference play
"I think we've made progress in a lot of areas, on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively. We've shown in stretches we can really guard, and we can really defend, that we can understand a scouting report and play for each other. I think offensively, we share the ball. We had 22 assists tonight and 10 turnovers. We've done a better job taking care of the ball here lately. Now that will be tested sorely in our first conference game, but I think we've gotten better in a lot of areas, I really do. I still worry about our rebounding when we play a big, physical team, and that's going to be the ultimate test. The one thing you have to understand in conference play is that you don't know where the next win is coming from, so you had better try to win that one right in front of you. For us right now, it's Iowa State on December 30, and that's not we know that's not going to be easy. We have to play really, really well to beat that team."
On being excited to open up Big 12 play with a top-five opponent
"I've always said this, you can't beat teams like that unless you play them, and we're playing them, and we got them in Boulder. Now, we also played them in Maui, and we saw what happened. As a competitor, as somebody who wants a challenge, and if our players feel that way, we'll be fine. I know I feel that way. I got a lot of respect for their program, their fan base, and their university. Look at their football program, you look at their basketball program, and their women's basketball program has been good through the years. I don't know who the President is at Iowa State. I know the athletic director, but obviously, they've got great leadership there. Because when you have great leadership and you have your football team successful, and your men's and women's basketball teams are successful, I don't know about the other sports there, but those three I know have been successful over the course of time, which leads me to believe they've got great leadership, and we need to make sure we are successful. That's my job as the men's basketball coach to make sure this program is successful. 9-2 in non-conference, we'll take that. I'd like to be 10-1, ideally 11-0, but we're not, because of Maui, getting spanked by Michigan State and Iowa State, but we had a great win against UConn, which I think is going to become a better and better win as the season goes on. They haven't lost since they were on that island. We put ourselves in a good position. Now where do we go from here, that's where I plead to our fan base, we need you, because college basketball, this building, when it's full, can help us win. It can help us win. The fans that do come are great. We need this thing sold out."
On selling the CU Events Center out every night
"We'll see. When people show up to see Iowa State, but they don't show up to see Bellarmine. Or they show up for Iowa State, but they don't show up for Kansas State. What does that tell you? What we need is a fan base, an arena that's full every night, no matter who we play. I've said that for 15 years now, and I think it was our second or third year here, we had sold out season tickets before the season ever started. We haven't come close to that since, and that's a little disconcerting. But again, I control what I can control, and that's our team, that's our performance, that's how we recruit, that's how we come to practice every day and work every day. Again, I think if we win and we continue to be successful, I know the fan base is here. It's just not here every night."
Colorado Players
Assane Diop, So., F
On getting touches in the first half
“I feel like it's just my teammates getting me open every time and passing the ball. It was just about my teammates. It was not about me at all.”
On joining the starting five
“I’m just trying to do my job every time, every night that I play. Just trying to do my job every time. Just trying to do whatever coach wanted me to do.”
On leading the game in scoring
“It feels good to just score the ball when you can. But like I said, it was not about me at all. It was just my teammates getting me open. It was not me doing nothing special.”
On defense leaving him open and him being able to shoot
“Yeah, for sure. I feel like just developing my shot every time I'm open because they were leaving me open the most today, so I just have to just knock those out so they respect me for that.”
On how the team has improved through non conference play
“I think I will let the like media talk about that because I feel like we don't have nothing to prove to nobody. We do our job every day, when we are on the court. So we let the media do that.”
RJ Smith, So., G
On presence that Diop brings to the team
“He’s very unselfish. He plays the game the right way, and I feel like we all do. We tried to play the game the right way, and he really does that and he's really effective. He runs the rim really hard. He rolls hard, and that's how we found him tonight. Julian found him early a few times just because he was rolling hard. Those little things carry over, and we try to emphasize those things in practice, and he's been doing a good job with that.”
On Heisman celebration before the game
“It's awesome to see our community come together and support each other. They had a crazy year, and they're still going. I thought it was cool that we had a chance to show support and honor them during our lineup and during the game. It was really cool, really fun to see and good to be a part of.”
On having the right mental focus before conference play
“Yeah, for sure. The first 20 minutes we played really good basketball, but we let up at the end second half. I'm not sure if we lost the second half or not but that just can't happen, and that can't reflect over to the Big 12 play. But besides that, I think we had a really good game. Got all the walk ons and got players that haven't been playing in, and that was a good team win.”
Smith on contributing from the 3 point line
“I feel like I can contribute a lot. My shots been feeling good as of late, but it's just repetition. I shoot every day, and it's just taking that and carrying it over to the game. It's doing nothing different from practice to the game, just being confident and just knocking down the shot when I'm open.”
On holding off their offense
“We knew that they're all pretty good shooters, a good program, but it really is running off the line, a big thing for us in practice. Just knowing scouting report. I thought we did a good job at that. They had some deep shots at the end. They had four threes in a row. But besides that, I thought we did good with the scouting report.”
On supporting the walk ons
“It's huge because they don't get the recognition they deserve. They're doing a scout team every day, like they prepare us every single game that we play. They prepared us for going against them, guarding them, and they make us better. So they're important to our team, and we're all brothers at the end of the day. We all support each other. They support us throughout the whole game, throughout the whole season, and it was good to return the favor.”
On playing a team they have already played against for first conference game
“I think it's good that we know what's coming. We're prepared. We know the players they got, but we need to lock in and practice and fix the mistakes behind the first game to be better at this point.”
On having a strong start to the season
“We know the opportunity that comes with it, and you just got to take advantage of it. We have a great home court. Altitude is amazing, so we got to take advantage of it. And who knows what can happen after that.”
On having a winning game heading into conference play
“It's good that we can carry the momentum to the next game. Obviously, we're going back home for Christmas. Some of us are going back home for a few days, but when we come back, we need to be dialed in. We just finished finals too, so we need to be dialed in.”