Colorado-Iowa State Quotes
Tad Boyle
Opening statement:
“Well, disappointing in the result without a doubt. I mean, we lost to a hell of a team, Iowa State. They're number three in the country for a reason. They're tough. They're well-coached. They got good players, and our guys fought, and they battled, and they scratched and they clawed. I had no issues with our effort tonight, but we knew the answer to the test before the test was given, and we talked about it. After the game in Maui, we practiced handling their pressure and taking care of the basketball, which we didn't do a good enough job of for 40 minutes. We did a good enough job of it in stretches, without a doubt, but to finish with 19 turnovers, you're not doing that part. Then, second chance points, they had 20 offensive rebounds for 21 points, and we knew both those areas were what we had to do a better job of to win this game. And we weren't good enough in those areas tonight to do that, but our effort was good. You know, we shot 49% from the field. We held them to 42%, and we did some good things. We didn't get to the free-throw line again. I got to watch the film. I don't know. We shoot eight free throws, and they shoot 22, so we got to do a better job in that area as well because that was obviously a difference in the game with the 9 point differential. This was also a very physical game, and we knew that it was coming. It's just the way it is in this league. We got to adapt to that. Overall, a disappointing loss, but one that I think we can build on. I hate to say that after a loss because that's not what I'm about, that's not what our program is about, that's not what our players are about, but we got to figure out a way to get better and win a game next Saturday.”
On how frustrating as a coach to practice things and then not translate to the game:
“Frustrating because you work on it in practice, show film, and break down drills. We did a shoot-around today. It was totally different than our normal shoot-around. We went against double teams, we went against pressure, and again, we did well enough at times. We back cut them, got some buckets, made some plays, got them in rotations, and shared the ball. So it's not like we didn't do it at all, but it's just those turnovers that come, and they lead to the layups at the other end. We just had too many of those. And I don't know how many of our 19 were live ball turnovers. I'll figure that out. We'll watch film, but it's frustrating. There's no doubt about it. And then to see them get three offensive rebounds, you get three stops in one possession, and you can't get a defensive rebound, and then they whack a three, or we're going to foul and get them to the foul line. That's frustrating. I did a bad job down the stretch with our play calling. I didn't help our guys offensively much. The last three or four minutes of the game. A lot of that had to do with Iowa State. They're one of the best defensive on-ball teams in the country, but I have to do a better job as a coach getting our guys shots. And I didn't do that. But I'm not going to take responsibility for the 19 turnovers of the 20 offensive rebounds. I can promise you that. So this is a game that we all have to look at ourselves in the mirror, coaches, players, everybody, and take responsibility for what we should take responsibility for. Learn from it, get better, and move on. And that's what we have to do because it's the first game of 20.”
On finishing the defensive stops to prevent second-chance points:
“Here's the deal. When we're on defense, it's five guys whose job is to defensive rebound. It's not just one or two guys. It's not just our big guys that are supposed to rebound the ball. It's all five of them. So there are times when we just got our tails kicked. It's just the free ball, 50-50, ball. They got it. We didn't, and they got 20 offensive rebounds. We got 11. That's not a good differential. In the first game, they had seven, we had seven, and they had 14 points off their seven. This game, they had 20 offensive rebounds, and sometimes I don't know how we keep stats, and I don't know if we foul and get them to the foul line if they count that as a second chance point or not, but, man, it killed us tonight not being able to finish our defensive possessions.”
On Iowa State scoring from inbound under their own basket:
“I had the wrong lineup in at the end of the first half because we had a guy in that didn't understand his responsibilities. They had one shooter on the floor, number five. We knew who it was, and we let him get a catch and a three. I was very, very angry at myself in that situation. OB (out of bounds) under defense, they scored. They're good OB under defense. We're good OB under defensive team, they're a really good OB under offense. They were better tonight on their OB under offense than we were on our OB under defense. That's another piece of the play. I always say, out of bounds plays, free throw box outs, they're like special teams in football. They won the special teams battle tonight, it wasn't even close. So gotta live with that. Gotta learn from that. Gotta get better from that. Lot of things we can take from this game, both positively. We shot 49% against one of the best defenses in the country. That's something we can build. I don't know where they are, but they're up there. They're a good defensive team, and they take pride in it. We just didn't take care of the ball well enough, but when we did, we got good shots and we finished. We missed some easy ones at the end, but maybe that was fatigue. I don't know.”
On settling down after the first half:
“I think it was maybe nerves early. We got a lot of inexperienced guys at this level. Think of Elijah Malone played NAIA basketball. The only three games he's played in that were anything like this were in Maui. Trevor Baskin, this is his fourth game like this. RJ Smith, it's his fourth game like this. Julian and Ruffin are really the only guys we have. Asssane Diop, Bangot Dak, they didn't play in these kind of games as freshmen, especially the physicality of these games. What I don't understand is how the NCAA has a set of officiating rules. I was in the Pac 12 for 13 years, and now being in the Big 12 for one game, and the way that game is called is like completely, again, I'm not making a judgment. I'm not complaining. I'm just saying it's officiated differently in this league, and maybe it's different in Big 10, ACC, I don't know. I don't coach in those leagues. But what I told our players is we better embrace the physicality of this league and figure it out, because we can't send another team to the foul line 22 times, and we only get there eight times. We got to figure a way to either play without fouling or get to the free throw line more. And that's what our job is, and that's where the adjustments and the learning come from. I'm not complaining. I'm just making an observation. And I think it's pretty obvious to anybody that you know has been at our first 11 games. Again, I take the Maui games out of the equation, because the game of basketball and college is really, really physical, more so than the NBA, more so than overseas, you name it. FIBA is pretty physical, because I've coached USA Basketball a couple summers, but man, the NCAA, it's a physical game. We gotta figure that out. And we will, we will. I'm not concerned about that. We weren't good enough tonight, and weren't tough enough tonight. And Iowa State was.”
On how nice it is to see Julian Hammond perform as he did:
“ We need Julian to be who he is. I said this before the season: we don't need him to be KJ Simpson. We don't need him to be anybody that he's not. We just need him to be the best version of Julian Hammond he can be. And I thought he was great tonight in terms of his aggressiveness. I thought a couple of those shots were a little quick and without paint touches, but Julian's shooting the ball well. His percentage is really high. So, sometimes you got to live with that. But he's got to learn when to take that stuff and when not to take that. He’s nine for 17 from a guard, that's not bad. You're over 50%, and we'll live with that. So Julian, I thought offensively, is not scared. He's playing with confidence. And that's what we need. We need more guys like that who are willing to finish, make plays, and make shots because you got to finish. You got to finish against Iowa State because you know help is going to come on back cuts and when you drive. So, you better finish at the rim, or you better spray it out and get the ball moving and not turn the darn thing over. So Julian was great.”
On being welcomed to the Big 12:
“Yeah, absolutely. But we knew it. Again, it happened three and a half weeks ago, or whatever it was, when we were in Maui against Iowa State. We knew they're a Big 12 team, and they spanked us, and we competed better tonight for 40 minutes. But yes, welcome to Big 12. Here we are. We got 19 more of these. So strap it on.”
Colorado Players
RJ Smith, So, G
On if the loss simply came down to turnovers and offensive rebounding:
“Yeah. You have to possess. You got to take care of the bar, be more physical, handle and embrace physicality on the offensive boards. Yeah, that’s what cost us this game.”
On how he rebounded from being out of rhythm early:
“Yeah, I felt that twice early. I missed a defensive board right out of my own body, but my teammates brought me in and told me it’s just this play then the next play. Shoutout to my teammates for that. But I just had to lock in and make the right play.”
On the poor team defense to close the first half:
“I don't think it felt like it was getting away. That three definitely did hurt, because we would have been down three and our goal is to take away threes for shooters on the scouting report. And Curtis Jones is a shooter, and we let him get open when he hit it. And that killed right there. So, yeah, we just got to take that away. That did hurt, but we came offline the second half too.”
On the defense vs this team tonight compared to in Maui:
“Just us competing. I thought we competed for 40 minutes tonight instead of in Maui first 13 or 12 minutes where we did it. Yeah, I thought, I definitely thought we played hard throughout the whole game.”
On why the game slipped away late
“Just didn’t get stops. They just kept getting boards and finishing easy lays. And we couldn’t score. We do time to score in practice all the time, and it didn't go our way. We couldn’t score or get stops and we didn't get to the Free Throw line as well.”
On how to compete better in conference games
“Take care of the ball for sure. And then be more physical and rebound. This whole league is going to be the same way as them trying to crash the boards. So we got to prepare ourselves now and get ready.”
Julian Hammond III, Sr., G
On what was talked about at halftime:
“We know they’re a good team. A top three team in the country, and who you can argue is the best in the country, but we just were like, they're gonna go on runs eventually, like every good team, is gonna go on a run. So we know it's gonna happen at some point this half, and we each have to withstand it and respond better than we did in Maui. And we did. We did respond better, but it all came down tol we couldn't grab rebounds and we couldn’t take care of the ball.”
On how it was different playing this team in front of a home crowd:
“Well, I mean, it's the same type of intensity and we don't want to think about any game any different than the next one. But we know that we did lose a big 12 game at home, so we gotta go get one on the road now, really. So that's all it is.”
On if the offense was encouraging vs a defense this good:
“Yeah. I mean, they're a really good defensive team, and we try and get good shots all the time for our team. And so it's just a matter of actually getting more shots up. They have, what, 20 offensive rebounds, and we turn the ball over 19 times, that's 39 possessions. And if we can’t hold them to 10 less points in 39 possessions? I mean, we could beat them, but we didn't tonight. Didn't take care of the ball. Damn rebound. And we try to keep on getting good looks. You know, get good looks for shooters. Get the ball inside to Elijah and our other bigs, when he did get shots, it was good offense.”
On if the defensive pressure is what led to the early unforced turnovers:
“Yeah, they pushed us out a lot to start the game. And we knew that they were going to do that. And it takes you out your rhythm when you're playing out by half court. sSo you can't really get the ball inside. You're not getting drives much. You're not getting a whole lot of stuff that you wanted off it. And so that was difficult.”
On being the main guy offensively in a big matchup like this:
“We're playing against a really good team. I've been here before, I played against teams like this. I played in games like this, and especially when you don't have a guy like Andrej who's also played in games like this, and he's not here tonight. You need somebody to kind of step up. And I feel like, being a senior guard, I've been here, I feel like I should step in that role a little bit.”