Colorado-Colorado State Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement:
“This game really was a step in the right direction tonight for our team and our program. I thought we brought the fight to Colorado State from the get-go. Defensively, I felt like we exerted our will, and they felt our presence a little bit in that first half. For the most part, we did a pretty good job. We let Jalen Lake get going a little bit. He got a wide-open three in the first half on a ball screen breakdown. The second half, he got a four-point play. The job that Andrej Jakimovski did on Nique Clifford was great. The individual defensive performance in the game was good for sure, but I thought our team defense was really good as well. So, it wasn't just one person, but Andrej did a great job getting through screens and making him work for everything he's got because Nique has turned into a hell of a player. There's no doubt about it, he's talented. So, great defensive performance. The Battle of the glass was a big, big part of the game plan. We were plus 11 there. So overall, pretty pleased, except for the turnovers, especially the eight in the last 10 minutes of the game. But other than that, a lot to build on.”
On the full 40 minutes from the defense compared to previous games:
“I mean in terms of the percentage…I thought we battled UConn defensively for 40 minutes. Now, UConn made some checks because they got some guys that made tough, tough shots with us right in their faces. And I thought our effort in that game was just as good as our effort in this game, but in this game, we ended up getting more shots and/or more stops. It was our best defensive performance from start to finish that we've had all year. But I really thought the UConn game, we guarded as well, but they scored 70 some points because they got a lot of good players that make tough shots.”
On how Andrej bounced back to play tough defense tonight:
“Andrej loves challenges. Good players usually do. We obviously blew Nique in the scouting report, and rightfully so. He had 25 the other night. So, he's a good player. Andrej took on that challenge and did a terrific job. RJ Smith has turned into a pretty good defender for us as well. He had a few breakdowns tonight, but for the most part, RJ gives you everything he's got defensively, and he's got the ability to keep guys in front of him.”
On how satisfying the efficient dominance was tonight:
“Yeah, it was good, other than the turnovers late. I thought we got sloppy. We got kind of lackadaisical. Our footwork. There was three or four traveling calls that we got to be better at. That's probably the only I can nitpick at, but overall I was really pleased with our fight and our effort for the 40 minutes.”
On the satisfaction with how this team started this game:
“Fantastic. Part of the reason for the change in the lineup was that second unit sometimes, like against Pacific, they went on an 11-0 run after our first substitutions. And I look out there, and there are a lot of guys who are inexperienced. So, to have Ruffin and Trevor come off the bench and help that second unit when Bangot and Sebastian come in. Those guys really gives them stability. And I thought tonight, when we sub, we didn't like have a fall off. We kept it going. And I think that's what you need. That's what this team has to have. One of the strengths of this team is our depth, which means your bench has to play well. And they did tonight. We scored 28 points off the bench. Bangot, obviously, did some good things offensively. So, we're getting better. We're getting better, but we've got two more games before it gets real.”
On the intensity offense brought to this game:
“I think we really got the ball inside, and we played inside out. We got a little bit jump-shot happy at times. Getting the ball into Elijah was great. He was very unselfish tonight. He only took five shots. He was 4 for 5. He really sprayed it back out. He's not a black hole in there. So, I think our guys are figuring out that when we get him the ball, he puts foul pressure on the other team. He can score it, and he'll also kick it out for threes. And when we did that, good things happened. And you go on those runs if you're getting stops and getting out in transition. Our depth kind of wore them down a little bit. I looked out there, and they were tired at times. CSU plays Lake and Clifford 35-plus minutes of games. So that's a lot of minutes to play.”
On depth of the team:
“That's what we need. The power of this team is the team. I know it sounds cliche-ish, but the reality is, we don't have that one guy that every night we're going to be able to rely on to get 20 or 25 points. We're going to have to rely on different guys on different nights, play together, and be balanced. And when you're balanced, you can score the ball, and shoot the ball from multiple positions, you're hard to guard. You share the ball and move the ball, you're hard to guard. We can be a team that's hard to guard if we play with that unselfishness and ball movement that we're capable of. And you see it. You see it when it happens. You also see it when we stand, and we don't move it. When we try to go one-on-one, we just settle for jump shots. That's not how we're going to be successful this year offensively.”
Coach on how Bangot played tonight.
“Becoming a good player is a process. You wish it was just snap your fingers and throw them out there. But there's no fast forward button for experience. He's got to gain that experience by playing, playing minutes, making mistakes, playing through mistakes, doing some things well, and understanding. Guess what Bangot, when you roll hard to the rim you are a lob threat. A legitimate lob threat that we haven't had since I've been here. Maybe Andre (Roberson) a little bit. So picking and popping, or not rolling is not is not going to help you. What’s going to help you is rolling to the rim. Three offensive rebounds was good. It's a step in the right direction. I've been on them about rebounding the ball. But yeah, it's a process. Bangot is in that process, as a lot of our young guys are. Sebastian is that way and Assane is that way. Assane and Tyler are our best rebounders by far.”
Coach on what makes Trevor Baskin a good rebounder.
“He's got a nose for the ball. He's active and he's aggressive. Trevor can sometimes be what I call a plus minus guy. He does a lot of good things well for our team. But it's getting the turnovers in check. It's getting rid of the bad shots and becoming a distributor. In the last game, he had seven assists and one turnover. Which is fantastic. Tonight he has five turnovers, (two) assists. Just understanding that again, he's playing at a different level than he's used to. He's got to understand that. But Trevor brings a lot to this team. That's why he's playing starters minutes. Because he rebounds the ball so well for us. We got to make him a plus, plus guy. He's done something really positive, and then he comes back on the defensive end and is really positive. He's taking care of the ball, and that's positive. He's taking great shots, and that's positive. He can be a positive, positive guy.”
Coach on where the team is headed toward Big 12 play.
“It's going to be interesting. I don't know the answer to that question now. Until we get into the throng of our Big 12 season. I know who we open up with. You guys know who we open up with. We got spanked by them in Maui. But that's December 30. We still got two games and some practices for us to really hone in on the things we got to get better at. But I think this team can play with anybody in the country on any given night in stretches. Tonight what was nice is we fought and we rebounded and we defended for 40 minutes. Even though we weren't perfect. We had some breakdowns. But we're going to have to have 40 minute efforts and understand that we're not going to be blowing people out in the big 12 like we did tonight. So take these when you can get them. South Dakota State, who we have up next, is a very good team. We cannot sleep on them. But I'll have a better answer for that probably in the middle of January.”
Coach on the value of Assane
“He rebounds the ball. He gives you everything he's got on defense. He's a ball mover on offense. He's not looking to get his, he's just looking to make the right play. He made some really nice passes tonight. He can make an open shot when he's open. He made his first one. He missed the next two, but they were good looks. He's really worked on his jump shot. Assane plays within himself, and he plays his role. As a coach, you appreciate that. Some guys are trying to do things that they can't do. They're getting themselves in trouble. For the most part, he doesn't turn the ball over. He was earlier, in practice and in some scrimmages. He's gotten better at that. So he brings a lot to this team, and he's a selfless guy. He's selfless. Again, as a coach, you appreciate that as well.
Coach on maintaining energy in upcoming games.
“That'll be the test for us next Friday against South Dakota State. Can we have this kind of fight and energy and effort for 40 minutes against them? If I come in here after that game, and we've had it, I'll say, okay, we're stepping in the right direction. Then we got finals. You can't rest on your laurels in this. But you gotta build on the things that you just did well and that just provided you the opportunity to beat a solid basketball team convincingly. We gotta build on it. Can't take a step backwards.”
Colorado Players
Julian Hammond III, Sr., G
On team’s defensive focus
“To slow down their two main guys, Nique [Clifford] and [Jalen] Lake, because they make their team go. We just want to make everything tough on them, contest every jump shot, and I thought we did a pretty good job of it.”
On how it feels to beat Colorado State
“It's important. It feels good being from here. Everybody comes up to watch it, a bunch of people ask me, oh, you got tickets, and all that, so it feels good to beat them. It also feels a little bit better because they also didn't offer me, so it feels a little bit better to beat them.”
On what RJ Smith adds to the starting lineup
“He’s a really good defender, so that's obviously something that had a huge impact on the game tonight. On offense, he handles the ball, because a lot of the time he was handing the ball, bringing it up, and all that. He's a real good shooter, spaces the floor and a real good athlete. He just does a bunch of things that can really help a team win.”
On what went into winning the rebounding battle
“For us guards, there's always bigs in there, but we gotta do our best to try and crack down; box guys out. If there's a tip back, we have to make sure that we're trying to go and get it. It's a five-man effort.”
On the lack of competitiveness in this game
“I mean, I believe in our team, so we knew that we're the better team. So, we had to go out there and show it, you know? I mean, obviously we got up about 26 in the first half. But we do feel like it should have been a 30 or 40, point game rather than 15, because, for whatever reason, we let off.”
On playing against Nique Clifford
“It's kind of funny, because he was here playing a couple years ago when I played a couple years ago. It is crazy, but we saw Lawson (Lovering) get booed really badly last year when he was here, so it's kind of crazy, because it's a guy that used to play here; one of my teammates.”
On seeing a career night from Bangot
“It was good to see, because he'd been hooping in practice, so it was good to see it come out in the game. He let the game come to him, didn't force anything, made some nice moves and had some nice finishes, so those are good to see.”
On Elijah Malone’s effects on the game
“For me, it makes the game a whole lot easier because they have to help. There's not a lot of teams that have guys that can guard him one on one down there, just because he's too much. When you get guys rotating and closing out that you’re running, I might have an open three, but if not, I can catch, rip and drive. I get past my guy a whole lot easier. He makes it a lot easier on all of us.”
On Colorado not having just one star player
“Teams look at us and they scout us, and there's no key emphasis that they can put on a guy. It can be anybody's night, night in, night out. If it’s his night tonight, we have multiple guys that can go for 15 to 20 points. I feel like that puts a lot of pressure on a team, because you just don't know where it's gonna be coming from. I think we have a lot of guys that are willing to defend and rebound, even if it's not your night, they're willing to do all the small things.”
Bangot Dak, So., F
On the focus defensively
“I feel like we put a big emphasis on making them feel our pressure. We thought we made them feel our pressure from the start, and that got them off their game. I think that helped us throughout the game.”
On his CU high in scoring
“It felt pretty good. I mean the game also felt easy, because recently, I feel like I haven't been on my game, and now today I feel like the rhythm is starting to come through. It felt really good out there.”
On what Trevor Baskin brings to the team
“Trevor, he brings a lot of energy for us everyday. I feel like our coach wants us defending and rebounding a lot, and that's something he's put a big emphasis on. I think he's leading our team in rebounds, So he's just a big part of our team right now. He brings a lot of energy for us.”
On what went into winning the rebounding battle
“I mean, our coach says every day we got to win the fight. He said, you’re going to look at the rebounding to see who wins the fight, so we knew we had to win the fight this game and win the offensive rebounding and defensive rebounding.”
On if this was their best defensive game of the season
“I mean, for sure the way we started. We started off the half with six kills [a kill is 3 consecutive defensive stops]. That’s big because it's hard for a team to score when you have six kills. I feel like all five guys were locked in and making sure we could stop their two main guys on the court. Everyone else is buying into their role, staying in the gaps, staying to help defense, staying helping each other out.”
On the halftime locker room talk
“I feel like it's kind of the same message, just keep playing with the same energy we were playing with. Usually when we get off the slow starts, we want to have a better second half. We just wanted to keep the energy going in the way we started the second half.”
On Elijah Malone’s effects on the game
“He definitely makes the game easier because of all the space he takes up and how much of a good post player he is down there. You gotta double team him, he draws two people almost every time, so it makes us look really good up there.”
On his performance and slowing down the game
“I feel like my coach always just wants me to play a little slower, play at my own pace, because there's not a lot of people that can stay in front of me at my size. Just trying to break the game down a lot and just playing my own pace, that's really helped me this past couple weeks. I feel like just taking care of the ball, shot selections and just playing harder.”
Colorado State Head Coach Niko Medved
Opening Statement:
“I guess I'll use the word disappointing. That would be an understatement, but I think I shouldn’t use the adjective that comes to mind. I really thought we were going to play well here tonight. I thought we were in a pretty good place. I thought our preparation was very good. Thought our mindset coming in here was good, but things quickly snowballed. You could see really quickly we were not really able to execute on either end of the floor. Kind of the things we emphasize. When the game started to get away from us, instead of having the maturity to kind of pull back in, it just kind of compounded itself. Started off on the defensive end. Let a team score a lot of easy baskets. I actually thought early we had a couple of good shots that didn't go down. Then I thought we got frustrated, and we forced some bad shots. Then when things didn't go our way, we compounded it by trying to maybe force something else. We've been really good on offense around here, and yes we're figuring ourselves out, but when I see a team that has one assist at halftime and a team that only has seven assists for the game and 11 turnovers, that's not the way we play. And against good teams, that's a recipe for disaster.”
On if CSU played emotional tonight:
“I do. I think there were times when things started to get away from us. I thought we let that emotion get to us and then you get out of character, right? Whether that's you gamble on defense, you maybe try to force a play on offense that isn't there. I thought we crossed that line there in the first half. And when you do that, this is what happens.”
On if quick start from CU surprised CSU:
“No. They were gonna be ready to play. That's the deal. The one adjustment that wasn't on the guys, was we were trying to keep the ball out of Malone's hands and they got two high lows over the top. We did adjust, and was better after that. But even with those two baskets, we gave up a bunch of other easy ones too. So no, I wasn't surprised at all. Just for whatever reason, it got away from us quickly. We were not able in that first half to regroup.”
On if there was any specific change from the first to second half:
“That we played harder. I thought we played more tenacious. I thought we brought some physicality. I don't think there was some major adjustment that way. But that's fine. Go in there and pat him on the back, because we played well in the second half. The question is why do we have to wait till the second half to do that. Now I will say this. First time on the road. Most teams at our level have not played at your road game yet. We did. We clearly didn't handle that very well, kind of like Kansas didn't handle it very well at Creighton the other night. We did, but we got to learn from it, because we're gonna go on the road a lot here coming up against good teams and good environments. So maybe the bright side for us is we have to learn the hard way, and hate to do that in a rivalry game. The same thing happened at Ole Miss, that wasn't really a road game but didn't come out with the right mindset. We turned it around at halftime, but you got to come out better than that to give yourself a chance.”
On how to break out of the snowball effect:
“Hopefully we learn. We got to be a little bit more aggressive. I think sometimes it's easy. You're dealing with young people. It wasn’t all young people, but some young guys for who the games get big and it's hard sometimes to stay in the moment. All of a sudden it gets going and you're out there like “Oh my gosh. When have I seen that before?” Sometimes, unfortunately, you just have to go through it and learn. I hope that's the case. We got good guys. We got guys that I believe are going to get better, but we got to come out and not try to be out of character, but just do the things that we work on.”
On if part of this game was a throwaway:
“Oh God no. When you when they're shooting 60% in the first half, that's far from a throwaway. It started with our defense. We didn't shoot the ball well, but those things happen. If we played better defense, and we played sounder and we drove to pass and we took better shots over the course of the game, you hang in there, right? It's not going your way, but what you do is you have to hang in there, hang in there, hang in there. Then instead of being down big maybe you're down seven, eight, and then you can make a run and have a chance. But when you let poor shooting compound itself, then you start making defensive errors. You start taking worse shots. And that's what we did in the first half.”
On if CSU needs to play a road-game before coming to CU:
“I don't know, maybe but I haven’t even thought about that. I'm just happy we get to play the game. I don't care if it's our first road game or not, you got to step up and meet the challenge. I think these guys will respond. We got good guys. We're still trying to figure ourselves out. We played a little bit better, and tonight wasn't our wasn't our night. But we got a week of practice here. We got finals, and hopefully we can grow from it and play better on Saturday.”
On how to implement aggressiveness in practice:
“We implemented every day in practice but it's one thing to do in practice. We got to do it when the lights come on.”
Colorado State Players
Jalen Lake, Sr., G
On what the Buffs were doing effectively on defense
“They came out physically in the beginning, but I think we also got out of character. We only had seven assists on the night. We didn't play Rams basketball. We didn't share the ball well enough and flow like we usually do.”
On if it was more about what they were doing defensively or your team's mentality
“Maybe a little bit of both. Coming out we have to be tougher and I need to make sure I do my job as a leader. Making sure guys are in the right spot and coming out a lot tougher.”
On rushing and forcing things leading to snowball effect
“I think we rushed some shots. We could have come out a lot tougher offensively.”
On the changes made in the second half
Yeah, we had to reset and come out a lot tougher than what we did the first half.”
On getting rid of the up and down performances
“I think we just have to stay together. We have to get off to better starts. We have to be a lot tougher in certain areas.”
On the biggest halftime adjustments
“We have to be a lot tougher taking care of the ball on both sides.”
Opening Statement:
“This game really was a step in the right direction tonight for our team and our program. I thought we brought the fight to Colorado State from the get-go. Defensively, I felt like we exerted our will, and they felt our presence a little bit in that first half. For the most part, we did a pretty good job. We let Jalen Lake get going a little bit. He got a wide-open three in the first half on a ball screen breakdown. The second half, he got a four-point play. The job that Andrej Jakimovski did on Nique Clifford was great. The individual defensive performance in the game was good for sure, but I thought our team defense was really good as well. So, it wasn't just one person, but Andrej did a great job getting through screens and making him work for everything he's got because Nique has turned into a hell of a player. There's no doubt about it, he's talented. So, great defensive performance. The Battle of the glass was a big, big part of the game plan. We were plus 11 there. So overall, pretty pleased, except for the turnovers, especially the eight in the last 10 minutes of the game. But other than that, a lot to build on.”
On the full 40 minutes from the defense compared to previous games:
“I mean in terms of the percentage…I thought we battled UConn defensively for 40 minutes. Now, UConn made some checks because they got some guys that made tough, tough shots with us right in their faces. And I thought our effort in that game was just as good as our effort in this game, but in this game, we ended up getting more shots and/or more stops. It was our best defensive performance from start to finish that we've had all year. But I really thought the UConn game, we guarded as well, but they scored 70 some points because they got a lot of good players that make tough shots.”
On how Andrej bounced back to play tough defense tonight:
“Andrej loves challenges. Good players usually do. We obviously blew Nique in the scouting report, and rightfully so. He had 25 the other night. So, he's a good player. Andrej took on that challenge and did a terrific job. RJ Smith has turned into a pretty good defender for us as well. He had a few breakdowns tonight, but for the most part, RJ gives you everything he's got defensively, and he's got the ability to keep guys in front of him.”
On how satisfying the efficient dominance was tonight:
“Yeah, it was good, other than the turnovers late. I thought we got sloppy. We got kind of lackadaisical. Our footwork. There was three or four traveling calls that we got to be better at. That's probably the only I can nitpick at, but overall I was really pleased with our fight and our effort for the 40 minutes.”
On the satisfaction with how this team started this game:
“Fantastic. Part of the reason for the change in the lineup was that second unit sometimes, like against Pacific, they went on an 11-0 run after our first substitutions. And I look out there, and there are a lot of guys who are inexperienced. So, to have Ruffin and Trevor come off the bench and help that second unit when Bangot and Sebastian come in. Those guys really gives them stability. And I thought tonight, when we sub, we didn't like have a fall off. We kept it going. And I think that's what you need. That's what this team has to have. One of the strengths of this team is our depth, which means your bench has to play well. And they did tonight. We scored 28 points off the bench. Bangot, obviously, did some good things offensively. So, we're getting better. We're getting better, but we've got two more games before it gets real.”
On the intensity offense brought to this game:
“I think we really got the ball inside, and we played inside out. We got a little bit jump-shot happy at times. Getting the ball into Elijah was great. He was very unselfish tonight. He only took five shots. He was 4 for 5. He really sprayed it back out. He's not a black hole in there. So, I think our guys are figuring out that when we get him the ball, he puts foul pressure on the other team. He can score it, and he'll also kick it out for threes. And when we did that, good things happened. And you go on those runs if you're getting stops and getting out in transition. Our depth kind of wore them down a little bit. I looked out there, and they were tired at times. CSU plays Lake and Clifford 35-plus minutes of games. So that's a lot of minutes to play.”
On depth of the team:
“That's what we need. The power of this team is the team. I know it sounds cliche-ish, but the reality is, we don't have that one guy that every night we're going to be able to rely on to get 20 or 25 points. We're going to have to rely on different guys on different nights, play together, and be balanced. And when you're balanced, you can score the ball, and shoot the ball from multiple positions, you're hard to guard. You share the ball and move the ball, you're hard to guard. We can be a team that's hard to guard if we play with that unselfishness and ball movement that we're capable of. And you see it. You see it when it happens. You also see it when we stand, and we don't move it. When we try to go one-on-one, we just settle for jump shots. That's not how we're going to be successful this year offensively.”
Coach on how Bangot played tonight.
“Becoming a good player is a process. You wish it was just snap your fingers and throw them out there. But there's no fast forward button for experience. He's got to gain that experience by playing, playing minutes, making mistakes, playing through mistakes, doing some things well, and understanding. Guess what Bangot, when you roll hard to the rim you are a lob threat. A legitimate lob threat that we haven't had since I've been here. Maybe Andre (Roberson) a little bit. So picking and popping, or not rolling is not is not going to help you. What’s going to help you is rolling to the rim. Three offensive rebounds was good. It's a step in the right direction. I've been on them about rebounding the ball. But yeah, it's a process. Bangot is in that process, as a lot of our young guys are. Sebastian is that way and Assane is that way. Assane and Tyler are our best rebounders by far.”
Coach on what makes Trevor Baskin a good rebounder.
“He's got a nose for the ball. He's active and he's aggressive. Trevor can sometimes be what I call a plus minus guy. He does a lot of good things well for our team. But it's getting the turnovers in check. It's getting rid of the bad shots and becoming a distributor. In the last game, he had seven assists and one turnover. Which is fantastic. Tonight he has five turnovers, (two) assists. Just understanding that again, he's playing at a different level than he's used to. He's got to understand that. But Trevor brings a lot to this team. That's why he's playing starters minutes. Because he rebounds the ball so well for us. We got to make him a plus, plus guy. He's done something really positive, and then he comes back on the defensive end and is really positive. He's taking care of the ball, and that's positive. He's taking great shots, and that's positive. He can be a positive, positive guy.”
Coach on where the team is headed toward Big 12 play.
“It's going to be interesting. I don't know the answer to that question now. Until we get into the throng of our Big 12 season. I know who we open up with. You guys know who we open up with. We got spanked by them in Maui. But that's December 30. We still got two games and some practices for us to really hone in on the things we got to get better at. But I think this team can play with anybody in the country on any given night in stretches. Tonight what was nice is we fought and we rebounded and we defended for 40 minutes. Even though we weren't perfect. We had some breakdowns. But we're going to have to have 40 minute efforts and understand that we're not going to be blowing people out in the big 12 like we did tonight. So take these when you can get them. South Dakota State, who we have up next, is a very good team. We cannot sleep on them. But I'll have a better answer for that probably in the middle of January.”
Coach on the value of Assane
“He rebounds the ball. He gives you everything he's got on defense. He's a ball mover on offense. He's not looking to get his, he's just looking to make the right play. He made some really nice passes tonight. He can make an open shot when he's open. He made his first one. He missed the next two, but they were good looks. He's really worked on his jump shot. Assane plays within himself, and he plays his role. As a coach, you appreciate that. Some guys are trying to do things that they can't do. They're getting themselves in trouble. For the most part, he doesn't turn the ball over. He was earlier, in practice and in some scrimmages. He's gotten better at that. So he brings a lot to this team, and he's a selfless guy. He's selfless. Again, as a coach, you appreciate that as well.
Coach on maintaining energy in upcoming games.
“That'll be the test for us next Friday against South Dakota State. Can we have this kind of fight and energy and effort for 40 minutes against them? If I come in here after that game, and we've had it, I'll say, okay, we're stepping in the right direction. Then we got finals. You can't rest on your laurels in this. But you gotta build on the things that you just did well and that just provided you the opportunity to beat a solid basketball team convincingly. We gotta build on it. Can't take a step backwards.”
Colorado Players
Julian Hammond III, Sr., G
On team’s defensive focus
“To slow down their two main guys, Nique [Clifford] and [Jalen] Lake, because they make their team go. We just want to make everything tough on them, contest every jump shot, and I thought we did a pretty good job of it.”
On how it feels to beat Colorado State
“It's important. It feels good being from here. Everybody comes up to watch it, a bunch of people ask me, oh, you got tickets, and all that, so it feels good to beat them. It also feels a little bit better because they also didn't offer me, so it feels a little bit better to beat them.”
On what RJ Smith adds to the starting lineup
“He’s a really good defender, so that's obviously something that had a huge impact on the game tonight. On offense, he handles the ball, because a lot of the time he was handing the ball, bringing it up, and all that. He's a real good shooter, spaces the floor and a real good athlete. He just does a bunch of things that can really help a team win.”
On what went into winning the rebounding battle
“For us guards, there's always bigs in there, but we gotta do our best to try and crack down; box guys out. If there's a tip back, we have to make sure that we're trying to go and get it. It's a five-man effort.”
On the lack of competitiveness in this game
“I mean, I believe in our team, so we knew that we're the better team. So, we had to go out there and show it, you know? I mean, obviously we got up about 26 in the first half. But we do feel like it should have been a 30 or 40, point game rather than 15, because, for whatever reason, we let off.”
On playing against Nique Clifford
“It's kind of funny, because he was here playing a couple years ago when I played a couple years ago. It is crazy, but we saw Lawson (Lovering) get booed really badly last year when he was here, so it's kind of crazy, because it's a guy that used to play here; one of my teammates.”
On seeing a career night from Bangot
“It was good to see, because he'd been hooping in practice, so it was good to see it come out in the game. He let the game come to him, didn't force anything, made some nice moves and had some nice finishes, so those are good to see.”
On Elijah Malone’s effects on the game
“For me, it makes the game a whole lot easier because they have to help. There's not a lot of teams that have guys that can guard him one on one down there, just because he's too much. When you get guys rotating and closing out that you’re running, I might have an open three, but if not, I can catch, rip and drive. I get past my guy a whole lot easier. He makes it a lot easier on all of us.”
On Colorado not having just one star player
“Teams look at us and they scout us, and there's no key emphasis that they can put on a guy. It can be anybody's night, night in, night out. If it’s his night tonight, we have multiple guys that can go for 15 to 20 points. I feel like that puts a lot of pressure on a team, because you just don't know where it's gonna be coming from. I think we have a lot of guys that are willing to defend and rebound, even if it's not your night, they're willing to do all the small things.”
Bangot Dak, So., F
On the focus defensively
“I feel like we put a big emphasis on making them feel our pressure. We thought we made them feel our pressure from the start, and that got them off their game. I think that helped us throughout the game.”
On his CU high in scoring
“It felt pretty good. I mean the game also felt easy, because recently, I feel like I haven't been on my game, and now today I feel like the rhythm is starting to come through. It felt really good out there.”
On what Trevor Baskin brings to the team
“Trevor, he brings a lot of energy for us everyday. I feel like our coach wants us defending and rebounding a lot, and that's something he's put a big emphasis on. I think he's leading our team in rebounds, So he's just a big part of our team right now. He brings a lot of energy for us.”
On what went into winning the rebounding battle
“I mean, our coach says every day we got to win the fight. He said, you’re going to look at the rebounding to see who wins the fight, so we knew we had to win the fight this game and win the offensive rebounding and defensive rebounding.”
On if this was their best defensive game of the season
“I mean, for sure the way we started. We started off the half with six kills [a kill is 3 consecutive defensive stops]. That’s big because it's hard for a team to score when you have six kills. I feel like all five guys were locked in and making sure we could stop their two main guys on the court. Everyone else is buying into their role, staying in the gaps, staying to help defense, staying helping each other out.”
On the halftime locker room talk
“I feel like it's kind of the same message, just keep playing with the same energy we were playing with. Usually when we get off the slow starts, we want to have a better second half. We just wanted to keep the energy going in the way we started the second half.”
On Elijah Malone’s effects on the game
“He definitely makes the game easier because of all the space he takes up and how much of a good post player he is down there. You gotta double team him, he draws two people almost every time, so it makes us look really good up there.”
On his performance and slowing down the game
“I feel like my coach always just wants me to play a little slower, play at my own pace, because there's not a lot of people that can stay in front of me at my size. Just trying to break the game down a lot and just playing my own pace, that's really helped me this past couple weeks. I feel like just taking care of the ball, shot selections and just playing harder.”
Colorado State Head Coach Niko Medved
Opening Statement:
“I guess I'll use the word disappointing. That would be an understatement, but I think I shouldn’t use the adjective that comes to mind. I really thought we were going to play well here tonight. I thought we were in a pretty good place. I thought our preparation was very good. Thought our mindset coming in here was good, but things quickly snowballed. You could see really quickly we were not really able to execute on either end of the floor. Kind of the things we emphasize. When the game started to get away from us, instead of having the maturity to kind of pull back in, it just kind of compounded itself. Started off on the defensive end. Let a team score a lot of easy baskets. I actually thought early we had a couple of good shots that didn't go down. Then I thought we got frustrated, and we forced some bad shots. Then when things didn't go our way, we compounded it by trying to maybe force something else. We've been really good on offense around here, and yes we're figuring ourselves out, but when I see a team that has one assist at halftime and a team that only has seven assists for the game and 11 turnovers, that's not the way we play. And against good teams, that's a recipe for disaster.”
On if CSU played emotional tonight:
“I do. I think there were times when things started to get away from us. I thought we let that emotion get to us and then you get out of character, right? Whether that's you gamble on defense, you maybe try to force a play on offense that isn't there. I thought we crossed that line there in the first half. And when you do that, this is what happens.”
On if quick start from CU surprised CSU:
“No. They were gonna be ready to play. That's the deal. The one adjustment that wasn't on the guys, was we were trying to keep the ball out of Malone's hands and they got two high lows over the top. We did adjust, and was better after that. But even with those two baskets, we gave up a bunch of other easy ones too. So no, I wasn't surprised at all. Just for whatever reason, it got away from us quickly. We were not able in that first half to regroup.”
On if there was any specific change from the first to second half:
“That we played harder. I thought we played more tenacious. I thought we brought some physicality. I don't think there was some major adjustment that way. But that's fine. Go in there and pat him on the back, because we played well in the second half. The question is why do we have to wait till the second half to do that. Now I will say this. First time on the road. Most teams at our level have not played at your road game yet. We did. We clearly didn't handle that very well, kind of like Kansas didn't handle it very well at Creighton the other night. We did, but we got to learn from it, because we're gonna go on the road a lot here coming up against good teams and good environments. So maybe the bright side for us is we have to learn the hard way, and hate to do that in a rivalry game. The same thing happened at Ole Miss, that wasn't really a road game but didn't come out with the right mindset. We turned it around at halftime, but you got to come out better than that to give yourself a chance.”
On how to break out of the snowball effect:
“Hopefully we learn. We got to be a little bit more aggressive. I think sometimes it's easy. You're dealing with young people. It wasn’t all young people, but some young guys for who the games get big and it's hard sometimes to stay in the moment. All of a sudden it gets going and you're out there like “Oh my gosh. When have I seen that before?” Sometimes, unfortunately, you just have to go through it and learn. I hope that's the case. We got good guys. We got guys that I believe are going to get better, but we got to come out and not try to be out of character, but just do the things that we work on.”
On if part of this game was a throwaway:
“Oh God no. When you when they're shooting 60% in the first half, that's far from a throwaway. It started with our defense. We didn't shoot the ball well, but those things happen. If we played better defense, and we played sounder and we drove to pass and we took better shots over the course of the game, you hang in there, right? It's not going your way, but what you do is you have to hang in there, hang in there, hang in there. Then instead of being down big maybe you're down seven, eight, and then you can make a run and have a chance. But when you let poor shooting compound itself, then you start making defensive errors. You start taking worse shots. And that's what we did in the first half.”
On if CSU needs to play a road-game before coming to CU:
“I don't know, maybe but I haven’t even thought about that. I'm just happy we get to play the game. I don't care if it's our first road game or not, you got to step up and meet the challenge. I think these guys will respond. We got good guys. We're still trying to figure ourselves out. We played a little bit better, and tonight wasn't our wasn't our night. But we got a week of practice here. We got finals, and hopefully we can grow from it and play better on Saturday.”
On how to implement aggressiveness in practice:
“We implemented every day in practice but it's one thing to do in practice. We got to do it when the lights come on.”
Colorado State Players
Jalen Lake, Sr., G
On what the Buffs were doing effectively on defense
“They came out physically in the beginning, but I think we also got out of character. We only had seven assists on the night. We didn't play Rams basketball. We didn't share the ball well enough and flow like we usually do.”
On if it was more about what they were doing defensively or your team's mentality
“Maybe a little bit of both. Coming out we have to be tougher and I need to make sure I do my job as a leader. Making sure guys are in the right spot and coming out a lot tougher.”
On rushing and forcing things leading to snowball effect
“I think we rushed some shots. We could have come out a lot tougher offensively.”
On the changes made in the second half
Yeah, we had to reset and come out a lot tougher than what we did the first half.”
On getting rid of the up and down performances
“I think we just have to stay together. We have to get off to better starts. We have to be a lot tougher in certain areas.”
On the biggest halftime adjustments
“We have to be a lot tougher taking care of the ball on both sides.”