Colorado-Arizona State Quotes
Colorado vs. Arizona State
Jan. 28, 2025, CU Events Center
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement
“Well, I'm not sure I've ever felt as bad for a group of guys as I do for this group that was in the locker room because they are, as BD [Bangot Dak] and Trevor [Baskin] said, they're trying. They really are. Now, we're not playing smart enough, we're not playing tough enough, we're not playing consistent enough. And that's my job. If you can do it once, you should be able to do it twice. If you do it twice, you should be able to do it three times. And look, the shots sometimes aren't going to go in. That's part of it. But this team, this program, I should say, this program, has set a standard of defending at a high level and rebounding at a high level consistently throughout the 14 years we've been here. This team is nowhere near good enough defensively or rebounding the basketball to win a game like tonight. Now, turnovers have been an issue for us all year. You guys know that. I know that. We talk about it every damn game. The good news about tonight is we only had two in the second half. That's good news, so we got to build on that positive. So when I look at this game, I look at the first half, when we're down seven. To me, that's where we miss the game. Our guys are all worried about missing shots down the stretch, because they expect to make those shots. They want to make those shots. What I got to get them to understand is, if you defend and you rebound and you take care of the ball, in the first 20 minutes, we won the second half by five. This is not even a game. We win this thing going away. But we're not able to do that for whatever reason. The turnovers, I just scratched my head. I mean, just simple passing and catching, turnovers, concentration turnovers. It's mind boggling. But like those guys said, we're not losing our spirit, we're not going to lose our heart, we're not going to lose our togetherness, but we got to lose the damn turnovers, at least get them under control. We didn't play real well in the second half offensively. Shot, what, 42% but we won it by five because we took care of the ball. That's what you got to do, but you got to do for 40 minutes. And we're not capable of doing that.”
On if turnovers decreasing in second half is from finding rhythm
“Again, at least they weren't live ball turnovers, but you think about the first defensive possession of the game. They miss a shot, get a rebound. They miss a shot, get a rebound. They make a three. Best player makes a three. But at halftime, 20 of their 33 points came off second chance points, not us, didn't get our rebound or our turnovers. So they scored 13 points in the first half against our defense that we set. We'll live with that, but we can't live with the 20 that we're giving them because we already got our stop. We just can't get a rebound. And there's going to be some of that, it's never going to be zero, but it can't be 20 out of 33. That's the difference in the game. Our players don't think like that and it's my job to get them to think like that. I wish they were as frustrated with an opponent's offensive rebound as they were about a missed shot.”
On difficulty finding shots
“We had our shots. If you look at the last shots that our team got, we had our chances to win that game. We really did. We didn't make them, but we had our chances. We did, we just didn't capitalize on them. That's the one thing as a coach, you can't control the shots going in or not going in. What you can control is your guys boxing out, your guys getting 50/50 balls, you're competing on the glass, you're stopping them from scoring and you're taking away their strengths. Arizona State was ready to be beat tonight. They're down two starters. They played seven guys and they had foul trouble, so we had our chances.”
On giving Sebastian Rancik his first career start and his performance tonight
“Sebi is doing some good things. He made a really good; strong drive there at the end and a finish to tie the game up. I want him to become a better, more consistent rebounder. I feel good about him guarding the ball when he's on defense. I think he's gotten better defensively since he's been here. Sebi’s going to be a great player for us. There's no doubt about it. With this team, in terms of who you play and who you start, and who gets the minutes, it is really difficult because it's so inconsistent. Julian [Hammond], he's given us everything he's got. He didn't score against Arizona State in the first game, didn't score at halftime, but 13 points on 16 shots, that's not the Julian Hammond we know. You got to get 13 points on six shots. That's the Julian Hammond we know we got. That's where we have to be more efficient, and we're not, but it's not one guy. Julian's been our most consistent player all year, game in and game out. Offensively. He struggled defensively a little bit tonight.”
On if there are any challenges framing his message to the team
“I'm really not having a challenge. What's frustrating is it's the same message. I've changed up lineups, I've changed up rotations and I've changed up minutes, but my message has been the same. They might get tired of the message, I really don't care, but the message is, we gotta stick together. We got to believe in each other. We got to make each other better on both ends of the floor. Togetherness, a lot of people think about togetherness and selfishness or unselfishness on the offensive end, but it is prevalent on the defensive end. If we get caught on screen, we have to have somebody there and help us get beat off the dribble. We got to have somebody there to help. That guy that helps, somebody's got to help the helper. We've got to be more connected defensively. We showed offensively. We had some really good possessions tonight. We got some good looks. We had enough good shots to win this game. We didn't make enough shots down the stretch, but we had good shots when we didn't turn it over. Again, two turnovers in the second half. We'll take that all day long. 10 in the first half, lose by seven the first half, win by five in the second half. It's really not that difficult of a message. Is it hard? No. Is it hard to get through to him? Yes, because our team hasn't gotten better. We were better in Maui even though we got shellacked by Michigan State. We got crushed by Iowa State. We were a better team in November than we are at the end of January. That's all me. I'm not doing my job.”
On what morale is like after this game:
“Well, they're shaken. You can tell out on the floor that they're not playing with a lot of confidence. They're not playing decisively. They're afraid to make mistakes. I told them at a time-out that there was no pressure on us. Nobody expects anything from you. We're zero and eight, we're zero and nine now like we should be playing free and easy. That doesn't mean being careless with the ball. It just means there's no pressure on these dudes. Just play. So, our confidence is shaken. It probably is. Now, as a coach, here's what I do know. I've done this for 30 years. Confidence is not a commodity. It's not something you can buy or sell. You can't go get it. I can't give a kid confidence. I can try to be encouraging and truthful; sometimes, you need to pat a guy on the back. This team needs a pat on the back right now, but they also need a kick in the ass. They can't take a kick in the ass. They need pats in the back. Maybe the pats on the back will help them, I don't know. But I’ll tell you what, this is where you learn about yourself, and that's the one thing I'll say about this experience and where we're at right now. And I don't know what's going to happen, and the schedule does not favor us in February. It favored us in January. So, it doesn't favor us. So it's about playing better and improving. There might be some games in February where we play really well and lose. So, I've got to concentrate on what we are doing, how we are playing, how efficient we are on offense, and how tough we are on defense. Because the winning and losing piece, that's going to take care of itself, but I'm not going to give up on these guys. I can tell you that they're great kids. They're not bad kids, but their confidence is shaking a little bit. You can't play this game afraid to make a mistake. You can't play this game afraid. I told them I'm going to take you out for two reasons tonight: a bad shot or you’re not boxing out. Other than that, I’m not going to take you out.”
On if it was evident that ASU was playing tight defense from the beginning:
“I think that's what started it. There was a long rebound, but our hands were down. We're boxing out. So it wasn't a bad box out, but our hands are down. The rebound comes right over our heads. If our hands are up, like we've talked about, and like we've drilled, then the hands are up, and that rebound comes, then I might be able to get two hands on it and secure it, but I can't get a rebound with my hands down. I can box out with my hands down, but I can never get a rebound with my hands down. We have to get rebounds with our hands above the elbows. We should have learned these basic things in junior high school that we don't have right now. I haven't been able to teach it. So again, I'm just as complicit as the coaches that came before me with some of these guys because that's frustrating. And then again, another rebound missed and their best player makes the three, and that's how it started. We weren't able to string together enough stops in the second half. They shot 50% in the second half. Our defense isn't good enough for 40 minutes. It's not good enough. We haven't held a team even close to under 40%. We held Central Florida for under 40%, and that was the third game in the league, I think. We haven't even snipped it since. These guys are all worried about their offense. They're always worried about missing shots. And I couldn't care less about missing shots. I'd like you to make shots. I mean, that's something that you're recruited here to do. But if you can’t, maybe if you can't, you can stop them from scoring. We scored 68 points tonight. It's enough to win a game if we hold them to 67 or less, but we're not able to do that.”
Colorado Players
Trevor Baskin, Gr. G
On if the loss today hurts more due to how close it was:
“Definitely. In moments like this, it's natural to just go back and think about every play that you wish you could get back. Or a shot or a turnover or a foul, in my case. It's easy to go and look back on that because hindsight is always 20-20. We're just digging ourselves a hole and it's frustrating but we're a resilient group. We'll find a way to battle back.”
On message to Sebastian Rancik after the game:
“That there's going to be a million more plays like this. It's easy for him because he's a freshman, he's still new to college basketball, but there's going to be a million shots. Obviously you dream about making those shots, but I had a shot, Julian had a shot. So that's what we were telling him. There are so many plays that went on down the stretch that if we could go back to the outcome would be different. Just telling him not to be hard on himself, and just understand that there are tons of plays in those games. If we don't give up a rebound in the first possession, then we don't give them three points, and then we win. I make a free throw here and there. There are so many plays that just didn't materialize the way we wanted them to. So just telling him to keep his head up and stay resilient.”
On if the team is sensing the pressure to get the first conference win:
“I don't know. I don't really think about it. It's just a game I've been playing for 20 years. I can't speak for anyone else but me personally I don't think of “Oh, we're down this can take the lead.” I’m just playing the game. And obviously, we understand the situations we're in, and you want to make those types of shots. But I think adding extra pressure makes it even that much harder. I try not to put extra pressure on myself. Sometimes I'm not great at it. And most of the players, I don't think it was anything like that. Like “Oh, I got to be the hero.” We all had the ball and an opportunity to shoot and we took the right shots. They just didn’t fall.”
On what stands out about ASU that allows him to have big games:
“I'm not sure, because if I knew I would try to do it in every game. I think the coaches did a good job of helping me make quick decisions and cut when I needed to cut. I think sometimes I could see the back of their heads and see a little bit below the defense, and where there was a little more space. Sometimes I thought there were advantageous matchups for myself. I was just taking what the defense gave me.”
On if postgame emotion shows the team's investment:
“Definitely. No one's given up on each other. Everyone here wants to win and hates losing. This is something that we're all frustrated with. We're being resilient just saying “Okay, we gotta go get the next one.” None of us have probably ever lost 10 in a row, so it’s definitely frustrating. But we're a resilient group and it's not going to change our heart and our effort in every game. Just got to get the next one.”
#8 Bangot Dak
On adjustments after half-time:
“I feel that we were dictating proper pressure on defense. We kind of just reversed the roles. I think they only had two or three at the half and they ended the game with thirteen or fourteen. We had eleven that half. We only ended the game with thirteen. So just take care of the ball, taking more pride defensively. Obviously, rebounding has been something that we've been struggling with all year so it’s also something we talked about.”
On if there is a way to describe the team's hunger:
“I don't really have the word for it. We’re trying. That's all I can say. Everyone's putting in as much effort as they can. That's all we can ask for. Everyone's going out there and playing their hardest. That's all I ask for from my teammates, just go out there and play for each other. So as long as they’re doing that, I'm going to be proud of what they do.”
Arizona State Head Coach Bobby Hurley
Opening Statement
“Great road when they were desperate to win obviously. I got a ton of respect for Coach Boyle and what he's done here, what his program is all about, and how hard it is to win in this building. So it was a gut check game for us, just where we are in the standings, and want to try and climb ourselves out of the hole we kind of dug for ourselves. We dealt with a lot of stuff with injuries, and we're still dealing with it. We really stepped up, though. Adam Miller played great both ends of the floor. Sean Phillips had probably his best game this season for us, just with his presence in the paint, the rebounding, especially without Jayden Quaintance tonight.”
On Sean Phillips performance with Jayden Quaintance being out
“I've said this before, he gets lost in the shuffle with some of the freshmen and the upside they have for the future, but Sean's right at the top of the food chain in our program of just raw talent and upside and potential, if he puts it all together. Hopefully, the switch that gets turned on sometimes is starting to get turned on, because he could make a difference for us. His length around the basket, challenging shots, the block he made when all hell was breaking loose at the end was huge for them not to get that shot. That same play to Coach Boyle ran, I think he beat my brother in Maui with (Andrej) Jakimovski driving to his right hand and scoring the ball, so Sean was able to rotate over and block that shot.”
On Trevor Baskin’s performance
“If he played against me, man, every night, forget about it, right? He would be in the College Basketball Hall of Fame, maybe. Credit to Colorado, they attacked certain matchups they liked when he maybe had a matchup they thought they could take advantage of and he was able to back his way in there and use his pivoting. Played really hard, he was a hard playing kid. I like his game a lot.”
On BJ Freeman’s injury
“I didn't get far enough into the details of the specific of it. I was just fighting for my life out there. We'll get all the medical on him, but I saw the play in the first half, and clearly he made contact with the Colorado player. Knee to thigh, it happens all the time. He's got a deep thigh bruise, and we'll see. He was walking okay after the game in the locker room. So we'll see what he's like tomorrow.”
On winning on the road with injuries
“I think coming into this game, we had the No. e strength of schedule in KenPom. So we've been in a lot of tough places. We played a lot of hard games on the road already in the Big 12 and non-conference neutral sites. These guys are learning to fight together. We’ve got to clean some things up still, you look down at the stat sheet, we have 17 turnovers again, and we can't afford to do that and think we can win. We got away with it tonight. We’ve got to close games better.”
On defending Julian Hammond
“We know that he's very capable, and they ran a nice high stagger for him. I thought we did a good job. I thought Adam (Miller) did a really good job of chasing him. They run a lot of good stuff for him. He's a guy who could get downhill, and if he gets going, he could hit from distance. So they got one or better guards in the conference.
ASU Guard Adam Miller
On Sean Phillips performance
“He did what he’s capable of. He did a good job coming into the game prepared, I believe he had a good shoot around this morning. Kudos to him. He was prepared. He came out and did his job. We live in a life of college sports where everybody gets paid now, and everybody thinks it's all sunshine and rainbows, but he's a warrior. He goes through stuff on and off the court, just like everybody else does. So for having back today, not having probably the best year that he wants, to still be able to play. It shows resiliency, so we need that right now.”
On playing through teammates injuries
“Guys just stepped up. We did it even against West Virginia, BJ was kind of hurt in the first half, we had no Joson (Sanon), so we've kind of been going through it. JQ (Jayden Quaintance) was out this game, so this is the first time for us having that. But I think guys just got to be ready. An opportunity comes up you're not going to make every shot, but you just gotta have high intensity and be ready and you're gonna give yourself the best chance. I feel like we did a good job as a team. I felt like we should have won by a little more. We let some plays slip off to turnovers. We only had three steals, we should have had way more than that. But a win is a win.”