COLORADO FOOTBALL
COLORADO BASKETBALL
POSTGAME QUOTES
Colorado Buffaloes vs. Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs, Coors Events Center, Boulder, Colo. (March 18, 2015)
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle General “That was a good win. I told our team in the locker room after the game that there is a reason whoever you’re playing this time of year does something pretty darn well. Coming in, we knew Gardner-Webb offensively was a hard team to guard, they spread the floor well and have a great guard (Tyler Strange). That kid is fourth in the nation in assists, the big guy (Tyrell Nelson) is undersized, but he’s obviously a heck of a player and they obviously have some shooters on the perimeter. So, we knew our defense was going to be tested and it was. Hopefully we learned a lot tonight. This tournament is about an investment in our future, the future of Colorado Basketball. Contrary to maybe what some people think or believe, the future is bright. We have some good players in that locker room. This tournament is an opportunity for them to learn and grow. We have to get better defensively, but I thought offensively we shared the ball well, we had 20 assists. We got the ball inside and rebounded the ball well, which is the strength of this team. We have to build on our strengths, but also shore up our weaknesses. What’s nice about tournaments is that we get a chance to see different styles and different teams that you don’t see during the regular season, so it was a good experience for us tonight.” On Dominique Collier Not Starting “Dom was late to shoot around. So another one, I think that’s number eight this year for being late to something. I planned on playing him and planned on starting him, but sometimes our guys can’t get out of their own way.” On The Use Of Different Lineups “Eli got some minutes and really played well and free when he came off the bench. I told him that I was glad that he made that last jump shot because time and score tells you not to shoot a jump shot in that situation, but he made it. It shows you that he has confidence. I haven’t played Tory Miller and Josh Scott together all year. If I did, it was for very short periods of time, but I wanted them to play together. We got a lot of guys some minutes in new rotations and I substituted a little more freely, but make no mistake, we’re trying to win this thing. We’re not just trying to experiment and play just to play. We’re trying to win this and we’re committed to that, but I do want to try and get some different guys in different rotations. When it comes to the starting lineup of this team, outside of Josh Scott and maybe Wesley Gordon, the rest you can throw darts at a dartboard. Hopefully we can see some separation as we go through this as well.” On Playing In The CBI “One of our problems this year was that we pick-and-choose our spots as far as when we want to compete. That’s a problem that we have to get fixed. I just felt as a coach that, if we declined this invitation, the message I’m sending to our players is that I don’t want to compete and I don’t think it’s that important or that big of a deal. That’s the wrong message to send to this team. This team needs to understand every day is an opportunity to compete, whether that’s in the class room, at practice or a game. We have to learn that we have to relish competitive opportunities. There are a lot of players that would love to be playing games right now. I asked our players over the last couple days whether they’d rather play tonight or do a 40-minute workout with the coaches. They’d rather play. We have guys that want to play and want to compete, so that’s a good thing. Initially when we left Las Vegas if you took a poll of our team, most guys wouldn’t want to play. I felt it was the wrong message to send. I couldn’t have lived with myself, slept at night, looked at myself in the mirror, espousing to compete and then pass on the opportunity.”
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COLORADO BASKETBALL
POSTGAME QUOTES
Colorado Buffaloes vs. Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs, Coors Events Center, Boulder, Colo. (March 18, 2015)
University of Colorado Student-Athletes Josh Scott, Jr., F On Playing in the CBI “I mean we are playing still. We’re here to play basketball, and if you love the game and love playing, it doesn’t matter what tournament you’re in. We are seizing this opportunity to get better. And I think we took the right step in terms of moving forward, getting these guys ready for next year.” On Playing Well Against The Zone Defense “Honestly, I think we have been playing well against the zone for the past four or five games. When we played Washington we faced forty minutes of zone and did fine. I don’t think the zone really has us worried. But I’ll say that we did a great job tonight as a team. It’s important to be aggressive when playing the zone. The goal is to force you to roll into taking three pointers and I don’t think we allowed ourselves to that tonight.” On Playing Well Recently “I said it at the beginning of the season, that I believe that I’m one of the best players in college basketball. If I wasn’t hurt this season, I think we might be looking at a different result. But we don’t look at excuses, and I’m excited for right now and for next season.”
Dominique Collier, Fr., G On Still Being Able To Play And Gain Experience “I think it’s very important just to be able to get the reps. And then to have the opportunity to gel with the other guys, even with the two guys missing (Askia Booker, Dustin Thomas). It allows us to have a glimpse into next year. So we are just going to come out here and compete. And with every game try and get better playing together as a team.” On Sharing The Ball Well “I just felt like the whole team played well together tonight. Everybody just came in and contributed. Everyone came in and stepped up tonight which is exactly what we needed.” On Being Aggressive Tonight “When I got in there I just wanted to be aggressive. When I came in I felt things were moving a little slow, so I just wanted to come in there and move the ball. And when I had the opportunities I drove the gaps and looked for my big man.”
-CONTINUED-
COLORADO BASKETBALL
POSTGAME QUOTES
Colorado Buffaloes vs. Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs, Coors Events Center, Boulder, Colo. (March 18, 2015)
Gardner-Webb Head Coach Tim Craft General “Rebounding is what hurt us. [Colorado] crushed us on the glass. They’re size and length, we just really couldn’t contend with on the glass. I thought we did some good things defensively to get them to miss shots, but then they cleaned it up and got second-chance points. That was the name of the game. I thought we played well offensively. I thought we did some good things, but when that ball was in the air on the defensive end, we just couldn’t come up with it.” On Altitude Slowing Team Down In The Second Half “I do think that it was a factor. I thought we did a pretty good job of getting guys in and out quickly to try to keep them as fresh as possible, but I did think that was a factor for sure.” On Colorado’s Josh Scott’s Play In The Paint “I thought he was terrific. Every time he got it in there he scored for the most part. He had a lot of offensive rebounds and a lot were second-chance points; he had nine offensive rebounds. We were trying to play zone and they were just getting it to him around the rim. At the end of the day, he was just too big and I think he’s just a really good player.” On Whether Team’s Game Plan Changed Knowing Colorado Would Be Without Askia Booker “We would played a little more zone, but I think we probably would have played a lot of zone anyways, just because of the altitude trying to rest a little bit and try to keep our guys out of foul trouble. Maybe we would have played a little more man-to-man with him out there, because he’s a pretty good shooter.” Opinion Of College Basketball Invitational As A Postseason Tournament “I think it’s great for us. For us, we’re in a little different situation than Colorado. In our league, you’re only going to get one team into the NCAA Tournament and one team in the NIT. Our league was really good. It’s great for us to be able to keep playing and play in the postseason. We really enjoyed getting the opportunity.”
-COLORADO-
POSTGAME QUOTES
Colorado Buffaloes vs. Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs, Coors Events Center, Boulder, Colo. (March 18, 2015)
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle General “That was a good win. I told our team in the locker room after the game that there is a reason whoever you’re playing this time of year does something pretty darn well. Coming in, we knew Gardner-Webb offensively was a hard team to guard, they spread the floor well and have a great guard (Tyler Strange). That kid is fourth in the nation in assists, the big guy (Tyrell Nelson) is undersized, but he’s obviously a heck of a player and they obviously have some shooters on the perimeter. So, we knew our defense was going to be tested and it was. Hopefully we learned a lot tonight. This tournament is about an investment in our future, the future of Colorado Basketball. Contrary to maybe what some people think or believe, the future is bright. We have some good players in that locker room. This tournament is an opportunity for them to learn and grow. We have to get better defensively, but I thought offensively we shared the ball well, we had 20 assists. We got the ball inside and rebounded the ball well, which is the strength of this team. We have to build on our strengths, but also shore up our weaknesses. What’s nice about tournaments is that we get a chance to see different styles and different teams that you don’t see during the regular season, so it was a good experience for us tonight.” On Dominique Collier Not Starting “Dom was late to shoot around. So another one, I think that’s number eight this year for being late to something. I planned on playing him and planned on starting him, but sometimes our guys can’t get out of their own way.” On The Use Of Different Lineups “Eli got some minutes and really played well and free when he came off the bench. I told him that I was glad that he made that last jump shot because time and score tells you not to shoot a jump shot in that situation, but he made it. It shows you that he has confidence. I haven’t played Tory Miller and Josh Scott together all year. If I did, it was for very short periods of time, but I wanted them to play together. We got a lot of guys some minutes in new rotations and I substituted a little more freely, but make no mistake, we’re trying to win this thing. We’re not just trying to experiment and play just to play. We’re trying to win this and we’re committed to that, but I do want to try and get some different guys in different rotations. When it comes to the starting lineup of this team, outside of Josh Scott and maybe Wesley Gordon, the rest you can throw darts at a dartboard. Hopefully we can see some separation as we go through this as well.” On Playing In The CBI “One of our problems this year was that we pick-and-choose our spots as far as when we want to compete. That’s a problem that we have to get fixed. I just felt as a coach that, if we declined this invitation, the message I’m sending to our players is that I don’t want to compete and I don’t think it’s that important or that big of a deal. That’s the wrong message to send to this team. This team needs to understand every day is an opportunity to compete, whether that’s in the class room, at practice or a game. We have to learn that we have to relish competitive opportunities. There are a lot of players that would love to be playing games right now. I asked our players over the last couple days whether they’d rather play tonight or do a 40-minute workout with the coaches. They’d rather play. We have guys that want to play and want to compete, so that’s a good thing. Initially when we left Las Vegas if you took a poll of our team, most guys wouldn’t want to play. I felt it was the wrong message to send. I couldn’t have lived with myself, slept at night, looked at myself in the mirror, espousing to compete and then pass on the opportunity.”
-CONTINUED-
COLORADO BASKETBALL
POSTGAME QUOTES
Colorado Buffaloes vs. Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs, Coors Events Center, Boulder, Colo. (March 18, 2015)
University of Colorado Student-Athletes Josh Scott, Jr., F On Playing in the CBI “I mean we are playing still. We’re here to play basketball, and if you love the game and love playing, it doesn’t matter what tournament you’re in. We are seizing this opportunity to get better. And I think we took the right step in terms of moving forward, getting these guys ready for next year.” On Playing Well Against The Zone Defense “Honestly, I think we have been playing well against the zone for the past four or five games. When we played Washington we faced forty minutes of zone and did fine. I don’t think the zone really has us worried. But I’ll say that we did a great job tonight as a team. It’s important to be aggressive when playing the zone. The goal is to force you to roll into taking three pointers and I don’t think we allowed ourselves to that tonight.” On Playing Well Recently “I said it at the beginning of the season, that I believe that I’m one of the best players in college basketball. If I wasn’t hurt this season, I think we might be looking at a different result. But we don’t look at excuses, and I’m excited for right now and for next season.”
Dominique Collier, Fr., G On Still Being Able To Play And Gain Experience “I think it’s very important just to be able to get the reps. And then to have the opportunity to gel with the other guys, even with the two guys missing (Askia Booker, Dustin Thomas). It allows us to have a glimpse into next year. So we are just going to come out here and compete. And with every game try and get better playing together as a team.” On Sharing The Ball Well “I just felt like the whole team played well together tonight. Everybody just came in and contributed. Everyone came in and stepped up tonight which is exactly what we needed.” On Being Aggressive Tonight “When I got in there I just wanted to be aggressive. When I came in I felt things were moving a little slow, so I just wanted to come in there and move the ball. And when I had the opportunities I drove the gaps and looked for my big man.”
-CONTINUED-
COLORADO BASKETBALL
POSTGAME QUOTES
Colorado Buffaloes vs. Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs, Coors Events Center, Boulder, Colo. (March 18, 2015)
Gardner-Webb Head Coach Tim Craft General “Rebounding is what hurt us. [Colorado] crushed us on the glass. They’re size and length, we just really couldn’t contend with on the glass. I thought we did some good things defensively to get them to miss shots, but then they cleaned it up and got second-chance points. That was the name of the game. I thought we played well offensively. I thought we did some good things, but when that ball was in the air on the defensive end, we just couldn’t come up with it.” On Altitude Slowing Team Down In The Second Half “I do think that it was a factor. I thought we did a pretty good job of getting guys in and out quickly to try to keep them as fresh as possible, but I did think that was a factor for sure.” On Colorado’s Josh Scott’s Play In The Paint “I thought he was terrific. Every time he got it in there he scored for the most part. He had a lot of offensive rebounds and a lot were second-chance points; he had nine offensive rebounds. We were trying to play zone and they were just getting it to him around the rim. At the end of the day, he was just too big and I think he’s just a really good player.” On Whether Team’s Game Plan Changed Knowing Colorado Would Be Without Askia Booker “We would played a little more zone, but I think we probably would have played a lot of zone anyways, just because of the altitude trying to rest a little bit and try to keep our guys out of foul trouble. Maybe we would have played a little more man-to-man with him out there, because he’s a pretty good shooter.” Opinion Of College Basketball Invitational As A Postseason Tournament “I think it’s great for us. For us, we’re in a little different situation than Colorado. In our league, you’re only going to get one team into the NCAA Tournament and one team in the NIT. Our league was really good. It’s great for us to be able to keep playing and play in the postseason. We really enjoyed getting the opportunity.”
-COLORADO-
