On Not Taking Advantage at the Beginning of the Game
“The frustrating part was the way we were fouling and giving those guys a chance to make free throws. How we kept putting them at the free throw line kept them in the game We have to capitalize on our end and we didn't do a good job at that.”
On More Players Contributing
“Well, I think the easiest thing to say is for them to contribute because of system that is in place. It's being aggressive, being assertive and you have to do a better job not turning the basketball over. Facilitating, getting the ball inside, we needed to get inside and just have space to move. I think Jalen did a great job being aggressive in the second half.”
On Missed Opportunity in the First 10 Minutes
“I feel like we did, because again we had opportunities to score the ball. We had a stretch that we did a poor job on transition defense and they made some baskets. They got some offensive rebounds and kind of turned the game a little bit. ”
On Home Court Advantage
“That's what happens when you play at home. You get one or two plays, make plays and all of a sudden the crowd does stuff to the game, but it's a ball game. We still had our opportunity and we got back in the game. We got down maybe 16 and didn't do the things necessary to win the game. Key turnovers and key fouls kill you.”
On What Changes Need to be Made
“I think really taking care of the basketball is one. You have to do a good job not fouling as much and when you foul you have to get good fouls. We ended up with 28 fouls and I can't remember 20 good ones. You have to do a better job playing defensive without fouling by moving your feet. When you do little things like that you have a chance to win the game because when you hold a team at home to 37 percent from the floor you should have a good opportunity to win the game.”
On Difference in the Game
“I think for us it was 15 turnovers, but key turnovers. I thought there were two lose balls in the first half. The one 3-pointer at the end of the half and then the one away from our bench that might have been two or three minutes left in the half. Those are six points right there, you just can't give those baskets away. I thought in the second half once we settled down, especially in the last 12 minutes we did a good job defending.”
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General
“Well it was a great win for Colorado, we don't make it easy on ourselves that's for sure. That's two games in a row that we had a convincing lead, and we haven't been finishing like we should. But with that being said, we did what we needed to do. Cal's a good team and we knew that they weren't going to go away. We did some positive things and we did what we need to do.”
On the slow start
“Every time I was saying that our offense is going to come, as long as we take care of the ball and get good shots. I know that six of our first seven shots were all jumps shots, and part of attacking Cal is that you have to attack the paint. You might get some shots blocked, which isn't something we want to happen, but it puts pressure on their defense and forces them to rotate and play help defense, so we were helping them by taking so many jump shots. It's a matter of time with this team before shots started to go in, but we wanted to put some pressure on their defense. We wanted our jump shots to come from driving that basket. We just weren't doing that to start. The positive we can take out of this is that our defense held us in the game. We had a 14 point lead at halftime and we were outrebounding them by seven. In the second half they got 10 rebounds and we missed three more front ends on free throws for the second game in a row at home. We need to rebound the basketball and keep them out of it.”
On Xavier Talton
“I thought Xavier's defense down the stretch on Jordan Mathews was key, he did a great job of making him work to catch the ball and take tough shots. The steal at the end of the game, was the play of the game. I thought XT's defense was terrific. He got a couple of cheap fouls in the first half, but again that's a senior staying with it and not letting it get under his skin. Josh Scott, senior, struggles offensively in the first half and isn't getting the calls he's used to. He decides that he's going to put the ball in the basket whether they foul me or not and that's what he did. He just didn't let it get into his head. So I thought XT and Josh as seniors played well in the second half.”
On free throw shooting down the stretch
“As a coach that's something that you have zero control over. You can talk about it, which we don't, you can practice it, which we do, but it really just comes down to the player getting it done. Rebounding the ball is on them, based on their position. It does say something about our mental toughness that we missed some, but we made them when we had to. We shot 70 percent from the line, which is a good team number. I have the expectation that we are going to make everyone. But you can't miss three front ends in a row, and it's a recipe to let them back in the game which we did.”
On going to Josh Scott
“That's the guy, we are going to Josh Scott and he's going to touch the ball if we have anything to say about it. The great thing about Josh is that he can score and he's a great free throw shooter, but he's unselfish and he moves the ball well. The guys understand that if they throw it to Josh it's not like a black hole and the ball will come back out.”
On Dominique Collier and Tory Miller
“I thought Dom Collier played a great floor game for us, and I think he's growing up before our eyes, and he had three assists and no turnovers. He's understanding and he's playing with great confidence. I think he's finally realizing that he's a great player, which we knew already but he's going out and getting it done on big stages now. Tory Miller had some man rebounds, they were manly rebounds that he went up in traffic to get. Tory brings great energy and great effort, he's terrific.”
