Colorado-Oregon State Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
General
“A win is a win and we’ll take it. We overcame a really tough night at the free throw line and it seems like there’s always something that this team needs to overcome. I thought that we were terrific on offense, even though our defense and rebounding is still a problem with this team. But tonight from a glass half full point of view I thought our offense was terrific with 18 assists and only seven turnovers we shared and moved the ball tonight. The guys really played with confidence on the offensive end. I’ve felt that our offense was coming but defensively we’re not good enough yet. We shot better from three then we did from two and we shot better for two points then we did at the free throw line, and I don’t have an answer for that. We’ll take the win and build on it and we needed this. It’s more of a relief then a celebration right now.”
On Finishing the Game
“We went on a little run and we were able to string some stops together to get it up to 80-70. Stephen Thompson is an excellent player and we were trying to trap him to get the ball out of his hands late, and Drew Eubanks was a beast down low, he really is the real deal. We were trying to get the ball out of Thompson’s hands late and have somebody else beat us. But we were able to string some stops together and I thought that they got tired and we wanted to press more but we couldn’t make a free throw to get into our press. We wanted to wear them down as best as we could defensively.”
On the Starting Lineup
“That move was more a way to honor and to reward the guys who come to practice every day and who don’t get the minutes or haven’t gotten the starts. Four of the five guys tonight hadn’t started yet this year, and we threw Deleon [Brown] in there because he’s such a team oriented defender and he gives you everything he’s got every single day. Other guys have had their opportunities and I thought it was time for those guys who hadn’t to get their chance. My gut told me to do it against Washington State but I held off a game. I’ve only done this one other time in my head coaching career, and that was when I was at Northern Colorado. It’s not anything against the guys who have been starting but it was more because the guys who haven’t been starting deserved a chance, and I thought that they handled it well. Starting the game hasn’t been an issue for us, it’s been finishing the game but tonight we finished the game. They shrunk it to two and we could have folded, which we have before, but we strung some stops together and we won it going away. We’ll make it easier on ourselves if we shoot our free throws a little bit better, but we had to overcome and this team’s had to overcome a lot this season and we’ll have to overcome more as this season unfolds.”
On George King’s Night
“George was terrific. He came out and he was feeling it, although I thought he got a little bit carried away there in the first half with some heat check shots. What allowed Oregon State to stay in this game was that we strung some stops together in the first half there but then we stopped and that’s the basketball team we’re dealing with this year and we allowed them to take back the lead. George was terrific offensively and he came out ready to play. I think that Derrick White, Xavier Johnson, and George responded really well to not starting tonight.”
On Bryce Peters’ Night
“That’s the Bryce Peters that we see in practice, the offensive guy that can get it going and plays with some confidence and a little bit of swagger. He got to the free throw line well and made some threes. He’s a good offensive player that can score in bunches for us. I thought that defensively he did a pretty good job on Thompson for a freshman. We’ve got a lot of confidence in Bryce defensively since he’s one of our more capable defenders on the ball. I thought that he was good tonight.”
On Building for Oregon
“Hopefully offensively we can play with confidence and move the ball Saturday against Oregon. Oregon has a deeper bench then Oregon State does and Oregon is just a different animal when it comes to depth. Offensively we have to keep that going, and we have to figure out how to guard. If we play defense like we did tonight against Oregon they’ll score 120 on us.”
Colorado Players
George King, Jr., G
On scoring twenty-four points and his number being twenty-four:
“It’s a coincidence. I wasn’t aiming for that or anything but it’s funny how that happened.”
On the change in starters tonight:
“I think it was great because it gave the guys who don’t always necessarily start a chance to prove themselves even more. Also, they’re coming out with a lot of fire, a lot of energy. The starters who have been starting the last games also want to come out and prove that they’re still starters too. It was like we had two starting lineups out there. They did a great job of getting the ball rolling in the first half, getting stops, making shots, getting to the rim. I think that got us into a good start.”
On defensive play tonight:
“If I had to give it a grade, I’d say maybe a C. There’ still a lot of things we need to work on defensively. The effort was there tonight so I’m happy about that. But as far as execution and finishing plays defensively, I give us a C.”
On the team getting its first Pac-12 win:
“You have to start somewhere and we started here tonight on the 26th of January against Oregon State. We’re going to keep pushing from here.”
On hitting his first shot:
“It opens the flood gates for me. Once I get one I’m like ‘okay, I’m going to have a good shooting night.’ But if I miss one, I’m not going to allow that to affect my entire game. There’s a lot of other parts of my game that I can do to score or rebound or play defense to help the team. But I’m a shooter so I miss one and the next one and the next one, then the next one is going down. That’s my mentality. If I see the first one go down, it opens the flood gates for sure.”
On his dunk:
“I did [have bad intentions]. We got a turnover and I’m an athletic dude. It was just unfortunate for him.”
Bryce Peters, Fr., G
On starting tonight:
“I was happy that I was starting because I wanted to prove that not only could I bring energy off the bench from jump but and a lot of the younger guys, me and Tommy [Akyazili] and Deleon [Brown] have a lot of energy built up. We’re all jittery and wired and ready to make plays. I think that’s how we came out with the win tonight.”
On his shot tonight:
“Coach Prioleau always tells me to jump with my shot and follow through. Tonight I feel like I was feeling it, had a little Steph Curry inside of me and just pulled it. I knew that the starters like Derrick [White], George [King] and Xavier [Johnson] get us off to a great start offensively. I wanted to bring that same intensity offensively and put more pressure on the defense as well.”
On the role of the seniors:
“I think it starts with the older guys. We all look up to them. We know that Derrick [White] and Xavier [Johnson] and Wes [Gordon] and Josh [Fortune] are all going to be leaving. It starts with them energy wise. If they bring the defense first then the next guys will come in and bring the same intensity as all of the other guys come off of the bench.”
On the team getting its first Pac-12 win:
“Being 0-7 in the Pac-12 is tough especially because the Pac-12 is a pretty tough conference. But Coach Boyle also said to not let this win get into a relaxed mode because we’ve got Oregon on Saturday and Oregon is a real team. We do have other games left to play in the Pac-12. This win is great but we still have more games to play.”
Oregon State Head Coach Wayne Tinkle
On not getting the right looks at the end of the game
“We had a play coming out of a timeout, and had a guy in the corner for three where we needed one more pass to get it to him. Instead we took a tough contested shot.”
On momentum of the game
“The game had shifted back our way until we turned the ball over twice, and let them hit a three. After that, the momentum went back to them.”
On not sharing the ball
“We need more. What is really disturbing is that we had nine assists on twenty-eight field goals. That tells you that we weren’t sharing as much as we should have.”
On taking the next step
“We are in all of our games, but then we shoot ourselves in the foot. Defensively, we get lost in our zone. We are young and I am proud of our guys, but it is disappointing because I think we could have had this one.”