Postgame Quotes - Colorado 80, UCLA 76

POSTGAME QUOTES
Colorado 80, UCLA 76
Boulder, Colo. (Coors Events Center)
February 25, 2018

Steve Alford, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach
on the Bruins expending energy trying to come back from two double-digit deficits in the second half
“Yeah, that’s not easy. In the first half, I thought that we just really over-helped, and we gave up a lot of uncontested threes. In the second half, we settled down and really defended well. We did a lot of good things in the second half. But when you’re down, 12, 13, 14 points or whatever it was, and you battle all the way back, that takes a lot out of you. And I thought that’s what happened. You know, we subbed to get a little bit of rest. And they went on a 14-1 run. And then we battled back again. We still fought to the end and gave it a good shot. We had some guys who didn’t play particularly well and we missed some shots that we normally make. We got beat bad at the foul line. I think that they doubled us up on free throw makes and attempts. So, that is always hard to overcome on the road. I liked our effort. As I told them, we did not make enough plays but I thought that our effort was really good.”

on where this game puts UCLA in the NCAA Tournament landscape
“Yeah, we’ve just got one more opportunity. We’re 10-7 in the conference. So, we’ve got those double-digits and there are a lot of other teams sitting there just like us. We’ve got one game left. We have got to keep battling. We’ve got one week here to get ready. And obviously, USC is playing really well. They’re hot. We’ll go through another senior night with them, so it does not get any easier. But, we’re down to one opportunity here before we get to the postseason.”

on if there was anything that Colorado did that really challenged UCLA in the second half
“Well, not so much in the second half. But in the first half, I thought that they did a really good job. They mixed their defenses from man to zone. For whatever reason, that bothered us. We stood a little bit. I thought that we forced things in the first half. In the second half, we had 40 points. So, in that half, we did a much better job of attacking what they were doing. In the first half, I didn’t particularly care for that – I thought that we forced things, and that’s a credit to them.”

on the mood of the players after the loss
“Well, it’s hard. Yeah, it’s hard. Nobody is thrilled with it or happy about it, so I hope that it hurts. We’ve got a good group of guys who have been fighting all year. So, I’m sure that it hurts. It hurts the coaches and it hurts the players. I thought we fought hard on this trip, we just didn’t make enough plays. We just had too many lapses, maybe a small lapse in the first half in both games, a small lapse in the second half in both games. We just weren’t able to overcome that. I thought the effort in both games was good. We just didn’t make enough plays.”

on Colorado senior George King and whether UCLA prepared specifically for him
“I think that every team prepares for George. He’s that good. George and I go way back. He played on my son’s AAU team when I was living in Albuquerque. So, I couldn’t be happier for him. He’s a terrific young man and he’s had a terrific career here. It’s good to see him do the things that he’s been doing during his senior year. That’s special. I’m very happy for him. I’m not happy that he beat us twice this year, but I am very happy for him because I know how good of a person he is. I know how hard he’s worked. You always pull for guys like that. He’s a hard matchup. They can play him as a big. They can play him as a guard. He can take you off the bounce. He can shoot the three. He can rebound the ball and he can post. He’s just one of those versatile guys who can really score. He’s always a hard matchup.”

on Lonzo Ball’s comments about collegiate players being paid
“That’s ludicrous. I mean, that’s all I’ve got to say on that. That’s crazy. Not everybody is getting paid.”

on how difficult this road trip is at the end of the season (at Utah and at Colorado)
“Well, it’s not easy when you end with three in a row at the end of the season. These guys have really fought. They did a great job with our home schedule. [In league play] We lost just one game, and it happened to be against Colorado. That was probably our worst played game, and I think Colorado had a lot to do with that. We missed an opportunity at Stanford, and then we missed an opportunity at home against Colorado that would’ve put us into a much better situation coming into this road trip. This is a very difficult road trip – both teams are well-coached and both teams really fight. I thought our guys fought. We lost by two possessions in both games, so we were right there. We just couldn’t get over the hump.”

UCLA junior guard Aaron Holiday
on trying to come back after having been down to Colorado
“We still had chances to win the game, so that’s always hard. But it’s over with now, and we’ve got to move on. We have to focus on USC.”

on whether it was hard to win that game after expending so much energy to overcome a double-digit deficit
“I mean, the game is full of runs. And they had their runs and we had ours. So, as long as we know that we’re going to get our run, eventually, and get stops and just push, I think we are going to be OK.”

on what prevented UCLA from keeping up its intensity throughout the game
“[Colorado] They did great on the defensive end, for sure. They were very well-coached on defense and they play hard every play. We just missed a couple of shots. That’s all it was.”

on if there is any common theme right now regarding UCLA’s defense and what needs to be worked on
“Just defense all around.”

on matching up against Colorado guard McKinley Wright IV
“It’s fun. He’s a tough guard. I like how he plays defense and how he runs the team. Obviously, he’s a really tough guard in this Pac-12 league, so it’s always fun when you get to go against top guys like him.”

on the technical foul assessed to Aaron early in the first half
“Yeah, I don’t know. I didn’t even look at the ref, or anything. So, it’s whatever. At the end of the day, we’ve got to move on and focus on USC.”

on whether he feels as if the team’s back is up against the wall with the NCAA Tournament approaching
“Honestly, I’m not thinking about that right now.”

on how tough this loss is for UCLA
“It’s tough. Obviously, it puts us, maybe, in the top five. So we’re tied for fourth. We have just got to get our stuff together and go over to ‘SC and win. That is all we can focus on. We can’t worry about how tough anything is right now. We’ve just got to get the job done.”

on remarks made by Lonzo Ball about how every player is getting paid, so they might as well make it legal
“I don’t know. I don’t have any thoughts about that one, though.”

on how the team gets up to play on the road for another team’s Senior Night
“Obviously, they’re going to come out strong. But, we’ve got to just come out and hit them hard. We’ve got to do it from the jump and just play defense. If we play defense, we’ll be OK.”

on if the team is sticking together right now
“Yeah, for sure. We’re not going to run away from each other right now. The season isn’t over with. We’ve still got more games to play, that are guaranteed. There’s a game at USC and then the Pac-12 Tournament and hopefully beyond that. So, we’ll stick together and continue to do what we’ve got to do.”

on fixing the defense, and how that could help the Bruins moving forward
“For sure. If we play defense like how we did during stretches in the second half, how we held them to like maybe two or five points in every four-minute game, I think that we’ll be all right.”

Colorado head coach Tad Boyle
opening remarks
“Today is a special day. Not only because we beat UCLA, who is a really good team, but because we have four very special seniors that we wanted to send out on the right note. We played with great passion, toughness, pride, and energy and we did that for Tory Miller-Stewart, Josh Repine, Dominque Collier, and George King. We couldn’t have asked for more solid students, athletes, and representatives for our program. They are all terrific kids. It is a great day for the Buffs.”

on the play of Colorado’s seniors
“They all played like seniors. Dom [Collier] was ready to go from the start, and so was George. George’s block on Kris Wilkes at the end was a big-time defensive play. The rest of the team played for them. They wanted to send them out right. As George [King] said, this was the closest of a team he’s been on since being here. We have been up and down this year, but when your team is connected and believes in each, it is a pretty cool thing. A coach can’t make that happen, it just has to happen amongst them. If we play for each other, like we did today, good things can happen for us down the stretch.”

on the play of Dominique Collier
“It was heartwarming. As a coach, you want it so bad for him because he is such a good teammate and player. He has given his heart and soul to this program. Seeing him breakout today was a heartwarming thing. His parents did a great job with Dom. He is a high character kid.”

on Colorado pulling away from UCLA in the final eight minutes
“That was very encouraging. During the eight-minute media timeout, Coach English said that that was where we were in the USC game. In that game, we were tied at the eight-minute mark, and today we were up one. Today, we made plays offensively and defensively down the stretch. Players make plays, and our guys made the plays tonight.”

on the late three-point basket from Lazar Nikolic
“It was big. Laz has a nice stroke. He rose up with confidence, and knocked down the shot. I would have loved to play with Laz. Our guys like playing with him because he is unselfish, and will only shoot it when he has to. That shot was a game-changer.”

on Colorado’s overall effort
“At halftime, we had ten assists with 14 buckets. When we struggled offensively, we were getting stops. Our zone was really good down the stretch. Thomas Welsh, Aaron Holiday, and Kris Wilkes are really good players and our zone got them off-balanced.”

on the recent FBI probe into college basketball
“It is sad. Obviously, the game needs some fixing. Each school has to deal with it, and the NCAA needs to address it as a whole. These are some difficult times.”

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Postgame Quotes - Colorado 80, UCLA 76

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Postgame Quotes - Colorado 80, UCLA 76