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PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 9, 2016

Las Vegas, Nevada

Colorado - 80, Washington State - 56

THE MODERATOR: Coach, some opening comments.

COACH BOYLE: Yeah, it was obviously a great win for us. I mean, the first game's always the hardest in tournament play, and you never know as a coach if your guys are going to be ready, especially in that 5-12 game.

But we came out with great intensity, and we really shared the ball well. We had 17 assists and ten turnovers, which when we do that we're pretty hard to guard. The biggest challenge I issued to our guys yesterday and certainly today as we prepared for this game was to play 40 minutes of defense and not have any letups, because we've had some leads evaporate in the second half due to some defensive lapses, and we did that against Washington State both times we've played them before tonight.

So great job. These guys played awful well. It was a great team victory. Lot of guys contributed, and I'm really proud of them. But now it's no time to rejoice. It's on to Arizona. We know what awaits us tomorrow.

Q. Coach, you mentioned the letdowns you've had in some late games and obviously coming off one at Utah. What did you guys talk about at halftime -- obviously you were sitting on a big lead -- in order to maintain that intensity in the second half?
COACH BOYLE: Number one, take care of the basketball and not have silly turnovers that would let them get out and get their transition game going and hitting threes. Then just being rock solid on defense. Making them earn everything that they got. They hit a couple threes there late, which I didn't like, but for the most part we made them work for everything they got.

And that is the biggest thing: Don't give them anything easy and take care of the basketball. That's been a big problem for us at times this year. Again, when you have ten turnovers, that's a manageable number, and 17 assists to go with it.

Our guys really shared the ball. I thought played very unselfishly offensively.

Q. Tory, from the starting lineups, it seemed like the team had a very loose nature about them tonight. Did you feel that kind of coming into the game?
TORY MILLER: Loose nature as far as what?

Q. Kind of just having fun out there and smiling?
TORY MILLER: Yeah, I mean, we've got the seniors especially playing with -- this is their last go-around, so I think they're not trying to take it as seriously, and I mean that in a way of saying try to live in the moment, like Coach always says.

Yeah, I think we played more loose, but we also had the goal in mind to win 40, to get another 40, as Coach says.

Q. George, you won Pac-12 Most Improved Player this week. Came back, threw over 20 against Washington State. How confident are you right now? How does it feel when you're out on the court playing?
GEORGE KING: I'm the type of player who strives off confidence, so if I'm not confident in myself, no one else is going to be confident in me. I make sure before I strap on my shoes and whatever, put on that jersey, I'm confident. And I was able to do that today.

Q. Tad, you had a chance to rest a lot of these guys, play them 22, 23 minutes rather than 35. Was that the plan as soon as you got up by 20?
COACH BOYLE: Yeah, that was nice, especially our three bigs. Because Tory and Josh and Wes, when we can spread their minutes out like we did tonight, it makes it easier on all of them.

I told Tory when he came off the floor there at the end, he just gets better and better every game. He's playing with a high degree of confidence, much like George is.

So we know what Wesley can do. Wesley got in foul trouble tonight. Kind of a frustrating night for him, wasn't his night when it came to the whistle, and neither was it Dom Collier. Had he some tough calls go against him as well.

But ideally in a perfect world you'd like to have the minutes like they were tonight, so we didn't exhaust anybody too much because, again, we know that we're going to have to have a lot of energy tomorrow for Arizona, and there is no reason we can't. These guys are young, they're resilient. We're in good shape.

I really thought we got them tired -- Washington State, that is -- in the first half. I looked out there and before that first round of substitutions, they were gassed. Our guys were a little tired, but the guys that came in, I think our depth really wore them down.

Q. George, your shot hasn't been falling as well the last couple games. How much did knocking down a couple right out of the gate get you into rhythm and get you going a little bit?
GEORGE KING: Oh, man, it's a great feeling, especially after being in a slump the last couple games. It's like a little weight off my shoulders. Finally one goes in. That kind of gets me going a little bit, and I don't credit my performance to that particular jumpshot, but it did help for sure.

Q. Coach, did you like how the guys played off Josh Scott? I know his box score wasn't super impressive, but I think the plus-minus was.
COACH BOYLE: Again, I was expecting that question. To me, Josh Scott was so good for us tonight because he played so unselfishly. He had five assists and no turnovers. He could have had nine or ten assists because we missed some jump shots off of the inside-out that we played off of Josh.

But Josh has really played unselfishly. He didn't finish like he's capable of tonight, and he knows that. So you look at eight points or whatever and five assists. We played through him. He demands so much attention that he makes life easier for these other guys, and that's really what team basketball is all about. It might be George's night tonight to score 20. It might be Tory's the next night. It might be Josh's the next night.

That's what I love about this team. We can hurt you in a lot of different ways. When we are all clicking on all cylinders offensively, we've got a chance to be really, really good if we guard and rebound like we did tonight.

Q. Some of the guys were saying in your locker room that you kind of told them it would be a home game sort of like for Arizona tomorrow? I'm wondering, what do you expect in general about the atmosphere tomorrow?
COACH BOYLE: One thing we know about Arizona fans is they travel. They travel to Las Vegas. They've had a lot of success here, and we have too. It's a little bit further for our fans to travel than it is for the Arizona fans.

I told these guys after the Utah game when we really felt like we let one slip away in Salt Lake last week that that was the last road game they'd play. Everything else is a neutral floor.

Tonight after the game I told them I lied to them because tomorrow -- now the Buff fans that are here are going to be loud and proud, we want to make them proud by the way we play. But we also know there are going to be a lot of Arizona fans in the building. It may be a little bit more of a road-type feel for us, but if it is, hey, we know how to handle that. We've just got to play for 40 minutes.

Arizona's a good team. It's a great program. They're well-coached. They've got good players. We've got nothing but respect for them, and we're looking forward to the opportunity tomorrow at 2:30.

Q. We talked the other day of the contributions Thomas and Tory here gave you at Utah. They seemingly did it again here today. Do you see the two of them playing with more confidence, especially at a key time in the season here?
COACH BOYLE: I do. You mentioned Tory, you mentioned Thomas. Thomas was really aggressive tonight. I thought he pushed the ball in transition. He kicked it ahead. The one thing about Thomas is guys like playing with him because he's so unselfish. He's all about the team. He post feeds, he kicks it ahead on the break.

Like I said, Tory's been playing well. Josh Fortune, add that to the mix, he's really coming into his own off the bench and playing well. And Tre'Shaun Fletcher gave us good minutes.

So I think that bench, those four guys that come off the bench, I don't look at them as bench players or role players. They're guys that can come in and impact the game, and they're all capable of doing that. The whole key is not to try to do too much and rely on each other and playing with each other and for each other. As long as we do that, we've got a chance to beat anybody.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 9, 2016

Tad Boyle

Tory Miller

George King