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PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 10, 2016Tad BoyleJosh ScottGeorge KingLas Vegas, Nevada Arizona - 82, Colorado - 78 THE MODERATOR: Coach Boyle, comments, please? COACH BOYLE: Yeah, obviously we're extremely disappointed. We came here to win this tournament and felt like we were in a good place mentally and physically to do that, and we came up short tonight. It was a tale of two halves. I thought Arizona obviously outplayed us convincingly in the first half, and I thought that's where we kind of lost the game, if you will. But the one thing about our team is there is no give-up. They've got tremendous fight, tremendous resolve, and I'm really proud of the comeback that we staged to get ourselves back in the game. We could not get to the free-throw line, and that was the difference in the game. We could not get there, and we were trying to get there. We didn't finish some baskets in the first half that I thought we could have finished. But we kept attacking, we kept plugging, and we made a great comeback. We just came up a little bit short. I'm extremely proud of our guys, and I told them in the locker room I don't think this is the end of our season and we've got to pick our heads up. There is only one team leaving Las Vegas happy, and we're certainly not one of them. So disappointing. But listen, credit the University of Arizona. They're a good team, well-coached team, a tough team. Got a lot of respect for their players, their coach and their program. When you lose to Arizona, there is no reason to hang your head because they're a heck of a program. Q. When you guys went into halftime with that big deficit, what was the mood in there? What did you say to kind of inspire that? COACH BOYLE: Look, our guys were down. They were disappointed. But, again, there is no quit in these guys. There wasn't any question in my mind. We came out in the second half and we wanted to be really aggressive on the ball screen coverage because in the first half I felt like they got downhill on us, they got the ball in the lane, and it makes it really tough on our big guys and our guards, quite frankly. So we changed our ball screen coverage, which I think really helped us in the second half keep the ball out of the lane. If they're going to beat us, we were going to make them beat us with jump shots, but not certainly at the rim like they were having their way with us in the first half. Look, we outrebounded them, 51-35. It's something Coach Prioleau pointed out in the locker room with these guys, and that's you outrebound Arizona by 16, again, it says something about our fight and our toughness. But we couldn't finish as well as we needed to finish tonight, bottom line, first half or second half. But there are going to be nights like that, and that's where you have to rely on your defense. It wasn't quite good enough tonight, but, again, I'm really proud of our guys. Q. After your performance in the first half, did you expect these guys to come out and drop 58 in the second? COACH BOYLE: It wasn't about that. We talked about we're not going to get back into this thing all at once. We're going to get back in one possession at a time and by getting stops and clawing our way back in there, and that's what we did. So it wasn't about scoring 58 points. It wasn't about -- we've got to get stops and we've got to look to run, get the ball to the rim, be aggressive, get to the foul line. We did a better job of that in the second half. I don't know what the breakdown was on foul shots. I know we shot 21-for-25, which is a really good percentage. But we got there 25 times. They got there probably -- my guess is 34 times. THE MODERATOR: 44. COACH BOYLE: Yeah, but that was after we started fouling. I don't count those. When we're trying to foul at the end, I don't count those at free throw. I'm talking about when they're playing their regular defense and we're playing our regular defense. I'll go back and watch the film and figure that out. Not that it means anything. We were trying to get to the foul line, and sometimes we couldn't. Q. Coach, like you mentioned, not the result you wanted. However, being able to stage the comeback the way you did, can this maybe keep the momentum rolling for whatever comes next for this team as opposed to if the game had stayed the way it was going in the first half? COACH BOYLE: The thing about this team, and you followed us all year, but the one thing about this group of guys is they've shown resiliency all year long, and it hasn't always been peaches and cream for us. We've had some tough losses on the road. We had a really tough loss at home to Utah. Our only loss at home. But every time -- I would say except for maybe the LA trip when we lost to USC and then we didn't bounce back against UCLA, that's the only time they haven't bounced back immediately. But we bounced back the next game against Arizona at home. The one thing about this team is they're resilient. I don't worry about them giving their best effort or being ready to play. We don't always play well. We don't always shoot the ball as well as we're capable or finish. We're not perfect but got great character and great toughness. I'll go to war with these guys. I mean, I love them, and we're extremely disappointed. We came here and we really felt in our hearts we could win this tournament. And I told our athletic director before the game, I said, Rick, I think if we win this game, if we can win this game, we can win this tournament. But we're not going to get that opportunity, and we'd like to have another shot at Oregon. Q. Josh, I wanted to ask you a similar question. Obviously you guys are disappointed. You wanted to come out here and win. But to score 58 points in the second half against Arizona and make that comeback, does it give you some confidence heading into the rest of the postseason? JOSH SCOTT: Sure, I mean, anytime you can score like that I think, honestly, for me, it was just that we were getting stops. We were rebounding the ball even if we weren't finishing it, and that's all stuff we talk about it all the time with travels. So it's something we can take into whoever we're playing next. Q. Tad, you guys can now have a two or three day just sitting around waiting for the NCAA Selection Committee. Do you believe your resume is good enough to get you into the tournament? COACH BOYLE: Short answer is yes, and the realistic is it doesn't matter what I think. Q. Josh, this was, barring a match-up later on in the NCAA Tournament, this is the last time you will play Arizona. Obviously with the excitement of the second half, what was it like out there playing them? And then looking back, can you think of any moments that really stood out matching up with them? JOSH SCOTT: It was just a physical, tough game like it always is with Arizona. They play incredibly hard. I have a lot of respect for a lot of the guys on their team and how they do things. In terms of moments, obviously any time you win against them, but I will always feel like it got stolen from my freshman year when the buzzer beater didn't count supposedly. But in the end they're a good team, and it's been fun competing against them my four years here. Q. Coach, this time last year when you guys bowed out of the tournament it was kind of a different tone. You said after the season there wasn't much leadership on that squad. What's this say about the players on this team that you have right now and how they've grown in this past year from being devoid of leadership to now being guys of great character? COACH BOYLE: Well, let me echo Josh's sentiment. Sabatino's shot was good, just for the record, just to go back there. One thing about Josh Scott and Xavier Talton, Eli Stalzer, Brett Brady, we've got four seniors on this team, and we've got four terrific underclassmen as well. But those four seniors, there is no question in my mind that last year's experience and what they went through, and especially Josh right here, they learned from that and they experienced it with us. They were part of it. I've always said if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. The one thing these guys did from a leadership standpoint, and it started in the spring and even in the summer months, is they took it upon themselves to say we're not going to go back to where we were last year and that feeling. This is a completely different feeling than we had last year sitting here. Still disappointing, but I'm really proud of what Josh has done, the leadership he's shown as well as our other three seniors. These four guys really deserve to finish their college career on a high note. And, boy, I sure hope we get that opportunity because we're a team that I don't think people are going to want to play. There's going to be a lot of good teams in this tournament, but we'll figure out if we're part of it. And if we are, we'll relish the opportunity. Q. George, you had two really big games here in the postseason. How do you feel about your play right now, where is it at? GEORGE KING: It's okay. But it wasn't good enough to get the win done today. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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