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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DES MOINESMarch 17, 2016Tad BoyleJosh ScottWesley GordonDes Moines, Iowa UCONN - 74, Colorado - 67 THE MODERATOR: At this time we will have an opening statement from Colorado Coach Tad Boyle. TAD BOYLE: Well, let me first congratulate UConn. They played well enough in the second half to come back and take control of that game that we welt like we had control of for the first 30 minutes. You credit those guys, but it's a bitter pill to swallow because we felt like we had this game in hand and we didn't finish. It was a tale of two halves, 37 in the first halves, 47 in the second half. But, again, credit them, they made their free throws and they made big threes when they had to make big threes. The only thing I want to say about these two guys to my left is they are absolute warriors. Thank God we got Wesley back for one more year. Josh is done. I don't think I've ever coached a young man that I felt this way about at this end of his career in terms of his deserving to move on in this tournament as well as the other three seniors that are with him. But that's not going to happen. We gotta live with it, but I love these guys. I loved coaching them all year long. Really, really disappointed. Q. Guys, what kind of changed in the second half for you guys? WESLEY GORDON: They applied pressure on us and that really got us speeded up and we weren't able to take care of the ball, and then it just went downhill from there. We couldn't rebound. We couldn't really do anything once they put the pressure on us. JOSH SCOTT: They pressured us. We turned the ball over a little more than in the stretch than we should have, and they were getting off some rebounds and that was the game. Q. Guys, what do you think changed as far as the rebounding goes? You dominated them on the glass and then it was the other way around in the second half. JOSH SCOTT: We just didn't get the job done. WESLEY GORDON: We just didn't rebound as a team. I think they had more guys to the glass every time than we did. Q. Josh, obviously a lot of emotions going through your head. When you look back on your career in Colorado, how much do you have that you can be proud of? JOSH SCOTT: I mean, I'm extremely proud of the teammates I've had, you know, the experiences I've had, you know. Been to three NCAA Tournaments, so I'm very proud of that. I came here to try to, you know, help this program be on the national radar and, you know, we made it to the NCAA Tournament. So I'm very proud. Q. Josh, what did they do differently on you defensively in the second half? You still got your points, but it seemed more difficult for you in the second half? JOSH SCOTT: I wouldn't say they did anything differently as much as I think I just missed shots. Credit them. They're a good defensive team, and I knew they were going to be ready for me and they were. I just tried to play my game. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Thank you, guys. We will take questions for Coach Boyle. Q. Coach, what was it about UConn's defense out on the perimeter that none of your guys could really I think get in rhythm throughout this game? TAD BOYLE: Well, look, they're a good defensive team and we knew that coming into this game, they're fourth in the country in field goal percentage defense and we wanted to attack them inside, which I think we did a good job of certainly in the first half. We knew when we kicked it out we had to make some plays and we weren't able to do that in the second half especially critical points in the game. We didn't shoot the ball well from the three, and our game plan wasn't necessarily to take the threes unless they were given to us. We wanted to take what they gave us. But we weren't able to make enough threes and the game was lost midway through that second half. We're up 9 at the free throw line with two foul shots, we miss it, they come down get a three, we turn it over, inopportune turnovers. You look at three things that cost us this game and one of them is turnovers at inopportune times, the overall number wasn't too bad, 12. But inopportune turnovers, lack of rebounding in the second half. They dominated us in the second half. We didn't do a very good job rebounding the ball. Not able to finish. We weren't able to finish at critical times in the game. Q. To what degree did UConn step up the length to which they were going to defend you guys in the second half? I mean, the first half felt like you guys got into a rhythm in large part because that deep 2-point percentage shot range was going down, and then it seemed like they were willing to defend 30, 35 feet from the basket later. Did they just step that part up? TAD BOYLE: They stepped that part up and we didn't handle that. We talked about it at halftime. We're up 9; we practiced the last couple of days against pressure. We knew the pressure was coming. How do you handle the pressure? You have to attack the pressure. We didn't attack the pressure. We wilted. We turned it over. We didn't attack it and handle it like we needed to. That was of the deference in the game. They exerted their will on us and we weren't able to answer the bell. So, again, you credit UConn. Free throws was never another big part of this game. They were 18 for 19 in the second half. They did what they had to do to win this game. Credit goes to them, but we're kicking ourselves in terms of that rebounding margin in the second half and inopportune turnovers. You can't do anything about them going 18 for 19 at the line other than not fouling and we didn't make our free throws. Q. Coach, you talked about never feeling the way you have about a player that you do about Josh Scott. What is it about him that brings that out in you? TAD BOYLE: How much he loves the game. How much he respects the game. How hard he's worked from the day he's been on campus. The way he's represented himself in our program over these four years. The way I've seen him grow not only physically as an incoming freshman from Lewis-Palmer High School to where he is today, which I think is an NBA player and I hope gets in the right situation. But what he's done off court for our university and the way he's handled himself. He's grown in so many different ways, and that's why you coach is to see that transformation of these young men from freshman year to their senior year. He gives it everything he's got. When a guy loves it that much and cares that much and has done so much to help the program and his teammates, Josh went through the locker room and gave every guy a hug. Not sure I've seen a senior do that. They were waiting for someone else to give them a hug, but he's shown great leadership this year. Q. Coach, your other senior on the floor today was at that time at that time. You've talked about his leadership, can you talk about what he's meant to this program and obviously saying goodbye to him, too? TAD BOYLE: Yeah, Josh gets a lot of attention, but Xavier Talton has had a very good senior year. He's bounced back from his junior year, but he's shown great toughness. He had a great attitude. Early in the year he wasn't starting. Later in the year he was starting. He is a kid from Colorado who was overlooked in the recruiting process, and for him to play in three NCAA Tournaments and finish his career the way he did as a senior is awful special so both those guys do mean a lot as do Eli and Brett Brady. Q. Coach, disappointment right now, but when you look back on this season will you be able to be proud of the bounce-back that this team made from last year? TAD BOYLE: Like I said, I've loved this team. I've loved coaching this team and it's been a privilege to coach this team because of what they brought to the practice floor most days, and certainly how hard they've fought and their toughness and bounce back ability. I think every game but one we have answered the bell after we had a disappointing loss, the LA trip is the one. But other than that they have always backed back with great, great, great toughness. You saw it again tonight. We didn't play well for a big stretch in that second half, but they didn't give up. UConn tried to give it back to us. We weren't able to -- again, inopportune turnovers when we had the ball, down three and they were scrambling a little bit. But this team has great fight, resiliency, toughness, and we've got a lot of good guys coming back. We are losing two good players and we had two good players sitting out. The future of Colorado basketball is bright. The future of Colorado basketball is in good hands in terms of the players we have in our program and the ones we have coming in. We will be back here. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Thanks, Coach. Great year. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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