|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2017Tad BoyleDerrick WhiteGeorge KingLas Vegas, Nevada Arizona - 92, Colorado - 78 THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening statement, and then questions. COACH BOYLE: Well, first of all, let me just say that there's nothing to be ashamed of when you lose to a team like Arizona. These guys, they're a legitimate Top 10 team in the country. I think they showed it tonight. They're well-coached. Obviously, Sean was Coach of the Year, and deservedly so in our league. I thought our guys really competed, especially that first half. The second half the game got away from us a little bit in terms of not being able to make shots. We had some good looks that just didn't go down. But Arizona was just so efficient offensively the whole game. We talked about our ball screen defense at halftime, and they came out and shot 64% in the second half. I mean, they were offensive juggernauts tonight. My hat goes off to them. They've got some good players. They're well coached. They've got great balance inside and out. I couldn't be more proud of the fight our guys showed. We just weren't good enough tonight. You have to beat Arizona. I said that last night, and I said that today. They're not going to beat themselves. You have to go out and beat them. We didn't play well enough to do that tonight. Q. Like you mentioned, strong first half. What do you feel like got away from the team early in the second half? COACH BOYLE: I thought we took some quick shots, number one, and they didn't go in. When you take quick jump shots and they don't go in, it puts a lot of pressure on your defense to let them get out in transition. We didn't get any stops during that time, so the game got away from us pretty quick. I tried to call timeout there when it got to 10 to stem the tide, but we just could never string together a series of stops that we needed to do in the second half. When you let Arizona's defense get set, they're pretty good. I thought Derrick was terrific tonight in terms of attacking the basket and making plays for himself and for others. But we lost this game on the defensive end. There's no doubt about it. Q. Coach, offensively, you only had three guys score more than one basket. How big of a factor was that? COACH BOYLE: Well, it was tough. There is no doubt. Arizona's a very, very good defensive team, and you need a well-balanced effort. And, again, it gets back to we had some looks that just didn't go in, and good looks, I thought, especially in that first part of the second half. Yeah, we need to have more balance. They had five guys in double figures, and, like you said, we had basically a three-headed monster offensively. We just had some guys that weren't on top of their game offensively tonight. But it wasn't because they weren't ready to play. Like last night I could have easily said our guys weren't ready to play. Tonight I can't say that. They were ready from the jump, and we just didn't play well enough in the second half. Q. You talked about Derrick's performance tonight, but if this is the end of the road for you guys, I don't know what the future holds, but you just reflect on him a little bit and the season he's given you? COACH BOYLE: Well, look, this guy's going to be a pro. There's no doubt about it. I think he's an NBA player personally. Now, my opinion, doesn't mean a whole lot because I don't coach in the NBA and scout for the NBA. But I think he showed tonight against a high-level defensive team, against high-level defenders. Kadeem Allen is a terrific defender on the perimeter. But this guy's special. He had a special year, and he's one of the best players I've ever coached. He really is. I mean, in so many different ways. His unselfishness and his ability to just make plays is something that we're sorely going to miss. I've said it before and I'll say it again, my only disappointment about Derrick White is only having a year to coach him. Q. Derrick, what do you say to that? DERRICK WHITE: It's nice to hear because Coach knows a lot about basketball and he's a great coach, so it's good to hear. And I know that Colorado basketball's in good hands. Q. It seems like some of the perception nationally is that this conference is UCLA and Oregon and Arizona and the rest of the teams are down at a lower level. You guys and USC are the only teams to get wins over one of those three teams. I'm wondering if you think that in a year where three teams are playing at such a high level, if it's hard for some of the other nine other teams to get a foothold? COACH BOYLE: It's hard, there's no doubt. I mean, conference play is tough everywhere in the country. You look at the ACC or the Big Ten or SC, you name the conference, I don't care what conference it is, it's tough. I was in the Big Sky before this. Big Sky is a tough conference in terms of beating each other up. Where our conference failed, I think, this year in terms of getting more teams in, is, number one, some scheduling errors by some teams, and, quite frankly, we did not win enough games in November and December. I think that's true for a lot of our teams. For us, I look back to the Colorado State game and the game at BYU. Now, again, our margin for error is pretty thin at Colorado. We had some bad losses in the league in that 0-7 start. We lost four games we shouldn't have lost, but we did, so we weren't able to climb out of that. Because I think our non-conference schedule was good enough with the win against Xavier, but we had to get a couple more wins and then stay away from those bad losses. I believe we're an NCAA Tournament team. We know we're not going to get in, but I think we've got NCAA Tournament-caliber talent. And the challenge I gave our guys tonight: Look, you want to play in the NCAA Tournament? This game tonight is an NCAA Tournament game against an NCAA Tournament team, an NCAA Tournament venue. And we came up short, so our season is most likely over. Q. Derrick, tonight, 31 points. The first time you played Arizona you had seven points. What was the big difference tonight? DERRICK WHITE: I was just trying to be aggressive, get downhill, try to put pressure on their bigs, just make more shots than Arizona. Q. George, what is it that makes Arizona's defense so tough? You shot the ball okay, you kept your turnovers down, but it seemed like open looks were hard to come by for you guys? GEORGE KING: I think the athleticism at all five positions and their length, them playing collectively as a group. You know, they have very few mental breakdowns as a team, which makes it really hard for their opponents to score on them. Q. George, two straight years your Pac-12 season comes to an end here in Vegas against Arizona. How much of a motivating factor is that for you guys when you compare yourself to Arizona maybe going into this off-season, knowing that two straight years it's Arizona ending it basically? GEORGE KING: Yeah, sooner or later it's got to stop. I was hoping it was going to stop today. We were going to get them here, but we came up short. But we're definitely going to keep trying. Q. Coach, do you feel like your season is done now? No one really plans for the NIT, but do you think it's a challenge your team is ready for? COACH BOYLE: If we get the invite, we'll take it. I'd love to keep coaching these guys. I just don't know. We haven't been in this arena since our first year here, and our first year here we were the last team out of the NCAA Tournament. We were the No. 1 seed in the NIT. But that won't be the case this year. So much of it has to do with these smaller conference tournaments. I think this team could do some damage there. There's no doubt about it. I'd love to keep coaching them, but I just don't know. We won't know until Sunday night. I'm not planning on it, but I'm sure hoping for it. I think we have enough talent to be playing in that thing. But they've got to committee together, and we've got to see where it shakes out. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|