	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL MEDIA DAY

October 11, 2018

Tad Boyle

San Francisco, California

Q. I just want to ask you about Evan Battey, watching him go through what he's gone through to get to this point. What has that meant to you as a coach?
TAD BOYLE: Well, Evan is a special young man, and we knew that when we recruited him, but we knew that he may or may not be able to play his freshman year when we recruited him, and obviously we lost a waiver and he paid a pretty severe penalty for some things that happened when he was a young -- not even a teenager, 12, 13 years old.

But to see him handle the adversity of the last two years, the way he's handled it, the grace, the attitude, positive nature that he's looked at everything, he's had some tough days. There's no doubt about it. But just how he's handled both his health issue and also the -- having to sit out two years of basketball, and now he gets to play, which is what he loves to do.

Q. Evan told me that he had told -- that you had told him that even if he wasn't going to be able to play he was still going to be a scholarship guy at Colorado.
TAD BOYLE: Absolutely.

Q. What were those conversations like with him when you weren't sure and he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to play again?
TAD BOYLE: Well, to be honest with you, I felt like Evan had to come to that place in his mind, did he truly want to do that, because if he didn't, I don't think there was anybody in the world that would have judged him or questioned that decision.

But he loves the game of basketball. That's part of who he is, and it's, again, the passion that he plays the game with. I don't know if that ever crossed his mind. I'm sure it crossed his mind, but he knew that he wanted to play.

I just wanted to support him in any way that I could because when you go through something like that, it's -- basketball is a very small thing, you know, when it comes to your health.

Q. What have you seen from him in practice so far and what are your expectations for him?
TAD BOYLE: Well, I said this earlier, our football coach, Mike MacIntyre, before the team takes the field, always says: Welcome to the fight.

You don't have to welcome Evan to the fight. He's going to bring the fight to you. He loves the physical nature of the game, and going to be interesting to see how much they're going to let him be physical, because he's a physical presence on the floor. But he brings the fight to the court every single day and plays with great energy and great passion.

Q. And expectations for him this year?
TAD BOYLE: You know, I just want him to get back in the swing of things. He had an opportunity to go to Italy this summer and play. We went on a foreign trip last year, and he didn't play, couldn't play, but just to get back in the swing of playing the game that he loves and playing with the energy that he does. He's going to go through the freshman adjustment, just like everybody does, and how quickly he adjusts is yet to be seen, but, again, physically he's ready to go.

Q. McKinley has told me a little bit about Evan's defense and he's never seen a player that can guard at times 1 through 5. What is Evan going to bring to the table defensively?
TAD BOYLE: You know, you look at a guy like Evan, you see his body, you see his body tape, he's big and burly and strong and barrel chested, and you don't equate that body type with good feet, but Evan has got great feet. And I think that's what McKinley was talking about, is his ability is move his feet and switch ball screens, show on ball screens, which he does a lot as a big guy, but also the ability to keep guards in front of him.

Evan is not what I would say an above-the-rim type player. He's a below-the-rim type player. But he's really smart. He knows how to use his body, and when you run into Evan, you usually bounce off of him. He doesn't bounce off of you. So he's got the physical ability and presence defensively to hold his ground. But he's also got the good feet that can keep people in front of him.

Q. You have what a lot of coaches want, which is a point guard who has the potential to run your program confidently. I want to ask you a couple questions: One, how important is having a point guard in today's college basketball world? And then two, what's the next step for McKinley in his basketball career?
TAD BOYLE: Yeah, having a point guard like McKinley is -- it's like having the quarterback in football. It's critical to your success. There's no doubt about it. And when you have it, it makes your job a lot easier.

The two challenges that McKinley and I talked about after last season were, number one, to become more of a consistent outside shooter from the three-point range, as well as 15 to 17 feet, as well. He's really worked on that part of his game. McKinley is a worker. He gets in the gym. He's got an unbelievable work ethic.

The second thing is cutting down on his turnovers. He's a play maker. He's going to get his assists because he makes plays for others. But cutting down those turnovers so we can get those cut in half or even 33 percent less, then he becomes an elite-level point guard.

Q. How do you do that? How do you get a guy -- you don't want to sacrifice his aggressiveness, you want him to be a play maker, so is it film study with you?
TAD BOYLE: I think a lot of it is film study. A lot of it -- we've instituted a thing in practice that we have some VersaClimbers that are on the side of the floor, and every time a turnover is made -- it's not punishment, it's what we call --

Q. I can't wait for this.
TAD BOYLE: What do we call it here? It's not punishment, though. It's incentive. It's incentive to not turn the ball over, okay. You can quote me how you want to quote me, I don't care.

But no, it's a way to let them realize, because I think sometimes in practice especially you make a turnover, and it's like, whatever, and this is a -- hey, so part of it -- but that's part of it.

But the other part is film study and decision-making, and I do think for a player like McKinley who had to play so many heavy minutes as a freshman, sometimes fatigued, we're going to really try to monitor him. He's in great shape. McKinley is a guy that he doesn't know how not to play hard, so I think we've got to really manage his minutes as the season progresses to make sure he's fresh, both mentally and physically, because I think that's part of it, as well.

Q. Last time we saw you in a Pac-12 setting you had blown out your calf. Did you heal all right? Did the off-season training change?
TAD BOYLE: Off-season training was fine. My calf is good. I'm ready to go. I'm still not going to win any footraces, but I'm healthy.

Q. You have a campus right now that's got a lot of athletic success. What's the energy around campus and how do you want that to filter into the basketball program?
TAD BOYLE: The energy is great. This is a great time to be a Buff. A lot of our fall sports are doing well, as you alluded to. Our football team is 5-0, and I think it generates a lot of excitement on campus, within our alumni and boosters. And I'm actually going to go to LA this weekend and watch our football team. I'm really excited for that.

But yeah, now it's incumbent upon us as winter sports to take that momentum and continue it and make all of Buff Nation proud.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297