NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST FOUR

March 19, 2024

Tad Boyle

UD Arena

Colorado Buffaloes

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by head coach Tad Boyle.

Q. Coach, talk about your excitement about being back in the NCAA Tournament and what your team's been able to accomplish this season.

TAD BOYLE: We're excited to be here, obviously. I mean, to get to this tournament, to get to this stage is a process for every team. And every team has its ups and downs throughout the season.

We've had a lot of them. A lot of ours had to do with injury, and for us to overcome the things we've overcome throughout the year. And injuries are part of the game, we all know that. For these guys to persevere -- I feel like we've been in a one-game elimination tournament for about four weeks now, from that L.A. trip when we lost to UCLA, a heartbreaker, a one-possession game down the stretch. And found a way to beat USC in double overtime being down 16.

As you look in the rearview mirror, that was a turning point of our season, without a doubt. But we didn't know it at the time. We just had to try to win the next game and win the next game, and that's what we did, and got on a roll.

And we didn't quite finish it off in Las Vegas, unfortunately. Oregon got us in the finals, with four minutes to go. That was a tie game and came down to the end.

Our guys have been battling and competing, playing at a high level here the last month of the season. And we're excited to be in Dayton.

Q. What was your first reaction when you saw Boise State pop up next to Colorado, knowing that you would have to go up against one of your best friends in Leon Rice?

TAD BOYLE: It flashed up together. It wasn't like Boise State came up and then Colorado. It was like they both came up. So obviously my eyes went straight to Colorado. And I was elated and excited because I was nervous. I didn't know with all those upsets in the conference tournament -- North Carolina State beat North Carolina and Oregon beating us; not that it was a big upset, but bid-stealing win -- and I was excited to be in because I was nervous we might not be.

Then when I saw Boise next to our name, I was like, oh gosh, are you kidding me? I don't want to be playing against Leon. I've watched his team a lot this year, which I think is a good thing. But he is one of my best friends in this business, without a doubt. And I have a lot of respect for him and their program.

Q. What do you think of the job that Leon Rice has done in the time you've been at Colorado as well? And probably a dangerous question to ask, I don't want to steal everybody's time, but your best Leon Rice story, maybe?

TAD BOYLE: Let me just say this, most of my Leon Rice stories are not fit for public consumption. We've had great times together, without a doubt.

I forget the rest of your question.

The job he's done. We got the job the same year. This is my 14th year at Colorado, his 14th year at Boise. We kind of came in together. We've commiserated, celebrated together. Obviously we coached the last two summers with USA Basketball together and had some great times there as well.

When I look at what he's done at Boise -- and I know how hard of a job it is from the outside -- Boise is a great community, as you know. It's a great sports town, but it's so isolated. And to get kids to come there and to recruit at the level he's recruited, and to win consistently, year in, year out, in a really good league like the Mountain West who values basketball, I can't say enough about the job he's done.

He's a terrific coach. He's a terrific program builder. And that's something, I think, we share a lot in common. We talk a lot about culture, about building the right way and getting the right kids that fit, whether it's Boise, Idaho or Boulder, Colorado. And he's certainly done that and I think we have to.

Q. What's it been -- about your relationship with Leon that it's been able to last 30 years, for so long.

TAD BOYLE: I think it's just our approach to life. He's a family guy. I'm a family guy. I know his kids. He knows my kids.

I mean, when I was a high school coach in Colorado, at Longmont High School back in the early '90s, he was an assistant coach at the University of Northern Colorado, which is in Greeley, my hometown. So our mutual friend, Mark Turgeon, who I played with at Kansas, introduced us. He said, you have to get to know this guy. We struck up a relationship then, and it's been there ever since.

It's just grown and developed through the years, and I think it's just a mutual respect, mutual admiration in the fact that we've got both -- he's got a great sense of humor. He's a fun guy to be around. If you know Leon, you love him.

Q. Your first chance meeting with him when he was recruiting one of your players, I guess you answered that. But going against him, I know you got to play against him last year. But now doing it on such a big stage, what's that emotion like?

TAD BOYLE: When that ball tips up tomorrow, it's not about a relationship or friendship. It's about trying to win a game. They're going to try to win; we're going to try to win just like we did last year in Myrtle Beach.

And they got us last year. They were the tougher team. They physically man handled us, out-executed us. And really when you get to this stage, you get in these games, it's about your players, it's about what they do on the floor, how hard they play, how tough they play.

And to me, when you get ready to play Boise State you better put your hard hat on because they're tough, they rebound well, they're physical. They're good basketball players, and they run good stuff offensively and they're tough defensively. So we're going to have to execute on the offensive end. We'll have to battle on the boards. And we're going to have to make plays.

Q. Because you guys know each other so well, you played last year, it's, like, what's the temptation, do you think, for yourself to try different things? Or are you just going to be who you are in this game?

TAD BOYLE: I think you get to this point in the season, look, you don't get here if you haven't had success, right? And, so, you stay with what you do. And I think -- I'm sure he's looking at our team thinking we need to attack this or attack that. We're looking at his team to look at their strengths, look at their weaknesses.

So you might tweak some things here and there, but it's more personnel-based I would say. A lot of the actions that people run, you've seen them before. You don't run into a team, unless somebody's running the Princeton offense or something maybe that you haven't seen in your league or a style you haven't seen, which can happen in this tournament, for sure.

But I think Boise, we've seen a lot of the stuff that they've run and they've seen a lot of stuff that we've run. So we just have to do what we do and we have to do it better than they do it.

Q. Leon said right after the Selection Show, well, I've already watched all their games this year live. It will make the scouting a little easier. From that standpoint following up on what you just said there, how nice is that on a short turnaround to have the familiarity you did with their roster? And what does concern you the most about their team?

TAD BOYLE: Couple things. What the head coach knows has no meaning or bearing. It's what do your players know, how do you get that information from what you've seen all year because he's watched us, I've watched him. But their players have to understand because they're the ones on the floor executing it.

When I look at Boise, I look at a guy like Degenhart, who's 6'8", can shoot the 3. He's 240 pounds. He can score on the block. He's a good player. He's got good shot fakes. He's crafty.

Max Rice has got deep, deep range and the ultimate green light. He is the coach's son, right? I don't think he's coming out for any quick or bad shots. You've got to guard him from beyond the 3-point line.

So you see their personnel. You see Agbo, who's a heck of a big wing, who's got good size, can post up and he can shoot 3s. And Stanley who has been a great addition to their team, very active and athletic. And then they've got Anderson at the point. So they've got good players. There's no doubt about it.

So a lot of things scare me about Boise. But to me, they can hurt you from a lot of different positions.

Q. You mentioned in your intro getting healthy. What do you think is the biggest key to losing only one game in the last month?

TAD BOYLE: I think there's two things from that standpoint for us. Those who have not watched us. We've gotten better defensively. Now that didn't show very much against Oregon in the championship game down the stretch for sure in the second half. I think in the second half we got eight stops in 27 possessions. So that left us that half. That's what cost us the game.

But we've gotten better defensively over the last month. And we've done a better job taking care of the basketball. We didn't do it against Oregon in that championship game. They scored 23 points of our turnovers, and we scored zero off theirs. And we lose a seven-point game.

But we've got to take good care of the basketball. That's going to be the case against Boise because if they turn you over they'll run. They're very sound defensively.

But if we take care of the ball and we guard them, as long as we play Colorado basketball on the offensive end, we'll be in good shape. But we can't turn it over and we've got to guard the heck out of those guys.

Q. You talked about Degenhart, who is first-team All-Mountain West. You've got a first-team All-Pac-12er in KJ Simpson. Give us a scouting report. What makes him special?

TAD BOYLE: KJ has had an All-American type year. You look at his numbers, you look at his consistency, you look at his efficiency, he does everything for us. He scores the ball. He distributes the ball. He rebounds the ball. He guards the ball.

I mean, he's a legitimate, in my opinion, a legitimate All-American candidate that doesn't get enough national attention. And guess what? Now he's on a national stage. Now, he doesn't need to do anything outside of who he is. He just needs to play his game.

But we've got good players on our team, just like Boise has good players on their team. But Degenhart is to me the key to their team. And then getting out and guarding the 3-point line with Max and Agbo. Those guys we've got to really take away.

And we can't forget about Stanley. Can't forget about Anderson. Can't forget about their guys coming off the bench. But you've got to know Degenhart is the head of their snake, so to speak.

Q. What is it about the tournament that can elevate the status of somebody? You've been very vocal about KJ all year long, especially towards the end. So what is it about the tournament and how excited are you for people to now see what you're preaching, what you've been saying?

TAD BOYLE: Number one, he just has to be who he is. That's what I've told our team. KJ doesn't need to come out and be somebody that he's not. He just needs to be the KJ Simpson that he's been all year.

The difference is the stage. The difference is the media. The difference is the lights, the attention. And all eyes are on this tournament for the next three weeks.

So when you have that and you just perform the way he's been performing, that's all he has to do. He doesn't have to do anything special. And if he does that, people will see how special of a player he is.

Q. You guys and Boise State, two really good rebounding teams. How much is that going to determine kind of this game and how much is that an emphasis to you to crash the boards on both ends?

TAD BOYLE: Key, absolute key. To me, when you talk about toughness in basketball, you talk about the turnovers, being able to take care of the ball and not turn that thing over, being mentally tough, strong with the ball, because they rake at you when you drive it. They're going to be in the gaps when you drive it. You've got to make good plays.

And then the rebounding battle. You look at those two areas and that will tell you how tough your team played. And I'm sure they're talking about it, too. Again, you look at Stanley, you look at Degenhart and Agbo on the offensive glass, those guys go and they're physical. We've got to create space with our box-outs.

The good news is we just played an Oregon team that played physical against us. Washington State in the semis played physical. So we've played against physicality before. And they have too. But it will be a big part of the game tomorrow.

Q. You guys are 19-5 this season when Eddie grabs at least six rebounds, 5-4 when he doesn't. So basically a toss-up game when he doesn't. Is there something to that, and what do you make of it?

TAD BOYLE: I think if you look at Eddie and when he is what I call dialed in or locked in, both defensively and offensively -- because he can be a problem for other teams on the glass, certainly on the block, and he's a great passer.

They bring in Cam Martin off of their bench who is their second leading assist guy. We bring in -- Eddie starts for us, but he's a really good pass-first big. And when he puts his mind to it and he's emotionally involved and locked in, he's a difference maker.

And he's a problem for other teams. He's going to create double teams. It's how well can we play out of those double teams because it's hard to score over two guys. So we're going to have to kick it out and we're going to have to get the ball moved and we're going to have to attack close-outs and make plays. If we do that well, we'll be okay. If we don't, we'll be in trouble.

Q. Max Rice, you've known Leon forever so you probably have known Max for a while. When was the time when you thought maybe this kid has something special in him? And just his growth and development over his last six years at Boise State?

TAD BOYLE: Has it been six or eight? I can't remember. (Laughter).

But, no, I've known Max for a long time, and kind of seen him grow up from afar, certainly not day to day. But he's always been in the gym. I remember talking to Leon. It's like, he's just been a gym rat. Going down, even when he was 10, 11, 12 years old he's been a gym rat.

So you knew he's got a chance because he's always been a really good shooter. And then early in his career he had to adjust to college basketball and the speed and the physicality of it. But he's a big, strong, 6'5", 200, probably 205, I don't know his weight is now, but he's a big, strong guard that can handle physicality. He can make shots. He has deep, deep range.

To see his development, he's become a better defender, and so to see his development over his college career has been pretty neat to watch, and he's a legit threat now.

Q. You've talked about your team being a high-IQ basketball team. I'm wondering about the importance of that quality being in a tournament where you find out and literally hours later you're playing a college basketball game against somebody you haven't seen?

TAD BOYLE: It's hard. I know Boise State and their personnel. I think Coach Grier on our team, who has the scout, he knows them. But it's being able to translate that knowledge in a real quick turnaround to your players. And they've got to be able to absorb it, understand it and go out and execute against it.

So it's critically important to have a high-IQ team, to have a team that can digest, because when you get in this tournament, you got one day prep in between games. If you're able to get out of that first weekend, now you've got a little bit more time for the next game.

But as this thing rolls, preparation becomes more and more important, and understanding your opponent, what their strengths and weaknesses are. If we don't understand that Tyson Degenhart uses shot fakes and uses his body to create angles, we're going to have problems.

If we understand that and we stay down on those shot-fakes and make him score over our length and be rock solid, we'll take our chances. But you've got to play smart as well as playing hard. And playing smart is part of execution.

I think we've got a team, I think, that can do that. We'll see if we do or not. I think we've shown we can. We've just got to go out and do it.