NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST FOUR

March 20, 2024

Tad Boyle

Tristan da Silva

KJ Simpson

UD Arena

Colorado Buffaloes

Media Conference

Colorado - 60, Boise State - 53

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by the Colorado Buffaloes.

TAD BOYLE: I knew it was going to be a battle against these guys. You just knew from watching film and watching that team all year, they've got some tough-minded guys. They're a quality program.

And we used to scrimmage Boise before the season started. We stopped that probably, I don't know, six, seven years ago. We always get something out of that because when you play them you've got to match their physicality and toughness. Doesn't matter who they have. They have a totally different team now than when we played them back in the day.

But they had 19 offensive rebounds. That was a key to the game for us was to limit that to six or less. And obviously we didn't even come close.

But down the stretch, when we had to, we got rebounds. And I thought KJ's 11 rebounds obviously stands out, but our guys battled when we had to.

We went down four, called a timeout. KJ was really positive, which I thought was great because you need that positivity in the NCAA Tournament when you go down four late. And we got five straight stops in a row. Our defense just kind of cranked up a notch.

Obviously we went with a really shortened rotation in the second half. It's kind of where we're at right now. But these guys did what they had to do down the stretch and beat a tough hard-nosed team.

Q. Obviously Coach mentioned the 19 offensive rebounds you gave up, but you guys got the biggest one of the night with J'Vonne takes that fadeaway jumper, late shot clock, and Eddie grabs it and puts it back up. Puts you up five with seconds to go. And how big was that play? Seemed like Eddie had a knack for making those kind of plays all night. Is that his March experience showing up at the perfect time?

TRISTAN DA SILVA: It was huge. He's a beast on the glass, and we really needed him tonight to match their physicality. I don't know what to say, but it was a great play. Got it up in time and got us up five, as you said, and kind of set the table for the rest of the game.

KJ SIMPSON: The thing about Eddie, he's a special talent just because he has a knack for knowing where the ball is going to be, and he has great hands.

He's just a hassle to deal with down there in the paint. That was a smart play, high IQ play to have shot clock awareness and understand where the ball was going to go.

He's made big plays like that for us all year. If we have someone like that on our team, it's kind of positive and it helps us make this type of run and be here.

Q. Tristan, seemed like you were taking the lead on defense on Degenhart -- 3-for-10 for him, six points. What was your approach and what was the plan for him? And what were you able to execute?

TRISTAN DA SILVA: He was the focus of the scouting report. I knew I'd have my hands full the whole game. Credit to him, he's a great player. He's taken Boise to three consecutive NCAA appearances.

I kind of knew I had to step up my game defensively for this one specifically. And I tried my best to limit him, to kind of slow him down, take away his strengths, and just beat him with my length and quickness.

Q. KJ, it wasn't your best first half but you made some clutch shots down the stretch, 11 rebounds. Coach said you stayed really positive down the stretch there. What allowed you to stay positive? What was going through your mind? And how important was the mental part of staying in the game and staying in the flow of things?

KJ SIMPSON: The biggest thing is basketball is more than offense. Obviously it wasn't my best night shooting the ball and I had a lot of kind of bad shots tonight. So that was kind of frustrating.

But understanding that my team needed me out there to do other things. That's why we needed rebounds. So I wanted to go out there and be a leader and go get rebounds and do whatever the team needed for me to do.

I knew eventually something was going to fall for me. And down that stretch needed to make a big play, and I was ready to step up to it.

It's all just about having short-term memory. You kind of build that with experience. And sometimes the ball's not going to go in the basket, but there's so much more to basketball than just offense.

Q. Tristan, I think nine out of the 10 wins here to get to this point, what's gone into this stretch? And was there a game like this in the stretch, or was this kind of unique in terms of how you guys had to win it?

TRISTAN DA SILVA: I mean, there's been a couple like this, close games. I remember the Oregon game. I remember the Oregon game at Oregon, the USC game. So there's been a couple of close games that we've been in over the stretch.

And I feel like kind of trusting our defense has helped us a lot. Defense and rebounding is what Coach stresses the most. And down the stretch this game I feel we got the stops, the rebounds we needed. So I'm super proud of our guys, the job they've done on defense.

Q. KJ, Javon Ruffin seemed like he gave you guys quality minutes in both halves tonight. Obviously with Julian still being out, he has had to step up the last couple of weeks. He only had one point, but felt like he was making the right plays for you guys. How important was his impact in the nine minutes he was able to give you tonight?

KJ SIMPSON: Ruff was unbelievable. We made sure to let him know he was doing great things for us on the floor. And one thing about this team is anybody is capable of going out there and doing something positive for this team.

We have full trust and capability and with everybody but Ruff, his minutes, like you said, all he had was, all he had was one point, but his impact was bigger than just one point.

He was out there guarding. He made great plays defensively. He was boxing out, great assists, great one-more passes. And was just playing with high energy and playing loose and free. He helped us down that stretch, for sure.

Q. I asked Tristan about his individual defense but collectively for your team holding them 2-of-18 on 3-pointers, seemed like you were active and intense all night. What was the scouting report? What were you guys able to do?

TAD BOYLE: Our guys did a great job defensively all night long, like you said. To hold that team to 34 percent and only two 3s when they have Agbo and Rice, who are prolific 3-point shooters, that's a testament to our guys' execution of the game plan. Tristan is a really, really good post defender.

He can also guard on the perimeter as well, but he did a good job on Degenhart.

But the other thing, midway in the second half they went big. They were playing Martin, Stanley and Degenhart. And J'Vonne Hadley had Degenhart at times, too. J'Vonne is just an unbelievable defender. He can guard 1 through 5. I looked out there; sometimes he was on Degenhart and sometimes on Stanley.

We tried to keep Eddie on Martin, because Martin is such a good back-down guy and such a good passer. We wanted that match-up to stay.

I thought Tristan's defense, J'Vonne Hadley's defense, KJ got better as the game went on. I thought in the first half he wasn't as good as he normally is. But great team defense, but also some great individual performances as well.

Q. You have said that the turning point for this team was the UCLA game, and obviously the breakthrough came in the following game in the double-overtime win against USC. Similar finish tonight with how close it was -- that game was more high scoring. How much did you feel like the close games you played in the last couple of weeks really paid off in this one? Just kind of the poise you guys had, you mentioned going down four, and just rallying late?

TAD BOYLE: We've been in a lot of close games. The Washington State game was a great preparation, the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament. I think we won by four, six points. It was a close game down the stretch and we executed.

I felt like in terms of the most similar team in the Pac-12 to Boise State was Washington State because they have two legitimate bigs, can play three at times.

And our guys did a good job against them. We talked about that.

I just keep coming back to those 19 offensive rebounds. If we just box out and cut those in half, this game isn't as close as it was. But we made it that way. They made it that way. Again, you've got to credit them.

Tristan talked about defense and rebounding. We had half that tonight. Our defense was stellar. Our rebounding was not good enough.

Q. I asked something similar about Eddie the other day, 19-5 going into tonight's game in games where he grabbed six rebounds. Did it again tonight, so that's 20-5. How impactful was he tonight in a game where he played 34 minutes, the most since that UCLA game. How important was he to today's result?

TAD BOYLE: He was huge because the way Boise, their bigs -- I was thinking, I was talking to our staff at pregame meal today. Cam Martin normally plays about 15 minutes a game. Tonight he played 23.

I thought they might play him more just because of the match-ups defensively. And Eddie is a problem.

I thought they were going to double him a little more than they did. They started to in the second half. But he's a presence down low. He really is. And he's a good passer, he's a good finisher.

Starting the game, I thought he had a couple looks that he normally finishes that he missed. But he stayed with it.

And that offensive rebound was, to me, the play of the game because to go from a one-possession game to a two-possession game, just mentally is really, really positive for the team that does that. I won't say it's demoralizing, but the other team, a little bit of panic sets in.

But our defense was phenomenal down the stretch. I just can't say enough about it.

But Eddie was great. The long timeouts in the NCAA Tournament -- the five timeouts in the first half, five timeouts in the second half, 20-minute halftime, fatigue -- doesn't really come into play. That's why we were able to play those guys as many minutes as we -- normally we don't play Eddie 34, as you know.

Q. You mentioned the high minutes all stars playing at least 30. You got 52 of your 60 points from Tristan, KJ and Eddie. We know how talented this team is despite some lack of depth. How impressive was it that those three guys were able to carry you -- all older guys in a game like this where it was back and forth throughout?

TAD BOYLE: KJ said it, this team is more than just two or three guys. It was two or three that kind of carried the load tonight.

But J'Vonne Hadley, he's had 20-plus points. We know how talented Cody is. He didn't have his best outing tonight. And Javon Ruffin keeps coming -- Bangot Dak; we didn't get Assane Diop in the game tonight, but we have confidence in him. Tonight you just had to ride those guys as much as we can. And, again, you're able to do that in the NCAA Tournament because of what I talked about earlier. But they were terrific.

And it might be two or three different guys when we play Florida. I'd like it to be five to seven guys that are really clicking and moving. But you get in this tournament and the teams are here for a reason. If you can't guard, you usually don't get to this point. If you can't rebound like Boise does, you don't get to this tournament. It's just the way it is. Hopefully we can have multiple guys help us on Friday. But we'll see. It's going to be a quick turnaround.