Post-Game Quotes: Oregon vs. Colorado
02/05/16 | Men's Basketball
Dana Altman- Head Coach
On Chris Boucher's injury…
“I think he's going to be alright. I was just with him in the locker room and they were checking him out. I think it's just a little bit of a tweak, hopefully. He has become such an important part of our team… We really need him in there.”
On team's play with Brooks on the bench in foul trouble…
“Dillon is one guy who has been playing well for us, but he is just one part of the attack. We have a lot of guys who are confident, that ball goes up pretty quick, so there is definitely no lack in confidence… For the most part I thought we were pretty controlled tonight.”
On how the team is able to come back after big wins…
“We have done a better job as the season has progressed, but we certainly didn't do a good job of that early… There is just so much season left, with four games at home and four on the road. The conference is so balanced this year and tough, we don't have that dominating team like Arizona, but they may be when they get everyone healthy… We are going to have to play really well, and we are going to have to keep everyone fresh and healthy.”
On the thought that Oregon may be the elite team in the Pac-12…
“We are not tough enough right now, our consistency isn't quite good enough. If that's going to happen we are going to have to get a lot better… If we stay the same or get too full of ourselves… Make no mistake, our team is going to get better. We were sitting at 5-4 this time last year and everyone counted us out. The year before that we were 3-8, teams are going to get better. We better get better, that's the only way we are going to continue to have success.”
Dwayne Benjamin – Guard, Senior
On allowing a season-low 21 points in the first half…
“We were flying around, hands up, swatting a lot of balls and we probably got them a little frustrated, but we just tried to play defense and stop them from putting the ball in the hole.”
On if this was a revenge game after falling to Colorado earlier in the season…
“Definitely, we talked about it. It was one of the games that we lost and we felt we didn't play our style of basketball in the first game. We knew they were a good team, but we wanted to come out and play real hard.”
On the importance of winning the rebounding battle tonight…
“We knew that in order for us to even have a chance in this game we'd have to keep it close or win the rebounding, and that's what we tried to do. That was the biggest thing for us this whole week getting prepared for them was defense and rebounding.”
On the feeling this year leading the Pac-12 midway through conference play…
“Last year, everybody didn't believe that we'd be pretty good and they didn't think we would win, but now there's more pressure because they think we're going to go in there and win. We're just going to continue to play our style of play, defend, rebound, play hard and share the ball.”
Casey Benson – Guard, Sophomore
On the intensity of the game…
“I think when you get into conference play, playing them a second time, you kind of get familiar with one another and everybody's trying to win. You've just got to be tough and not get caught up in extra-curricular stuff, and I think we did that tonight.”
On the defensive effort…
“Activity is what we've been talking about since conference started, flying around with a ton of energy on defense because, at the end of the day, defense is what wins championships. Some nights the ball's not going to go in the basket, so our staple has got to be on the defensive end.”
On limiting mistakes and forcing other teams to beat them…
“At the end of the day, we just have to trust our teammates. When we limit our turnovers and don't force it, we usually end up getting a good shot on the offensive end. So the more we cut down on turnovers will just lead to good possessions.”
On the feeling this year leading the Pac-12 midway through conference play…
“We've just got to continue to take it one game at a time and not look ahead, the next game is the most important one and we need to keep focusing on getting better every single time out.”
Tad Boyle – Head Coach, Colorado
On the loss to Oregon…
“Going into this game, there were two points of emphasis to beat the Oregon Ducks. One was to take care of the ball, and the other was to limit them to one shot. They had 33 points in those two categories. They 21 points off our turnovers and 12 second-chance points, and we lost by 20. Those are things that we can control. We can box out. We can take care of the ball. We get four points off our turnovers, they get 21off ours, that's the ballgame. We knew it coming in, so it's not like it's a revelation.”
On what caused the disparities in those categories…
“It's all us. The kinds of turnovers we had, they were just lazy passing, bad footwork, just ridiculous turnovers. This time of the year, I know we're not going to have zero. You cut those numbers in half, and you're right in the ballgame. We didn't play well enough offensively, we didn't play well enough defensively, we didn't shoot free throws well enough. I know we out-rebounded them by six. The rebounding margin was good, but they had nine offensive rebounds. That's too many for a team like Oregon, who has guys around the perimeter. It's not like they're jamming the ball inside, they just crash the boards and we don't box them out. Great opportunity lost, and it's very disappointing.”
On having a bad shooting start for the second-straight game…
“What are you going to do about it? I don't know. We weren't good the whole game, so it wasn't the start that killed us tonight. It was the 40 minutes of basketball that killed us. We got good looks, and didn't make them. Our defense kept us in the game the other night. Tonight, our defense didn't keep us in the game.”
On Saturday's game at Oregon State…
“It's a big game. Every game is a big game down the stretch. Tonight was a big game. Tonight was the biggest game we had all year and we laid an egg. That's disappointing. We've got to bounce back, we've got to be resilient. I love this team. This is a great group of guys to coach, and we were not good enough tonight on a big stage, the biggest game of the year, we laid an egg. For that, we've got to live with ourselves and we've got to turn the page quickly. Nothing is going to be given to us these next eight games. We're going to eat what we earn. That's the way that it is.”
