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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT


March 12, 2015


Tad Boyle

Dominique Collier

Josh Scott


LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

Oregon – 93
Colorado - 85


THE MODERATOR:  We'll open with an opening statement from Coach Boyle.
COACH BOYLE:  We're extremely disappointed.  This season is over with, and it always ends quickly and abruptly.  We really felt like this was a winnable game coming into it.
I think the way we played in the first half, we all know we were capable of winning this game.  We didn't get it done.
This game's a little bit a microcosm of our season in the fact that we're not able to sustain really anything for an extended period of time.  Whether that's a two and a half hour practice, whether that's a stretch of games, whether that's half to half, which was the case tonight, it's just‑‑ I thought we played well enough in the first half.  And certainly we played well enough offensively tonight to win this game.  You score 85 points.
But Oregon really played well and they shot 76percent in the second half.  Joe young had 30 on us and it was disappointing because I thought our game plan coming in was good and sound.
But we certainly didn't execute it.  And that's‑‑ I take the blame.  I'm the head coach.  We didn't play well enough the second half.  Credit goes to Oregon.
THE MODERATOR:  Questions?

Q.  Coach, there at the end you had a chance to see Ski as he came off the court fouling out.  Can you talk about his importance to this program, obviously, playing his last Pac‑12 game?
COACH BOYLE:  Yeah, I think when you look at his body of work in its entirety, I think Askia Booker will be finally remembered at the University of Colorado for the teams he was a part of and the career he had.
I know he was in the top 10 in many different offensive categories.  He had a good career.  That's what I told him when he came out of the game and fouled out.  I said, You had a great career.  I talked to Ski probably three weeks ago about understanding that he's got to have perspective in terms of what this year is because this is a disappointing year not only for him but certainly for our whole team.  It's not the way you want to go out.
But over the course of time, when you look back 15, 20 years from now, you're going to say Askia Booker was the part of some really good teams and part of the resurgence of Colorado basketball.
And I really believe that this year is a blip on the radar.  Time will tell whether it is or isn't.  But I'm as motivated, I'm as excited, I'm as positive as I've ever been.
And I probably have got a little bit of a chip on my shoulder, which I need to have, in terms of coaching this team.  Because I feel like we've gotten soft a little bit.  Myself as a coach.  I think just as a program.  And I think that shows up in wins and losses.
So this is a disappointing year for Ski individually.  But the future's bright.  We've got some good, young players.  Two guys right here.  Although Josh isn't young.  He's going into his senior year.  But Dom I thought really improved as the season went on, and the future is bright for Colorado basketball.  Don't count us out.
This was, like I said, hopefully a blip on the radar.  Time will tell.  I think it will be.

Q.  Tad, the defensive problems there in the second half, when they went on that 16‑1 run, what happened during that stretch?
COACH BOYLE:  Well, a combination of things.  Number one, Joe young made some great plays.  But I thought we were trying to switch 1 through 5.  He made some tough plays.
But I thought offensively we kind of let them go on that run by not taking care of the basketball.  They got some steals against‑‑ with their press against our press offense.  And they scored 27 points off of our turnovers.  And that's a lot of points when you're looking at an eight‑point game.  27 points off of our miscues.  We had the ball; they got the ball because we turned it over to them.
So turnovers were a part of that run, them making some tough shots.  They made open shots when they had open shots.  And, again, you've got to credit Oregon.  They played well and played with energy and got their defense to create offense.  We didn't have too many points off of their turnovers.  We had two.  They had 27.  That's the ballgame.

Q.  You talked a little bit about your confidence with the game plan against Joe Young coming into the game.  What was that game plan, and where did you feel it went wrong?
COACH BOYLE:  We were switching 1 through 5, and, again, he made some tough shots.  And we knew Joe Young is going to make some tough shots.  But what's disappointing to me is late in the game we had talked about double teaming him off ball screens.
We wanted to get the ball out of his hands and make somebody else beat us.  And we had two opportunities to do that.  And we didn't.  And that's what you call execution or lack thereof.  And that's on us.
That's on me as the coach, not having our guys prepared well enough to understand that when a ball screen happens and Joe Young's involved in it, we're going to double team him, we're going to put two guys on Joe Young, just like they put two guys on Josh Scott, and make him get rid of the ball and maybe somebody else beat us.
We didn't get that done.  So we tried a lot of different things, but we didn't execute them.

Q.  Josh, early on in the game you got fed a lot in the post.  You had a lot of success down low and your touches started to evaporate, was that frustrating at all in that second half that you weren't getting as many touches, as many looks in the post?
JOSH SCOTT:  Honestly, that wasn't the frustrating part.  It was more of being at the back of the press and seeing the ball getting turned over and seeing easy layups converted.  That was frustrating.
Not getting the stops.  I mean, give up like over 50 points in the second half, that was more frustrating than not getting ball.

Q.  Dom, could you talk about the start you had in Eugene?  You guys had a nice start, first few minutes of the game, but couldn't sustain it.  This time you did it mostly throughout the first half.  What was the key to that, the energy you guys came out with and stayed with for the first half?
DOMINIQUE COLLIER:  We just wanted to come out with a whole lot of energy, and that's what we did from the start.  And we talked about it the whole year, how we couldn't put together two halves.
So we just have to‑‑ we have to learn to put together two halves, and we didn't do that.

Q.  Dom, seemed like you started to come along there late in the season.  Did you feel there was a point where it clicked for you and you could play at this level?
DOMINIQUE COLLIER:  I just thought I could play just gaining confidence from the coaches and my teammates and just telling me to go out and play my game.  And yeah, I just gained confidence throughout the year.
THE MODERATOR:  Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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