COLORADO basketball Postgame Quotes Page 1 Colorado Buffaloes vs. Air Force Falcons, November 28, 2020, CU Events Center, Boulder, Colo.
Colorado Head Coach JR Payne Opening Statement “First off, I want to say Brian Howell, you’re lucky we played well today because I was going to blame any misfortunes on you not being here. All kidding aside, I am proud of how we played. I told the team coming into the game that anytime you play an academy, you're going to play a team that's extremely tough resilient, and never will ever quit. Air Force was all those things. What I was mostly proud of is that we also were all those things tonight too. We always want to be the toughest, hardest working, the most disciplined team on the floor, and I thought we played well today. I was very excited about that.”
On taking more shots “After the last game, even at halftime of the last game, we talked about how we were shooting way too many 3s. Not all of them were wide open. We want to be able to move the basketball and share the basketball and really work the offense to get a great shot. I don't think we did that the other night, and that's why the 3-point numbers were so lopsided. Now, we typically will take more than six 3s. But I also think our shooting percentage shows that we were really sharing the ball and really getting better looks at the basket.”
On pulling away in the second half “I thought we started to transition more effectively in the second half. I thought we got good looks at the basket. I thought that was a big part of it when we were pushing in transition, we were able to sort of flatten out the defense a little bit, you know, and then really, share the ball and get great looks. I thought that that helped our energy and helped our offensive success.”
On Players stepping up “Without practice players this year we're not getting a ton of live reps. We're trying to get up and down and do as much live as we can but to be honest it's difficult because every single rep you do is tiring out their legs. Tonight was really fun to have so many people playing meaningful minutes. It’s really great to have Zuzanna [Kulinska] back, she was out for two weeks and for her to come in and play like she did—I made her play point guard the last several minutes which she never does, and she did such a great job. I was really proud of her, Allysa LaFontaine and Kylee Blacksten. I thought a lot of people came in and did really good things.”
On Jaylyn Sherrod’s aggressiveness “I love Jaylyn’s aggressiveness. I thought she got great looks at the rim and I really was proud of how she defended. We've talked with Jalyn really since she got here last year about using her incredible athleticism on the defensive side of the floor as well as the offensive side. I thought she really did that tonight. Six steals are probably a career high for her.”
On Aubrey Knight’s Performance “I mean Aubrey is the ultimate Swiss Army knife. We asked her if we hadn't made Zuza play the one I probably would have made Aubrey play the one. She also had to play the four at the end of the game and she played everything in between the one in the four so she’s someone that we trust to do her job and to do other people's jobs and give great effort on the glass, both sides of the floor. She's just again the ultimate Swiss Army knife I love coaching her she's she was voted team captain this year by her teammates.”
COLORADO basketball Postgame Quotes Page 2 Colorado Buffaloes vs. Air Force Falcons, November 28, 2020, CU Events Center, Boulder, Colo.
Junior Aubrey Knight On shooting game today “I just think that we were really confident with our shots and making the right decisions. At the last game we were kind of spraying up early shots that we often just let come to us. Today we were just making the shots at the right time.”
On the importance of the non-conference games “I think they are crucial. We go to Oregon next weekend and so we want to be able to have a lot of people being able to play because we don't really know what's going to happen especially in the time that we're in with COVID and everything. People could go out. Hopefully, we come in with full force, but we need people to be able to have the confidence to go into these games and be able to play and that's kind of what pre-conference is all about, getting that confidence to be able to play. Even having a short amount of time in it is curtail that people go into Pac-12 being confident and feeling good about their game.”
On what was learned last game “Wednesday wasn't our best performance as a team. I was really happy to see how we bounced back and we're able to play and be almost a different team today. We are a young-ish team and we have a lot of experience, so I'm just really proud that we were able to translate the things that we worked on in practice and kind of actually do that into the game today.”
On Mya Hollingshed’s help in the game “It's really beneficial, you get double teams down there that allows for open shots out and Mya is a great finisher. She's a clutch shooter and we know that she's going to get it done. I think the biggest thing is when you have a really good low post player, it allows for other shots and other things to be open and driving lanes too. It’s really beneficial, as the guard.”
On the two different point guards “It's really fun being able to play with two point guards on the court because that way we can have outlets be to either one of them, it's really interchangeable. We've never really had that here since I've been here, so it's definitely a different change of pace and I really enjoy it because that way it allows outlets to be more efficient and it kind of takes the pressure off of one point guard. Let's say, like I said something does happen with COVID or other things it allows us to have a deeper bench in position which I think is really essential.”