Oregon State - 70, Colorado 68
THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach.
TAD BOYLE: Yeah, my thought is I'm extremely disappointed and heartbroken for our players. We came here to win a championship and we came up short. Credit to Oregon State. They deserved to win this game. They played better than we did tonight. We just weren't good enough. We didn't make enough shots on offense and then we didn't rebound the ball the way we're capable and we needed to rebound the ball, especially defensively. I just thought they were the tougher team tonight and they were a little bit more aggressive than we were, especially when the ball went up on the backboard. And I haven't seen the film, obviously, so I don't know, we're normally, we're the best free throw shooting team in the country and tonight we came up short in that department. We couldn't buy a basket in the first half. We didn't have any three, they had six. We were only down five. I felt good about where we were. We couldn't sustain anything defensively tonight. That was disappointing because we have been pretty good on that end here recently, but it wasn't good enough tonight. And again you have to credit Oregon State. They played well, they played better than us tonight, and they deserved to win.
THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions.
Q. You mentioned the defense, particularly there in the first half, what kind of breakdowns maybe were happening? Obviously they had a hot start from three-point range and you had a hard time making up for that as the game went on.
TAD BOYLE: Yeah, I mean, look, the key defensive part of our game plan tonight was guard the three-point line. And they had made 20 threes in two games coming into tonight. They made nine tonight. So that's 29 threes in three games. I mean, we knew that Calloo is a shooter. He hits three. He's not supposed to get three off. He makes three. I mean, you can't do that at this time of year against good teams. They're going to make you pay. Lucas is a good three-point shooter. He gets seven off.
So we did not execute -- and I've complimented this team and this group of guys when they have executed the defensive game plan. Tonight we didn't and it cost us the game because guarding the three-point line was the key and it was a difference in the game. It's a 2-point game, they get nine threes, we get six. Sometimes our threes go in, sometimes they don't. We had some good looks. But when Calloo gets the looks he had and Jarod Lucas as gets the looks he had, it means we're not paying attention to the game plan and we're not executing the game plan. And that was disappointing.
Q. I know we've have talked about this a lot over your years here but that free throw boxout at the end of the game, that's just got to drive you crazy, doesn't it?
TAD BOYLE: Yeah, yeah, and it turns into a Lucas three. That was the play of the game, without a doubt. It's a four-point game, they miss the free throw, we can't get the rebound. It's my pet peeve as a coach giving up offensive rebounds on free throws and it's amazing how the basketball Gods make you pay for that. They made us pay. So it goes from a four-point game to a seven-point game and with that being said we still scratched and clawed our way back in the game, but we couldn't sustain anything and that play was a prime example. And it was the play of the game, in my mind.
Q. You've talked about this throughout the stretch run here. This team's been pretty good about bouncing back. Is that something you kind of lean on as you get ready for what's next, next week?
TAD BOYLE: Yeah, I guess so. It's like two different seasons. Again, there's four seasons in college basketball and you're guaranteed three of them. You're guaranteed the pre-season games, you're guaranteed the conference play, you're guaranteed a spot in the post-season tournament, but you're not guaranteed beyond that. And this team has put themselves in a position to qualify for the NCAA tournament. I'm confident that we'll be there. But, yeah, it's a whole new ball game. We're going to Indianapolis and it's going to be a totally different feel for what our players go through on a daily basis and we're going to have to adjust to that, and, yeah, if we can draw some motivation from this. But we got to get over the disappointment. And it's real in that locker room. These guys really wanted this and I thought sometimes we played tonight like we wanted it too much, rather than just playing our game. I know how much our players wanted this win, McKinley and Evan and Jeriah and Dallas, all the seniors, D'Shawn, but we just didn't play well enough when the lights came on and that's disappointing because I know we're better than what we played tonight. But Oregon State deserved to win and they did. So we got to move on and if we can derive some motivation from it, we'll certainly try to, but it's a whole new ball game when we go to Indy.
Q. When you looked at the what you guys have been through the last two years with it getting stolen away from you last year and then this year a heartbreaker tonight, has anyone learned more lessons in college basketball going to this tournament than you guys? I feel like you guys have a lot of things that you guys can lean on as you look towards next week and things you can go through if you fall into a tough time.
TAD BOYLE: We do, but it's been tough on everybody. It's been tough on everybody. So like we're not immune. It hasn't been tougher on us than other teams, it felt like the NCAA tournament was taken away from them last year, and it was. Other teams have been fighting through COVID and all the protocols and stuff and sacrificing. So we're not alone, so I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, yeah -- I'm very proud of our guys and how they have handled themselves this season and I want it bad for them, because, again, I always say, I'm going to be coaching here next year. We got seven seniors that may not be with us. So you want to make the most of your opportunities and we let an opportunity slip by tonight to win a championship, get a ring, cement our place in Colorado basketball history, but we let it slip away and we didn't take advantage of it. So guess what? We have another opportunity next week, and we got to take advantage of that. It's a new life, new tournament, new ball game, new season.
Q. I realize it was kind of desperation time at this point anyway, but when McKinley was on the line with 2.2 seconds left, you were down three, he made the first one, was he maybe supposed to miss the second and try to scramble for a rebound or what was the situation there? It looked like it kind of bounced in anyway.
TAD BOYLE: Yeah, we talked about it. He was trying to miss it. We asked him to shoot the ball as high as he could, high arc on it, try to get the rim. So to create a long rebound we had Dallas and Jabari in the rebounding slots and we had D'Shawn and Maddox, two of our better shooters, out on the perimeter and we were supposed to try to miss it and have one of those guys tip it back to a shooter and we could have won the game, but it hit the rim and bounced in. So that's just part of it. And then we tried to, the clock kind of got away from us. We were not trying to foul Lucas there at the end when we put him on the line with 16 seconds to go. Because the shot clock was running down, we wanted to try to trap him and get the ball out of his hands and maybe foul somebody else, but we couldn't, we couldn't get a trap to hold him and then we fouled him at half court with 12 seconds on the shot clock. So that wasn't very smart.
But again, those are the things that I talk about that you have to make smart, really smart plays down the stretch in this kind of game to give yourself a chance. But with that being said, we still had a look. I mean, it wasn't a great look with McKinley. It was kind of desperation. But yeah, it was a tough loss.
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