On Tuesday, Colorado men's basketball held its Media Day in Boulder. Below is a video and transcript of everything Tad Boyle had to say in introducing his 2021-2022 Buffaloes.
Tad Boyle's opening statement:
“Hard to believe it's beginning of year 12 for our staff here, but I'm most excited about Colorado basketball today as I was when I was hired here May of 2010. So anyway, I'm excited about this team we're going to have a young team of very unusual team in terms of our makeup with two seniors, and 10 underclassmen. Obviously, our walk-ons are a big, big part of our program. Benan Ersek and Will Loughlin are to walk-on seniors but Evan (Battey) and Eli (Parquet) are the scholarship guys that we're going to rely on a lot this year, those four kids and then, we've got 10 of our 12 scholarship players that have never played in front of a college crowd. And that's a lot. So obviously the sophomores last year with COVID didn't get a chance to play in front of fans. They're going to get that opportunity this year, thank goodness, and as our freshmen are, so this is going to be a team that's going to be a work in progress. We will not be at our best on November 9th. I'm hopeful we'll be better than we were today in practice and the way we've been here the last week or so. This is a talented, talented group of young players that we're going to have to get to grow up quickly as this season unfolds so there's going to be some adversity, some headwinds, that'll hit us, and that's what we're going to rely on our leadership with Evan and Eli and Benan and Will to help us get through that but excited about the program and where we're at and certainly where we're going."
On stressing the importance of defense to the team's younger players:
I mean, that's one of the things I talked to our team about today at the end of practice is, we have to prepare for games and for nights when the shot’s not going in and it's happened in practice. Young players usually identify with their jump shot, going in or not going in or scoring the ball or not scoring the ball. That's why, Eli and Evan, who are seniors who understand that defense is such a big part of what we do and, and it's half the game, if not more so, limiting the other team from getting easy baskets and good shots. Making them work for everything they get, again, we've never pitched a shutout here. We're not going to shut anybody out but we got to prepare to win games on nights when our offense isn't clicking because that that will happen, and especially with a young team that will happen so we've got to be able to rely on that, the defensive side of the ball and rebounding the basketball at a high level and our young guys don't have a grasp of that yet and that's the challenge that I have as a coach right now.”
The importance of preseason games:
“It is important, and that's the reason why we agreed to the Nebraska scrimmage, the charity game. They'll return it next year but for this year's team, we need that. It's also why I didn't schedule, a lot of games away from the Coors Events Center early in November and December because I know in the league we get 10 away from our home in league play and then obviously we got the Virgin Islands tournament so we'll get enough road experience, but we're going to have to figure out in that Nebraska game it will be a great test to see where we are in that regard and then the Virgin Islands and obviously our opening conference game against UCLA in L.A., We'll find out there as well.”
On freshman guard and Cherry Creek football/basketball alum Julian Hammond III:
“Julian, I think the longer he is here, is getting more and more comfortable and more and more confident. He's done some really nice things. I thought he played really well in Costa Rica. And one of the things Julian and I have talked about is the fact that this is the first time in his career, where he's been able to concentrate on basketball all summer, and all fall. I think that's really going to benefit him this winter. Usually he's on the football field and that's been great playing football at Cherry Creek for Dave Logan has prepared him well in terms of being a competitor and his toughness level. It's exciting to look at his ceiling as a basketball player now that football is out of the equation and Julian is going to be a terrific player before it's all said and done. He does some really nice things.”
On sophomore forward Jabari Walker:
"The expectations we have is that he becomes an everyday guy. And last year, he didn't have to do that because we had so many seniors with Jeriah Horne, D’Shawn Schwartz, McKinley Wright, and Dallas Walton, he was able to be that freshman that came in and gave us a spark off the bench and he was really good at that. You look at Jabari’s numbers last year relative to the minutes he played and he's very efficient. He had impacted the game when he was in there but he got in foul trouble some. He was a catch and shoot guy. Now we're challenging him to be more of a well-rounded player and impact the game in different ways other than just shooting the ball from the perimeter. We know he can do that he's a good shooter, he knows that, we know that, his opponents are going to know that. So, how does he impact the game in terms of rebounding and blocking shots and making plays for others and driving close outs?Those are the kinds of things we're talking about to Jabari. We need Jabari to be an everyday guy and consistency is going to be his biggest challenge going from a freshman to a sophomore and going from a role player to a guy that we're counting on night in and night out to produce and perform. He's fully capable of it, without a doubt.”
On building off the experience of the NCAA Tournament last year:
“I hope it bleeds in. Every year is a different year, it's a different team. This is a totally different team because we graduated so much production and we've got so many new faces. We're going to need some of those sophomores to step up without a doubt. We're going to need some of those freshmen to play minutes without a doubt, and that's really going to be the question mark with this team so I'm hopeful that if we're able to get back - we know we're going to be in the Pac-12 Tournament - but if we're able to get back to you know that level, it's going to be a long road for these young guys and they're going to again have to grow up quickly and learn quickly and adapt quickly, but I love our talent level, I really do and I love our youthful exuberance, but boy, the experience factor is, is really dwindled with this team, when we flipped from last year to this year but again that's where we’re going to rely on Evan and Eli a lot."
To read the rest of Tad Boyle's Media Day comments, click here
