Colorado men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle opened his NCAA tournament post-game press conference on Monday night, addressing the mass shooting that took place just a few miles from the school’s Boulder campus, saying the tragedy left “a void” in your stomach, win or lose.
“First, before we talked about this basketball game, I thought about it in the locker room before the game, like the events that took place in Boulder, Colorado today – and I have no other details besides I know it was a tragic, tragic situation “Boyle said after the loss in the second round of the Buffaloes’ NCAA 71-53 tournament to the State of Florida. “Put basketball in place.
“And win or lose tonight, I felt an emptiness in my stomach. Another act of senseless violence that we experience as a country many, many times. And so it puts this game in perspective. It certainly puts the loss in perspective.
“But even if we had won this game and celebrated going to Sweet 16, it would have put a brake on it. So my heart is with the families that have been affected and those that have lost their lives.”
The shooting at the King Soopers supermarket left 10 people dead on Monday, including the policeman who was the first to respond to the scene, officials said.
Police arrested a suspect, but did not reveal his name or any details about the shooting at a press conference in the evening.
Colorado has been away from Boulder and Indianapolis for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament since last week. Boyle said some members of the Buffaloes had received alerts on their phones about the shooting about an hour before arriving at the arena, but said he had not spoken to his team about the tragedy before the report.
“I talked about it with some of my assistants and we thought it would be best to leave it – we didn’t have any details,” he said. “There was really nothing to talk about, and I talked about it after the game, again, from the perspective point of view.
“But the mentality of your team while preparing for a game is sometimes fragile. I didn’t want to complicate their minds too much because we had to go play. We weren’t going to stop playing. I decided to wait until after the game to discuss the matter. with them, and that’s what I did. “
Boyle said he didn’t think the shot weighed on his team’s mind during the game, but added: “I can be totally wrong and wrong with that. The only thing I’m not going to do is sit here and make excuses for the way we play. take responsibility for that. “
Guard McKinley Wright acknowledged that what happened was on his mind.
“I thought about my life and my growth, what I went through and seeing these people,” he said after scoring 10 points in defeat. “And what they have to go through now sucks. I’m sorry and I’m going to pray for their families.
“Basketball is just a game; people lost their lives. It sucks. It’s hard to put it into words now, after playing my last game here at CU and that tragedy that happened in Boulder, it’s just terrible.”
Boyle called Boulder “the safe place I have felt and lived in my life”.
“So if it can happen, it can happen there, it can happen anywhere,” he said. “But we have to find a way to stop these things. I don’t know the answer, but we just have to find a way.”