What Tad Boyle Said After Colorado Basketball's Heartbreaking Loss To UNC Bears

While Northern Colorado has proven it can hang against the nation's best, little could take away from the disappointment coach Tad Boyle felt following his Colorado Buffaloes men's basketball team's 86-81 loss to the Bears on Sunday.

Boyle's Buffs fell to in-state foe UNC for the first time since 1936, largely due to a poor defensive second half that saw the Bears shoot 73.9 percent from the field. Northern Colorado's Quinn Denker led all scorers with 33 points, followed by CU freshman guard Isaiah Johnson's career-high 25.

Tad Boyle Said Colorado Basketball Loss UNC Bears Buffaloes Isaiah Johnson Barrington Hargress Quinn Denker Sebastian Rancik — Dec 6, 2025; Fort Collins, Colorado, USA; Colorado Buffaloes guard Barrington Hargress (24) controls the ball in the first half against the Colorado State Rams at Moby Arena. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images | Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

After starting the year 8-0, Colorado has now lost three of its last five to close nonconference play at 10-3. The Buffs will next visit the Arizona State Sun Devils on Jan. 3 to begin Big 12 Conference action.

Check out some of Boyle's most notable quotes following Colorado's first home loss of the season:

Credit To Northern Colorado

"All credit goes to UNC," Boyle said. "They came in here and beat us in our building. They're a good team. I think it's the best Big Sky team we've played all year long."

Northern Colorado, which lost the Big Sky title game last season, improved to 10-3 with the win.

Defensive Struggles

"Number one, we don't have anybody that wants to take pride enough and say, 'I'm gonna shut this dude down,'" Boyle said. "It's not like Denker, they were running these crazy plays for him, bringing him off-ball screens. He was just bouncing us down and scoring over us, driving at the lane and scoring over us."

Lineup Reconsideration?

"It's after games like this where I feel bad for the guys that aren't playing. Ian (Inman), Andrew Crawford, that's who I feel bad for. I do. Coaches are going with different guys right now. Maybe I got to reconsider that."

More on Colorado's Defensive Woes

"If I'm a good offensive player, I want to play against the Buffs," Boyle said. "You can just go at them. Nobody can stop me. That's what Denker is thinking... Again, it's not like they're running a crazy scheme to get in shots. It's just really good play and nobody stopped them. It's disappointing.

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On Tacko Ifaola

"Tacko's our best rebounder, it's not even close," Boyle said. "(Elijah) Malone wasn't here, so I gave him an opportunity. Tacko's coming along, and one thing he does is play hard and gives us energy. But he's a freshman, and he's still learning. I don't know fault Tacko at all."

Introspection Ahead

"I'll have some meetings with our guys, especially with some of our older guys that I really rely on and we need to rely on right now," Boyle said. "Adversity is going to hit you at some point. With the schedule we've had, you think it's gonna hit you when Big 12 play starts. It's hit us a little bit earlier. We weren't ready to play and compete against Stanford and then we let UNC come in and shoot 74 percent in our building in the second half."

No Panic

"What I'm going to do is go home, watch this film, try not to puke and then figure out what are we going to do tomorrow to make our team better?" Boyle said. "That's my job. It doesn't matter if you're 13-0 or 10-3. Your record doesn't matter.

"The nonconference portion of the season is over. Forty percent of our season is in the rearview mirror. Yeah, we've stubbed our toe here a couple times, but I'm not going to panic."