Posts tagged Coaches Poll
Dinwiddie out for the season
Jan 13th
BOULDER – If the Colorado Buffaloes are to make a run at the Pac-12 Conference regular-season championship and earn a school-record third consecutive NCAA Tournament berth, it will have to be done without point guard Spencer Dinwiddie.
The 6-6 junior’s 2013-14 season is over, ended by an ACL injury that will require surgery when swelling subsides in his left knee. The injury was suffered in the first half of Sunday afternoon’s Pac-12 Conference loss at Washington, and the prognosis that the Buffs and their fans dreaded was delivered Monday afternoon when Dinwiddie underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam.
“It’s a big blow for him . . . he’s worked so hard to put himself in the position he has and help lead this team to where we are today,” CU coach Tad Boyle said. “To have that all taken away from you in one basketball play is . . . it’s tough.”
It was equally tough, Boyle said, for Dinwiddie’s teammates: “They’re hurting. No. 1, we’ve got a close, tight-knit team. We’ve got great chemistry on this team. Guys care about each other. From that standpoint, the team’s hurting. There’s no question in my mind they’re a resilient group of guys, high-character guys. One guy goes down the opportunity for two or three more opens. We’re going to control what we can control, which is our attitude and effort every day in practice. That’s all you can do in life.”
After Sunday’s game, sophomore post Josh Scott called Dinwiddie “a big part, not the whole part, but he’s a big part of what we do. It’s just an adjustment and we’re going to have to figure out how to do that without him.”
Dinwiddie can expect a complete recovery, said Boyle, but he refrained from offering a timeline because the rehabilitation of ACL injuries differs from athlete to athlete. After receiving the news, said Boyle, Dinwiddie was “great . . . he’s controlling the things he can control – which are his attitude and effort. Get the swelling out of the knee and the surgery will happen when the doctors feel it’s appropriate. Then the rehab starts.”
Boyle credited Dinwiddie for his maturity, noting the player was “handling it very well. He’s going to be better because of it. He’s going to have a full and complete recovery. That’s the good news. It’s not a situation where he’s going to come back and be 80 percent. He’s going to be 100 percent when he comes back, whenever that is. I don’t know how long, I don’t know what the time frame is in terms of the recovery. It’s not going to be an easy rehab, but he’ll be fine.”
So, too, might be the Buffs – if they understand their top scorer and floor leader can’t be replaced by a single player. Boyle used the analogy of CU having to replace last season’s No. 2 nationally ranked rebounder when Andre Roberson declared himself eligible for the NBA Draft. The 2013-14 Buffs, said Boyle, are a better rebounding team than last season because that role has been taken on by committee.
“Everybody thought we’d have trouble rebounding because Andre’s gone, and guess what?” noted Boyle. “We’re a better rebounding team today than we were last year with the second-best rebounder in the country on our team. So everybody stepped up and everybody has to do that with Spencer out. Not one person is going to replace him . . . with everybody stepping up their game up a little bit, we can lessen the blow.”
Dinwiddie, of Woodland Hills, Calif., was CU’S leader in scoring (14.7 ppg), assists (64, 3.8 apg) and steals (26, 1.5 spg). He also led the Buffs in 3-pointers (26) and free throw shooting percentage (85.7).
In his 21/2 seasons, Dinwiddie already had worked his way into the top five in two CU career categories – No. 3 in free throw percentage (420-of-506, 83 percent) and No. 4 in 3-point field goal percentage (115-of-298, 38.6 percent). He had been recognized nationally, making the Top 50 watch lists for the Cousy, Naismith and Wooden Awards.
Boyle said the Buffs, who meet UCLA on Thursday at the Coors Events Center (6 p.m., Pac-12 Network), will focus on that game and not how they must adapt to Dinwiddie’s loss over the next two months. “What I told the team is that we don’t have to beat every team without Spencer,” Boyle said. “We have to figure out a way to beat UCLA without Spencer. That’s all we’ve got to do. Nothing changes in our preparation and in what we’re going to try to do. We’re down a man and everybody else has to step up.”
Beginning with the Bruins, the only Pac-12 opponent the Buffs have not defeated (0-2), Boyle said Dinwiddie’s injury is of little consequence to the rest of the league: “Nobody . . . really cares. They’re not going to take pity on the Buffaloes. I can promise you that. UCLA is going to come in there Thursday trying to get a road win. We’ve got to make sure we compete our tails off, scratch and claw, do everything we have to do to try to beat them.”
Figuring to share Dinwiddie’s minutes are freshman Jaron Hopkins, who already has logged more court time than any of Boyle’s first-year players, and sophomores Xavier Talton and Eli Stalzer. Said Boyle: “All three capable of taking care of the ball and getting us in our offense . . . they’re good team guys who shoot it, dribble it and pass it.
“We don’t have the star system here. Spencer was our leading scorer and leading assist guy, he led us in steals. There’s no question he was important to our team. I’m not trying to minimize this loss, but I just want our players to realize they’re here for a reason: they’re capable as well. When one guy goes down, the door opens for one, or in this case, maybe two or three more.”
Dinwiddie went down when his left knee buckled with 2:51 left in the first half at Washington’s Alaska Airlines Arena. No other player was around him. At the time, CU was leading 25-22, and Dinwiddie had scored seven points, with one assist.
At halftime, the Buffs still led 29-26, but with Andrew Andrews and C.J. Wilcox opening the second half with 3-pointers, the Huskies outscored the Buffs 6-1 in the first 2 minutes and took a 32-30 lead. CU never caught up and suffered its first Pac-12 loss of the season, 71-54.
Wilcox, guarded mostly by Dinwiddie in the first half and held to 10 points, erupted for 21 in the second half – including 13 in the first 6 minutes – and finished with a career-high 31.
In Monday’s national polls, the Buffs (14-3, 3-1) slipped from No. 15/17 to No. 21 in the Associated Press weekly rankings and No. 22 in the USA Today/Coaches Poll. CU has been ranked for six consecutive weeks in the AP poll – the longest since eight straight weeks in 1997 – and for five consecutive weeks by the coaches.
-COLORADO-
Andrew Green | Assistant Director Sports Information
Askia (Big Shot) Booker named Pac-12 P.of the W.
Dec 10th
BOULDER – University of Colorado junior guard Askia Booker was named Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week, the conference office announced Monday.
Booker’s second career conference player of the week nomination comes on the heels of the Buffaloes making the Associated Press Top-25 poll for the first time this season as the No. 21 ranked team. The men also received 42 votes in the Coaches’ Poll and are slotted at the No. 27 team overall.
Booker helped CU upset then-No. 6/6 Kansas, 75-72 last Saturday, launching the game-winner with a 30-footer as time expired to keep the Buffaloes unbeaten at home (7-0). The victory also matched their longest winning streak since the 2005-06 season with nine wins in a row.
The junior guard from Los Angeles, tied for team-high honors against KU with 15 points, three rebounds and a steal. In addition to his game-winner, Booker also made pair of three-pointers to keep pace with the sixth ranked team in the country. With 3:39 remaining in the game, Booker gave the home team a six-point lead, then when the first half ended, hit his first trey of the game pushing CU to a 33-30 lead at the break. It’s the third time that Booker has made three treys in a game this season.
Earlier in the week, the Buffs won at Colorado State for the first time since 2007 with a 67-62 victory. Booker iced the game with 3 seconds remaining with a pair of free throws (12 points overall). It is Colorado’s fourth player of the week honor all-time since joining the Pac-12.
As team, it’s the first time the Buffaloes are ranked nationally since last season when they were the No. 19 ranked team in both polls on Nov. 26. They made their initial Top-25 breakthrough as the No. 23 ranked team on Nov. 19 when they started the season 6-0 en route to the Charleston Classic championship last November.
It’s also marks the first time since the end of the 1996-97 season that both CU men’s and women’s basketball programs are ranked at the same time. The men were ranked in the final AP Top-25 at No. 24, while the women ended that season No. 15 in the Coaches’ and No. 18 in the AP.
This season, the CU women are No. 11 in the latest AP poll for the second consecutive week.
“It’s nice for our University, the program and players that we are recognized as one of the elite teams in the country,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “But we aren’t going to get carried away with it. Just like we won’t be disappointed if we’re not in it. College basketball is different than college football in that polls don’t matter at the end of the day. I put more stock in RPI because the RPI doesn’t care who you are, it’s based on who you’ve played, strength of schedule, to me that’s more of a true indication, it’s less arbitrary.”
Ironically, it’s the second time in as many seasons the Buffaloes have entered the Top-25 when Booker was named the Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week. Last season, Booker was named the MVP of the Charleston Classic after averaging 19.3 points, 3.0 assists, 2.7 steals and 2.3 rebounds per game, helping the Buffs knock off Dayton, No. 16 Baylor and Murray State in four days.
Prior to last season, the CU men were last ranked in the Coaches’ Poll during the 2005-2006 campaign as the No. 25 team in back-to-back weeks (Jan. 30-Feb. 5; Feb. 6-12).
It’s only the second time the Buffs have been ranked before the start of conference play in 44 years, since a showing on the Dec. 30, 1969 poll, coming in at No. 20. Overall, it is the 34th time the Buffs have appeared in the AP rankings. CU’s highest ranking came on Dec. 18, 1963, coming in at No. 6.
Colorado (9-1) looks for its 10th straight win this Friday, Dec. 13 against Elon at the Coors Events Center beginning at 6:30 p.m. (MST). The Phoenix won 21 games last season and finished first in the Southern Conference Northern Division. This season, Elon (5-4) returns all five starters from a year ago and have won three-straight games.
Elon tickets start at $10. There’s also a Three-Game Holiday Plan available for Georgia (Dec. 28), Oregon State (Jan. 2) and Oregon (Jan. 5) starting at $30 for youth and seniors, $45 for adults.
CU All-Time in AP Polls
• CU has been ranked in 34 polls all-time.
• A top 10 ranking nine times.
• Highest ranking was No. 6, Dec. 18, 1963, the third poll of that season.
• Consecutive weeks ranked: 10 – last 7 polls of 1969, first three of 1970; in one season – 8; last 8 polls of the 1997 season.
• Most times ranked in one season – 8 in 1997; 7 in 1969; 6 in 1963.
• The AP poll was 20 teams from 1949-60, 10 teams from 1961-68 and back to 20 from 1969-1989, then 25 since 1990.
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CU Buffs Ranked #23, Booker Pac-12 Player of the Week
Nov 19th
By Curtis Snyder, Associate SID |
BOULDER—The Colorado men’s basketball team appeared in the Associated Press poll for the first time in 15 years and sophomore guard Askia Booker was named Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week Monday on the heels of the Buffs winning the Charleston Classic and Booker being named tournament MVP.
Booker averaged 19.3 points, 3.0 assists, 2.7 steals and 2.3 rebounds per game en route to MVP honors, helping the Buffs knock off Dayton, No. 16 Baylor and Murray State in four days in Charleston, S.C. Booker scored 16 points in the quarterfinal round and added four assists. He then scored a career high 19 points with three assists and three steals in the win over Baylor and bettered that performance with 23 points and four steals in the championship game against the Racers. Booker shot over 50 percent from the field, knocking down 24-of-47 shots, and made seven 3-pointers to help the Buffs to their first in-season tournament championship since 2003 Pepsi Classic, not far from Charleston in Charlotte, N.C. The Buffs came it at No. 23 in the AP poll, the first time the program has been ranked in a major poll since earning back-to-back No. 25 rankings in the Coaches Poll during the 2005-06 season. In the AP poll, it is the first ranking since appearing at No. 24 in the final poll of the 1996-97 season, when Chauncey Billups led the Buffs to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. It’s the first time the Buffs have been ranked before the start of conference play in 42 years, since a showing on the Dec. 30, 1969, poll, coming in at No. 20. Overall, it is the 32nd time the Buffs have appeared in the AP rankings. CU’s highest ranking came on Dec. 18, 1963, coming in at No. 6. The Buffs returned to Boulder Monday and have a few days off to recover from three games in four days, next hitting the court on Sunday against Air Force, a 6 p.m. tip off at the Coors Events Center. [includeme src=”http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”670″ height=”300″] |