Posts tagged Pac-12 Tournament
Pitt Pounds Buffs Out Of NCAA Tourney, 77-48
Mar 20th
By: B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor
ORLANDO, Fla. – The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee had a slightly higher opinion of Colorado than it did Pittsburgh. The Panthers must have taken it personally, and they took it to the Buffaloes in almost every way imaginable here Thursday.
No. 9 seed Pitt pounded No. 8 seed CU here in the NCAA’s second round, sending the Buffs back to the Rocky Mountains with a crushing 77-48 loss at the Amway Center.
CU made its third consecutive NCAA Tournament trip – a school record – but also made it a second straight “one-and-done” NCAA visit, with Thursday’s 29-point loss the school’s largest ever in NCAA play. The Buffs were eliminated 57-49 by Illinois in last March’s first tourney game in Austin, Texas.
CU dropped to 1-3 in NCAA Tournament competition under fourth-year coach Tad Boyle, but at 23-12 finished the 2013-14 season with the third-highest win total in school history. Yet it might take a while for Boyle to dismiss Thursday’s smack down and reflect on the Buffs’ overall accomplishments this season.
“We’re obviously extremely disappointed with our performance today,” he said. “Credit goes to Pittsburgh; I don’t want to take anything away from them. They’re a great team. They’ve had a great year. They’re good players and (have) a very good coach. But the Buffaloes for some reason or another did not play the way we’re capable of playing. As a coach you take responsibility for that, which I do, but we’re just very disappointed.”
Pitt (26-9) advances to Saturday’s third round, with its likely opponent top-seeded, top-ranked Florida. The Gators were heavy favorites against No. 16 seed Albany later Thursday afternoon. A 16th seed has never defeated a No. 1 seed in NCAA play.
The Buffs never led, never threatened and were never given – or maybe never gave themselves – a chance. Tourney games matching 8-9 seeds can be touch-and-go; this one was take a beating and go home. Pitt controlled the opening tip and everything thereafter.
CU had experienced a few bad first halves this season – both regular-season Arizona losses come immediately to mind – but nothing as horrific on this big a stage. The Wildcats defeated the Buffs twice during the regular season (69-47, 88-61) and eliminated them from the Pac-12 Tournament (63-43).
By intermission, the Panthers led 46-18 and had dealt the Buffs their worst halftime deficit of the season, held them to their lowest first-half point total, their lowest field goal total (five) and harassed the Buffs into 10 turnovers – the second most in a first half this season.
“You go in at halftime down 28, there’s not a lot you can say to your guys positively,” Boyle said. “Other than the fact that we had to come out and compete, that’s what . . . (but) you shouldn’t have to ask your guys to do that.”
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said his team’s ferocious defensive start “was pretty good, there’s no question about it” and “probably” the Panthers’ best defensive half of the season. “Maybe the North Carolina game early, first half, Wake Forest was very good,” Dixon said. “The good thing is we’re talking about the last week or so, so we’re a better team now than we were earlier in the year. That’s what you hope to be . . .”
CU sophomore guard Xavier Talton said Pitt and CU’s fellow Pac-12 member Arizona were “pretty similar, actually (on defense). I know they were getting to the ball. They were getting 50/50 balls, as well. It just seemed like they wanted it more.”
CU’s 10 first-half errors – 17 for the game – presented Pitt with 12 of its 46 first-half points with another 24 Panthers points coming from inside the paint and 12 more off of fast breaks (14 for the game). Pitt might not have hit as many layups in its pregame drills.
And the afternoon’s final numbers only got worse: At game’s end, Pitt had outscored CU 44-14 in the paint and had converted the Buffs’ 17 turnovers into 24 points.
“We were just trying to set a tone,” said Pitt post Talib Zanna of his team’s early disruptive defense. “The energy, you can tell the energy was there and the focus. The first five minutes we played really good defense, and from there we just tried to get a lot of stops and just run the floor, and we had wide‑open lay‑ups.”
The 6-9, 230-pound Zanna was nothing short of a Nigerian nightmare for the Buffs, accounting for 16 first-half points on 6-of-7 from the field and 4-of-4 from the free throw line. His longest field goal was a 10-foot baseline jumper; otherwise, he was hitting either layups or put-backs and CU’s post defense never found an antidote.
Zanna finished with a game-best 18 points, while Josh Scott led CU with 14. Guards Cameron Wright (11) and Lamar Patterson (10) joined Zanna in double figures. The only other CU player reaching double figures was Xavier Johnson (11). Pitt checked out at 51 percent from the field (31-of-61), CU at 36 percent (15-of-42).
No Buffs player had more than 5 first-half points, and none had an assist – which paled alongside Pitt’s 13. Said Boyle: “I think Pittsburgh is a great passing team. They really move the ball. They come off those ball screens and they make the right decision and they get the ball moved side to side. They get you in rotations.”
CU managed five second-half assists – the same as Pitt – but a final 18-5 discrepancy in assists said as much as anything about the Buffs’ forlorn afternoon.
“You look at our defense, you look at our rebounding, we’re down 15‑8 at halftime on the boards,” Boyle said. “They’re shooting 62 percent and we’ve got zero assists and 10 turnovers. It’s pretty simple. We’ve got to take care of the ball better and we’ve got to guard better and we’ve got to rebound better. We didn’t do any of those things today. I don’t know what Colorado team it was.”
The Panthers held the Buffs scoreless for the first 5:41 and led 13-0 before forward Wes Gordon, watching the shot clock run toward 0:00, hit his fourth 3-pointer of the season. It was a typical CU first-half possession, the best shot CU could get against a Pitt defense that reduced the Buffs’ trips inside to nearly nothing, almost immediately double-teamed Scott and made CU look lost on the perimeter.
“It’s something I’ve had to work on all year, and they were a good defensive team and they rotated out of it,” Scott said. “They covered a lot of space, so credit to them.”
The physical encounter that had been forecast never materialized – at least not for the Buffs. The Panthers, playing their first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference after a long Big East membership, controlled most “50/50” balls and outrebounded the Buffs 33-29 for the game.
Johnson contended Pitt’s physicality didn’t surprise him or his teammates: “No, not at all. We’ve played against some physical teams and I’m a physical player, so I enjoy that.”
Arizona, Johnson said, “is the most physical team I’ve played all year. (Pitt) is big and they’re strong, but no more physical than Arizona.”
The Panthers led by as many 32 points in the second half. With 2:27 to play, Boyle gave his only two seniors – Beau Gamble and Ben Mills – and seldom-used reserve Kevin Nelson their chances for an NCAA Tournament appearance. Gamble hit a 3-pointer from the right corner at the buzzer for the final points of his CU career.
Despite the season’s unsightly end, Boyle said the “future is bright for our program . . . our program is on the assent, it’s not on the descent. We lose two seniors who weren’t in the rotation, terrific young men. But if this can’t motivate our guys going into the off season, for getting in the weight room, working on their game, whether it’s passing, whether it’s dribbling, whether it’s shooting the ball, whether it’s defense, rebounding, toughness, if this can’t motivate them, I don’t know what does.
“But I think it will. I know it will me to become a better coach. I’ve got to help them more offensively so we don’t have five assists and 17 turnovers . . . we’ve shown the defensive aptitude in the past. We didn’t have it (Thursday) for whatever reason.”
Boyle, his staff and their returning players now have a long time to try and figure it out.
CU men going to The Big Dance
Mar 17th
Will face Pittsburg first. then maybe #1 Florida
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER – History was made Sunday at 4:02 p.m. MDT, and it was made faster than you could blurt March Madness.
Two minutes into CBS’ Selection Sunday telecast, the University of Colorado men’s basketball team was announced as an at-large entry in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, marking an historic third consecutive time the Buffaloes have qualified for the Big Dance. Two other CU men’s teams had reached the tournament in consecutive seasons (1954-55, 1962-63).
But Tad Boyle’s fourth CU team made it three NCAAs in a row – and these Buffs did it the hard way, overcoming the loss of point guard and team leader Spencer Dinwiddie in mid-January.
This is Boyle’s third team to reach NCAA’s tourney in four years.
On Sunday afternoon at Boyle’s spacious Boulder home, there was no prolonged suspense, no gut-wrenching wait, to see who the Buffs would be playing and where. Mere seconds after top-ranked Florida was announced as the tournament’s No. 1 seed and would stay in the South Region, “Colorado” popped up on the flat screen in Boyle’s den and his players whooped, whistled and breathed collective sighs of relief not issued into well into previous selection shows.
Seeded No. 8 in the South, CU plays No. 9 Pittsburgh on Thursday (time TBD) in Orlando, Fla. The CU-Pitt winner catches Florida in the next round in what is tantamount to a home game for the talented Gators.
“Since I’ve been here it’s always been drawn out a little bit, whether it be 30 minutes or 40 minutes, whatever the case,” junior guard Askia Booker said of CU’s NCAA destiny being determined so quickly. “It’s kind of a relief to hear your name called in the first 60 seconds almost . . . you’re playing a great team to begin with and if you’re fortunate enough to win you’re playing the No. 1 team in the country. Yeah, it’s a relief but then you get back on your toes and prepare.”
“You never know,” Boyle said of Sunday’s sudden selection. “What we’ve been through the last couple of years . . . you go back three years ago – we never saw that one coming (with CU’s exclusion). Then the next year we know we’re in (after winning the Pac-12 tournament), then last year was a little stressful. I think we were in the fourth segment of the show – and there were four segments. It got a little stressful last year. But to have it pop up right away . . . yeah, it was a relief.”
“Last year it was a long process,” added sophomore forward Xavier Johnson. “We were here for a while and got tired. But I was glad to see it went quickly and that we got what we deserved – an eight seed, which is pretty good.”
And pretty surprising to some; some bracketologists figured CU (23-11) for a ninth or tenth seed. The eighth seed is a tip of the hat by the NCAA Selection Committee, but it also positions a team in one of the tournament’s more challenging first-round games. And CU’s position is just that – challenging.
“Traditionally, the eight-nine (seed) games are always really hard ones because there’s so much parity in the tournament and you’re matched up against somebody much like yourself,” Boyle said. “Then if you are fortunate enough to advance, you get a one seed to look forward to. But in tournament basketball you don’t look ahead, you look at the task at hand.”
Boyle’s long-term objective is to make the suspense of Selection Sundays whether the Buffs will be awarded a top five seed – not whether they will get in the tournament. “Eventually want to get to a point in the program where we’re fighting for those one, two and three seeds . . . we’re not quite there yet, but we will be,” he said. “Right now, especially with what this group has been through this year, to get into the tournament is a good thing. I know the young men who are still playing and competed in Vegas believe they can compete with anybody on any given night. But we’ve got to play well.”
Many first- or second-time NCAA entries suffer from the “just-glad-to-be-there” mindset and are sent packing after the first round. Many in the national hoops community – even some in the local community – counted CU among the dead teams walking when Dinwiddie went down. Instead, after an adjustment period, the Buffs rallied and went 9-9 (counting the Washington game in which he was injured).
Boyle said merely reaching a third-consecutive NCAA Tournament after that coping with adversity would not put the Buffs among the “just-glad-to-be-there” crowd. “I’m not worried about that at all because I know how competitive our guys are,” he said. “Also, they’re smart guys and they know the next loss we have is the end of our season . . . it’s not going to be one of these deals where we’re just happy to be there and (go) one-and-out. If we’re one-and-out we’ll be disappointed. It’s not going to sit well with me or anybody. The next step for this program is to not only get in the tournament but to advance in the tournament.”
Going to the NCAA’s far reaches (for a Rocky Mountain school, at least) to play is fine with the Buffaloes. Boyle wanted to avoid Buffalo, N.Y., simply because he preferred the prospect of warmer weather. “Nothing against Buffalo (but) the sun’s coming out here in Colorado, spring is in the air,” he said. “Our guys are getting ready – as a lot of schools are – for spring break. You wanted to go someplace where it was nice and warm. But at the end of the day, if we went to Buffalo, I’d be just as happy. So Orlando is as good as any.”
And obviously better than some – even if Gator fans can get there on half a tank of gas and turn the Amway Center into Chomp City. For Booker, staying west of the Mississippi River for a first-round game was never a real wish or a consideration.
“It doesn’t really matter to me,” he said. “I mean, you put me on the floor with the basketball and two rims and that’s all that matters to me, man. You just have to prepare, and if you’re prepared you can go anywhere and play.”
On Sunday afternoon, the Buffs weren’t as well-versed on the Panthers as they will be come Thursday. Booker had some knowledge of Pitt’s guards – “They’re very, very talented – similar to us” – and the Panthers’ overall physicality. And Boyle cited Jamie Dixon as “a heck of a coach . . . their defensive principles are a lot like ours. They were in the Big East and kind of a smash-mouth team. But I don’t know much about personnel and what they do offensively – but we’ll find out a lot in a short period of time.”
A short course on Pitt: Joining the Atlantic Coast Conference this season, the Panthers finished 11-7 in the league and 25-9 overall. They were the fifth seed – same as CU in the Pac-12 Tournament – in the ACC Tournament and reached the semifinals, where they were eliminated by eventual champ and No. 1 seed Virginia, 51-48. Pitt beat No. 15 North Carolina 80-75 in the ACC quarterfinals. The Panthers have been in the NCAA Tournament for 12 of the past 13 seasons, and Dixon has been Pitts’ coach for 11 seasons (15 in the program). His overall record: 287-95. The Panthers’ top scorer is 6-5 senior forward Lamar Patterson (17.6 ppg), the leading rebounder is 6-9 senior center Talib Zanna (8.3 rpg).
After his team was eliminated from the ACC Tournament by Virginia, which received one of Sunday’s four top seeds (Florida, Wichita State and Arizona were the other three), Dixon said he was “proud of how our guys played. We got better this week. We’re healthy and playing our best basketball.”
Boyle had a similar view of the Buffs after the Pac-12 Tournament, which saw them advance to the semifinals with wins over USC and Cal before being eliminated by Arizona. “This team over the last couple or three weeks has really turned the corner defensively with our commitment and energy level,” he said.
“But in the NCAA Tournament, you’re going to have to make some shots, you’re going to have to play with some efficiency on offense and that’s what we’re going to have to do to advance in this thing. Whether it’s against Pittsburgh or whoever we would play next if we were fortunate enough to do that. Then, you’ve got to get a little lucky.
“There’s going to be a lot of close games . . . that’s why they call it March Madness. On those first two days especially a lot of things can happen; there’s so many games and everybody is thinking the same thing – just survive and advance and live to see another day. Pittsburgh is thinking the same thing we are. So is Florida.”
On Sunday afternoon, shortly after Florida was awarded the overall No. 1 seed, Booker reacted to that news by crowing “Colorado” in a long-distance answer to one of the CBS commentators’ remarks of who might be in line to play the Gators. Maybe ‘Ski’ could see the future.
“I don’t care who we play,” Booker said. “If you heard me right when the show started, I wanted to play Florida . . . regardless, I want to play the No. 1 team – the best of the best. That’s how you really test who you are; when everything hits the fan that shows who nuts up and who’s willing to play and who’s willing to compete. I think Pittsburgh is a great team and we can’t overlook them because they’re a very talented team and it’s going to be a rough game.”
March Madness’ first rule is to overlook no one, regardless of who might be next. So the Buffaloes are Dancing for a third straight year – an historic accomplishment. But as Boyle said Sunday and undoubtedly will again, while making the field is good, staying awhile is infinitely better.
Pac-12: Buffs Survive, Advance By Their Magic Number – 59
Mar 14th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
LAS VEGAS – If you’re thinking the Colorado Buffaloes are stuck on 59, you might be onto something. But here in Sin City, where gambling is the big engine that could, that’s a long way from crapping out.
It’s a magnificent number, a winning number, for Tad Boyle and his revitalized crew.
The Buffs’ last three wins – against Stanford in the next-to-last regular-season game, against USC in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament, against California in the quarterfinals – have been by the same score: 59-56.
The Buffs’ two wins here have ended in identical, nail-biting, fist-gnawing fashion: CU is up by three in the closing seconds and survives a 3-pointer to tie at the buzzer.
In racehorse college basketball, 59 points are not a lot. Boyle’s guys love to run and score, but that’s not how this team – this season – has evolved after Spencer Dinwiddie’s knee injury in mid-January. In their last seven games, the Buffs haven’t hit 70 points, with 65 in a one-point overtime loss at Cal the high mark.
That’s the longest low-scoring stretch in Boyle’s about-to-be-completed four seasons in Boulder. But here’s the more telling bottom line number: Boyle’s fourth CU team has won 23 games (10 losses), making this season the second-most productive in terms of wins in school history. (His first two Buffs teams finished with 24 wins.)
And turning to something more topical since it’s the month of madness, those 23 wins should remove any mystery – if there was any – that might have shrouded CU’s inclusion in the NCAA Tournament field. Selection Sunday looms for the official word, but the word will be good. Book it.
But Friday finds the Buffs with things other than the NCAA Tournament on their minds. They have a semifinal date at 7:06 p.m. MDT with top-seeded and fourth-ranked Arizona in the MGM Garden Arena. Upsetting the Wildcats, then winning the Pac-12 championship on Saturday would remove all Selection Sunday mystery about the Buffs’ NCAA future; the tournament champ is in automatically.
Accomplishing that begins with beating powerful Arizona, whose players defend like they were guarding loved ones from a home invasion.
“They took a lot of pride in guarding us . . . we got punched in the mouth by a really good basketball team and we saw Arizona, I think, at their finest,” Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak said Thursday after Arizona had clamped down on his team in a 71-39 quarterfinal win. The halftime score: 34-13. Utah’s Big Three – Jordan Loveridge, Brandon Taylor and Delon Wright – were a combined 1-of-16 from the field.
The Buffs know something about the Wildcats’ defense from their regular-season meetings. Arizona won 69-57 in Tucson, 88-61 in Boulder. The Wildcats give up points as willingly as the IRS gives away cash; they lead the Pac-12 in scoring defense, allowing 58.7 points a game.
That’s very close to CU’s magic number of late – 59 . . . Hmmmmm.
“They’re the best defensive team in our league,” Boyle said. “It’s not even close. They’re the best rebounding team in our league. It is close there.”
That’s because CU is at 37.9 boards a game, while Arizona is at 38.9.
In their two wins over the Buffs this season, the Wildcats leaped to large early leads – as they did against the Utes Thursday. CU fell behind 18-4 in Tucson and 22-5 in Boulder in what would end in the Buffs’ worst home loss of the Boyle era.
Whether it makes a difference or not Friday, this is a different CU team, a more focused team. Eli Stalzer, who stepped to the foul line Thursday in the final 6 six seconds and hit one of two critical free throws, said the Buffs have learned something about themselves and the high energy Boyle wants from them since a March 1 loss (75-64) at Utah.
“Now it seems like guys don’t think they can take plays off; every possession is important,” Stalzer said. “We’re all working hard to do our best.”
That’s partially attributable to the transformation of junior guard Askia Booker, who has averaged 16.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3 assists. He’s shooting 46.7 percent from the field (21-of-45). In the two Pac-12 Tournament games, he has averaged 19 points a game, 5 rebounds and 3.5 assists. He’s hit 50 percent from the field (16-of-32).
Maybe more important than the numbers, Booker’s composure has stood out. He’s become CU’s glue, if you will, which at one point in his career might have seemed improbable if not impossible.
Boyle said, as a coach, “you hope” a player develops like Booker has: “He’s had an interesting career; he’s grown up exponentially – especially since Spencer went down. He was thrown in the fire of a leadership role . . . he’s done a great job. And that’s what’s so gratifying about doing this job. You see young men come in, where they are as freshman not just physically and skill-wise but emotionally, spiritually and maturity-wise. He’s come a long way.”
So have the Buffs. Boyle’s second CU team (2011-12) won the inaugural Pac-12 Tournament in Los Angeles with a four-day, four-game run as a No. 6 seed. His fourth team, as a No. 5 seed, is within two wins of a repeat. Boyle doesn’t have near the veteran leadership on this team that was apparent in L.A., but he’s seen a similar trait develop over the last several weeks. That would ownership.
“You look at that team with Nate (Tomlinson), Carlin (Brown) and Austin (Dufault) – they took ownership down the stretch and made it happen,” he said. “Now, we had to win some close games there . . . but now we have to play one of the best teams in the country in the semis and we didn’t have to do that two years ago.”
I asked Boyle if his players would have any difficulty in blotting out those two regular-season losses to the Wildcats, particularly the one in Boulder that concluded ESPN’s College GameDay visit.
“I don’t know, we’ll see,” Boyle answered. “That’s a distant memory. It’s a new day, a new opportunity. The way our guys are playing right now and feeling about themselves, they want that opportunity, they relish it. We’re not going to play with a lack of confidence (Friday).”
