Posts tagged San Antonio
CU men snag a “sleeper” high school basketball player for next year
May 14th
BOULDER – University of Colorado men’s basketball head coach Tad Boyle and his coaching staff announced Monday they have signed George King, a 6-foot-5, 205-pound forward from San Antonio, Texas to a National Letter of Intent. King will be a freshman at CU beginning of the 2013 fall semester.
King will be one of four true-freshmen on the Buffaloes team that will also feature a pair of redshirt-freshmen. He joins fellow freshmen Tre’Shaun Fletcher, Jaron Hopkins, and Dustin Thomas. The incoming class also features redshirt-freshmen Wesley Gordon and Chris Jenkins, both sat out this past season.
“He can rebound, block shots, shoot and defend,” Boyle said of CU’s latest addition to the roster.
Boyle also said CU was “kind of late to the party” in recruiting King, who conceded he was a “late bloomer” and didn’t start attracting major attention until late in his senior season and went through the April signing period unsigned.
During his senior year, King averaged 16.6 points, 11.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game in leading the Brennan Bears to a 39-3 record and an appearance in the 4A state semifinals. He shot 60 percent from the field and was named both TABC All-State and District 28-4A MVP. As a senior he recorded 25 double-doubles and had two 20-20 games with 23 points and 20 rebounds against Warren (Nov. 12) and 20 points and 20 rebounds against Lanier (Jan. 29) including 12 rebounds in one quarter.
King was an all-area selection as a junior.
“They believe in me and I believe in them,” King told Rivals.com on signing with the Buffaloes. “I’ve only been to Colorado a handful of times and it was my first time in Boulder,” he said. “I knew I liked it as soon as I stepped foot in Boulder. It has a beautiful campus, really nice people.”
“They have a really good coaching staff, the players and I really clicked. I got up and down with the guys and got a good feeling. (The coaches) like that I’m good sized, I’m skilled, that I can shoot and that I have a lot of potential.”
CU returns two seniors (Ben Mills, Kevin Nelson) on the 2013-2014 roster; along with three juniors (Askia Booker, Spencer Dinwiddie, Beau Gamble); and four sophomores (Xavier Johnson, Josh Scott, Eli Stalzer, Xavier Talton).
By the end of the summer, the Buffs will have graduated three student-athletes (Jeremy Adams, Sabatino Chen, Shane Harris-Tunks). Andre Roberson, who had one more year of eligibility remaining, declared for the NBA Draft on April 28. His sister, Arielle Roberson was nationally ranked as a freshman, will be a sophomore on CU’s women’s basketball team next season.
CU sports media release
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CU men fade in the first round of NCAA tournament
Mar 22nd
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
AUSTIN, Texas – Colorado caught Illinois with a furious second-half comeback here Friday, but the Buffaloes couldn’t make their inspired run – or their stay in the NCAA Tournament – last.
The seventh-seeded Illini withstood the Buffs’ rally then staged one of their own, eliminating No. 10 seed CU 57-49. Illinois (23-12) advances to play second-seed Miami, a runaway 78-49 winner over No. 15 seed Pacific earlier Friday afternoon, in Sunday’s third round.
“I told our team I’m proud of what they’ve done this year, with a young group,” said CU coach Tad Boyle. “We’ve put Colorado basketball on the map, but we’ve got a lot of work we need to do . . . I’m proud of what Colorado basketball is in the process of becoming.”
The Buffs posted their third consecutive 20-win season (21-12) and earned back-to-back NCAA Tournament trips for the first time in 50 years. But they left the Erwin Center believing this season ended prematurely.
CU trailed by 16 points (37-21) at halftime, but opened the second half with a 23-2 run and went up 44-39 with just under 10 minutes to play. The Buffs held the Illini without a second-half field goal until 8:33 remained in the game, but a 13-2 run gave Illinois a 52-46 lead with under a minute to play and CU couldn’t catch up again.
After finally overtaking the Illini, the Buffs got only two field goals in the last 5:40. And as CU came up with its string of empty possessions, senior guard Brandon Paul was hitting six of six free throws in the final minute to give Illinois the bare amount of offense it needed.
Boyle said his players showed “extreme heart” in coming back, but “we just didn’t have enough of what it took in key possessions of the game, some offensive and some defensive, to finish this thing off. Illinois made more plays down the stretch than we did.”
Paul led the Illini with 17 points, while D.J. Richardson had 14. Askia Booker topped CU with 14 points and was the only CU player in double figures. Josh Scott contributed a game-high 14 rebounds. Andre Roberson, the nation’s No. 2 rebounder entering the tournament, was limited to nine points and eight boards.
In catching the Illini and taking the lead in the second half, Booker said the Buffs “were getting stop after stop and pushing it down their throats. And coach made some great calls for certain plays to be run and we executed very well . . . we felt like had the momentum in our hands.
“But give credit to Illinois for finding the open man and knocking down the shots; that’s something they do very well.”
Sophomore Spencer Dinwiddie, CU’s leading scorer (15.6 ppg), saw his court time diminished by four fouls and was held to six points, with four assists and four of his team’s 15 turnovers. They cost CU 21 points, 15 of them in the first half coming from eight turnovers.
Boyle said the Illini “did a good job on Spencer. They showed hard on those ball screens and tried to get the ball out of his hands . . . Four assists, four turnovers is not a normal line for Spencer. He wasn’t at his best (Friday), but foul trouble had something to do with that.”
The Buffs became the first of five Pac-12 Conference teams in the NCAAs to lose. The league went 3-0 on Thursday, with Oregon, California and Arizona advancing. UCLA was to play Minnesota here later Friday night.
The Buffs entered the game knowing their opponent lived by the long ball, and for just over eight minutes they kept the Illini from doing their normal damage from beyond the arc.
But when the treys began to rain, CU seemed helpless to stop the deluge. Paul started it with a triple at the 11:50 mark, giving Illinois its first lead (16-15) since 2-1. Then, back-to-back three-pointers by Tyler Griffey and Richardson, followed by two free throws by Tracy Abrams capped an 11-2 run and pushed the Illini up 24-17.
The Buffs rallied briefly, getting baskets from Scott and Roberson to pull to within 24-21. But another barrage of threes was headed in the Buffs’ direction.
After Abrams and Richardson each hit two pointers, both stepped back beyond the arc – and no one in a CU uniform went with them. Richardson knocked down consecutive treys and Abrams followed with one just before the halftime buzzer, completing a 13-0 Illinois run and putting CU in a 37-21 halftime hole. It was only the Buffs’ third double-figure deficit of the season, but the second in a row (Kansas in non-conference play, Arizona in the Pac-12 Tournament).
Six of Illinois’ last eight field goals were three-pointers, and that first-half total of made treys was the most since Hartford hit seven in 40 minutes on Dec. 29 in Boulder. Illinois averaged 7.8 successful threes per game this season – the most in the Big Ten Conference.
CU was out-of-synch offensively, with its 21 points the lowest first-half total since managing only 20 at Washington nearly two months ago in a 64-54 loss. And trailing at the half wasn’t a good sign for the Buffs: they were 5-7 in such games before Friday.
Boyle said his halftime message to his players was to climb back into the game “one possession at a time . . . we cannot be happy trading baskets with them. And we have to get stops; we don’t have a 16-point play in our playbook.”
If CU was going to recover, a quick second-half start was mandatory – and they got it with a 9-2 run keyed by back-to-back treys by Booker. His second three pulled the Buffs to within 39-30 with 17:52 to play and prompted a timeout from first-year Illini coach John Groce.
The short break didn’t help. After a short jumper by Scott, Booker struck again in transition from the right wing. His third trey in 2:25 brought the Buffs to within four points (39-35), and they completed their comeback on a basket by Scott that gave CU a 40-39 lead – its first since 17-16.
The Buffs went up 44-39 before the Illini got a layup by Abrams – their first second-half field goal – with 8:33 to play, cutting CU’s lead to 44-41.
One of two free throws by Griffey trimmed the margin to 44-42 at the 8:11 mark, then back-to-back treys by Richardson and Paul – the two biggest of the Illini’s eight treys – capped a 9-0 run and pushed Illinois back in front 48-44 with 6:00 remaining.
CU’s last field goal – a jumper by Dinwiddie – came with 5:40 remaining. After that, the Buffs came up empty on too many possessions to threaten again. After Dinwiddie’s basket, CU’s next field goal was a three-pointer by Xavier Johnson with 17 seconds left and that got them only to within seven points.
Time had run out on CU, and Boyle was left with time to reflect then look forward. He said Roberson, who has until April 28 to make a decision about declaring his eligibility for the NBA Draft, plans to spend some time with his family in San Antonio over spring. Boyle will then talk with the 6-7 forward about his future.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do in terms of improvement and gaining some national respect,” Boyle said. “And it’s incumbent on every person in our basketball program, whether it’s the head coach, assistant coaches, or players, to give everything they’ve got in this off-season.
“We’ll take some time, get our batteries recharged. But just because we’re going to be a year older next year doesn’t mean we’re going to be a year better. Our players need to understand that . . . we have still got plenty of room for improvement and this isn’t our last time here, I promise you that.”
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CU women looking forward to playing an old opponent in NCAA tourney
Mar 19th
CU is matched against former Big Eight/12 Conference foe Kansas in its first game on Saturday, approximately 4:40 p.m., at the Coors Events Center. The Buffs (25-6) are a fifth seed, the Jayhawks (18-13) a 12th seed. A win would send CU against the winner of Saturday’s No. 4 South Carolina vs. No. 13 South Dakota on Monday night, at 7:30 p.m., at the CEC. South Carolina and South Dakota State will tip at 2:10 p.m. on Saturday at Coors.
“I’m excited to play a Big 12 opponent; we spent a lot of years in the Big 12 and the Big Eight,” said coach Linda Lappe, who in her third season guided the Buffs to their first NCAA Tournament appearance 2004 and the 13th in school history.
Lappe initially believed another former Big 8/12 conference foe – Nebraska – might wind up matched against her team. She said she was “excited for that opportunity (but) Kansas is going to be a tough opponent; I think anybody who makes it into the NCAA is going to be high level competition.”
During their final years in the Big 12, the Jayhawks had the Buffs’ number – a 7-1 record against them in their last eight meetings. In Lappe’s first season (2010-11) at CU, KU won all three games (two regular season, one postseason tournament).
CU senior guard Chucky Jeffery can recall KU’s domination before the Buffs said goodbye and headed for the Pac-12.
“Oh yeah, we remember,” Jeffery said at a Selection Show gathering Monday afternoon. “As soon as our name and Kansas came up on the screen, we all looked at each other like, ‘This is our time right here’. So we’re excited to have them come and play on our home floor, it’s definitely going to be a good game.
“I think, like coach Lappe said, we are a better team on our home floor so they (Kansas) can bring as many fans as they need, but I think we are going to have a pretty good turnout and play well.”
The Buffs were one of four Pac-12 teams to make the NCAA Tournament, joining Stanford, California and UCLA. Those teams were responsible for CU’s five conference losses, with the Cardinal ousting the Buffs from the league’s postseason tournament. Stanford is a No. 1 seed, Cal a No. 2 and UCLA a No. 3.
Lappe said her team’s seeding in the 64-team field was near what she anticipated: “We were expecting a five or six, right in that area, so we’re happy with that. The committee took a look at what we did all season long and I felt like that was a great seed with the wins we were able to get and having no bad losses.
“I know the committee takes a lot of things into consideration so you never quite know where you are going to be, but we are happy with that seed. It shows the committee gives us a lot of respect.”
The Buffs’ 25 wins are the women’s program’s most since the 1995-96 team finished 26-9. CU’s all-time NCAA Tournament record is 17-12, which includes an 8-2 mark in first-round games (9-3 in opening games, reflecting two first-round byes).
When Boulder was chosen for a first-round site, CU’s goal was to be included in the four-team field. Lappe called playing at the CEC, where her team was 15-0 this season, “a huge advantage; it’s a place we’ve had success all year, we’ve had great fan support. Being able to have our fans come out and support us, I think it is going to be one of the best first and second round games in terms of attendance that you are going to find out there.
“I think having that support always helps you, but you can’t take that for granted, you still have to come out and you still have to play well. But to be able to sleep in our own beds and to be in our comfort zones and not have to travel will be something that really helps us out, and obviously I like the altitude as well.”
By the time they tip off in Saturday’s first game, the Buffs will be on the last day of a 14-day break. They haven’t played since March 9, when they lost 61-47 to Stanford in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament in Seattle.
Lappe said the layoff can be viewed in “a few different ways. We’ve used it as some time to get some rest, and get some time away, so I think that is going to be very beneficial for us. I think we feel good, our legs are going to feel great. Obviously there’s that period of time if you have a long layoff where you haven’t competed, but we have practiced hard, we have a great group of practice guys that come in everyday and help us out.
“The most important part is what we do this week. This week will be like any normal week, we have four days to practice and then we will be getting ready to play on Saturday, so it’s a pretty typical week in terms of what were used to in the Pac-12.”
Jeffery, the team’s leading scorer (13.9 ppg) and rebounder (8.3 rpg), will close out her home career with an NCAA appearance she’s dreamed of.
“It means a lot,” she said. “It just shows how far we have come as a program, and how great the coaches have been at turning it around. And it’s all a tribute to my team, we have good players and we play together and we’ve had a great season. It’s just really satisfying to go out as a senior like this, and I just want to thank my teammates and my coaches for that.”
In the days preceding Monday’s Selection Show, Jeffery and the Buffs engaged in their own “bracketology” and tried to determine who they might play and the other two teams that would land at the CEC.
“We’ve been trying to figure that out for a long time, looking at the brackets and stuff like that, but you can’t really know,” she said. “We were way off (on their projections), we thought we were going to be up with Notre Dame, but we were off. We’re excited though.”
If the Buffs win their two home games, the Irish still could be in their future. Notre Dame is the No. 1 seed in the Norfolk bracket but plays its opening games in Iowa City. CU and Notre Dame would play in a Sweet 16 game on March 30.
The Buffs reaching the NCAA Tournament has caused a quandary for the family of CU redshirt freshman forward Arielle Roberson. Her brother, Andre, is a junior forward on the CU men’s team, which plays Illinois Friday in Austin, Texas, in the men’s tournament.
In high school in San Antonio, Arielle said she and Andre competed in the playoffs at the same time, creating a similar dilemma in the Roberson family. She called this week’s NCAA play at different sites “a great opportunity for both (of us), but it’s another competition in the family – who’s coming to who’s game.”
Maybe this is what they can hope for: Arielle and the CU women win two in Boulder and advance to Norfolk, Va.; Andre and the CU men win two in Austin and advance to Washington, D.C. That’s close enough for a close family to commute.
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