Posts tagged Tad Boyle
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.
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).”
MBB: CU into quarterfinal in Pac-12 tourney
Mar 13th
by B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com
LAS VEGAS – In March, basketball teams can live on their game’s intangibles and die without them. On an afternoon when their leading scorer’s frustration nearly overshadowed his productivity and little else went smoothly, the Colorado Buffaloes turned to those intangibles to survive – and they did.
No. 5 seed CU used an 8-0 run late in the second half to pull away from No. 12 seed Southern California, then held on loosely to eliminate the Trojans 59-56 in Wednesday’s first round of the Pac-12 Conference Tournament.
A relieved CU coach Tad Boyle called it an exercise in winning ugly – but in March ugly still counts. The Buffs (22-10) advance to play No. 4 seed California (19-12) in Thursday’s quarterfinal round (3:30 p.m. MDT) in the MGM Garden Arena. In their only meeting this season, Cal defeated CU by one point in overtime last weekend in Berkeley.
CU’s 22nd win of the season ties for the fourth-most wins in school history, with Boyle owning three of the top four winningest seasons.
Reaching the quarterfinals was more difficult than many imagined for CU. USC, losers of 11 of its final 12 regular-season games, took a five-point lead with 9:46 remaining Wednesday and appeared ready to close out the erratic Buffs, who had swept the Trojans (11-21) in their two previous meetings.
But CU dialed up one of the intangibles – mental toughness – that finally surfaced late in the regular season and nearly carried the Buffs to a sweep of their Bay Area road trip. It arrived when needed in Vegas, and it came in the form of chasing down long rebounds, loose balls and protecting the ball over the game’s final 10 minutes. The Buffs committed nine of their 13 turnovers in the first half, the other four in the opening minutes of the second half.
“When you don’t play your best and you’re off your game with multiple guys on multiple levels and you figure out a way to win, that’s a testament to your mental toughness,” Boyle said. “When it’s a game that shots aren’t going in and you’re struggling offensively and the whistle is not going your way on either side, that’s where mental toughness really has to take over. That’s where I think our team over the last two weeks has made tremendous strides.”
Down 47-42 with just under 10 minutes to play, maybe CU’s – and junior guard Askia Booker’s – alarm buttons were hit. Booker converted a three-point play, followed with a 15-foot jumper, then fed Xavier Johnson for a stuff that tied the score at 49-49 with 8:01 left.
“Ski” Booker’s baskets with eight minutes to play allowed the Buffs to take the lead.
“Around the first media timeout in the second half, I told myself that it’s either now or never,” Booker said. “I talked to coach (Jean) Prioleau and he said, ‘It’s time.’ That’s when I told myself, let’s get going.
Booker led the Buffs with 21 points – his fifth 20-point game of the season and seventh of his career. He also contributed seven rebounds and four assists against only one turnover. Boyle said Booker “made some big-time plays, but he played with great composure. We’re going to need him to do that because he’s important to our team, as all our guys are.”
One of Booker’s most significant plays belonged in the intangible column. Going out of bounds to retrieve a long rebound off a teammate’s missed shot, Booker leaped and slammed the ball off a Trojans player’s leg with 10.2 seconds left to give the Buffs another possession.
“They got a loose ball that was going out of bounds and threw it off our legs. They got the ball back,” first-year USC coach Andy Enfield said.
When Booker has reached 20-plus points this season, the Buffs are 4-1. He’s been at his best against USC, averaging 20.2 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists in three wins against the Trojans this season. The Buffs won 83-62 in Boulder, 83-74 in Los Angeles and now lead the series 7-3, including 5-0 since joining the Pac-12 in 2011.
Sophomore post Josh Scott, frustrated and held to one first-half point largely by USC’s large (7-0, 270) Egyptian center, Omar Oraby, keyed CU’s decisive 8-0 run with three consecutive baskets inside to break a 50-50 tie and give the Buffs a 56-50 advantage with 4:10 to play.
When Booker added a layup in transition, the Buffs had their largest lead of the afternoon – 58-50 – and the Trojans were in desperation mode. As it had all game, USC turned to Byron Wesley (23 points) for five of its last seven points and a potential game-tying 3-pointer that clanged off the left side of the rim at the buzzer.
Scott, who attempted only three first-half shots and made one of two free throws, scored 12 second-half points and collected a game-high nine rebounds – a respectable ending to a frustrating afternoon for CU’s leading scorer (14.5 ppg).
“It was frustrating,” Scott said. “I think that was pretty obvious I was pretty frustrated. But I thank my teammates a lot for having confidence in me to keep getting me the ball there at the end. It tells me that they still have confidence even when I might not have the most confidence in myself at the time.”
Boyle called the 6-10 Scott “the ultimate battler . . . that’s what he does. He battles every day on every possession offense and defense. People have no idea how big and how strong Oraby is . . . I didn’t want to play Josh as many minutes (33) as I did. I hoped I wouldn’t have to, but you’ve got to survive and advance.”
Scott finished 4-of-14 from the field, but frontcourt mates Wesley Gordon and Johnson had his back – each hitting four of their six field goal attempts. Johnson scored eight of his 11 points in the first half, when he hit back-to-back 3-pointers on his only two attempts to give CU its largest first-half lead – 10-4. But the Buffs led by only two – 29-27 – at intermission. The 6-9 Gordon finished the afternoon with eight points, six rebounds, one blocked shot, one assist and one steal.
Gordon called the Trojans “a different team than the Southern California team that we’ve played before. They came out with a lot of energy and they were very physical with us. They played really, really well.”
The Buffs outrebounded the Trojans 38-27, out-pointed them in the paint 34-30 and had 10 fast break points to USC’s two. The Trojans’ bench outscored the Buffs’ 9-2, with Dustin Thomas scoring CU’s only points off the bench. One of the reserves Boyle used was freshman Tre’Shaun Fletcher, who suffered a knee injury on Jan. 12 at Washington and had not played until Wednesday. Fletcher played 3 minutes and missed his only field goal attempt.
CU hit just nine of its 16 free throw attempts, with its 56.3 percentage the second lowest of the season. USC attempted 22 3-pointers, making just five. “It’s been a weakness of ours all year,” Enfield said. “We need to get some guys to make shots.”
Overnight Wednesday and on Thursday morning, CU turns its focus toward Cal. The Buffs like the short time – five days – between games; the memory of the OT loss remains fresh.
“We lose to them, like, just a couple of days ago and we get another crack at them. You can’t ask for more,” said Scott, adding that the intangibles the Buffs latched onto in Vegas eluded them in Berkeley. “They got a couple of loose balls, long rebounds that we had to get to win the game. We didn’t, so that hurt our chances.”
But, added Booker, “I think we can compete with them – with anybody in the Pac-12 really. But (Thursday) is the day to come out and prove it.”
