CU Men’s Basketball
CU MBB: Scott returns home to rousing ovation
Dec 1st
Beats AFA 81-57
COLORADO SPRINGS — After more than a year of waiting, Josh Scott finally returned home on Saturday. An afternoon that began with a rousing ovation from the Clune Arena faithful culminated with one of the finest performances of his young career.
The 6-10 sophomore from nearby Monument had 16 points and a season-high 13 rebounds as the Buffs led the Air Force Falcons from wire-to-wire en route to a convincing 81-57 victory. Scott reached his third double-double of the year half way through the second half and then sat for the game’s final five minutes while the Buffs coasted to their seventh straight victory.
“It feels good, it’s good to show up for the home crowd,” said Scott. “I won’t lie, so it’s nice.”
Josh Scott hit his third double/dounble of the season
After being held to zero points and just three rebounds for the first 12:17 of the game, Scott sprang off the mat to score 16 points and grab 10 boards over the remainder of the afternoon. His tenacious and spirited play in front of the hometown fans helped break a close game wide open in the second half.
Scott’s first bucket came at the 7:43 mark of the first half, as the Buffs were clinging to a tenuous nine-point lead. By the time he scored his final bucket nearly 18 minutes later, the Buffs lead had ballooned to 28 points mostly on the strength of the big man’s domination of an undersized and overwhelmed Falcon front court.
“Once I got the ball in the high-post, I was just looking for Josh down low and we executed well,” said freshman forward Wesley Gordon.
Scott’s play may have been the highlight of the game, but it was an effective Colorado defense that won it. The Buffs out-rebounded the Falcons 42-25 and forced them into a resounding 18 turnovers as AFA was held to a season-low 57 points. The 57 points were the fewest the Buffs have allowed in a road game since they gave up 47 at Oregon last year.
Despite all of the Air Force mistakes, the turnover issues were far from one-sided. The Buffs turned the ball over nine times themselves in the first half and it was the sloppy play that kept Air Force in the game for more than a half. The Falcons, who had more than twice as many turnovers (12) as assists (5), were down only 10 at halftime.
CU coach Tad Boyle later attributed the first-half carelessness to an Air Force zone that took his young team more than a half to decipher. After a few halftime adjustments, the Buffs then turned the ball over just five times in the second half.
“It’s not fun playing against the zone for 40 minutes,” said Boyle. “We tell our guys all the time, the reason they are playing a zone is because they don’t feel like they can guard you (in man-to-man defense). So, we have to be patient, and get the ball moved. Our guys would rather play 40 minutes against the (man-to-man defense), but we’re going to see a lot of the zone. It’s just the way college basketball is being played now, and people trying to stay out of foul trouble.”
Scott wasn’t the only Buff player who triumphantly returned to his hometown on Saturday. Gordon, who also hails from the Colorado Springs area, scored six points, pulled down three rebounds and had two blocks in his own successful return to the city.
“It was a big game for them, in front of their friends and family,” said Boyle. “Colorado Springs, and this community, means a lot to both those young men and their families – their families are obviously both still here and part of this community. So, it was big for them, and I was happy that they both played well. So, it was a good, good feel-good victory for both those young guys.”
The game began under a barrage of Askia Booker jump shots as the trigger-happy junior hit his four shots, two of them from three-point range, and scored eight of the team’s first 10 points. Booker’s success from the field came as the rest of the team combined for just four field goals in the game’s first 12 minutes.
Booker’s hot early shooting helped the team weather the initial struggles of the other go-to players on offense and gave them each time to find their own rhythm in a slow-paced first half. Booker then scored just three points after the game’s first four minutes, but by end of his hot streak the rest of the CU offense had gained their footing and was more than happy to take the weight off Booker’s shoulders.
“It was nice to see (Booker) come out and hit some shots and get us kind of going, and then we kind of took it from there,” said Boyle. “We came out first part of the second half and made some buckets and extended that thing and never let them get back in the game.”
After a season-opening loss to the Baylor Bears, the Buffs have now won seven straight for the first time since January 2011 as they now head into the gauntlet of their non-conference schedule.
The Buffs will travel to Fort Collins to play a solid Colorado State team on Tuesday at Moby Arena, where they haven’t won since 2007. CU will then play two of the following three games against teams currently ranked in the top five in the country – hosting No. 2 Kansas on Saturday, Dec. 7, then taking on No. 5 Oklahoma State in Las Vegas on Dec. 21.
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Fast and Furious Buffs Comeback Overtakes Crimson, 70-62
Nov 24th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER – Long before Sunday, Tad Boyle had no doubt about the competitive makeup of his Colorado basketball team. When he left the Coors Events Center late Sunday afternoon, his belief had been underscored.
After trailing for almost 35 minutes, the Buffaloes shifted gears offensively and defensively – and, yes, mentally – and overtook previously unbeaten Harvard, 70-62, improving to 50-7 under Boyle at the CEC.
“Our team has fight in it, no doubt,” Boyle said. “Our guys found a way . . . we’ve got competitors in that locker room.”
Sunday’s second half proved it. Down by 14 points in the opening minute of the final 20, the Buffs (6-1) used a 14-0 run in the last 8:23 to catch and surpass the Crimson (4-1). Sophomore forward Xavier Johnson contributed back-to-back three-pointers in the run, with junior guard Spencer Dinwiddie adding a third and edging the CEC crowd of 9,770 close to delirium.
Xavier Johnson’s two, 3-pointers allowed the Buffs to surpass the Crimson early in the second half.
“The three threes got the crowd going,” Boyle said. “Our fans were terrific.”
The win was CU’s biggest in a six-game November home stand that saw Boyle’s four-year record in the month climb to 15-0.
“The thing that’s so satisfying is how we got it and the team we got it against,” Boyle said, citing Crimson coach Tommy Amaker “and what he’s done with the Harvard program . . . that’s a veteran, well-coached team.”
Dinwiddie’s 17 points topped four CU players in double figures and further reinforced Boyle’s opinion of his 6-6 point guard.
“He’s playing at a very high level,” Boyle said. “Spencer has a good feel for the game; he’s a very calming influence our on team. I trust him – but I trust all of our players.”
Dinwiddie had scoring help from guard Askia Booker and forward Josh Scott with 12 points each, while Johnson added 11. Harvard also had four players reach double figures, led by Kyle Casey’s 13.
It was the second-half board work – especially on the defensive end – of Scott and teammate Wesley Gordon, who grabbed a game-best 11 rebounds apiece, that made a large impression on Boyle in a highly physical game. CU out-rebounded the Ivy League visitors 46-29.
The 6-10 Scott picked up a couple of first-half fouls and was limited to 12 minutes on the court. In the second half, he said, he didn’t feel encumbered by fouls and was able to get a feel for the game.
“That’s not an excuse,” he said, “it’s just of kind of how it works out . . . I wasn’t scoring and I wasn’t exactly blocking shots so I figured I’d play defense and rebound. The shots came afterwards and I shot well from the free throw line (a team best six-of-eight).”
The Buffs also held the Crimson to 23.5 percent shooting from the field in the second half and limited them to one three-pointer after allowing six treys in the first half. CU led only once in the first half – 3-2 on Johnson’s three-pointer to open CU’s scoring – and trailed by 12 (42-30) at intermission. After that brief one-point Buffs lead, Harvard went on a 14-1 run that featured four treys and ended with the Crimson up 16-4.
That surge – in reality, the entire first half – amounted to a long-range replay that Boyle might have believed the Buffs wouldn’t allow. The Crimson didn’t arrive in Boulder with the reputation of a dangerous bunch beyond the arc; they had shot just 26.3 percent on three-point attempts in their four previous wins.
Apparently, the word on CU’s susceptibility to the long ball got out. Harvard’s season-high for made three-pointers was six against Holy Cross, but in Sunday’s first 4 minutes the Crimson had drained four and they finished the first 20 minutes tying their season high (six).
Meanwhile, those six treys also tied three other CU opponents for the most allowed in a first half this season. CU allowed 11 treys in Thursday night’s win over UC Santa Barbara. The Buffs’ six opponents had shot 38.2 percent from behind the arc, with two foes – Baylor, UT-Martin – at 40 percent or higher. Harvard finished the first half at 50 percent (6-of-12).
But the second half was lock down time for the Buffs. Boyle’s halftime message about his team’s perimeter defense: “Respect them as shooters . . . Harvard moves the ball quickly (and) you have to move on the pass. We didn’t do it (in the first half) but we did a better job in the second half.”
After Harvard took its first 12-point lead, CU closed to within three points twice (19-16, 21-18) before the visitors pulled away again and fashioned their 12-point advantage at intermission. The Crimson shot 53.6 percent from the field (15-of-28) while the Buffs were well back at 42.3 percent (11-of-26).
Maybe the half’s most telling stat: Harvard scored 12 points off nine CU turnovers. But the Buffs committed only six second-half errors, leading to seven Crimson points.
Harvard’s Steve Moundou-Missi opened the second-half scoring with an inside basket, putting CU down 44-30, with that 14-point deficit matching the Buffs’ largest this season (first time vs. Baylor in the season-opening loss).
It might have jarred the Buffs awake. Over the next 31/2 minutes, they outscored the Crimson 9-0 to pull to within 44-39 on a layup Booker with 15:45 to play. The Buffs crept to within five again (46-41) on a short, falling-to-the-floor jumper by Xavier Talton, but three consecutive CU turnovers helped Harvard restore a 50-41 lead and prompted a timeout by Boyle.
“We were down nine, 50-41, and I said, ‘Guys, we don’t have a nine-point play. We have to get stops,” Boyle said. The Buffs did, getting stops on five Crimson possessions and creeping to within four points on two occasions (50-46, 52-48) before Dinwiddie hit a baseline runner with the shot clock winding down and brought the Buffs to within 52-50.
On Harvard’s next possession, a rejection by Scott gave CU a chance to go ahead – and the Buffs took advantage on an “XJ” triple with exactly 5 minutes left. When he hit from the right wing, the Buffs had their first lead (53-52) since his trey opened their scoring.
And he wasn’t finished. With Scott controlling the boards on the other end, CU moved back downcourt and Johnson drilled another three from the right corner.
“Pretty much it’s all just the game plan,” Johnson said. “Coach Boyle lays (it) out for us and I was able to hit the open shot. We had great ball movement, we played inside out and I was able to be open for the jump shot.”
The Buffs were up 56-52, and Dinwiddie was about to get into the act. His straight-away triple pushed CU ahead 59-52, and Scott followed with one of two free throws for a 60-52 advantage with 3:27 remaining and completed the Buffs’ 14-0 run.
During that stretch, said Scott, the Crimson players were drawing ragged breaths: “Breathing hard, their shooters for a good 10-minute span were short on a lot of shots or wide with their shots. They weren’t running as fast as they were in the first half, you could just tell . . . I think the altitude got to them.”
Harvard got as close as 66-62 on Laurent Rivard’s trey – the Crimson’s only triple of the second half – with 30 seconds to play. But CU closed it out by hitting five of six free throws – three by Talton, two by Booker – in the last 28.3 and matched the 11th largest comeback in the history of the men’s program.
The Buffs don’t play again until Saturday, when they travel to Air Force (2 p.m.), and Scott – from Colorado Springs – said a break in what has been a demanding November routine is welcome.
“We’re pretty excited to have a little rest time,” he said. “We’ve pretty much had an every-other-day game schedule, which is fun, but it wears on you. We’re on Thanksgiving break right now for school, so it will be pretty nice just to be on the basketball schedule and then chill out for the week.”
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Rain of treys couldn’t stop the Buffs
Nov 22nd
Trey defense is the “official deficiency” of the team
BOULDER – The Colorado Buffaloes’ perimeter defense has them living on the edge. They survived another three-point barrage Thursday night – this one by UC Santa Barbara – and won 76-68 for their fifth consecutive victory at the Coors Events Center.
But, according to coach Tad Boyle, the Buffs’ three-point defense is “officially a deficiency of our team. Maybe I’ve been in denial . . . if it happens six games in a row, then maybe it’s a trend.”
Minus leading scorer (24 ppg) and rebounder (13 rpg) Alan Williams – a 6-7, 240-pound inside force – the Gauchos compensated on the perimeter by making 11 of 28 three-point attempts. Seven of the 11 treys left the torrid right hand of reserve guard Taran Brown, who scored a career-high 23 points. He missed only three of his long attempts.
Teren Brown hit 7-11, 3-point shots for the Gauchos
Guard Askia Booker said the Buffs’ scouting report on the Gauchos identified Brown “as a shooter . . . but we didn’t know he shot like that.”
And that didn’t sit well with Boyle, who said it’s up to his players to trust what they’re told on paper and shown on tape. “That’s not respecting your opponent,” Boyle said. “When you have ‘shooter’ on the report that means he’s a shooter. I don’t care if he’s starting or coming off the bench.”
And don’t offer up to Boyle that his players are still adjusting to this season’s new closer called hand-checking rules for their failure to defend the three: “The new rules can’t be a reason anymore,” he said. “If you’ve got a job to do, start doing it.”
But Boyle also noted that UCSB came prepared to play – even without Williams, who was sidelined with back spasms. “There’s sometimes after games when you tip your hat to your opponent,” Boyle said. “I thought Santa Barbara was great tonight; their kids were ready to play . . . we took a pretty good shot from them tonight (and) I told our team we should be glad their best player didn’t play tonight.”
The Gauchos’ 11 treys were one less than the Buffs surrendered in a 91-65 rout of UT-Martin. That lopsided score might have led to Boyle’s “denial” of his team’s soft three-point defense. But through six games, CU’s perimeter defensive percentage has been no better than 33.3 percent (vs. Wyoming).
“We ain’t guarding the three-point line,” CU guard Spencer Dinwiddie said. “Give credit to them, but most of (their shots) were open.”
Any list of Buffs’ deficiencies didn’t include Dinwiddie, who said he didn’t sense a pregame readiness from his teammates and chose to assert himself more than in the previous games. He did, scoring a game-best 24 points that included 14-of-15 made free throws.
The Buffs hit 12 of 14 free throws in the final 3:56, with Dinwiddie sinking nine of 10 in that span.
Said Boyle: “We don’t win tonight without Spencer Dinwiddie . . . he was dialed in, aggressive.”
The Buffs led 32-30 at halftime and opened a nine-point (45-36) second-half lead before the Gauchos stormed back. Brown’s final three of the game gave UCSB (2-2) a 54-52 lead with 5:48 to play. But CU (5-1) answered with a 12-0 run and never trailed again.
In addition to Dinwiddie’s 24, CU also got 14 points from Booker, his junior backcourt mate. They were the only two Buffs in double figures; leading scorer Josh Scott managed only three points on a conventional three-point play that started the 12-0 run. Boyle said one of his team’s goals was to go inside more, but when it happened the Buffs didn’t finish – and he wasn’t singling out Scott.
The Buffs outrebounded the Gauchos 34-25, made 12 steals – the most this season against UCSB – and forced 17 turnovers – another UCSB high mark. But Boyle kept coming back to the perimeter defense and CU allowing the visitors to shoot 53.3 percent from the field in the second half.
A Friday morning practice originally scheduled to be a shoot-around has been reset as a full-blown run. “I don’t want our players to have a sense of entitlement,” he said. “I don’t want them to show up and play like this and think it’s OK . . . maybe I’m getting too soft as a coach.”
After a two-game absence, CU got sophomore forward Xavier Johnson back in its starting lineup. “XJ” had taken an elbow to the head in a practice prior to the Jackson State game (Nov. 16). “XJ” finished with nine points, five rebounds, two assists, three turnovers and three steals.
The Buffs outscored the Gauchos 7-2 to open the second half and took a 39-32 lead, matching their largest advantage of the night to that point, with 15:47 remaining. CU wasn’t satisfied; layups by freshmen Jaron Hopkins and George King helped fashion a nine-point lead (45-36) at the 12:05 mark.
But it had been a while since the Gauchos hit a three-pointer. Paging Taran Brown . . . he ended that dry spell with a trey from the left wing, tying his career high with six threes. When Kyle Boswell followed with a three-pointer on the next possession, UCSB pulled within a point (45-44), then got to 52-51 on another Boswell triple with just under 7 minutes to play.
The Gauchos weren’t going away and they weren’t going to stop shooting the long ball. When Brown hit his seventh of the game at 5:48, UCSB went up 54-52. But urgency also might have overtaken the Buffs; their 12-0 run put them ahead 64-54 with 3:56 remaining.
Unless UCSB could go on another three-point binge, CU seemed headed for its fifth straight win. The Gauchos got one more three-ball by Michael Bryson – their 11th of the night – and closed to 71-67 with 33.9 seconds to play. Dinwiddie’s two free throws 4.5 seconds later and two more by Tre’Shaun Fletcher put the Buffs up 75-67 – and the Gauchos were done.
The Buffs conclude their six-game home stand with a Sunday afternoon game against Harvard (2:30 p.m., ESPNU). “The price of poker is going up and we’d better be ready to ante up,” Boyle said, adding that if Thursday night’s effort and preparation are replayed on Sunday his team faces trouble.
Boyle took this from the Buffs’ rigorous preseason session with the Navy SEALS: “You don’t rise to the occasion, you fall back to your level of preparation.” Friday morning’s practice just might reflect that.
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Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
