CU Men’s Basketball
Dinwiddie Shows No Brotherly Love In CU Win
Dec 6th
By B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor, CUBuffs.com
BOULDER – Colorado men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle and sophomore guard Spencer Dinwiddie are due for a conversation on in-state basketball etiquette, specifically what not to say before a rivalry game.
But their talk can wait – at least for a year.
After he had scored a career-high 29 points on Wednesday night in leading CU to a grind-it-out 70-61 victory against archrival Colorado State, Dinwiddie said his “little brother” analogy of CSU was, ah, misinterpreted.
“I think they took it as disrespect; I didn’t mean it in a disrespectful way,” a grinning Dinwiddie said. “I have a lot of respect for their team . . . but being able to back up the comment with a win is great; they were on my Twitter a lot.”
He was on the Rams just as fiercely as the Buffs started strong, finished stronger and finally put away the visitors before a record crowd of 11,708 at the Coors Events Center.
“What an atmosphere for college basketball,” Boyle said. “It’s a testament to our fans and how they’ve stepped up and supported us.”
The Buffs got better than average road support last weekend at Wyoming, but their effort wasn’t in synch with their backing. The Cowboys won 76-69, and aside from his team’s first loss, Boyle said “the most disappointing thing was all the people who went up there and we let them down . . . we told our guys that we’re representing more than just ourselves.”
That message, as well as one forcibly delivered in Monday’s smash-mouth practice, surfaced in what Boyle likened to “an NCAA-type game” against CU’s rival from up the road.
In dealing CSU (6-1) its first defeat, CU (7-1) went up by 20 points at halftime, but saw that lead dwindle to three (54-51) in the final 6:45 after a 19-5 Rams run. But a 5-0 Buffs spurt and a recommitment to defense kept the Rams at bay; from the 6:45 mark to the final buzzer, CSU hit only one of its last shots (and that was a trey at the buzzer) and never pulled closer than seven points the rest of the way.
Dinwiddie was 8-of-10 from the field (5-of-7 from beyond the arc) and had an “all-Pac-12 kind of game,” said Boyle. Dinwiddie said he was “just hitting my shots . . . it was more about us playing defense.”
As for Dinwiddie’s idle Tuesday chatter about CSU, Boyle laughed and said, “I’ve got to talk to Spencer about that (but) he backed it up . . . we have to be a little smarter. He just believes in himself and his teammates.”
Junior forward Andre Roberson was the only other CU player in double figures. He picked up his fourth consecutive double-double and the 29th of his career, getting 15 points and 14 rebounds.
CSU got 19 points and 14 rebounds from Colton Iverson and 18 points from Dorian Green. The 6-10, 260-pound Iverson might have been Boyle’s biggest nightmare in the run-up to the Rams, but Boyle wisely rotated 6-10 freshman Josh Scott and 6-11 junior Shane Harris-Tunks on Iverson and made him toil for his totals.
Of Scott, Boyle said, “He grew up tonight as a post defender . . . he was totally different from the Wyoming game.” And Roberson said Harris-Tunks “did a great job of being physical against him.”
The Buffs wanted a solid start – and they might have exceeded their expectations. Before the Rams could blink a couple of times, they trailed 9-0.
Roberson opened the scoring by hitting a soft foul-line jumper (2-0), then followed with an angry stuff after a steal/lob pass by Dinwiddie (4-0). If you thought things were going CU’s way, a banked-in trey by Askia Booker – his only points of the first half – made it 7-0. Then a sweet spin by Sabatino Chen sent the Buffs up 9-0.
And this was their warm-up act.
When CSU blinked again, CU had strung together a 20-5 run and was up 20 (35-15). Before the half was over, the Buffs would lead by 25 (42-17). Dinwiddie jump-started and finished that push, burying three three-pointers and hitting a pair of free throws following a technical foul called on Iverson with 5:18 before halftime.
After the weekend loss at Wyoming, Boyle had challenged his team to be tougher defensively and to rebound with authority. The Rams – the NCAA’s rebound margin leader at plus-17.3 – had a 42-30 advantage for the game, including 18 offensively.
Still, the Buffs’ ‘D’ was exemplary; CSU wound up shooting 35.6 percent from the field (21-for-59) and Boyle said he’d take that statistic over a rebounding edge.
“But I want both,” he added.
CU’s second-half challenge was to keep the pedal down, but CSU had other plans. With Iverson powering for four of his team’s first six points, the Rams opened the last half with a 6-0 run and pulled to within 42-28.
Dinwiddie’s turn . . . his free throw followed by back-to-back treys restored a 17-point (49-32) CU advantage. But rolling over wasn’t for the Rams; a 7-0 run pulled them within 10 points (49-39) with ample time – 13:25 – remaining.
After Boyle called time out, Dinwiddie delivered with a spinning layup (51-39) – and a frantic final 12 minutes began for both teams. The Rams closed their deficit to single digits (54-45) on a banker from the left side by Wes Eikmeier.
It was the closest they had been since 22-13, and they would get to 54-47 on a pair of Green free throws, 54-49 on an Iverson layup, then 54-51 on an Eikmeier layup with 6:45 left. That basket capped a 10-0 CSU run, and Boyle called time out.
Said Roberson: “We were focusing on continuing to get stops. We knew they would come back with a run, that they weren’t going to go away . . . we called a timeout and got everybody to calm down, keep our composure and get back to our defensive rebounding.”
A Dinwiddie free throw at the 6:21 mark finally got CU a point, a twisting lay-in by Booker got the Buffs two more, and a put-back by Scott pushed CU’s advantage to 59-51. They went back up by double digits (63-52) on a drive by Chen with just over 3 minutes remaining.
The Rams never got closer than seven points the rest of the night, and Boyle’s record against CSU went to 4-3 – 2-1 at CU. The word of the day to his team, he said, was “dictate . . . that was on our board in the locker room. Dictate tempo and pressure; let them know they were in for 40 minutes of in-your-face basketball . . . they did cut it to three but we didn’t lose our composure.”
Now, said Boyle, his team must do as it did Wednesday on a more consistent basis. “It feels good because we beat a good team; we knew how good CSU was,” he said. “It’s huge, but we’ve got a big game on Saturday.”
That would be at Boyle’s alma mater, No. 9 Kansas (noon MST, ESPN2). Boyle is 0-3 against the Jayhawks, with all three losses coming in his first season at CU.
Buffs Fall Hard In First True Road Test
Dec 2nd
LARAMIE, Wyo. – The Colorado Buffaloes knew their first true road test of the season would be difficult, but they might have made it harder than it had to be.
Committing 17 turnovers while managing just 11 assists and allowing Wyoming’s inside game – read: Leonard Washington – to dominate, the No. 19 Buffs were overrun by the Cowboys 76-69 on Saturday night in the boisterous Arena-Auditorium.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why we lost this game,” said CU coach Tad Boyle, citing an assist-to-turnover ratio that continues to disappoint, 14 layups allowed (seven in each half) and his team permitting Wyoming to shoot 52 percent in the second half of a game that the Buffs led by two (28-26) at intermission.
Continued Boyle, who watched his team lose for the first time this season (6-1) and only the second time in its last 13 games: “I’m disappointed in our execution in the second half. We have to get better in a lot of different areas.”
The Cowboys’ 6-7 Leonard Washington scored a team-high 22 points – most of them inside as Wyoming outscored CU 30-24 in the paint. The unbeaten Cowboys (8-0) also turned the Buffs’ 17 turnovers, which tied the season high, into 20 points.
Spencer Dinwiddie led the Buffs with 24 points and Andre Roberson added 16 and 12 rebounds – his 28th career double-double. CU’s other pair of top scorers – guard Askia Booker and post Josh Scott – accounted for 11 points between them. Booker (16.8 ppg) was held to a season-low six points – a three-pointer in each half, while Scott (14.5 ppg) scored five before fouling out.
Two of Scott’s teammates – Roberson and Sabatino Chen – also fouled out. The Buffs were whistled for 27 fouls to the Cowboys’ 13, a disparity that Boyle believes worked too much on some of his players’ psyches.
“It’s going to happen,” he said. “We’ve got to figure out a way to overcome that. They can get frustrated and bitch about it all they want – it doesn’t change things. The way you do that is with mental toughness and not let it get in your head, get you out of your game.”
Boyle also pointed to a hustle play made by Washington midway through the second half that he believed epitomized the night for the Buffs. It occurred when the Cowboys began pulling away with an 11-3 run. Washington went to floor for a loose ball, corralled it and called time out. Meanwhile, five CU players bent at their waists and poked at the ball.
“He out-scrapped us and got it,” Boyle said. “He ‘beasted’ us last year (16 points in a 64-54 Wyoming win). What you saw with Leonard Washington was a senior who was playing his last time against a team like Colorado that was in the Top 25. He wanted this game . . . he took four or five charges himself. It was in the scouting report.”
The Buffs, said Boyle, failed to play hard, smart or together: “We’ve got guys who have to change their identities from offensive players to defensive players, defensive players to rebounders, screeners, passers – and then let the offense come to you . . . we’ve got a lot of guys on this team who can put the ball in the basket. Not just Josh, Ski, Spencer, Andre – guys coming off the bench can (score). But our mindset right now is not a collective one, not what it needs to be.”
Booker, who was 2-of-13 from the field (one trey in each half), “does not handle adversity well,” Boyle said. “He has to get better when his jump shot’s not going in and when the officiating isn’t bailing him out. That’s the bottom line. He knows it, I know it, the assistant coaches know it, his teammates know it. Until he does, he’s going to be frustrated on nights like this because people are going to start face-guarding him, bumping him, being physical . . . he’s got to figure it out.”
The Buffs, as a whole, have until Wednesday night to figure out how to solve the deficiencies Boyle has laid out for them. Archrival Colorado State (6-0) visits the Coors Events Center in the second game of men’s/women’s doubleheader, and if CU doesn’t improve over the next three days, CSU “will obliterate us,” Boyle said. “They’ve got a toughness about them. You talk about rebounding and defending, look at Colorado State. They rebound and defend. They’re exactly what we need to be, and that’s why they’re undefeated right now. We’ve might have lost a little bit of our hunger now, I don’t know. We’ll find out Wednesday night.”
The 6-10 Scott wouldn’t concede that the Buffs have encountered complacency. “We’re as hungry as ever,” he said. “I know all of us are really competitive, we all want to be the best we can be.”
If they weren’t at their best in Saturday night’s first half, they were close enough to stay competitive. With Wyoming’s largest crowd (8,240) in eight seasons watching, the first half might have unfolded just as CU envisioned. The Cowboys aren’t interested in getting up and down the court, and they made sure the visitors couldn’t. Neither team had a fast-break basket in the opening 20 minutes.
CU did manage a two-point lead in a first half that featured seven ties and eight lead changes, but the Buffs’ 28 points was their lowest first-half output of the season. It was an omen, for CU finished shooting 41.4 percent from the field (24-of-58) for their lowest percentage of the season.
The Buffs encountered early foul problems, with Roberson, Xavier Johnson and Josh Scott seeing their minutes limited after picking up two fouls each. Roberson played nine minutes but still had seven first-half point, tying Dinwiddie for the team lead. Scott and Johnson played 10 minutes each. The Buffs stayed close, even leading on a couple of occasions, in the first 5 minutes of the second half. It didn’t help CU when Scott was whistled for his third foul at the 12:45 mark and went to the bench for 4 minutes. Wyoming went up by six (45-39) on an inside basket and free throw by Washington and two free throws by Luke Martinez.
A Dinwiddie trey cut the deficit in half (45-42), but the Cowboys reeled off an 11-3 run and suddenly were up 51-42 with 9:16 remaining. And in this game, at Wyoming’s pace, a nine-point lead looked pretty cushy. Boyle called a timeout to settle the Buffs.
CU pulled to within five (55-50), but a Washington desperation three-pointer with the shot clock at one second restored Wyoming’s eight-point lead (58-50) at the 5:12 mark.
If the Buffs were going to remain unbeaten, it would be up to their defense. But allowing a full-court pass to Martinez on an out-of-bounds wasn’t the way to finish strong. His layup pushed the Cowboys back up by nine (61-52) with just under 4 minutes remaining – and it was all Wyoming thereafter.
Said Dinwiddie: “We didn’t play defense, plain and simple. They buckled down and made plays and we didn’t make plays.”
Dinwiddie claimed the loud Cowboys crowd didn’t disrupt the Buffs: “I don’t think so . . . we missed some shots, but I don’t think the crowd had much to do with it. The crowd doesn’t change the way the opposing team plays defense.”
Now comes CSU, which edged CU 65-64 last season in Fort Collins. Dinwiddie said Saturday night’s first loss of this season doesn’t make the Rams’ visit to Boulder any more significant: “It’s a big game either way. They’re probably going to be Top 25 now, we might or might not still. It’s our place, they beat us last year and rushed the court.
“They’re our biggest rival. You really can’t set the stage any higher than it already was . . . it’s still going to be crazy. We want to prove to ourselves more than anything (and) get back to the way we should be playing.”
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Buffs Ice Down Falcons, Remain Unbeaten
Nov 26th
BOULDER – Here’s the way Tad Boyle sees a night against an opponent as hot as Air Force was in Sunday’s first half: “If they’re going to make jump shots, shoot threes, over our hands for 40 minutes, then after the game we’ll shake hands and congratulate them.”
At game’s end at the Coors Events Center, Boyle’s Colorado Buffaloes did indeed wind up shaking hands with the Falcons at mid-court – but it wasn’t because the visitors’ long-range marksmanship continued.
Air Force cooled off and CU rolled on. Impressively. The No. 23 Buffs remained unbeaten by zooming past the previously unbeaten Falcons 89-74 for their first 5-0 start since the 1989-90 season.
“I think people understand now about Air Force and why we were nervous after the first half,” Boyle said. “They’re well-disciplined, well-coached . . . we did a great job of taking away their layups, but it’s pick your poison against Air Force.”
AFA (5-1) shot 57.1 percent (8-of-14) from beyond the arc in the first half, but still trailed 41-39. In the second half, with the Buffs putting more defensive emphasis on getting around/through flair screens and ball screens – and believing the visiting shooters couldn’t stay that torrid – the Falcons cooled to a more earthly 25 percent (4-of-16) from three-point range.
The Falcons finished the game at 40.6 percent (13-of-32) from long range, with the Buffs at 7-of-13 (53.8 percent) for the night. But CU had more of everything: the Buffs made the board battle a joke, winning it 46-19; they dominated in the paint, 40-18; they had 18 second-chance points to the Falcons’ four; and they sank 22-of-28 free throws. That last stat came after players shot 100 free throws each for a couple of practices preceding the Falcons’ trip north.
Freshman post Josh Scott posted his first 20-point night at CU, junior forward Andre Roberson got back in his double-double groove (18 points, 13 rebounds) and the sophomore backcourt of Spencer Dinwiddie and Askia Booker contributed 15 points each.
“This team, when we’re balanced, we have lot of different weapons,” Boyle said. Of the 6-10 Scott’s performance, he added, “He’s a great post player; he showed signs of why he was so highly regarded . . . his shot is not always the prettiest, but it goes in. Our guys believe in Josh.”
Scott said the Buffs’ standard plan is to work inside out “to me, Dre (Roberson) or ‘X’ (Xavier Johnson) . . . that’s always a constant thing.”
Just a guess, but CU Boyle’s message at halftime probably centered on making life a little more difficult for the Falcons’ marksmen.
They came to Boulder averaging 10.2 treys a game, and by intermission they were just about there, hitting eight of 14 (57 percent).
Still, CU led 41-39, matching AFA’s percentage from behind the arc but just not attempting or hitting as many (four of seven). Instead, the Buffs got their points in a variety of ways from a variety of players. Boyle used 10 players in the first 20 minutes, and nine of them scored.
Before the Falcons’ barrage of threes – they made six in the first half’s final 10 minutes – the Buffs had taken an eight-point lead (19-11) and appeared to have the visitors on their heels. Not so.
Air Force came soaring back behind Todd Fletcher, who scored nine consecutive points to bring his team to within three (23-20). Then, a DeLovell Earls three-pointer tied the score with 10:41 remaining before intermission. From there, CU managed to go up by as many as five (36-31), but AFA stayed hot from behind the arc in the final 4:30, hitting its last two treys to trail by only two at the break.
The second half’s most immediate questions: Would the Air Force cool off, or could CU make that happen? Yes and yes.
Said Scott: “I thought they were definitely going to get tired and were not going to make those shots in the second half. We were contesting them.”
Added Roberson: “They came out hot . . . but they wouldn’t be able to do it for all 40 minutes.”
Halfway through the final 20 minutes, the Falcons had added three more treys to their total – but they weren’t sizzling. And the Buffs had rolled to their largest advantage of the night (67-58) to that point. They used a 9-2 run highlighted by an Eli Stalzer trey against the AFA zone and a Roberson steal/stuff that juiced up the crowd of 10,607.
At the 7:47 mark, CU had gone ahead by 10 (71-61) on a pair of Dinwiddie free throws. Another pair from Scott and a nifty layup by Booker with 5:19 to play opened a 14-point CU advantage (75-61).
To catch up, the Falcons would have to go on another three-point binge, but it didn’t happen. The Buffs steadily pulled away.
CU plays Texas Southern Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.
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