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The Seahawks are swell. We all agree.
Feb 7th
The Seahawks’ magical 2013 season had come to its official end with a parade through more than 700,000 cheering fans and a championship celebration before 50,000 going-bonkers 12th Man fans at CenturyLink Field and 27,000 more at Safeco Field across the street. It was a sendoff befitting a Super Bowl champion, which the Seahawks became with their 43-8 victory over the Denver Broncos on Sunday night.
Before he left the stadium Wednesday, coach Pete Carroll held one more Q&A session with the media – in the same room where he had addressed them after each of the Seahawks’ 10 home games during the regular season and postseason.
But this one was different, because this season was different. For starters, it ended later than all but one of the Seahawks’ previous 37 seasons – with the exception being 2005, when the Seahawks lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super XL on Feb. 5, 2006.
So coach, are you behind already in the quest to not only defend, but extend, the Seahawks’ reign as Super Bowl champs?
“No,” Carroll said. “John (Schneider, the general manger) is all over it. So no, not at all.”
While the team was in New Jersey last week preparing for the Super Bowl, Schneider was meeting with his staff to prepare for the NFL Scouting Combine Feb. 19-25, the next big step for the May 8-10 NFL Draft; as well as the free agency period, which begins March 11.
As has been the case since Carroll and Schneider arrived in 2010, their first priority is retaining their own players who are scheduled to become free agents – a list that includes defensive lineman Michael Bennett, who led the team in sacks; and wide receiver Golden Tate, who led the team in receiving.
“We want this team together, we want to see if we can keep this team together,” Carroll said. “Every decision is difficult that we have to face. And guys that are at the end of their contracts, those are big issues for us. We love the guys; we love what they do and what they bring. And we’d like to keep it together as best we can.
“John will be faced with some really challenging discussions and things to get that done, but we’ll be very much in concert on it and what we want to get done and then we’ll go set about it one step at a time. And it’ll take us a good while, always with our eye on what’s going on with the draft and all that, and we’ll see if we put it together just right.”
PHOTO GALLERY: Players Celebrate 48
As for free agency, the Seahawks will be choosey, as they have been in the past, because they can afford to be after what Schneider and Carroll have done the past four offseasons.
“We have what we need,” Carroll said. “We just need to get back to work, when the time comes, with the right attitude and the right focus. That’s all I’m concerned about. We’ll have an opportunity to add some players to our team through the draft and all. We’ll take a good look at free agency.
“I don’t see anything that we need to add. We just need to get better.”
The players will be around Virginia Mason Athletic Center in the coming weeks and months, but the offseason program does not start until April 21.
“It seems like forever,” Carroll said. “I think we walk out of here totally arm in arm with the fact that we’re going to have a great offseason. That means that the guys have to be totally committed to having a great offseason, because they’re going to have a lot of distractions and a lot of people pulling them in different directions.”
Carroll addressed that during the final team meeting on Tuesday, when the players also cleaned out their lockers and took their exit physicals.
“Quite frankly, each guy’s got to set his plan in motion and not let the distractions get in the way of the hard work that it takes to put this thing back together again,” Carroll said.
“It’s an extraordinary opportunity, because it’s so difficult for teams to come back and play well after winning the Super Bowl. We take that challenge on now, nose to nose. We’re going to go after it and see what we can do about it.”
And Carroll doesn’t care for talk of a repeat – as no team has repeated as Super Bowl champion since the New England Patriots in 2003 and 2004, and they were the first to do it since the Broncos in 1997 and 1998. Or even the Super Bowl, for that matter. He’s all about improving each day, which allows you to improve each week, which allows you to improve each season.
“Let me say it even more specifically, it’s not about repeating to me,” he said. “That isn’t it. We’re trying to do something really good for a really long time. And we want to see how far we can go, and someday we can look back and see what we accomplished. In the middle of it, I don’t think it’s time to assess it.
PHOTO GALLERY: Fans Celebrate 48
“In this year, I never talked about the Super Bowl. I talked about trying to help these guys be the best they possibly can be.”
And in 2013, the Seahawks were the best in team in all of football.
New point-guard steers Buffs to win, barely
Feb 6th
Written By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER – The Colorado Buffaloes and junior guard Askia Booker opened the second half on the run and appeared ready to race past Washington State on Wednesday night. Not so fast, said the Cougars’ DaVonte Lacy.
The Buffs held on – far from tightly – for a 68-63 Pac-12 Conference win that was secured – but barely – at the foul line in the final 1:05. CU hit only 8 of 14 free throws during that span, but Booker’s 6 of 8 – including a pair with 2 seconds remaining – kept the Buffs afloat.
“A win’s a win,” said CU coach Tad Boyle, “especially in conference play. But it was not pretty, especially at the end. Obviously we have to finish better and that puts a bit of a damper on this win.”
With Lacy hitting 21 of his game-high and career-high 34 points in the second half – including five of his eight 3-pointers – WSU cut a 19-point CU lead to three (66-63) before Booker’s final pair of foul shots.
“We had a 19-point lead and gave it up,” said Booker, whose 26 points Wednesday night was one off his career high. “We took it down to the last second. We can’t let it get to that point. It seemed like we didn’t have enough energy towards the end and we can’t do that Sunday because that team is a lot better and will come in and finish us off.”
“That team” is Washington, which defeated CU 71-54 in Seattle last month and visits the Coors Events Center Sunday at 6 p.m.
Booker scored 15 of his total as the Buffs (17-6, 6-4) increased a three-point halftime lead to 50-33 with 8:25 to play, then to 54-35 less than 2 minutes later. But Lacy, who didn’t play in CU’s 71-70 overtime win in Spokane on Jan. 8, and the Cougars (9-13, 2-8) roared back with their shooting behind the arc.
They attempted 15 treys in the second half, hitting nine of them (60 percent) and finishing 13-of-27 for the game (48.1 percent). The Cougars’ 13 made 3-pointers tied their total in the first meeting and Elon’s output for the most by a CU opponent this season.
Boyle said the Buffs defended Que Johnson well (he made 2 of 11 field goals and finished with eight points) but faltered on Lacy. “Not so much on him,” Boyle said. “When you’re eight for 13 on threes, that’s not good enough (defense).”
CU’s Xavier Johnson backed up Booker with 20 points – they were the only two Buffs in double figures – and Johnson’s nine rebounds and Wesley Gordon’s 10 picked up the slack for a sub-par Josh Scott. CU’s leading scorer (14.4 ppg) and rebounder (9.1 rpg) didn’t get his first point or board until the game’s final half minute.
“Give Washington State credit,” said Boyle, “their game plan was double him every time he touched the ball. They did and they were on him quickly.”
The Buffs improved their home record to 14-1 this season and 58-8 at the CEC under Boyle. The 14 ‘W’s this season tie for the fourth-most home wins in program history.
The Buffs led 23-20 at halftime, but it was a weird, disjointed journey to that meager advantage.
Neither team sizzled from the field in the first 20 minutes; CU shot 39 percent, WSU 40. At one point, the Buffs went 6:32 between field goals. And at 13-13, there wasn’t a first-half rebounding edge – forever a point of contention for Boyle. CU wound up winning the board battle 32-28 and shot 48.1 percent in the second to finish at 44 percent (22-of-50). The Buffs committed what Boyle called a “manageable” 12 turnovers while turning 17 Cougars errors into 14 points.
After the Cougars took a 7-6 lead, the Buffs appeared to take control with a 9-0 run that opened their largest margin of the half – 15-7.
Jaron Hopkins opened the run with a trey from the left corner and George King closed it with a short pull-up jumper. Then the Buffs went stagnant offensively, not getting their next field goal for just over 61/2 minutes.
For the first time in five games, Hopkins didn’t start. He was replaced by Xavier Talton, but the sophomore from Sterling picked up two quick fouls and went to the bench only 2:28 into his first career start.
While CU was muddling through its offense, WSU capitalized, mainly on the shooting of Lacy. The 6-4 junior brought the Cougars back by scoring eight of his 13 first-half points in the final 5:47.
The Buffs outscored the Cougars 11-3 to open the second half, with Booker going to the rim and getting 10 of those points. CU opened its first double-digit lead of the game – 34-23 – with 16:01 remaining.
“Coach just told me to be aggressive,” Booker said. “I had to pick and choose my spots . . . I got to the basket and got some easy buckets in transition.”
Three consecutive 3-pointers by Talton, Booker and Dustin Thomas opened a 50-33 lead 8 1/2 minutes to play, but the Cougars kept shooting treys and hitting them.
“Lacy got open way too many times,” Booker said. “It came down to a three-point game and whether it be one man or three people that’s hot on their team, we have to find a way to win the game. And thank God we made those free throws at the end to hold them off.
“But at the same time you can’t let an individual come in here, especially on the road, and let him take over and keep his team in the game.”
The Buffs have until Sunday to figure out how to do that. UW’s C.J. Wilcox scored 31 on the Buffs, hitting seven treys, in the meeting in Seattle.
Buff golfers prepare for tough Hawai’i tourney
Feb 6th
WAIKOLOA, Hawai’i — The University of Colorado men’s golf team arrived here Saturday in preparation for its spring opener, the 24th annual Amer Ari Hawaii-Hilo Invitational.
The tournament, which runs this Thursday through Saturday, will once again provide an indication of where the Buffaloes stand right out of the gate, not just nationally, but with seven other Pac-12 schools competing, the Buffs will get an early idea of where they stand in the conference.
The field here is annually one of the strongest in the spring, and it’s no exception this year with three top 10 teams competing and 10 of the top 50 and all but two (out of 17) in the top 100. It also includes 10 of the nation’s top 30 individuals and the No. 7 Division II program in CSU-Monterey Bay.
Colorado (No. 83 in the final Golfweek fall rankings), will be joined in the field by league counterparts Stanford (No. 9), Washington (No. 13), UCLA (No. 17), Southern California (No. 25), Arizona State (No. 37), Oregon (No. 60) and Oregon State (No. 67). Other top schools competing include No. 2 Georgia Tech, No. 3 Oklahoma State, No. 19 Texas and No. 26 Auburn.
The three-day tournament is a real treat for the participants, as the tournament will be played on the renowned 7,074-yard, par-72 Waikoloa King’s Course on Hawai’i’s Big Island, a Scottish links-style layout with fairways interspersed between ancient lava fields, along with numerous lakes and pot bunkers. The teams will play 18 holes each day in a shotgun start format at 10:30 a.m. MST in weather expected to be near-perfect with temperatures in the low 80s.
Colorado head coach Roy Edwards said the team is looking forward to the spring season getting underway.
“This tournament annually has a great field, and it’s always really exciting,” Edwards said. “It’s been just over three months since our last tournament and we’re ready to get our spring season going. We’ve had some solid days of practice out here, which we were in need of considering the weather back home. If we take care of business and play the way we’re capable, we’re confident that we can beat some really good teams.”
Six Buffaloes are on trip; five will score for the team: junior David Oraee (73.9 fall stroke average) sophomore Philip Juel-Berg (73.5) and three true freshmen: Jeremy Paul (72.9), Yannik Paul (72.5) and Andrew Bonner (77.7). Oraee, Juel-Berg and Jeremy Paul played in all five competitions, while Yannik Paul appeared in four and Bonner two. Senior Johnny Hayes (74.4) will play as an individual.
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