Sports
Sports News in Boulder, Colorado Includes CU Buffs, Rockies, Nuggets, Bronkos, Avs, cycling, running, skiingand anything else sports that hits our sports desk. Send sports press releases to sports@BoulderChannel1.com To advertise please call 303-447-8531
Huskies Put The Bite On Frigid Buffs
Jan 17th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
SEATTLE – The Colorado Buffaloes dug themselves a hole with frigid shooting here Wednesday night and left Alaska Airlines Arena in a deeper Pac-12 Conference hole.
But despite their 64-54 loss to streaking Washington, which won for the tenth time in 12 games, Buffs coach Tad Boyle and his players believe positive steps were taken – particularly on defense. Boyle said his team’s defense “was good enough to win . . . our guys played great (defense). We played with pride and some toughness. We lost to a good basketball team.”
The Huskies, playing their first home game since Dec. 22, remained unbeaten (4-0) in conference play and went to 12-5 overall while the Buffs slipped to 1-4, 11-6. If CU’s ‘D’ was exemplary, its ‘O’ was of the OMG variety. Credit the Huskies for some of that misfiring; they’ve now held four Pac-12 teams to under 40 percent from the field.
The Buffs shot a season-low 29.2 percent in the first half and finished at 36.2 percent (21-for-58) for the game – the team’s second-lowest mark this season. CU also tied a season low in assists with six and made only one of 10 three-point attempts. But the Buffs held the Huskies to 33.9 percent (20-for-59) from the field and outrebounded them by one (38-37). It wasn’t an aesthetically pleasing game for either team, but UW coach Lorenzo Romar didn’t care.
Asked about “winning ugly,” Romar said, “You can color it any want to color it. I just know that when you go out and you play two games in a row and you have single digit turnovers (UW had 9, CU 12), you hold four teams to under 40 percent from the field, you outrebound three out of the four, you’re beginning to do things right. The only ‘ugly’ thing, if you want to call it that, is that we haven’t been making shots. Two out of the last four games we haven’t made shots. Other than that, I think we’re doing everything else OK.”
Boyle said the Huskies’ 15 offensive rebounds “really killed us in the second half. We had some stops and couldn’t finish the possession with getting the rebound. That hurt us. And then we put them on the foul line in the second half. For some reason we don’t get to the foul line on the road; I don’t know why.”
Sophomore Spencer Dinwiddie, who led CU with 15 points, said the Buffs played with more overall intensity than in previous conference losses to Arizona, Arizona State and UCLA.
“For sure,” Dinwiddie said. “That’s one thing we talked about. We talked our positives; we finally started playing with our principles – we rebounded the ball decently. There were a couple of possessions where they got three or four offensive rebounds. If we cut that out and they don’t make a run, the game’s different.”
The only other CU player in double figures was junior Andre Roberson with 10 points, marking the first time this season only two Buffs reached double digits. Roberson also had 11 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season and the 32nd of his career.
Roberson said the Buffs “stepped it up big time on the defensive end . . . we just didn’t get the rebounds when it mattered and we didn’t make the tough stops. Our offense has to get better; our motion is terrible right now. That’s one thing we have to improve on big time. Just executing on the offense end is a main thing. That’s why we struggled with this team.”
Sophomore guard Askia Booker fouled out with 34.4 seconds to play after scoring nine points, while freshman forwards Xavier Johnson and Josh Scott had nine and eight, respectively. Scott got all of his points in the second half.
The Huskies’ C.J. Wilcox, the conference’s leading scorer (21.3 ppg), finished with 25, while teammate Scott Suggs added 13. UW had no other double-figure scorers, but Desmond Simmons (12) and Aziz N’Diaye (11) accounted for 23 rebounds.
CU scored a season-low 20 points in the first half and trailed by eight at intermission. The Huskies opened 10-point leads three times in the game’s final 8 minutes, an 11-point advantage in the last 3 minutes, and never allowed their visitors closer than seven points during that span. Trailing 28-20 at intermission, the Buffs might have gone to their locker room thankful for that deficit. When they caught the Huskies at 17-17 on a layup by Johnson – he started against in place of Sabatino Chen – they appeared to have corrected their early problems.
CU committed four of its seven first-half turnovers – a high for a half in league play – in the game’s first 6 minutes and fell behind by seven points. Then the Buffs strung together an 8-2 run – their most productive offensive stretch of the opening half – and pulled even.
But things went south from there. After Johnson’s layup produced the tie at 17 with 8:56 left before the break, CU scored only three more points to finish with its lowest first-half total of the season.
The Buffs opened the second half with three points from Roberson and pulled to within 28-23. But the Huskies trumped that with a four-point play from Scott Suggs to take their largest lead of the night – 32-23 – to that point. The nine-point advantage became 10 (37-27) on a trey by Wilcox. But taking advantage of the 7-foot N’Diaye taking a rest, the 6-10 Scott hit back-to-back baskets to draw the Buffs to within five (39-34) with just over 11 minutes to play.
CU’s threat ended there. A 5-0 run restored U-Dub’s 10-point lead (48-38), leaving the Buffs just over 7 minutes to retaliate. Boyle called a timeout at the 7:12 mark, but the closest his team could get was 52-45 on a three-point play by Dinwiddie with 3:52 to play.
“With our defense tonight and our pride, I’m proud of our guys for the way they hung in there,” Boyle said. “It got away from us at the end there and you look at a 10-point loss on the road and we couldn’t shrink the lead because we couldn’t score. But it wasn’t because of our defense.”
The Buffs’ road trip continues with a Saturday game (8 p.m. MST) at Washington State. The team will fly via charter on Thursday morning from Seattle to Spokane, have Thursday and Friday practices at Gonzaga, then fly to Pullman on Saturday morning.
[includeme src=”http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”670″ height=”300″]
Colorado Women’s Basketball Team Moves Up Two Spots To No. 21 In AP Poll
Jan 14th
BOULDER – The University of Colorado moved up two spots to No. 21 in the Associated Press Women’s Basketball Top 25 poll, released Monday.
Colorado, 13-2 overall and 2-2 in the Pac-12 Conference, received 232 votes, its highest vote total of the season. The Buffaloes have resided in the AP poll for the last five weeks, reaching as high as No. 20 on Dec. 31. CU’s five week run in the AP poll is its longest since appearing in all 19 polls of the 2003-04 season.
The Buffaloes have a long history of rankings in the AP poll, dating back to the 1980-81 season. This week’s ranking marks the 163rd time Colorado has appeared in the AP poll, trailing only Stanford, USC and UCLA among Pac-12 schools.
The USA Today Sports Coaches poll is scheduled to be released on Tuesday. Colorado spent one week at No. 25 in that poll (Jan. 1) and was the second team in the “receiving votes” category last week.
Colorado will continue Pac-12 play by hosting the Arizona schools this week. Arizona State visits Boulder for a 7 p.m. game on Friday, Jan. 18, while the Buffaloes host Arizona on Sunday, Jan. 20, at 2 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.
[includeme src=”http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”670″ height=”300″]
Bleacher Report on the Broncos/Ravens game
Jan 14th
Here on Jan. 12, 2013, it will forever be known as the day that the Ravens upset the heavily favored Broncos in double overtime, 38-35.
This was a painful loss. It wasn’t just a painful loss because the Broncos were heavily favored. It wasn’t because they were the No. 1 seed. It wasn’t because they had home-field advantage.
No. It was because the Broncos blew a game that they had won. It would have been one thing if the Broncos lost this game in the fashion that the Green Bay Packers lost their game later on in the night to the Niners, where the Niners dominated the Packers.
In a weird way, this loss would have been less painful. Am I saying that’s the route that I would have preferred the Ravens-Broncos game went? No.
However, this has to be the worst loss that I’ve seen the Broncos suffer in a big game. Super Bowl blowout losses against NFC powerhouse teams in the ’80s are one thing; losing to the second-year ’96 Jaguars as Super Bowl favorites is about the only playoff loss that I can think of that is as painful as this one.
The Broncos had the game won.
Denver was up 35-28 with 1:15 remaining in the fourth quarter. Joe Flacco and the Ravens offense took over from their 23-yard line with no timeouts remaining.
On a 3rd-and-3 with very little hope of tying the game, Flacco and the Ravens managed to do the impossible by having a little skill, luck and bad football IQ coincide to make a great play.
Flacco heaved up a desperation pass to Jacoby Jones into double coverage. Tony Carter had Jones underneath and for whatever reason, Rahim Moore did the same. Instead of getting behind Jones to defend him high, Moore went underneath and Jones and badly misplayed the ball.
Moore did not come close to batting that ball. He whiffed big time and it looks even worse on the numerous replays you’re bound to sit through for the rest of your lives.
That wasn’t the worst of it.
The worst of it was, that for whatever reason, whether that’s due to natural instincts, lack of time to properly assess the play and situation at hand or nerves, Moore made the wrong decision in going underneath Jones to defend the pass.
If Rahim simply goes over Jones, even if Jacoby makes the catch, Moore would have tackled him inbounds 30 yards before Jones even gets to the end zone and the clock runs down to the point where the Ravens have one or two plays to run off before the end of the game.
What do you call that play?
A lack of football IQ. It was just a bad play by Moore—not knowing the situation at hand. He went all-out for that deflection and he got burned.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Broncos then headed into overtime. They played hard for nearly a full overtime period before Peyton Manning ended up throwing the game-losing interception.
Since I gave Moore a lot of flack for his one play that cost Denver the game, I have no choice to do the same for Manning.
I can excuse Peyton for the first-quarter interception because it wasn’t his fault. Did he try to fit the pass into a tight space? Yeah. But Eric Decker did get touched before the ball got to him which led to the deflection that led to Corey Graham’s interception return for a touchdown.
Can I forgive Peyton’s third-quarter fumble with the Broncos threatening to go up by two possessions for the second time in the game, only to fumble it away and have the Ravens march down the field to tie up the game at 21-all?
Somewhat.
Can I forget about Peyton’s interception by Corey Graham where Manning was rolling to his right and threw across his chest to the middle of the field only to have it intercepted?
No.
I will defend Peyton until the day that he proves he’s no longer the quarterback for the Broncos. He had one of the finest seasons of his career, led Denver to one of the best regular seasons in franchise history and has made this team a legit title contender.
I realize that as Broncos fans, some of us will get defensive over the criticism of Peyton’s performance in this game, largely summed up and highlighted by his interception to Graham in overtime that led to Justin Tucker’s game-winning field goal.
But the criticism is simply justified.
Did the Broncos lose this game because of one bad bone-headed move by Moore, followed by another bone-headed throw by Peyton? No.
Hell, Champ Bailey got burned three times by Torrey Smith. Two of them ended up as touchdowns, one was an overthrow by Flacco that would have been a touchdown if it wasn’t for the overthrow.
The defense got absolutely no pressure on Flacco which gave him all of the time that he needed to complete the three long touchdown passes. In fact, they got one sack on the day. It didn’t happen until overtime.
Having said that, when have you ever seen Peyton throw a pass like that?
Never.
It’s one thing when you have a guy like Brett Favre—the career interceptions leader and a guy notoriously known for taking unneeded risks—throw the game-costing interception in the ’09 NFC Championship versus the Saints, which was similar to Peyton’s throw versus the Ravens.
It’s Brett Favre for God’s sake. He does that in both the regular season and the postseason. Favre went through three straight seasons where the last pass he threw in each season was an interception (’07-’09, which ended his team’s playoff fortunes in each season).
But to have Peyton throw a pass that not even a rookie quarterback would make?
How can you explain that? How can you defend that?
There is simply no explaining it. You can’t defend it.
And so the Broncos enter the 2013 NFL offseason having wasted a bright regular season by choking on the biggest of stages—the NFL postseason.
It wasn’t a one-man loss. It wasn’t a two-man loss. It was an entire team’s loss.
I laid the criticism on Moore and Peyton. Even threw in Bailey and the defense in there. What about coach John Fox?
I was ready to criticize him for the 3rd-and-7 on Denver’s last offensive drive before Jacoby Jones scored on the game-tying touchdown, where the Broncos would end up running the football on a safe play with Ronnie Hillman before punting the football.
I mean why not give the potential NFL MVP a chance to win the game for you by throwing the football?
However, the icing on the cake was with 31 seconds left and two timeouts remaining. With the Broncos taking over at their 20-yard line, here was Peyton Manning—taking a knee to end regulation.
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t the Ravens riding at an all-time high of emotions after Jones’ miraculous 70-yard touchdown run and catch? Was their confidence not at an all-time high after Flacco had completed three 30-plus-yard touchdown passes throughout the game?
Why even take the chance of heading into regulation when Baltimore’s offense had its way with Denver’s defense all throughout the game?
In a move that will be second-guessed until the day that John Fox and Peyton Manning lead the Broncos to a third Super Bowl title, Fox chose to run out the clock and take his chances in overtime.
Yet again, living up to his billing as a safe coach.
It backfired on the Broncos. Just like every move they made in the last few minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime.
What is there to say about this 38-35 double-overtime loss?
It is what it is.
The Broncos lost this game and can’t look at it any other way. If the Broncos want to win a Super Bowl in the Manning era, they need to not only play better, but use this game as a learning and motivational tool for championship success next season.
If the ’97 and ’98 Broncos can do it, I expect the ’13 Broncos to do the same.
If they can’t, Jan. 12, 2013, will be a date remembered by Broncos fans for a long time.
[includeme src=”http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”670″ height=”300″]
For all of the wrong reasons.
