Posts tagged Andre Roberson
Roberson gains more honors for his defense
Apr 2nd
Colorado junior forward Andre Roberson was named to the 2013 Lefty Driesell Defensive All-America team, in addition named a finalist as the top defensive player award announced Monday.
The Lefty Driesell award is named in honor of coaching legend Lefty Driesell, who is the only person to ever win 100 games at four different Division I schools. The award will be presented to the nation’s top defensive player on April 5 at the CollegeInsider.com awards banquet in Atlanta, site of the men’s NCAA Basketball Championship.
Roberson, the Pac-12 Conference Defensive Player of the Year and a first team conference selection, is the only Pac-12 player named on the 21-player list. He finished second nationally in rebounding (11.2 rpg.) and was also No. 30th in steals (2.16) and No. t-158 in blocks (1.32).
Roberson helped the Buffaloes to the Pac-12’s top scoring defense (conference games-only) of 62.2 points per game. Colorado finished the season with a 21-12 record and NCAA Tournament second round appearance. Roberson also set the school record for a junior in a single season with 347 rebounds, in addition establishing a career-best 66 steals. The 11.2 rebounding average is also a career-high.
Joining Roberson on the team are Khem Birch (UNLV), Tommy Brenton (Stony Brook), Will Cherry (Montana), Ian Clark (Belmont), Aaron Craft (Ohio State), Gorgui Dieng (Louisville), Jontel Evans (Virginia), Shane Larkin (Miami), Zeke Marshall (Akron), Nerlens Noel (Kentucky), Chris Obekpa (St. John’s), Victor Oladipo (Indiana), Trevor Releford (Alabama), Durand Scott (Miami), Marcus Smart (Oklahoma State), Michael Snaer (Florida State), D.J. Stephens (Memphis), Darius Theus (VCU), Julian Washburn (UTEP) and Jeff Withey (Kansas).
Driesell is best known for his time at Maryland leading the program to the National Invitational Tournament title in 1972 and to the ACC Tournament Championship in 1984. He finished his career at Maryland with a 348-159 record and concluded his career with an impressive 786-394 mark.
CU SPORTS MEDIA RELEASE
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CU men draw Illini In NCAA First Round
Mar 18th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER – Back in mid-November, coach Tad Boyle and his young Colorado Buffaloes worked up a significant reservoir of the stuff along the drizzly, dank South Carolina coast, unexpectedly winning the Charleston Classic.
When the Baby Buffs returned with it to the Rockies, Boyle found them – to quote the poet – “always in want.” And Sunday afternoon in their coach’s den, their want was rewarded.
Colorado will play Illinois in the NCAA Tournament on Friday in Austin, Texas. The Buffs are a No. 10 seed, the Illini a No. 7. It is CU’s 12th overall NCAA appearance, the second consecutive trip to the Big Dance, and the first time for back-to-back appearances by the Buffs on March’s majestic college dance card in 50 years (1961-62/1962-63).
Before their successful stint in Charleston, Boyle conceded if this was an NCAA Tournament team he couldn’t see it coming.
“I wasn’t sure,” he said after Sunday’s early, anxious moments had passed. “I’ll be honest with you, when I looked at our schedule before the season started, after Europe, I was thinking 15 to 17 wins – somewhere in that neighborhood. Less than that and I think we would have underachieved, over that I think maybe we overachieved, just because of our youth and our schedule early.
“What happens is, you win early like we did in Charleston, we beat some good teams and you start getting greedy. You want a little bit more and a little bit more. Once that happened, I think my expectations, our fans’ expectations, everybody’s expectations go up.”
Boyle is very careful, very crafty not to hitch his expectations to those circulating outside the Coors Events Center. But this time, he might have found it difficult not to. He saw what his third CU team might be if it improved month to month, and by the final week of the regular season – that would be before an ugly home loss to Oregon State – he had seen indications that if it didn’t repeat as Pac-12 tournament champions, it could be among the NCAA’s 37 at-large entries.
And that’s as much a tribute to his upgrade of CU hoops as was winning four games in four days last March in L.A.
“This is a hard tournament to get into,” Boyle said. “We can’t ever take this for granted. This is the first back-to-back NCAA Tournaments (for CU) since the early ‘60s – a long, long time ago . . . so in the modern era, the first back-to-back. We don’t want it to be the last. I think it’s a great step forward for our program to get an at-large bid. Obviously we’d rather win the Pac-12 Tournament, but the fact we didn’t and we got in shows some respect (by the Selection Committee).”
That respect didn’t show itself for what seemed a painfully long time Sunday afternoon. The CBS Selection Show went through a pair of 15-minute segments in announcing the Midwest and South brackets before “Colorado” flashed on the screen opposite Illinois in the East.
During their half-hour wait, Boyle and his upperclassmen were flashing back to two years ago in the same room, when a festive Selection Sunday watch party turned funereal when the Buffs were spurned. Angst built on this Sunday when Pac-12 champ Oregon, which had defeated Oregon less than 24 hours earlier, was relegated to a No. 12 seed in the Midwest.
“I was sitting next to Andre (Roberson, junior forward) and we were both getting nervous,” Boyle recalled. “All the guys who were here two years ago . . . the rest of the guys don’t have any idea, but those guys do.”
The younger guys, however, were not sitting at ease. “I don’t know if I can even describe it,” sophomore guard Askia Booker said. “Your ears get hot, sweat starts coming down your head . . . you’re looking at teammates and they’re trying to keep themselves composed. It’s hard, nerve-wracking. But once you’re in, it’s all joy.”
Boyle’s nerves had everything to do with Selection Sunday 2011, but he added, “The fortunate thing was this was a new year, new team . . . a whole new deal. Logically – and I’m a pretty logical person – it shouldn’t have had anything to do with it. But emotionally, it’s human nature. You know how it works. We’re all scarred and sometimes you’re afraid of reopening those old wounds.”
They stayed closed and when the Buffs were in, with their opponent, date and destination, the Boyle den erupted in cheers.
“I’m happy for Andre getting to go back to Texas (he’s from San Antonio),” Boyle said. “Austin is a great place to go this time of year, heck, anytime of year for that matter. We’re very fortunate, and we’re playing a team from one of the toughest conferences in the country.”
Roberson, the nation’s leading rebounder who showed few effects at the Pac-12 tournament from a viral illness that sidelined him for the previous two games, called returning to his home state “definitely great. It’s a double for me. This is a great feeling, especially after what happened two years ago. We’re going to go and show everybody why we’re one of the best.”
One of Roberson’s personal goals this season is to advance to at least the Sweet Sixteen, and he believes “we can do that this year with the team we’ve got and the talent we have . . . I won’t say we overachieved, but we had a lot of young guys. We started to rebuild and I definitely feel we did a great job this year.”
Being seeded 10th was in the neighborhood where Boyle believed the Buffs might land – and he likes that spot.
“Quite frankly, I was hoping for a ten or eleven more than an eight or a nine,” he said. “You face usually a No. 1 seed (if you win the first game) and sometimes that No. 1 seed, they try and keep them close to home. They really put a lot of stock in those No. 1 seeds and once it starts going down from there, the part of the country is less important.
“So I thought certainly with a ten or eleven seed, your first-round opponent is maybe a little bit better, but your second-round opponent – now, they’re still going to be good, Miami is a No. 2 seed and won the ACC and the ACC Tournament – but you never know what’s going to happen in this thing. That’s what makes this tournament so special – the upsets. If a ten seed like Colorado beats a seven seed like Illinois, it’s not really considered an upset. But if a fifteen (seed) beats a two, it’s a major upset. Those eight-nine games are flips of the coin. We’re just elated to be a part of it.”
CU (21-11) and Illinois (22-12) have only played four games, with the Illini winning three. Their last meeting was in 1987 in Champaign, where the home team won 69-65. If the Buffs advance to the second round, they catch either Miami (Fla.) or Pacific; they’ve faced Miami once (a 73-66 CU win in Miami in 1957), but have never faced Pacific.
Illinois finished 8-10 in the Big Ten Conference and was ousted from the league tournament by Indiana 80-64. But the Illini defeated the Hoosiers 74-72 during the Big Ten regular season, as well as winning at Gonzaga 85-74 during non-conference play. Both Indiana and Gonzaga wound up as No. 1 NCAA seeds.
“They’re a very good team from one of the best leagues in the country if not the best,” Boyle said of Illinois. “They beat Gonzaga at Gonzaga and I don’t think anybody else did that this year. They’re a quality basketball team and we’ve got our work cut out for us. Whoever you play in this tournament, you’re going to play somebody good.”
Before Sunday’s Selection Show, Boyle asked his coordinator of operations, Bill Cartun, to start compiling tape on eight or nine possible NCAA opponents. Illinois was on Cartun’s list, so Boyle and his staff are a step ahead in that area. CU’s Illini scouting report will fall to assistant Mike Rohn.
The Buffs’ NCAA experience last March started and ended in Albuquerque, where they defeated UNLV before being sent home by Baylor. Boyle said the biggest lesson learned from that trip was to focus on one game, one opponent: “Not looking ahead is the biggest thing; there are no tomorrows.”
Playing in the moment is paramount, just as living in it on Sunday in Boyle’s den was excruciating.
“Everything you do as coach, and our players do, day in and day out in practice, all the jump shots, all the wind sprints, all the defensive drills – everything that we do kind of points to this day,” Boyle said. “It’s probably more important than it should be, but that’s the world we live in. You can’t bury your head in the sand. When it comes down to one day, one decision and it’s out of your hands, it’s nerve-wracking.”
When the Buffs were officially in, their coach reminded them, “It’s a heck of a lot easier when we win the Pac-12 tournament; there’s a lot less drama in this room.”
But that’s next season’s goal. A more immediate one awaits in Austin.
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CU men fall to Arizona in PAC-12 tourney
Mar 15th
Still holding hopes for a wild card berth in the NCAA tournament
LAS VEGAS – Let the waiting game begin. A year ago, the Colorado Buffaloes wrung the suspense out of Selection Sunday by winning the Pac-12 Conference Tournament and earning an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
This year, it’s not that clear-cut, although the Buffs believe their NCAA case has been stated – even in Thursday’s 79-69 quarterfinal loss to No. 18 Arizona in the Pac-12 Conference Tournament.
No. 5 seed CU rallied dramatically, cutting a 14-point lead by No. 4 seed Arizona to two in the final 63 seconds. But the Wildcats held on and left the Buffs holding their collective breath for one of 37 NCAA at-large bids.
“We’re one of the top 37 teams in my mind,” said CU coach Tad Boyle. “But it’s not for me to say.”
But Boyle did cite his argument for the Buffs, who finished 21-11 for their third consecutive 20-win season under Boyle. Last March, after punching the Pac-12’s free ticket, they advanced to the NCAA second round before being eliminated by Baylor in Albuquerque.
This March, Boyle cited CU’s strength of schedule (No. 19), the overall strength of the Pac-12 this season, CU’s league-low 15 home games and the return of Andre Roberson as reasons for the Buffs to be given strong NCAA consideration.
The Buffs finished the season 4-3 against Top 25 teams and were 9-9 against opponents in the top 100 RPI. CU’s pre-game RPI on Thursday was in the low 30s. It all appears to give the Buffs strong NCAA credentials. Yet as Boyle said, inclusion in the 68-team NCAA field isn’t for him or his players to determine despite “what we did over our whole body of work.”
Their work finished in dramatic if unfulfilling fashion as the Buffs overcame an enigmatic and sloppy start to push the Wildcats harder than they might have expected after the first 20 minutes.
Arizona, said Boyle, “played a hell of a game. You could tell from the very beginning they were ready to go.” But it took more than a little while for the Buffs to find the same gear; they trailed 39-28 after a first half that saw them commit 10 of their 13 turnovers (leading to 15 first-half Arizona points) and hit only five of 12 free throw attempts.
With 12:24 left in the game, CU fell behind by 14 before tightening up its defense, rebounding more tenaciously and eventually closing to within 71-69 on a pair of Andre Roberson free throws with 1:03 remaining. But Arizona’s Nick Johnson scored a layup between two CU defenders at the other end to push the Wildcats up four.
Then two free throws by Mark Lyons with 23.6 seconds left gave Arizona a comfortable six-point advantage. The Wildcats added four more free throws in the final 14.2 seconds to win by double digits.
“Coach Boyle always preaches defend and rebound, and I felt like that’s when started to do that and we had a run,” said Roberson, who collected his 37th career double-double (15 points, 11 rebounds). “I feel like we just didn’t do it consistently throughout the whole 40 minutes. That’s how we fell off in the first half, and that’s how we got back into the game in the second half.”
CU outrebounded Arizona 33-31, but allowed the Wildcats to shoot 45.2 percent for the game. The Buffs’ goal is to hold opponents below 40 percent from the field. Arizona also got 25 points from a bench that Boyle says offers “the most quality depth of anybody in our league . . . they go ten deep.”
When the Buffs were surging back, Wildcats’ guard Mark Lyons hit what Boyle called “the play of the game.” With a second showing on the shot clock and Arizona cradling a 68-64 lead, Lyons (14 points, three assists, one steal) took an inbounds pass and fired from the left corner. It swished and CU’s momentum took a hit.
Boyle called the quick inbounds play “a breakdown on our part defensively. We’ve practiced that situation. We just didn’t do what we were supposed to do and it cost us.”
Just over a minute later, after the Buffs had pulled to 71-69, Nick Johnson scored between Roberson and Xavier Johnson to push the Wildcats back up by four. Roberson said Nick Johnson “was stuck in the key looking for a teammate . . . he didn’t have any other option but to go up with it. Maybe I could have been a little more aggressive, but ‘XJ’ was trapping him. He just made a tough shot.”
The fourth-seeded Wildcats (25-6) play top-seeded UCLA (24-8) in one of Friday’s semifinals at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which saw a record crowd of 12,915 on Thursday afternoon.
CU, which defeated Arizona 53-51 last season for the inaugural Pac-12 championship in Los Angeles, was led by Spencer Dinwiddie with 18 points. Askia Booker contributed 12 and Xavier Johnson 11. Arizona had three players in double figures, topped by Nick Johnson’s 18. The Wildcats hit nine of their 27 three-point attempts, while the Buffs were 5-of-12 from beyond the arc.
The Buffs took their only lead of the game on the first possession, getting a dunk from Dinwiddie on a baseline drive. From there, the afternoon looked as if it belonged to Arizona. The first half’s last half minute providing a snapshot of the Buffs’ early deficiencies. After closing to within eight (36-28) on a put-back by Roberson, CU forced a turnover and had possession with 23.8 seconds left before the break.
But Sabatino Chen couldn’t in-bound the ball in the allotted five seconds and Arizona regained possession. The Wildcats worked the clock to five seconds before Solomon Hill drove the lane for a layup. Roberson fouled him and Hill converted the three-point play, saddling CU with its second-worst (11 points) halftime deficit of the season.
The worst was 19 at Kansas, and that game didn’t end well for CU – a 90-54 smack down in Allen Fieldhouse.
CU’s bench, which was outscored 18-4 in the first half, took a hit when 6-11 Shane Harris-Tunks was hit in the head with 12:45 left before the break. He went to the locker room for evaluation and was not cleared to play in the second half.
Asked about Harris-Tunks’ condition, Boyle said, “Let me say this about Shane: We’ve had two blatant no-calls that have led to concussions on our basketball team (Josh Scott was the other) and I’m really disappointed about it.”
Harris-Tunks’ departure and two early fouls on the 6-10 Scott resulted in five rare first-half minutes for 7-0 junior Ben Mills, who had one point and two rebounds in that time. Boyle said he was “proud of him for doing it tonight in a very tough environment.”
With 12:24 remaining, a three-pointer from the left corner by Jordin Mayes pushed the Wildcats ahead 54-40. If the Buffs couldn’t see trouble ahead, they weren’t looking. But maybe that was a good thing.
Down by 14 after Mayes’ trey, Dinwiddie hit a pair of free throws, Xavier Talton scored a layup on a fast break, and Dinwiddie knocked down a three in transition.
Suddenly, Arizona’s 14-point led had been cut in half (56-47) with 10 minutes to play. The Buffs pulled to within four three times in the final 3:13, the last time on a Booker three with 1:50 remaining. After an Arizona turnover 30 seconds later, Boyle – with his team trailing 71-67 – called a timeout. Roberson’s two foul shots made it a two-point game, but that was as close as the Buffs could get.
Arizona coach Sean Miller said the Wildcats “beat an excellent basketball team . . . we needed to play extremely hard to beat a team like Colorado. You think about Colorado being seeded fifth, it really shows the depth and quality of our conference from top to bottom.”
Boyle and the Buffs hope the NCAA Selection Committee sees it that way, but they’ll have to wait to find out.
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