Posts tagged CEC
Buffs Win Big, Get In The Spirit Of Giving
Dec 22nd
BOULDER – ‘Tis the season . . .
On a name-your-score night for the Colorado Buffaloes, coach Tad Boyle was more impressed by his team’s willingness to share than its point total.
Oh, CU’s points – 98 of them – were impressive, especially considering overmatched Northern Arizona managed only 51 on Friday night at the Coors Events Center.
But by halftime, Boyle’s Buffaloes had dished out 13 assists, tying their full-game season high. Sharing the ball more effectively has been on Boyle’s mind for a couple of months, and Friday night his team offered him an early Christmas present – 24 assists.
“We played unselfish . . . we made the extra pass it was contagious on our team,” a beaming Boyle said. “It’s a great way to go into Christmas break . . . a great team victory.”
On the switches-and-ashes side, the Buffs also committed 16 turnovers. Yet at halftime, when they were up 57-21, their assist-to-turnover ratio was a sparkling 13-to-5, so Boyle couldn’t leave the building overwrought about second-half ball handling that he termed “just a little careless.”
He used all 12 of his players and 11 of them scored – five reaching double figures. Askia Booker and Xavier Johnson each had 17, with Spencer Dinwiddie adding 15, Josh Scott 11 and Andre Roberson 10. Reserves Ben Mills and Beau Gamble got in the game late and scored their first points of the season.
Said Boyle: “To give them some time and minutes was something everybody felt good about.”
Added Dinwiddie: “Everybody is happy. We had people getting off the bench. We are each other’s biggest supporters. Most of the time you see the guys on the bench supporting us (starters) and it was just a great opportunity we had to be able to support them.”
CU, improving to 9-2, has one non-league game remaining before beginning Pac-12 Conference play on Jan. 3 at No. 4 Arizona. The Buffs play Hartford on Saturday, Dec. 29. It is part of a men’s-women’s doubleheader at the Events Center, with the CU women taking on New Mexico. The men’s tip time is noon.
NAU came to Boulder with a 4-6 record, a pair of losses coming against Pac-12 opponents. The Lumberjacks lost November games at Oregon (83-73) and at Arizona (93-50), and NAU coach Jack Murphy left the CEC believing CU can compete with the upper tier Pac-12 teams.
“When they shoot the ball like they did tonight, they’ll compete with anybody in the league,” Murphy said. “I think that those three teams, and I obviously haven’t seen the other nine, but those three I’ve seen are very, very good. I know right now as it stands they have the three best records in the conference and they all are well coached.
“I think Arizona’s size will present problems for a lot of teams in the league but Colorado, they have great guard play . . . and with Roberson and Scott and the high-low action in the front court, they can be really tough to beat.”
In the run-up to Friday’s game, Boyle promised that his bench would be utilized more in the Buffs’ final two non-conference games. He held true to his promise, using 10 players in Friday’s first half as CU cruised to its 36-point lead at intermission. CU’s bench wound up outscoring NAU’s 39-11.
“We really need to get those (bench) guys going,” Boyle said. “Those guys are going to be important to us throughout the season. We know pretty much what we’re going to get from our starters.”
The Buffs’ 98 points were the second most in the Boyle era, as was their 47-point margin of victory. Their 57 first-half points were the third highest for a first half since the 1954-55 season.
Booker got CU rolling early by hitting five of his first six shots. When NAU pulled to 8-6 on an inside basket by 6-8 Max Jacobsen, Booker answered with a jumper and a layup to open a 23-2 Buffs run that effectively finished the Lumberjacks.
Boyle said it was “key for ‘Ski’ to come off . . . I was hoping he could get out of his funk.” Taking extra shots has never been an issue for Booker, said Boyle: “He’ll spend time in the gym. When he gets his mojo going, he’s pretty darn good.”
Booker said his hot start “felt pretty good,” adding that the Lumberjacks defenders were “forcing me to the baseline a lot . . . their big guys are a little slower, which allowed me to get a few more open shots.”
At the 9:18 mark, CU led 31-8 and was just getting untracked. With just over 2 minutes left before intermission, the Buffs’ lead had ballooned to 40 (55-15). Consecutive layups by Sabatino Chen got CU to 55, and along the way there were plenty of highlights, including the 6-10 freshman Scott’s first three-pointer of the season. He drained his trey from the top of the key and followed with the Buffs’ next two baskets.
CU finished the half with an eye-popping 71.4 percent from the field (25-for-35) and 60 percent from three-point range (6-for-10). The Buffs shot 66.7 percent (40-for-60) for the game – the best shooting percentage by a CU team in 23 seasons – and were at 55 percent (11-for-20 from beyond the arc.
The only area that found the Buffs lacking was their free throw shooting. They made only one of seven first-half attempts, with three of the misses spoiling opportunities for three-point plays. They finished 7-of-15 from the line.
But with all else CU was doing right, misfiring from the foul stripe was forgivable. The Buffs’ defense was stifling and their board work overwhelming; they held the Lumberjacks to 31.1 percent from the field (19-of-61) and outrebounded them 45-22.
The Buffs opened the second half with as much effort and efficiency as they did to begin the night. At the 12-minute mark, they were up by 50 (78-28) and showing no signs of easing up.
About 4 minutes later, with CU ahead 83-35, Mills – the 7-foot junior center – left the bench for only the second time this season, much to the delight of the CEC crowd. He scored his first points of the season on a layup with 4:32 to play, sending CU up 90-39.
Boyle completed the emptying of his bench by inserting Gamble, a sophomore guard who attended Fairview High School, with 5:33 remaining. Gamble got in the scoring column with a three-pointer in the final 90 seconds.
The Buffs missed an opportunity to reach 100 points for the first time this season, but really didn’t care. They dribbled out the final 16 seconds without taking a shot. The crowd wasn’t overly pleased – but the displeasure passed quickly.
CU now has a four-day Christmas break, which Boyle called “an eternity” compared to previous holiday off periods he has experienced. “The most I’ve ever had was maybe three days,” he said. “These guys will have to do some cardio work at home; they can’t sit on the couch and eat ham and turkey. I trust our guys.”
Brooks: Deep, Talented CU Women’s Team Awaits Opener
Nov 10th
Release: 11/10/2012 Courtesy: B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor
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BOULDER – It might be a stretch for a college junior to be reflecting on how it was “back in the day,” but Brittany Wilson vividly recalls how things were in Colorado women’s basketball a mere three seasons ago. “In my freshman year,” “B-Wil” remembered the other day, “we got down to six players when we played Iowa State.” Technically, the Buffs were down to eight players, but first-year coach Linda Lappe‘s primary rotation that day was six – with the five starters playing at least 33 minutes each in a game that pushed into overtime. But here’s Wilson’s point: Her first CU team didn’t have a deep end; most of the time it flailed away in shallow water. Things have changed. Big-time. The CU team that opens its 2012-13 season Sunday afternoon against Idaho (2 p.m., Coors Events Center) has plenty of bodies that play plenty well. What’s more, the daily competition goes from whistle to whistle and isn’t for the gentle and meek. “Coaches have to stop practice sometimes to get people off the floor,” Wilson said. “We haven’t had the competition on the floor like this. You have to come out and compete for your spot every single day, because there’s 13 girls that can play. If you don’t come out ready to defend your position – if you are a starter – or to earn your playing time, either you’re not going to start or you’re not going to get that playing time.” That’s exactly the way Lappe and her staff want it, although her priority as Sunday’s opener approached was identifying enough consistency among those talented 13 players to pencil in a starting lineup. As of Tuesday, she had “no idea,” but she will by Sunday morning. It’s a good problem to have, one that will sort itself out as Lappe’s very balanced bunch advances. If her number of better players this season creates a different kind of dilemma, it’s still one she relishes. She and her staff “take a lot of stock in who brings it every day in practice” and use that as a guide in determining how 40 minutes on game day is split. “But day to day that changes with our team,” Lappe said. “That’s been the most unsettling thing as a coach – the consistency of our players and who we think can provide us major minutes during this first game. It’s something that as the year goes along will change and fluctuate. That’s probably been the hardest thing for me. But there’s good in that because now you do have 10-12 players that all could start on any given day.” Lappe has a pretty good handle on two members of Sunday’s starting five. That pair would be senior wingMeagan Malcolm-Peck and “B-Wil,” who sees herself in the next layer of leadership below Malcolm-Peck and senior point guard Chucky Jeffery. Here’s how Wilson perceives her game and her role: “Things have slowed down for me. I’m a junior now, I get the game. Although I played in two different conferences, now for me it’s like I don’t have to think so much. I can just go out and play . . . And now, I see myself as leader in helping (teammates) to follow. As Meagan and Chucky are leaders, I help others follow those two. If Meagan or Chucky is saying things that somebody might not be getting, then it’s usually me or the next person to tweak it a little so it is understood.” That’s a good position for now, but it probably will evolve into a full-blown take-charge role. And if not this season, then surely next, when she is a senior. Whichever of those scenarios occur, Lappe feels fortunate to be able to watch it happen. Her first two CU teams have a combined 39-30 record and a pair of WNIT appearances. Showing further progress in year three is paramount, and Lappe believes it can happen because of leadership that hadn’t fully developed in years one and two. “This is the first year to have some junior-senior leadership that has played a lot for our first two or three years,” Lappe said. “That’s definitely a bonus; it allows us to take that next step. We’ve never had that (and) it differentiates this team from some of the others. We also have some good talented young players who are maybe further ahead than some of the other freshmen we’ve had at different times.” How far ahead? Last season, CU played Idaho at the CEC on Dec. 4, winning 68-59. Tape of that game, said Lappe, shows this team – young as it is – to be further along in early November than her 2011-12 squad was in early December. “We look better now than at that point,” said Lappe, adding that the loss of senior post Julie Seabrook and her court communication on screens and setting the defense might be a temporary setback. “But overall we’re further ahead and much, much deeper.” Wilson agreed, noting that in this season’s pair of exhibition games, the Buffs “got it going early . . . last year we struggled (early) to get it going. There were stretches where we didn’t score for five or six minutes at a time, but this year the freshmen are catching onto the offense and we have a lot of upperclassmen now.” Although forward Jen Reese is entering her sophomore season, Lappe considers Reese well-seasoned. Reese does, too. She’s been waiting for Sunday’s opener longer than most; she missed last season’s last six games with an orbital eye socket injury and is wearing protective goggles now, although “it’s a hassle,” she said. Her vision slowly is returning to normal, but still can be a little fuzzy now when she gazes upward when under the rim. So she uses her neck more and tilts her head. But Reese clearly sees this: “These players have more confidence and that brings out more confidence in the team. We have leaders in Meagan and Chucky, when she’s the point guard. And I feel like we’ve been communicating better. The freshmen have been doing really well listening to us and improving every day in practice . . . I think we’re just more prepared.” More focused on a daily basis, too. Every team has reaching the NCAA Tournament as a goal, and that includes the Buffs, who could wind up playing in NCAA first- and second-round games in their building. But the approach this season is different, said Reese: “Last year we had a main goal of going to the NCAAs, but we weren’t more concerned with how to get there . . . this year we’re setting goals that we can reach (daily) to get to that level. That’s what I like about this year.” Reese says she’s among the Buffs whose confidence has skyrocketed, plus she’s stronger and better conditioned. And here’s something else – aside from the depth, the talent and the confidence – that Wilson says sets this team apart from others: “We’ve got 13 girls with heart, 13 girls that will punch you back if you punch them . . . we’re all competitors, that’s what different and special about this team.” Lappe is hoping it all translates into a special year. It gets underway on Sunday afternoon. [includeme src=”http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”670″ height=”300″] |
CU Buff b-ballers go through “boot camp”
Oct 30th
Brooks: Buffs Get With (And Through) ‘The Program’Release: 10/25/2012 Courtesy: B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor
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BOULDER – Next time you go swimming, wear a sweatshirt. Get about a dozen of your friends to do the same, then head for the pool’s deep end and begin treading water. When the sweatshirt is soaked, take it off, pass it to a friend and have him/her put it on.Oh, and imagine a guy with a stopwatch perched poolside to make sure all sweatshirts are off, then pulled back on by different participants, in a prescribed amount of time. Keep doing that – plus several other interesting exercises foreign to suburban pool parties – for the better part of three hours.Colorado men’s basketball went waterborne early Thursday morning – that’s 5 a.m. early. On Wednesday night from about 6 p.m. until 8:45, the Buffaloes took to the turf – and got wet there, too. In fact, the Buffs might have been drier Thursday in the YMCA pool in their sweatshirts than they were the previous night at Potts Field.
It was all done (and done vigorously) in the name of developing leadership, camaraderie and physical and mental toughness. Following through on a suggestion by hoops mentor and close friend Mark Turgeon, CU coach Tad Boyle enrolled his team in The Program/Judgment Day, a roughly eight-hour experience spread over two days and usually run by former military personnel. Turgeon, Boyle’s boss at Jacksonville State and Wichita State, recently put his Maryland team through The Program and afterward said “it was on the best things he’s ever done as a coach in terms of bringing outside influences in on his program,” according to Boyle. Boyle researched it, concluded it could benefit the Buffs and signed on. “I thought for where our team is this year, with the youth we have and only one senior, the leadership we lost last year, we’re trying to prepare these young guys to go into a season and they really don’t know what they’re going to be faced with,” he said. “So, it’s not like we’ve got five or six juniors and seniors that can show them in practice every day.” But the fact that The Program was endorsed by Turgeon might have made any further research unnecessary. Said Boyle: “He and I have the same core values when it comes to coaching and building a team and operating a basketball program. I’ve got a lot of confidence in Mark Turgeon. Quite frankly, if it (recommendation) had come from someone else, I might or might not have done it. But when he said you’ve got to really look at this, we did. And for where our team is and what it needs, I think this is perfect.” Boyle’s goal: “I’d like to come out of this with a sense of togetherness, a sense of bonding that we went through this together, survived it and are better and tougher because of it mentally and physically. And maybe we’ve got some guys who stepped forward in terms of leadership on this basketball team.” THAT’S PRECISELY WHAT THE PROGRAM advertises. It was founded by Eric Kapitulik, a former infantry and special ops officer in the United States Marine Corps, and is headquartered in Woburn, Mass. In 1999, Kapitulik’s platoon was in a helicopter crash that killed seven fellow Marines. Afterward, in their memory, he created the Force Reconnaissance Scholarship Fund and now has about a dozen staffers in The Program who are deployed on assignments such as the one at CU. Working with the Buffs were Coleman Ruiz, a 12-year Navy SEAL officer and former college wrestler and team captain at the US Naval Academy, and Sol Sollerer, a 22-year British Army commando veteran who had just joined The Program and was working his seventh event. Ruiz and Sollerer met with the coaching staff Wednesday afternoon and with the team shortly thereafter. “That’s a couple of intense and confident guys,” said Buffs assistant Jean Prioleau. “You can tell they’ve been through some (stuff).” Before Ruiz and Sollerer entered an upstairs meeting room at the Coors Events Center and introduced themselves, the Buffs were joking, talking about what they did and didn’t know about Navy SEALS (even uttering a few circus seal barks) and wondering what might be expected of them that night and the next morning. “I’ve just heard it is supposed to test us mentally and physically,” sophomore guard Askia Booker said. “I think it’s just seeing where we’re at, how far we can push each other and who can lead. It’s going to be a good experience for all of us. We’re going to be able to hold each other up; it’s going to be a team thing. You can’t do it individually.” The joking stopped and the room went hear-a-pin-drop quiet when Sollerer strolled in and snapped, “Feet on the floor, backs against the chairs, eyes straight ahead.” He offered a brief bio of himself, then introduced Ruiz, who outlined The Program’s ethos – “We are good team leaders and good teammates and we prepare ourselves every day to fill either role” – and its three core principles – “We are physically and mentally tough; we don’t make excuses and we don’t let others make excuses for us; we work hard . . . working hard means that we do ONE MORE!” The Buffs would hear “ONE MORE” more than once over the next 14 hours. “All the athletes we see at The Program are just like you. . . they have about the same skills you have,” Ruiz told them before the short trip to Potts Field. “The teams that do that much more, that do the things outside practice and are willing to make that kind of commitment (will succeed). You need to create the opportunities to win championships, then you can make it happen. “Everybody is looking for a way out. ‘Until we get it right’ – that mentality in basketball will take you to the next level. Make no mistake, every other team you play is going to have talent . . . talent is going to win tons of games, but every team – basketball, football, lacrosse, hockey, you name it – with talent is not going to win games. How The Program helps a team like this, even though you’ve won a championship, is to know that talent is not enough.” Ideally, Boyle said his team’s time in The Program would have been done in mid-September – about the same time Turgeon had the Terps go through it. But Boyle only found out about it after that, “Then the timing was difficult,” he said. He didn’t want to open practice earlier this month with it, but he figured since the Buffs already had 10 practices in advance of their summer European trip, “We have enough things in now basketball-wise. A critical piece for the success of this year’s team is going to be between our ears. This program hopefully will help us in that area . . . “This isn’t weight-room stuff, not basketball-specific stuff. They’re going to get out of their comfort zone, do things maybe they haven’t done before. That’s what’s good. We all have a comfort level, I don’t care if you’re a coach or a player or a fan or an administrator . . . we all have comfort levels we operate in. The way you grow is to maybe try something different, get out of your comfort level and take some risks. I feel like that’s what we’re doing. I’ve never done this as a coach; we’re trying something new. Maybe it’ll help us – I certainly hope it will. I think it will. It might not, but all we lose is two days.” He’s not likely to look back on them as two days lost. IF WEDNESDAY NIGHT WASN’T FIT for man nor beast, it might have been perfect for a former SEAL’s purposes . . . driving rain and temperatures in the low-40s to start, rain turning to snow and temps in the low-30s to finish. Said Sollerer: “Anyone can lead when it’s 70 degrees and sunny . . . it was uncomfortable for them; you could tell right away it was uncomfortable.” Ruiz wanted a “perfect 16 minutes” of pushups, leg kicks in the sodden grass, jumping jacks, etc. Perfect meant perfect: 16 players lined up in four arrow-straight rows and squared away front, back and to each side. Squiggly rows weren’t perfect. Start it all over. Do it right or do it all night. Before they left the CEC, Ruiz told the Buffs he wanted three things: “Stay focused on the mission, stay alert, stay responsive.” And, he added this isn’t about self: “Make every decision based on the guy to your left and right.” Several of the players came outfitted with hats and gloves, but Ruiz told them all would wear hats and gloves – or no one would. So no one did. Counting stops, starts and re-dos, finishing Ruiz’s first perfect 16 minutes required just over an hour. Then came a second perfect 16 minutes, followed by a perfect overtime, consisting of two-man relays with players lugging logs, sandbags and each other. The Buffs didn’t return to the CEC until nearly 8:45 p.m., then had wakeup calls for 4:30 on Thursday morning. One of Ruiz’s goals in honing mental toughness was “practicing being miserable and getting comfortable being uncomfortable . . . finding the physical edge and jumping off.” Freshman Xavier Johnson found it when Wednesday night’s rain turned to snow: “Most definitely . . . this was my first time seeing snow, being from California,” he said. “To experience it like that, I mean, what better way could you ask for it? “I enjoyed it a lot; it was a great experience for me. It was probably one of the most physical things I’ve ever done. But it made it easier to bear doing it as a team. This will be something to look back on during the season, during those tough times . . . we can say we’ve had it a lot tougher – in the snow doing pushups and all that other stuff. There won’t be anything harder than that.” Wednesday night’s foul weather work at Potts Field impressed Ruiz, who said the Buffs “had a phenomenal first day – I told them that when we broke. The team had probably the best first day – I work about 40 events a year, I’ve had 20 this fall – I’d seen from any team.” But for the early Thursday water work at the Boulder ‘Y,’ “They came out a little flat,” Ruiz said. “Getting in the pool, we’re way outside our comfort zone and guys started to struggle a little bit. We make all of our mistakes when we’re tired and when we’re nervous. These guys shouldn’t be nervous when they play anybody; they shouldn’t be nervous getting in the pool. “But every athlete will get tired. The way we prevent those mistakes (and) coming out flat is we learn effective ways to communicate with each other . . . the Buffs started doing that (Thursday), and they got after it 100 percent.” BOYLE MIGHT NOT KNOW HOW The Program benefitted his young team until Pac-12 Conference play starts and the Buffs begin defending the championship they won last March in Los Angeles. But he and his staff liked what they saw developing in the rain/snow on Wednesday night and in the water the next morning. Sabatino Chen, the team’s only senior, asserted himself early, and Ruiz correctly noted on Thursday morning that when Booker and Chen “are dialed in” the entire team picks up on it. He made sure both players understood that. Addressing the Buffs at the conclusion of the pool work, Ruiz also cited other players, including Johnson; sophomore guard Spencer Dinwiddie; freshman post Josh Scott; and junior wing Jeremy Adams, whose participation was limited due to a knee ailment. In a “fireman’s carry” exercise on Wednesday night, Adams and junior guard Kevin Nelson, who was battling an ankle injury, provided literal support to their teammates and prevented Ruiz from having the entire squad rerun the drill to achieve another perfect 16 minutes. During the demanding night and morning, Boyle said every member of the team contributed a high-point and proved to be quality teammates. That included junior posts Shane Harris-Tunks and Ben Mills; freshmen forwards Wesley Gordon and Chris Jenkins; freshmen guards Xavier Talton and Eli Stalzer; sophomore guard Beau Gamble and junior guard Geoffrey Bates. When The Program concludes a two-day event, the administrators award a gray T-shirt bearing The Program logo to one participant. Not surprisingly, junior wing Andre Roberson earned this one for what Ruiz called back-to-back “monster” efforts. “It means a lot,” said Roberson, who ranked third nationally in rebounding last season (11.1 a game) and was the only Pac-12 player to average a double-double (11.6 points). “It shows that hard work does pay off. If you go out there and bust your butt, work as hard as you can, things will come out all right.” Before going through The Program, Roberson said he believed the Buffs can take it up a notch in practice: “I feel like we don’t go hard all the time. That’s one thing coach says, we’re a 20-minute team right now. We tail off toward the last 30 minutes of practice. We just have to get better and push through fatigue.” Maybe two days with Ruiz and Sollerer put the Buffs on the right course to achieve that, although Roberson believes such a push is as much mental as physical. The Program’s real value, Roberson said, “is about helping us become better leaders (and) better teammates for each other. It’s definitely something we can use later on in this season and later on in our lives.” Boyle is counting on both – in that order. Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU |