Posts tagged CU
CU men going to The Big Dance
Mar 17th
Will face Pittsburg first. then maybe #1 Florida
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER – History was made Sunday at 4:02 p.m. MDT, and it was made faster than you could blurt March Madness.
Two minutes into CBS’ Selection Sunday telecast, the University of Colorado men’s basketball team was announced as an at-large entry in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, marking an historic third consecutive time the Buffaloes have qualified for the Big Dance. Two other CU men’s teams had reached the tournament in consecutive seasons (1954-55, 1962-63).
But Tad Boyle’s fourth CU team made it three NCAAs in a row – and these Buffs did it the hard way, overcoming the loss of point guard and team leader Spencer Dinwiddie in mid-January.
This is Boyle’s third team to reach NCAA’s tourney in four years.
On Sunday afternoon at Boyle’s spacious Boulder home, there was no prolonged suspense, no gut-wrenching wait, to see who the Buffs would be playing and where. Mere seconds after top-ranked Florida was announced as the tournament’s No. 1 seed and would stay in the South Region, “Colorado” popped up on the flat screen in Boyle’s den and his players whooped, whistled and breathed collective sighs of relief not issued into well into previous selection shows.
Seeded No. 8 in the South, CU plays No. 9 Pittsburgh on Thursday (time TBD) in Orlando, Fla. The CU-Pitt winner catches Florida in the next round in what is tantamount to a home game for the talented Gators.
“Since I’ve been here it’s always been drawn out a little bit, whether it be 30 minutes or 40 minutes, whatever the case,” junior guard Askia Booker said of CU’s NCAA destiny being determined so quickly. “It’s kind of a relief to hear your name called in the first 60 seconds almost . . . you’re playing a great team to begin with and if you’re fortunate enough to win you’re playing the No. 1 team in the country. Yeah, it’s a relief but then you get back on your toes and prepare.”
“You never know,” Boyle said of Sunday’s sudden selection. “What we’ve been through the last couple of years . . . you go back three years ago – we never saw that one coming (with CU’s exclusion). Then the next year we know we’re in (after winning the Pac-12 tournament), then last year was a little stressful. I think we were in the fourth segment of the show – and there were four segments. It got a little stressful last year. But to have it pop up right away . . . yeah, it was a relief.”
“Last year it was a long process,” added sophomore forward Xavier Johnson. “We were here for a while and got tired. But I was glad to see it went quickly and that we got what we deserved – an eight seed, which is pretty good.”
And pretty surprising to some; some bracketologists figured CU (23-11) for a ninth or tenth seed. The eighth seed is a tip of the hat by the NCAA Selection Committee, but it also positions a team in one of the tournament’s more challenging first-round games. And CU’s position is just that – challenging.
“Traditionally, the eight-nine (seed) games are always really hard ones because there’s so much parity in the tournament and you’re matched up against somebody much like yourself,” Boyle said. “Then if you are fortunate enough to advance, you get a one seed to look forward to. But in tournament basketball you don’t look ahead, you look at the task at hand.”
Boyle’s long-term objective is to make the suspense of Selection Sundays whether the Buffs will be awarded a top five seed – not whether they will get in the tournament. “Eventually want to get to a point in the program where we’re fighting for those one, two and three seeds . . . we’re not quite there yet, but we will be,” he said. “Right now, especially with what this group has been through this year, to get into the tournament is a good thing. I know the young men who are still playing and competed in Vegas believe they can compete with anybody on any given night. But we’ve got to play well.”
Many first- or second-time NCAA entries suffer from the “just-glad-to-be-there” mindset and are sent packing after the first round. Many in the national hoops community – even some in the local community – counted CU among the dead teams walking when Dinwiddie went down. Instead, after an adjustment period, the Buffs rallied and went 9-9 (counting the Washington game in which he was injured).
Boyle said merely reaching a third-consecutive NCAA Tournament after that coping with adversity would not put the Buffs among the “just-glad-to-be-there” crowd. “I’m not worried about that at all because I know how competitive our guys are,” he said. “Also, they’re smart guys and they know the next loss we have is the end of our season . . . it’s not going to be one of these deals where we’re just happy to be there and (go) one-and-out. If we’re one-and-out we’ll be disappointed. It’s not going to sit well with me or anybody. The next step for this program is to not only get in the tournament but to advance in the tournament.”
Going to the NCAA’s far reaches (for a Rocky Mountain school, at least) to play is fine with the Buffaloes. Boyle wanted to avoid Buffalo, N.Y., simply because he preferred the prospect of warmer weather. “Nothing against Buffalo (but) the sun’s coming out here in Colorado, spring is in the air,” he said. “Our guys are getting ready – as a lot of schools are – for spring break. You wanted to go someplace where it was nice and warm. But at the end of the day, if we went to Buffalo, I’d be just as happy. So Orlando is as good as any.”
And obviously better than some – even if Gator fans can get there on half a tank of gas and turn the Amway Center into Chomp City. For Booker, staying west of the Mississippi River for a first-round game was never a real wish or a consideration.
“It doesn’t really matter to me,” he said. “I mean, you put me on the floor with the basketball and two rims and that’s all that matters to me, man. You just have to prepare, and if you’re prepared you can go anywhere and play.”
On Sunday afternoon, the Buffs weren’t as well-versed on the Panthers as they will be come Thursday. Booker had some knowledge of Pitt’s guards – “They’re very, very talented – similar to us” – and the Panthers’ overall physicality. And Boyle cited Jamie Dixon as “a heck of a coach . . . their defensive principles are a lot like ours. They were in the Big East and kind of a smash-mouth team. But I don’t know much about personnel and what they do offensively – but we’ll find out a lot in a short period of time.”
A short course on Pitt: Joining the Atlantic Coast Conference this season, the Panthers finished 11-7 in the league and 25-9 overall. They were the fifth seed – same as CU in the Pac-12 Tournament – in the ACC Tournament and reached the semifinals, where they were eliminated by eventual champ and No. 1 seed Virginia, 51-48. Pitt beat No. 15 North Carolina 80-75 in the ACC quarterfinals. The Panthers have been in the NCAA Tournament for 12 of the past 13 seasons, and Dixon has been Pitts’ coach for 11 seasons (15 in the program). His overall record: 287-95. The Panthers’ top scorer is 6-5 senior forward Lamar Patterson (17.6 ppg), the leading rebounder is 6-9 senior center Talib Zanna (8.3 rpg).
After his team was eliminated from the ACC Tournament by Virginia, which received one of Sunday’s four top seeds (Florida, Wichita State and Arizona were the other three), Dixon said he was “proud of how our guys played. We got better this week. We’re healthy and playing our best basketball.”
Boyle had a similar view of the Buffs after the Pac-12 Tournament, which saw them advance to the semifinals with wins over USC and Cal before being eliminated by Arizona. “This team over the last couple or three weeks has really turned the corner defensively with our commitment and energy level,” he said.
“But in the NCAA Tournament, you’re going to have to make some shots, you’re going to have to play with some efficiency on offense and that’s what we’re going to have to do to advance in this thing. Whether it’s against Pittsburgh or whoever we would play next if we were fortunate enough to do that. Then, you’ve got to get a little lucky.
“There’s going to be a lot of close games . . . that’s why they call it March Madness. On those first two days especially a lot of things can happen; there’s so many games and everybody is thinking the same thing – just survive and advance and live to see another day. Pittsburgh is thinking the same thing we are. So is Florida.”
On Sunday afternoon, shortly after Florida was awarded the overall No. 1 seed, Booker reacted to that news by crowing “Colorado” in a long-distance answer to one of the CBS commentators’ remarks of who might be in line to play the Gators. Maybe ‘Ski’ could see the future.
“I don’t care who we play,” Booker said. “If you heard me right when the show started, I wanted to play Florida . . . regardless, I want to play the No. 1 team – the best of the best. That’s how you really test who you are; when everything hits the fan that shows who nuts up and who’s willing to play and who’s willing to compete. I think Pittsburgh is a great team and we can’t overlook them because they’re a very talented team and it’s going to be a rough game.”
March Madness’ first rule is to overlook no one, regardless of who might be next. So the Buffaloes are Dancing for a third straight year – an historic accomplishment. But as Boyle said Sunday and undoubtedly will again, while making the field is good, staying awhile is infinitely better.
Pac-12: Buffs Survive, Advance By Their Magic Number – 59
Mar 14th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
LAS VEGAS – If you’re thinking the Colorado Buffaloes are stuck on 59, you might be onto something. But here in Sin City, where gambling is the big engine that could, that’s a long way from crapping out.
It’s a magnificent number, a winning number, for Tad Boyle and his revitalized crew.
The Buffs’ last three wins – against Stanford in the next-to-last regular-season game, against USC in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament, against California in the quarterfinals – have been by the same score: 59-56.
The Buffs’ two wins here have ended in identical, nail-biting, fist-gnawing fashion: CU is up by three in the closing seconds and survives a 3-pointer to tie at the buzzer.
In racehorse college basketball, 59 points are not a lot. Boyle’s guys love to run and score, but that’s not how this team – this season – has evolved after Spencer Dinwiddie’s knee injury in mid-January. In their last seven games, the Buffs haven’t hit 70 points, with 65 in a one-point overtime loss at Cal the high mark.
That’s the longest low-scoring stretch in Boyle’s about-to-be-completed four seasons in Boulder. But here’s the more telling bottom line number: Boyle’s fourth CU team has won 23 games (10 losses), making this season the second-most productive in terms of wins in school history. (His first two Buffs teams finished with 24 wins.)
And turning to something more topical since it’s the month of madness, those 23 wins should remove any mystery – if there was any – that might have shrouded CU’s inclusion in the NCAA Tournament field. Selection Sunday looms for the official word, but the word will be good. Book it.
But Friday finds the Buffs with things other than the NCAA Tournament on their minds. They have a semifinal date at 7:06 p.m. MDT with top-seeded and fourth-ranked Arizona in the MGM Garden Arena. Upsetting the Wildcats, then winning the Pac-12 championship on Saturday would remove all Selection Sunday mystery about the Buffs’ NCAA future; the tournament champ is in automatically.
Accomplishing that begins with beating powerful Arizona, whose players defend like they were guarding loved ones from a home invasion.
“They took a lot of pride in guarding us . . . we got punched in the mouth by a really good basketball team and we saw Arizona, I think, at their finest,” Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak said Thursday after Arizona had clamped down on his team in a 71-39 quarterfinal win. The halftime score: 34-13. Utah’s Big Three – Jordan Loveridge, Brandon Taylor and Delon Wright – were a combined 1-of-16 from the field.
The Buffs know something about the Wildcats’ defense from their regular-season meetings. Arizona won 69-57 in Tucson, 88-61 in Boulder. The Wildcats give up points as willingly as the IRS gives away cash; they lead the Pac-12 in scoring defense, allowing 58.7 points a game.
That’s very close to CU’s magic number of late – 59 . . . Hmmmmm.
“They’re the best defensive team in our league,” Boyle said. “It’s not even close. They’re the best rebounding team in our league. It is close there.”
That’s because CU is at 37.9 boards a game, while Arizona is at 38.9.
In their two wins over the Buffs this season, the Wildcats leaped to large early leads – as they did against the Utes Thursday. CU fell behind 18-4 in Tucson and 22-5 in Boulder in what would end in the Buffs’ worst home loss of the Boyle era.
Whether it makes a difference or not Friday, this is a different CU team, a more focused team. Eli Stalzer, who stepped to the foul line Thursday in the final 6 six seconds and hit one of two critical free throws, said the Buffs have learned something about themselves and the high energy Boyle wants from them since a March 1 loss (75-64) at Utah.
“Now it seems like guys don’t think they can take plays off; every possession is important,” Stalzer said. “We’re all working hard to do our best.”
That’s partially attributable to the transformation of junior guard Askia Booker, who has averaged 16.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3 assists. He’s shooting 46.7 percent from the field (21-of-45). In the two Pac-12 Tournament games, he has averaged 19 points a game, 5 rebounds and 3.5 assists. He’s hit 50 percent from the field (16-of-32).
Maybe more important than the numbers, Booker’s composure has stood out. He’s become CU’s glue, if you will, which at one point in his career might have seemed improbable if not impossible.
Boyle said, as a coach, “you hope” a player develops like Booker has: “He’s had an interesting career; he’s grown up exponentially – especially since Spencer went down. He was thrown in the fire of a leadership role . . . he’s done a great job. And that’s what’s so gratifying about doing this job. You see young men come in, where they are as freshman not just physically and skill-wise but emotionally, spiritually and maturity-wise. He’s come a long way.”
So have the Buffs. Boyle’s second CU team (2011-12) won the inaugural Pac-12 Tournament in Los Angeles with a four-day, four-game run as a No. 6 seed. His fourth team, as a No. 5 seed, is within two wins of a repeat. Boyle doesn’t have near the veteran leadership on this team that was apparent in L.A., but he’s seen a similar trait develop over the last several weeks. That would ownership.
“You look at that team with Nate (Tomlinson), Carlin (Brown) and Austin (Dufault) – they took ownership down the stretch and made it happen,” he said. “Now, we had to win some close games there . . . but now we have to play one of the best teams in the country in the semis and we didn’t have to do that two years ago.”
I asked Boyle if his players would have any difficulty in blotting out those two regular-season losses to the Wildcats, particularly the one in Boulder that concluded ESPN’s College GameDay visit.
“I don’t know, we’ll see,” Boyle answered. “That’s a distant memory. It’s a new day, a new opportunity. The way our guys are playing right now and feeling about themselves, they want that opportunity, they relish it. We’re not going to play with a lack of confidence (Friday).”
MBB: CU into quarterfinal in Pac-12 tourney
Mar 13th
by B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com
LAS VEGAS – In March, basketball teams can live on their game’s intangibles and die without them. On an afternoon when their leading scorer’s frustration nearly overshadowed his productivity and little else went smoothly, the Colorado Buffaloes turned to those intangibles to survive – and they did.
No. 5 seed CU used an 8-0 run late in the second half to pull away from No. 12 seed Southern California, then held on loosely to eliminate the Trojans 59-56 in Wednesday’s first round of the Pac-12 Conference Tournament.
A relieved CU coach Tad Boyle called it an exercise in winning ugly – but in March ugly still counts. The Buffs (22-10) advance to play No. 4 seed California (19-12) in Thursday’s quarterfinal round (3:30 p.m. MDT) in the MGM Garden Arena. In their only meeting this season, Cal defeated CU by one point in overtime last weekend in Berkeley.
CU’s 22nd win of the season ties for the fourth-most wins in school history, with Boyle owning three of the top four winningest seasons.
Reaching the quarterfinals was more difficult than many imagined for CU. USC, losers of 11 of its final 12 regular-season games, took a five-point lead with 9:46 remaining Wednesday and appeared ready to close out the erratic Buffs, who had swept the Trojans (11-21) in their two previous meetings.
But CU dialed up one of the intangibles – mental toughness – that finally surfaced late in the regular season and nearly carried the Buffs to a sweep of their Bay Area road trip. It arrived when needed in Vegas, and it came in the form of chasing down long rebounds, loose balls and protecting the ball over the game’s final 10 minutes. The Buffs committed nine of their 13 turnovers in the first half, the other four in the opening minutes of the second half.
“When you don’t play your best and you’re off your game with multiple guys on multiple levels and you figure out a way to win, that’s a testament to your mental toughness,” Boyle said. “When it’s a game that shots aren’t going in and you’re struggling offensively and the whistle is not going your way on either side, that’s where mental toughness really has to take over. That’s where I think our team over the last two weeks has made tremendous strides.”
Down 47-42 with just under 10 minutes to play, maybe CU’s – and junior guard Askia Booker’s – alarm buttons were hit. Booker converted a three-point play, followed with a 15-foot jumper, then fed Xavier Johnson for a stuff that tied the score at 49-49 with 8:01 left.
“Ski” Booker’s baskets with eight minutes to play allowed the Buffs to take the lead.
“Around the first media timeout in the second half, I told myself that it’s either now or never,” Booker said. “I talked to coach (Jean) Prioleau and he said, ‘It’s time.’ That’s when I told myself, let’s get going.
Booker led the Buffs with 21 points – his fifth 20-point game of the season and seventh of his career. He also contributed seven rebounds and four assists against only one turnover. Boyle said Booker “made some big-time plays, but he played with great composure. We’re going to need him to do that because he’s important to our team, as all our guys are.”
One of Booker’s most significant plays belonged in the intangible column. Going out of bounds to retrieve a long rebound off a teammate’s missed shot, Booker leaped and slammed the ball off a Trojans player’s leg with 10.2 seconds left to give the Buffs another possession.
“They got a loose ball that was going out of bounds and threw it off our legs. They got the ball back,” first-year USC coach Andy Enfield said.
When Booker has reached 20-plus points this season, the Buffs are 4-1. He’s been at his best against USC, averaging 20.2 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists in three wins against the Trojans this season. The Buffs won 83-62 in Boulder, 83-74 in Los Angeles and now lead the series 7-3, including 5-0 since joining the Pac-12 in 2011.
Sophomore post Josh Scott, frustrated and held to one first-half point largely by USC’s large (7-0, 270) Egyptian center, Omar Oraby, keyed CU’s decisive 8-0 run with three consecutive baskets inside to break a 50-50 tie and give the Buffs a 56-50 advantage with 4:10 to play.
When Booker added a layup in transition, the Buffs had their largest lead of the afternoon – 58-50 – and the Trojans were in desperation mode. As it had all game, USC turned to Byron Wesley (23 points) for five of its last seven points and a potential game-tying 3-pointer that clanged off the left side of the rim at the buzzer.
Scott, who attempted only three first-half shots and made one of two free throws, scored 12 second-half points and collected a game-high nine rebounds – a respectable ending to a frustrating afternoon for CU’s leading scorer (14.5 ppg).
“It was frustrating,” Scott said. “I think that was pretty obvious I was pretty frustrated. But I thank my teammates a lot for having confidence in me to keep getting me the ball there at the end. It tells me that they still have confidence even when I might not have the most confidence in myself at the time.”
Boyle called the 6-10 Scott “the ultimate battler . . . that’s what he does. He battles every day on every possession offense and defense. People have no idea how big and how strong Oraby is . . . I didn’t want to play Josh as many minutes (33) as I did. I hoped I wouldn’t have to, but you’ve got to survive and advance.”
Scott finished 4-of-14 from the field, but frontcourt mates Wesley Gordon and Johnson had his back – each hitting four of their six field goal attempts. Johnson scored eight of his 11 points in the first half, when he hit back-to-back 3-pointers on his only two attempts to give CU its largest first-half lead – 10-4. But the Buffs led by only two – 29-27 – at intermission. The 6-9 Gordon finished the afternoon with eight points, six rebounds, one blocked shot, one assist and one steal.
Gordon called the Trojans “a different team than the Southern California team that we’ve played before. They came out with a lot of energy and they were very physical with us. They played really, really well.”
The Buffs outrebounded the Trojans 38-27, out-pointed them in the paint 34-30 and had 10 fast break points to USC’s two. The Trojans’ bench outscored the Buffs’ 9-2, with Dustin Thomas scoring CU’s only points off the bench. One of the reserves Boyle used was freshman Tre’Shaun Fletcher, who suffered a knee injury on Jan. 12 at Washington and had not played until Wednesday. Fletcher played 3 minutes and missed his only field goal attempt.
CU hit just nine of its 16 free throw attempts, with its 56.3 percentage the second lowest of the season. USC attempted 22 3-pointers, making just five. “It’s been a weakness of ours all year,” Enfield said. “We need to get some guys to make shots.”
Overnight Wednesday and on Thursday morning, CU turns its focus toward Cal. The Buffs like the short time – five days – between games; the memory of the OT loss remains fresh.
“We lose to them, like, just a couple of days ago and we get another crack at them. You can’t ask for more,” said Scott, adding that the intangibles the Buffs latched onto in Vegas eluded them in Berkeley. “They got a couple of loose balls, long rebounds that we had to get to win the game. We didn’t, so that hurt our chances.”
But, added Booker, “I think we can compete with them – with anybody in the Pac-12 really. But (Thursday) is the day to come out and prove it.”
