Posts tagged Dustin Thomas
No sleepy heads, these Buffs–94 to 70 over Jackson St.
Nov 17th
Boyle called the win “a great team victory and I think our team took a step forward . . . it’s one game but it’s a positive thing to build on. I’m proud of them for playing together.” That sharing, said Boyle, makes positive reinforcement so much easier: “It was more of a feel-good victory . . . you want them reinforced with positive things. When we share the ball like we did, with seven guys in double figures, that’s fun. It’s better to reinforce in a positive way . . . you can catch more flies with honey.” Dinwiddie and Booker – CU’s starting backcourt – combined for 26 points and had 12 of their team’s 23 assists. Booker’s six assists were a career high, as were Dinwiddie’s six steals. Seven Buffs – the most in the Boyle era – reached double figures, topped by Booker’s 15. Xavier Talton and freshman Dustin Thomas scored 13 each, Jaron Hopkins added 12, Dinwiddie and Josh Scott 11 each, and Wesley Gordon had 10. It was the first time CU had at least six players in double figures since Dec. 19, 2010 against Longwood. The school record is eight, set in 1973 against Iowa State. Jackson State coach Wayne Brent left “brunch with the Buffs” impressed. “They have the most talented team we’ve have played from every spot,” he said. “You have two guards that have a chance to play in the NBA, you have a post guy who is really good. They have guys that are 6-5, 6-6; they are long and athletic looking . . . just a very talented team.” Boyle used every player – 14 in all – who suited up. Sophomore forward Xavier Johnson watched from the bench in street clothes, held out after being “dinged,” said Boyle, in Friday’s practice. Starting in Johnson’s place was Jaron Hopkins, and the 6-5 freshman opened the morning’s scoring with a three-pointer from the left wing. Before the half was done, Hopkins had hit four of his five field goal attempts, gathered two rebounds and made two assists. One of his field goals was a soaring dunk off an alley-oop pass from Spencer Dinwiddie. If the crowd needed a wakeup call, Hopkins’ slam provided it. “It was a really good feeling for me getting the crowd involved and just playing to win,” said Hopkins, who wasn’t told he would start until about 8 minutes before tip. “I played as hard as I could; I left it all out on the floor.” The Buffs led by as many as 13 (46-33) in the first half’s final minute and went to the locker room with a 46-35 advantage. Their first-half offensive execution was its best through four games; they shot 64 percent from the field (16-for-25) and had 14 assists on those 16 baskets. They finished the morning at 62.2 percent from the field (28-of-45), hit a season-best nine of 17 three-point attempts and outscored the visitors in the paint 36-18. Defensively, CU held Jackson State (1-3) to 39.1 percent shooting (25-of-64). Talton hit three of four trey attempts and “was great,” Boyle said. “He gave us steady minutes off the bench . . . Sabatino (Chen) did that last year for us and ‘XT’ can have that effect.” While CU’s nine threes were a season high, Jackson State provided proof that the Buffs’ three-point defense still needs work – at least in the first-half as they continue to adjust to the new hand-checking rule. UT-Martin shot 41 percent from behind the arc, and Wyoming half of its 10 first-half treys before CU clamped down in the second half, allowing the Cowboys only two of 11. Jackson State, though, scorched CU for six first-half treys on 12 attempts. Freshman guard Javares Brent canned four of seven tries, finishing with 14 first-half points. Playing at altitude might suit him: He scored a then season-high 17 points on Thursday night in the Tigers’ two-point (84-82) at Air Force before hitting a game-best 20 points Saturday morning. “Sometimes he was wide open,” Booker said, “but one time before half I was basically shaking hands with him. He’s a good player. Coach says if we play great defense for 40 minutes they’re not going to make those kinds of shots.” But as the Buffs did against the Cowboys, they tightened down the perimeter after halftime. Jackson State got seven second-half trey attempts and hit just one. CU opened the second half with a 5-0 run (a trey by Booker, two free throws by Dinwiddie) and took its largest lead of the morning to that point – 16 points at 51-35 – less than a minute into the last 20. Before the final buzzer, the Tigers, projected as fifth-place finishers in the SWAC, never got closer than 11 points. A pair of free throws by CEC favorite Ben Mills pushed the Buffs up by 25 points (91-66) with 1:50 left and many in the crowd might have started thinking football. (CU hosted Cal at 3:30 p.m. at Folsom Field.) The Buffs return to the CEC Monday night (7 p.m., Pac-12 Network) to play Arkansas State, which won 65-61 last week at Jackson State. Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU Andrew Green | Assistant Director Sports Information Department of Intercollegiate Athletics | University of Colorado Boulder | 357 UCB | Fieldhouse Annex 50 Office: 303-492-3812 | Fax: 303-492-3811 | andrew.green@colorado.edu CUBuffs.com | @CUBuffs | Facebook [includeme src=”http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”670″ height=”300″]
Poor offense doomed the Buffs at Baylor
Nov 9th
By Anthony Lepine, CU Sports Information Student Assistant
DALLAS – The Colorado Buffaloes opened a highly anticipated 2013-14 basketball season with a disappointing offensive performance against No. 25 Baylor, falling 72-60 Friday night in the Buckets and Boots Showcase at the American Airlines Arena.
CU shot a dismal 33.3 percent, hitting just 22 of its 66 field goal attempts and never led in the contest. Nonetheless, with 2:23 remaining the Buffs trailed by only six after a layup by Josh Scott cut Baylor’s lead to 64-58.
“We cut it to six at that one point,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said, “but, we couldn’t get over the hump.”
The Buffs regained possession after a missed jumper by Baylor’s Cory Jefferson and a rebound by Wesley Gordon. But a bad possession ending with a forced jumper by Askia Booker left the Buffs still down six and needing a stop.
Instead, Baylor 7-footer Isaiah Austin connected on a jump hook and the Buffs again trailed by eight.
However, the Bears fouled Buffs junior guard Spencer Dinwiddie – who boasts an 82 percent career free-throw percentage – at the line with 47 seconds remaining. His pair of free throws again cut Baylor’s lead to six, but Baylor junior college transfer Kenny Chery answered with a pair of foul shots and CU was all but finished.
Dinwiddie’s three-point attempt rimmed out, the Bears corralled the rebound and finished out the game at the free-throw line, sending the Buffs back to Boulder 0-1.
“It’s disappointing, but it’s not the end of the world,” Boyle said. “We have to keep getting better, that’s all you can do . . . I just want to play hard, play smart and play together.”
The Buffaloes were missing their typical offensive production that has come to be expected from
Scott was the bright spot on offense for Colorado as the sophomore finished with a double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Scott’s frontcourt-mate, redshirt freshmen Wesley Gordon, also delivered for the Buffaloes starting in his first career game.
Gordon finished with nine points and eight rebounds, and Boyle classified Gordon’s performance as “terrific.”
“I was nervous just because it was my first time really playing for a while,” Gordon said. “I just wanted to make sure I was doing my job out there. I expected it would be a physical game.”
Boyle relied on all of his freshmen in the season opener as the first two Buffs off the bench were true freshmen Tre’Shaun Fletcher and Dustin Thomas. Classmates Jaron Hopkins and George King would also be thrust into action early on in the game.
“I thought they played aggressively,” Boyle said. “They’re going to make mistakes, and I’m not down on those guys at all. They just have to learn from it and hopefully understand at this level you can’t make those mistakes.
“But, I love our freshmen. It’s not about our freshmen (the loss), it’s about our veteran guys that we need to play like they’ve been here and play at the level that they need to play at to win these kinds of games against this kind of competition.”
The Buffs will look to pick up their first win of the season on Sunday at 4 p.m. against Tennessee-Martin in the home opener at the Coors Events Center.
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CU men snag a “sleeper” high school basketball player for next year
May 14th
BOULDER – University of Colorado men’s basketball head coach Tad Boyle and his coaching staff announced Monday they have signed George King, a 6-foot-5, 205-pound forward from San Antonio, Texas to a National Letter of Intent. King will be a freshman at CU beginning of the 2013 fall semester.
King will be one of four true-freshmen on the Buffaloes team that will also feature a pair of redshirt-freshmen. He joins fellow freshmen Tre’Shaun Fletcher, Jaron Hopkins, and Dustin Thomas. The incoming class also features redshirt-freshmen Wesley Gordon and Chris Jenkins, both sat out this past season.
“He can rebound, block shots, shoot and defend,” Boyle said of CU’s latest addition to the roster.
Boyle also said CU was “kind of late to the party” in recruiting King, who conceded he was a “late bloomer” and didn’t start attracting major attention until late in his senior season and went through the April signing period unsigned.
During his senior year, King averaged 16.6 points, 11.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game in leading the Brennan Bears to a 39-3 record and an appearance in the 4A state semifinals. He shot 60 percent from the field and was named both TABC All-State and District 28-4A MVP. As a senior he recorded 25 double-doubles and had two 20-20 games with 23 points and 20 rebounds against Warren (Nov. 12) and 20 points and 20 rebounds against Lanier (Jan. 29) including 12 rebounds in one quarter.
King was an all-area selection as a junior.
“They believe in me and I believe in them,” King told Rivals.com on signing with the Buffaloes. “I’ve only been to Colorado a handful of times and it was my first time in Boulder,” he said. “I knew I liked it as soon as I stepped foot in Boulder. It has a beautiful campus, really nice people.”
“They have a really good coaching staff, the players and I really clicked. I got up and down with the guys and got a good feeling. (The coaches) like that I’m good sized, I’m skilled, that I can shoot and that I have a lot of potential.”
CU returns two seniors (Ben Mills, Kevin Nelson) on the 2013-2014 roster; along with three juniors (Askia Booker, Spencer Dinwiddie, Beau Gamble); and four sophomores (Xavier Johnson, Josh Scott, Eli Stalzer, Xavier Talton).
By the end of the summer, the Buffs will have graduated three student-athletes (Jeremy Adams, Sabatino Chen, Shane Harris-Tunks). Andre Roberson, who had one more year of eligibility remaining, declared for the NBA Draft on April 28. His sister, Arielle Roberson was nationally ranked as a freshman, will be a sophomore on CU’s women’s basketball team next season.
CU sports media release
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