Posts tagged Friday
CU men’s golfers in the middle of a 75-team pack at Stanford
Mar 29th
PALO ALTO, Calif. —
There are three top 10 teams and 11 in the top 75 competing here, with host and No. 10 Stanford the day one leader with an 8-under par 272 score. Five strokes separate the top six teams through 18 holes, with six strokes the difference between seventh and 12th; the Buffaloes are in the middle of that logjam, with a 3-over 283 score that is good for ninth place.
“A great day for golf, the weather conditions were perfect,” head coach Roy Edwards said. “That’s why the scores are so good and so bunched. Overall, we had a decent day as far as our team score was concerned. The only thing that prevented us from shooting lower, or under par, is that we had some mistakes, but even those were few and far between.
“For the most part we played smart, and mitigated the big numbers,” he added. “It’s so tightly bunched, we did what we should have done and didn’t get tripped up by the tough holes. There are a lot of good teams in this field and this is a great test for us at this stage of the season, one month out from the Pac-12 Championship.”
Senior Jason Burstyn and freshman Philip Juel-Berg paced the Buffaloes on Thursday, each recording 2-under par 68 scores on the 6,727-yard, par-70 Stanford Golf Course layout which tied them for 13th place.
Starting on the No. 1 tee, Burstyn turned a 3-under 32 on the front nine, with the aide of an eagle on the par-5 No. 7 hole. On the back, he couldn’t get some birdie putts to fall and endured two bogeys to bring him back closer to par in the end.
Juel-Berg played a fantastic back nine, firing a 31; after turning at 2-over, he birdied Nos. 10, 13, 15 and 16 and finished with a team-best six birdies, along with nine pars two bogeys and a double. He, too, endured a patch where he scored those three holes over par but had a birdie among them. He now has scored 12 birdies in his last two rounds, including 10 in his last 27 holes.
“Jason and Philip were really solid most of the day; both had to overcome a tough stretch around the middle of their rounds,” Edwards said. “Philip had a pretty good fall, though struggled a bit to start the spring but has come back to play well the last month. He’s a good player and he keeps getting better and better … and is making fewer and fewer freshman mistakes.”
Senior Derek Fribbs carded a 3-over 73, scoring four birdies and eight pars, with five bogeys and a double, tying him for 61st. He opened strong, with two birdies in the first three holes, but then endured a bad patch where he played the next eight holes at 6-over.
Redshirt freshman Drew Trujillo fashioned a 4-over 74, tying him for 66th place, as he had three birdies, nine pars, five bogeys and a double. He started off with a birdie, but played the next six holes at 5-over before closing by playing the course at even par over his final 11 holes.
Sophomore David Oraee carded a 5-over 78, tying him for 76th. He had two birdies and 10 pars against five bogeys and a double for his day, as he continued struggling this week on the west coast; he was 23-over par for the UC-Irvine Anteater, very uncharacteristic for him, especially coming off a 1-under performance at Bandon Dunes three weeks ago.
Collectively, the five Buffs scored 18 birdies Thursday, one more than in the final round of the Anteater invite, which was one more than CU had in Monday’s two rounds. Big numbers were kept to a minimum in the first round here, as CU had just four double bogeys and nothing worse.
Nine players are tied for the individual lead with 4-under 66 scores; the most compelling of that group being San Jose State’s Cody Blick, who made the turn at 1-over but rallied to score six birdies en route to a 30 on the back nine.
The second round of the tournament is set for Friday, with the final round on Saturday. Play begins each day at 9 a.m. MDT off the No. 1 and 10 tees.
by CU SPORTS INFORMATION SERVICE!!!!!
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CU men fade in the first round of NCAA tournament
Mar 22nd
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
AUSTIN, Texas – Colorado caught Illinois with a furious second-half comeback here Friday, but the Buffaloes couldn’t make their inspired run – or their stay in the NCAA Tournament – last.
The seventh-seeded Illini withstood the Buffs’ rally then staged one of their own, eliminating No. 10 seed CU 57-49. Illinois (23-12) advances to play second-seed Miami, a runaway 78-49 winner over No. 15 seed Pacific earlier Friday afternoon, in Sunday’s third round.
“I told our team I’m proud of what they’ve done this year, with a young group,” said CU coach Tad Boyle. “We’ve put Colorado basketball on the map, but we’ve got a lot of work we need to do . . . I’m proud of what Colorado basketball is in the process of becoming.”
The Buffs posted their third consecutive 20-win season (21-12) and earned back-to-back NCAA Tournament trips for the first time in 50 years. But they left the Erwin Center believing this season ended prematurely.
CU trailed by 16 points (37-21) at halftime, but opened the second half with a 23-2 run and went up 44-39 with just under 10 minutes to play. The Buffs held the Illini without a second-half field goal until 8:33 remained in the game, but a 13-2 run gave Illinois a 52-46 lead with under a minute to play and CU couldn’t catch up again.
After finally overtaking the Illini, the Buffs got only two field goals in the last 5:40. And as CU came up with its string of empty possessions, senior guard Brandon Paul was hitting six of six free throws in the final minute to give Illinois the bare amount of offense it needed.
Boyle said his players showed “extreme heart” in coming back, but “we just didn’t have enough of what it took in key possessions of the game, some offensive and some defensive, to finish this thing off. Illinois made more plays down the stretch than we did.”
Paul led the Illini with 17 points, while D.J. Richardson had 14. Askia Booker topped CU with 14 points and was the only CU player in double figures. Josh Scott contributed a game-high 14 rebounds. Andre Roberson, the nation’s No. 2 rebounder entering the tournament, was limited to nine points and eight boards.
In catching the Illini and taking the lead in the second half, Booker said the Buffs “were getting stop after stop and pushing it down their throats. And coach made some great calls for certain plays to be run and we executed very well . . . we felt like had the momentum in our hands.
“But give credit to Illinois for finding the open man and knocking down the shots; that’s something they do very well.”
Sophomore Spencer Dinwiddie, CU’s leading scorer (15.6 ppg), saw his court time diminished by four fouls and was held to six points, with four assists and four of his team’s 15 turnovers. They cost CU 21 points, 15 of them in the first half coming from eight turnovers.
Boyle said the Illini “did a good job on Spencer. They showed hard on those ball screens and tried to get the ball out of his hands . . . Four assists, four turnovers is not a normal line for Spencer. He wasn’t at his best (Friday), but foul trouble had something to do with that.”
The Buffs became the first of five Pac-12 Conference teams in the NCAAs to lose. The league went 3-0 on Thursday, with Oregon, California and Arizona advancing. UCLA was to play Minnesota here later Friday night.
The Buffs entered the game knowing their opponent lived by the long ball, and for just over eight minutes they kept the Illini from doing their normal damage from beyond the arc.
But when the treys began to rain, CU seemed helpless to stop the deluge. Paul started it with a triple at the 11:50 mark, giving Illinois its first lead (16-15) since 2-1. Then, back-to-back three-pointers by Tyler Griffey and Richardson, followed by two free throws by Tracy Abrams capped an 11-2 run and pushed the Illini up 24-17.
The Buffs rallied briefly, getting baskets from Scott and Roberson to pull to within 24-21. But another barrage of threes was headed in the Buffs’ direction.
After Abrams and Richardson each hit two pointers, both stepped back beyond the arc – and no one in a CU uniform went with them. Richardson knocked down consecutive treys and Abrams followed with one just before the halftime buzzer, completing a 13-0 Illinois run and putting CU in a 37-21 halftime hole. It was only the Buffs’ third double-figure deficit of the season, but the second in a row (Kansas in non-conference play, Arizona in the Pac-12 Tournament).
Six of Illinois’ last eight field goals were three-pointers, and that first-half total of made treys was the most since Hartford hit seven in 40 minutes on Dec. 29 in Boulder. Illinois averaged 7.8 successful threes per game this season – the most in the Big Ten Conference.
CU was out-of-synch offensively, with its 21 points the lowest first-half total since managing only 20 at Washington nearly two months ago in a 64-54 loss. And trailing at the half wasn’t a good sign for the Buffs: they were 5-7 in such games before Friday.
Boyle said his halftime message to his players was to climb back into the game “one possession at a time . . . we cannot be happy trading baskets with them. And we have to get stops; we don’t have a 16-point play in our playbook.”
If CU was going to recover, a quick second-half start was mandatory – and they got it with a 9-2 run keyed by back-to-back treys by Booker. His second three pulled the Buffs to within 39-30 with 17:52 to play and prompted a timeout from first-year Illini coach John Groce.
The short break didn’t help. After a short jumper by Scott, Booker struck again in transition from the right wing. His third trey in 2:25 brought the Buffs to within four points (39-35), and they completed their comeback on a basket by Scott that gave CU a 40-39 lead – its first since 17-16.
The Buffs went up 44-39 before the Illini got a layup by Abrams – their first second-half field goal – with 8:33 to play, cutting CU’s lead to 44-41.
One of two free throws by Griffey trimmed the margin to 44-42 at the 8:11 mark, then back-to-back treys by Richardson and Paul – the two biggest of the Illini’s eight treys – capped a 9-0 run and pushed Illinois back in front 48-44 with 6:00 remaining.
CU’s last field goal – a jumper by Dinwiddie – came with 5:40 remaining. After that, the Buffs came up empty on too many possessions to threaten again. After Dinwiddie’s basket, CU’s next field goal was a three-pointer by Xavier Johnson with 17 seconds left and that got them only to within seven points.
Time had run out on CU, and Boyle was left with time to reflect then look forward. He said Roberson, who has until April 28 to make a decision about declaring his eligibility for the NBA Draft, plans to spend some time with his family in San Antonio over spring. Boyle will then talk with the 6-7 forward about his future.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do in terms of improvement and gaining some national respect,” Boyle said. “And it’s incumbent on every person in our basketball program, whether it’s the head coach, assistant coaches, or players, to give everything they’ve got in this off-season.
“We’ll take some time, get our batteries recharged. But just because we’re going to be a year older next year doesn’t mean we’re going to be a year better. Our players need to understand that . . . we have still got plenty of room for improvement and this isn’t our last time here, I promise you that.”
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Smoking ban on Pearl Street Mall has Teeth
Mar 21st
The ordinance banning smoking on the Pearl Street Mall went into effect on Jan. 18, 2013. The ordinance bans all smoking between 11th and 15th streets on the Pearl Street Mall, and on the lawn of the Boulder County Courthouse. The maximum penalty for a first or second offense within two years is a fine of $500; a third and subsequent conviction within two years triggers the general penalty provision of a maximum $1,000 fine and/or maximum of 90 days in jail.
Boulder police officers who patrol on the Pearl Street Mall have been educating people about the smoking ban since it went into effect, and have not written any tickets while the signs were being manufactured. On Monday, April 1, the ordinance will be fully implemented, and enforcement will begin.
Signs were ordered after City Council approved the ordinance in December; however there was a delay in the sign manufacturing. The signs on the mall are custom enameled and take longer to fabricate. The enamel signs are more resistant to graffiti and other tampering.
The city is collaborating with several partners, including Boulder County Public Health and Downtown Boulder, Inc. (DBI), to create a coordinated educational campaign for downtown employees and visitors about the smoking ban on the mall. A celebration event will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Friday, April 12, on the 1300 block of the Pearl Street Mall, where county, city and DBI staff will be available to answer questions about the smoking ban and about free resources available for individuals who wish to quit smoking.