Posts tagged Xavier Johnson
Buffs’ b-ball: Young guns show up BIG at home opener
Nov 11th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER – Tad Boyle might be a long way from settling on an eight- or nine-player rotation for his Colorado men’s basketball team, but this much is settled: Freshmen will figure prominently in any plan he devises.
That became apparent Sunday afternoon at the Coors Events Center in CU’s 91-65 home-opening romp over overmatched UT-Martin. Boyle’s quartet of first-year scholarship players – Dustin Thomas, Jaron Hopkins, Tre’Shaun Fletcher and George King – and redshirt freshman Wesley Gordon made key contributions as the Buffs shook any residue from a 72-60 loss two nights earlier to No. 25 Baylor.
“I’m still getting used to the rotations,” Boyle said. “I’m not sure we have the rotations yet that we’re going to have as the year goes on. But I really like our guys . . . I thought our freshmen really grew tonight and gave us good minutes. It’s hard again with the rotations; I’d like to not have three or four (freshmen) on the floor at once, but sometimes there’s nothing I can do about that.”
And there are times – at least in early November – when it seems like a good idea, provided they contribute as they didSunday. Four of the Buffs’ first-year players combined for 36 points, with Gordon leading that pack with 13 and eight rebounds. He debuted against Baylor with nine points and eight boards.
“I’m pleased with the way he played against Baylor (and) the way he played tonight,” Boyle said. “If Wesley defends and rebounds like he did tonight he’s going to help this team.”
Thomas and Hopkins scored nine points each, with Hopkins contributing three – tying him for team high – of the Buffs’ 19 assists. Fletcher added five points and while King didn’t score, he grabbed three rebounds and made one assist in his 5 minutes of court time.
“We got a lot of guys in the rotation and I thought that was good,” Boyle said. “We’re awfully young, as I’ve been telling you guys, and I think it showed at times.”
CU didn’t begin pulling away from UTM, a first-time foe from the Ohio Valley Conference, until sophomore Xavier Johnson hit a three-pointer from the left wing to tie the score at 24-24 with 8:21 left in the first half. That trey ignited a 12-0 Buffs run that eventually went to 19-3 and resulted in a 40-27 advantage – CU’s largest of the first half.
The 6-7 Thomas, who appears to be proving his versatility nightly, and the 6-9 Gordon were instrumental as the Buffs pulled away. Thomas had five points and Gordon four in the 19-3 surge, and Fletcher capped the run with a three-pointer.
“I think the freshmen did a good job of coming in and not being timid toward the game,” Thomas said. “We played good and played with confidence.”
By intermission, the Buffs led by 10 (45-35) – courtesy of that big run. But CU had to overcome the early hot shooting of UTM’s Terence Smith, who scored 10 of his team’s first 14 points and helped the Skyhawks go ahead 14-8 – their largest lead of the game.
“I think we came out a little slow,” Gordon said. “But the game went on and we picked it up a little bit. Our energy is something we need to keep the entire game. We have to come out from the first tip with high energy.”
UTM shot 41.4 percent from behind the arc, hitting 12 of its 29 trey attempts and underscoring one of two main deficiencies Boyle observed. “We didn’t guard the three line,” he said, “and we turned it over 18 times . . . we had six (turnovers) against a top 25 team on Friday night.”
Boyle knew his team’s advantage Sunday was inside, “And anytime you have that you want to exploit it as best you can,” he said. The Buffs did, outscoring the Skyhawks 44-10 in the paint and outrebounding them 46-26. The most fault Boyle found with his team’s interior work was a nine-possession stretch that produced “only two paint touches. That can’t be. It’s got to be eight out of nine – not two out of nine.”
Still, CU’s post players had their moments. In addition to the 6-9 Gordon’s 13 points, 6-10 Josh Scott scored a team-high 15 and collected eight rebounds.
“In our league we’re not used to seeing guys that are 6-10 or 6-11,” said UTM coach Jason James. “We see guys that are 6-6 and 6-7. When you get those guys that are 6-10 and can play, I think it’s an issue.”
CU junior guard Spencer Dinwiddie added 13 points, hitting just two field goals in three attempts but going 9-of-10 from the free throw line. Johnson’s 12 points rounded out the four Buffs in double figures.
CU pulled ahead by 14 points twice in the first 4 minutes of the second half, the first time on a three-point play by Johnson (50-36) and the second time on a pair of “XJ” free throws (54-40).
But those double-digit leads disappeared after UTM three-pointers on three successive possessions. Marshun Newell hit the first, Dee Oldham the next two, cutting CU advantage to seven points (56-49) with just over 13 minutes remaining.
If the Buffs felt threatened, they didn’t show it. A pair of free throws by Scott and a fast-break layup by Hopkins restored CU’s double-digit lead (60-49) and that score held until Dinwiddie hit one of two free throws with 9:14 to play and converted his second miss into a layup to put the Buffs up again by 14 (63-49). They pushed ahead by as many as 27 points in the final 3 minutes.
The Buffs have given Boyle no reason to doubt their desire. “The fight in our team and our competitiveness is there,” he said. “I don’t worry about that with our guys.”
CU hosts Wyoming on Wednesday night (7 p.m.), the second of a six-game homestand. The Cowboys defeated the Skyhawks 78-60 on Friday night in Laramie, and Boyle reminded that “there’s not one player in our locker room, not one coach who’s beaten Wyoming.”
The Cowboys have defeated the Buffs in each of the past two seasons, winning 65-54 in Boulder and 76-69 in Laramie.
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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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Roberson going pro
Apr 28th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
Junior Andre Roberson, a 6-7 forward who was on the verge of becoming CU’s career rebounding leader, made his decision about midday Sunday and notified CU Coach Tad Boyle.
Roberson was scheduled to announce his intentions at a Friday morning news conference at the Coors Events Center, but he and his family canceled the conference because Roberson apparently was torn between leaving school and turning pro.
He had until 9:59 p.m. MDT Sunday to declare himself eligible for the NBA Draft, which will be conducted on June 27 at the Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets.
“We support Andre and want what’s best for him and his family,” Boyle said Sunday afternoon. “We wish him the best.”
Roberson leaves CU with most of the school’s rebounding records within his reach and a legitimate chance to likely have put some of those marks out of reach for any future Buff.
The odds favored Roberson becoming CU’s top career rebounder in the first game of what would have been his senior year; he needed 10 rebounds, which would have given him 1,055 – one more than Stephane Pelle (1999-03) – with the remainder of his final season ahead of him.
Nonetheless, in three seasons Roberson left his mark. He was the only CU player with 1,000 points (1,012) and rebounds (1,045), 150 blocks (150) and steals (164), and 100 assists (119). He also was the first Buffs player to lead the team in rebounding, blocked shots and steals for three consecutive seasons.
At the team’s annual banquet earlier this month, Roberson was presented the Stephane Pelle Rebounding Award and earned the Best Defensive Player Award as voted by his teammates. He also was selected as the Pac-12 Conference’s Defensive Player of The Year and was a first-team all-conference pick.
In the Buffs’ school-record third consecutive 20-win season (21-12, 10-8 Pac-12 Conference), Roberson became the first CU player in 22 years to average a double-double (10.9 ppg, 11.2 rpg) in consecutive years. He finished second nationally in rebounding and he leaves CU with a career average just shy of a double-double – 9.6 points, 10.0 rebounds.
What’s to become of the 2013-14 Buffs minus Roberson? He’ll undoubtedly be missed but Boyle believes his team can thrive anyway. At a season-ending wrap-up on April 11, Boyle said his fourth CU squad will “be good with or without him . . . Andre knows we’re going to have a good team next year; it’s not going to be a make-or-break decision for Colorado basketball.”
Before Roberson’s decision, several Internet news outlets projected the Buffs to be in the preseason Top 25 for 2013-14. Among the more reputable, Sports Illustrated had them No. 11, CBSSports.com No. 12, and USA Today No. 16. With Roberson out of the picture, those projections could change. Roberson’s return might have kept the 2013-14 Buffs among the most highly touted preseason teams in school history, but CU isn’t likely to suffer.
Boyle’s roster is far from barren. He gets an immediate frontcourt replacement in 6-8 redshirt freshman Wes Gordon and will count on improved board work from 6-10 Josh Scott and 6-6 Xavier Johnson, both sophomores-to-be. And with the addition of 6-7 redshirt freshman Chris Jenkins and 6-5 Jaron Hopkins, 6-6 Tre’Shaun Fletcher and 6-7 Dustin Thomas – all true freshmen – the Buffs should receive an immediate influx of length and athleticism to help with rebounding and a revamped defensive strategy.
Most draft projections omitted Roberson from the first round, and only first-round selections get guaranteed contracts. However, the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement gives agents the chance to negotiate guaranteed pacts for second-round picks. Yet there are no guarantees Roberson will go in the second round.
A sample of Roberson’s positioning in the Top 100 draft prospects: ESPN.com – 54th overall; CBSSports.com – 54th overall;DraftExpress.com – 57th overall; HoopsWorld.com – 57th overall. If those projections reflect a general consensus among NBA directors of player personnel, Roberson could be a late-second round selection.
At the conclusion of CU’s season, Boyle and Athletic Director Mike Bohn flew to San Antonio to meet with the Roberson family. Boyle also applied to the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee for an evaluation of Roberson’s “draftability.”
The committee is composed of NBA general managers and other team officials who scout college games and players. Two years ago, the committee projected CU sophomore Alec Burks, a 6-6 shooting guard, to be a mid-first round selection if not a potential lottery pick. He was chosen 12th overall by Utah and signed a three-year rookie contract worth $6.3 million.
Boyle contrasted the situations of Burks and Roberson, saying each players’ decision boiled down to “risk/reward,” with not much risk for Burks but significantly more for Roberson. Boyle believes Roberson will polish his offensive game and improve in other facets next season, but the critical question of “where?” won’t be answered until the NBA Draft.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
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