Off to Las Vegas - The basketball team heads to the Las Vegas Classic fresh off a 104-59 blitzing of the Longwood Lancers yesterday afternoon. The win capped a 100% successful 5-game home-stand that included the OT thriller against CSU and the embarrassment of struggling future-conference foe Oregon St. I could play the role of "Objective-newsman-#5" and complain about the continuing struggles inside, but that story is boring. Anyone who has seen the team play over the past 3 years knows that interior defense and rebounding is an issue, and pouring that sour milk into the tasty cereal that is a 5-game winning streak isn't going to do anyone any good.
(Burks and the boys head to Las Vegas fresh off a very successful home-stand. From: The BDC))
Look on the bright side: 5 wins, all of them well deserved, in the "dead-gym" time-period of December (when attendance is lousy and the kids are distracted by finals) are nothing to sneeze at. Remember 2003-04 when a random loss at home during this time frame to a semi-difficult Richmond Spiders club eventually cost the Buffs a place in the Tourney? You win the games on the schedule and move on. I'll certainly take 90 points a game, out-rebounding 4 of 5 opponents, and causing 16 turn-overs per game over a 5 game stretch. Should the team have a better record considering the paucity of truly strong teams on the schedule so far? Sure, but I'm not going to jump off the 3rd Flatiron over it. The home-stand was successful, despite any contention to the contrary, and the team can feel good about itself headed into Wednesday night's contest with New Mexico.
Levi! - Speaking of the 5-game stretch being a sign of good things, rather than a harbinger of doom-to-come, frickin' Levi Knutson shot 80% from the field (!!!!!!!!!) over the 5 games, and averaged 16 points a game. Hell, yesterday he took 9 shots (2 from inside the arc, 3 from beyond the 3pt line, and 4 free throws) and made them all en route to a 17 points in 19 minutes effort that looked as fluid and perfect as it sounds. It's really coming easy for the maligned senior from Littleton. For a guy who never averaged more than 4.6 points per contest in the past (in a shooting offense, mind you), Levi must be sacrificing the good shit to the Basketball Gods now, because his season has an un-holy stench to it. 12 points a game on 61% shooting, 50% from 3, and 90% from the line. His true-shooting percentage (combined shooting from all aspects) is an astronomical 76%. Really, I'm sorry I ever said an unkind word about the kid.
Ben Mills - I've been kind of scratching my head all season about this kid. Not his performance (his spattering of good efforts amongst stretches of abysmal play is on par for a young big-man), but the crowd's reaction to him. Every time he gets up off the bench he gets a well-meaning round of applause from the Buff-faithful. Huh? Dude lands a hook shot against a team that had no one who could guard him and he gets his own headline in the DC? Why is he the freshman who gets all the love? Andre Roberson is the freshman who deserves the column inches. Back-to-back double-doubles and leads the team in rebounding. 'Dre has been everything I could hope for this year, and is making me forget the whole failed Toby Veal experiment.
(Dre's the one who's been workin' in down low. Where's his love? From: the BDC)
Recruiting hullabaloo - Late last week Jon Embree landed the first recruit of his freshly minted head-coaching career as he got wide-out Nelson Spruce to say yes to being a Buffalo. In the interest of keeping up with the times I've included his highlight video below:
In addition, we may or may not have lost/given-up on Valor Christian's QB Brock Berglund. Typical message-board horseshit is circulating. Odd considering how solid he was a week ago, but that's the soap opera of 18-year-old kids trying to make a life-altering decision for you. Don't look to me to get my panties in a bunch over it.
"There was greatness here" - That was Mike Klis' lead to his article following the Broncos 39-23 loss to the Raiders on Sunday. That load of schlock deserves a dismissive wank that I'm stealing from FilmDrunk.
(Your savior has arrived, anoint him with oils and 10+ loss seasons. From: the post)
Happy Monday!
2 comments:
In total honestly, I think people cheer for Ben Mills solely because he is 7' tall, and no other reason. They just hear 7' and think he must be phenomenal at basketball. This is why we can't have nice things...
Also, his comical running. He looks like he is loosely held together by scotch tape. His neck, arms, and torso flop around like they have no idea what the other parts of the body are doing.
In summation, he makes me giggle.
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