K-State wrap-up

It was a perfect storm of everything that logic tells you would spell doom for the CU men's basketball team.  An abnormally high number of turnovers (20), poor free throw shooting int he 2nd half (5-12), Burks and Relphorde missing almost everything they put up (8-26 combined), and both Corey and Alec in foul trouble.  On the road, especially in a place as hostile as K-State, this should of meant a loss, possibly even by buckets of points. 

But it didn't.

I don't know what changed in this team to get the defensive and rebounding performances we've seen the last two games, but, whatever it is, I hope to God it continues.  Sure, the Wildcats are another small-ish team (no primary contributor over 6-9), but similarly built teams have brutalized the Buffs on the boards before.  Instead the Buffs went on the road in Big XII play and came away with a 38-29 rebounding advantage. 

(Huh, rebounding, who knew?  From: the Post)

Defensively, the Buffs absurdly kept K-State from getting a field goal in the final 3:56 of the ballgame and held K-State to 30% shooting in the 2nd half.   This level of effort propelled the Buffs to a win that, despite relative offensive struggles that usually would've killed any opportunity to win, looked kind of easy.  By that I mean the Buffs didn't get lucky, they didn't fluke out a win (although 6-6 from 3 in the 2nd half is pretty mind-blowing); the team earned the victory by simply being the better team out there.

...simply the better team... 

(Wipe that look of disbelief off your face, this Buffs team is for reals; no take-backs  From: The Post)

There's no doubt about it, this team is pure quality.  Everyone knows what the offense is capable of, but this heightened level of defensive and rebounding output begins to put them in a class with the better teams in the country.  I said in my non-conference wrap-up that "if CU could figure out the whole defensive/rebounding thing, they'd be one of the best teams in the nation."  They seemed to have figured that part out now, and they also seem destined for the top-25.

Go Buffs, indeed