Quick Post: Recapping the Thursday night exorcism

There was a lot for Buff Nation to be happy with from Thursday night's tilt with Arizona St.  Not only was the scoreboard boasting of a 69-54 CU win, but the Buffs looked good at all areas of the game, and controlled the pace and outcome of the contest from the start.  An appreciative crowd of over 8,000 was treated to a Buffs laugher; we even got a Trey Eckloff sighting for our troubles!

CU easily shoved aside ASU.  From: the BDC

Offensively, the Buffs did a great job sharing the ball and cutting into the center of a fragile ASU zone.  Shambolic comes to mind when I consider the ASU matchup-zone, and a cut into the key was all CU seemed to need in order to get a few easy points.  Andre Roberson, while providing yet another double-double, also provided the highlight of the evening: this leap-frog slam over ASU's 7-2 center Jordan Bachynski:

CU was too quick, too focused to let ASU give them problems.  All told, the Buffs shot 49%, and got four players into double figures. I may not be ready to call the struggles against zone D a thing of the past, but CU looks better and better every time they are faced with zone.

While the ASU offense, a treatise on Princeton-style lethargy, threatened to put me to sleep, the Buffs were wide awake and willing to do the work on defense to keep the Sun Devils off the board.  The Sun Devils, who were shooting lights out coming into the contest, were held to 42% from the floor, well below their recent averages.  The Buffs also caused 14 turnovers, and generally made life miserable for the normally over-efficient Sun Devil shooters.

'Dre was all over the place tonight, keeping  the Sun Devils frustrated and score-deprived.  From: the BDC

Overall, a solid win over an opponent that CU should beat.  I often compare playing against a Princeton-zone team to trying to hit a knuckle ball in baseball. Thursday night, the Buffs proved able to make the adjustments, and handle the odd style and pace of the Sun Devils.  Saturday, it's back to normal service as the conventional Arizona Wildcats hit the CEC.  Preview to follow tomorrow morning.