Well, a fortnight can certainly change a few things. Only two weeks ago, CU was down and out, sliding to 4-4 in conference play, and adrift in a sea of questions. After a 3-0 home stand, suddenly the ship appears righted, and the Buffs actually find themselves only a half game out of second-place. Huzzah!
Of course, that's the key phrase - home stand. All the gains over the last two weeks were made in the friendly confines of the CEC. Considering that Colorado remains 1-3 away from Boulder in 2014, without a strong showing in the bunch, it's hard to take this team all that seriously without some substantial gains on the road.
Which is where tonight's game comes in. The Buffs travel to Westwood to take on the UCLA Bruins in a matchup for 2nd place in the Pac-12. We've left the post-injury phase behind now; it's all about the players on the court. This is their opportunity to define the club that they want to be apart of. A win, coupled with a series completion over USC this weekend, silences critics, and flips the narrative on its head. Wouldn't it be a hell of a thing if they could do whatever-it-takes this evening to redefine the 2013-14 basketball season?
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Tip-off from the re-vamped Pauley Pavillion is set for 7pm this evening. The fate of Western Civilization will hang in the balance, as the great Bill Walton has the color on ESPN2. For those who hate fun, you can hide from the the Grateful Red-head with Mark Johnson on 850 KOA.
For reference, my preview from the first game can be found here.
Click below for the preview...
Showing posts with label Debbie Downer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Debbie Downer. Show all posts
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
Monday Grab Bag: My lawn, get off of it.
The topic du jour on twitter today was student attendance at basketball games. The conversation was too sprawling to succinctly link, but a perusal of the timelines of @TZiskBuff, @William_Whelan, @RyanKoenigsberg, @CUGoose, @AngryAndy720, and @JGIsland from this afternoon will get you caught up to speed. To summarize: the student attendance this year is disappointing to the point that a handful of grown men spent a portion of their work day discussing it.
Was there sarcasm? Oh yes. Catty generalities? You betcha! Allusions to ski slopes and pot smoking? Indeed. And those were just my tweets!
Having covered this territory last year, I'm disinclined to waste another 1,000 words on the subject, so I'll abbreviate. Suffice to say: kids aren't coming in the ways they used to. Whole swaths of the south end of the arena were bare over the recent homestand, and it's only getting worse. At a time when the loyal and the passionate are trolling for votes, the empty seats undercut any claims of being the 'Student Section of the Year,' and generally elicit eye rolls.
Are there reasonable excuses for an individual student to not attend a given basketball game? Of course there are. Life is a varied, wonderful thing that your average 20-year old would do well to pursue to its fullest. But how, why 10% of the student body at a flagship university can't be bothered to support a winning basketball program - incidentally, in spite of injuries, off to their best start in 45 years - is beyond me. Complaints of 'lack of administrative support' and 'reduced incentive to attend' strike me as entitled and soft. We, as in BuffNation as a whole, should be better than this.
This frustration is not leveled at those who show up. The 500-1,000 kids who work their butts off in support of the team deserve the traditional kudos. It's the other 2,000 fans who have decided to spend their hoop nights elsewhere that are raising my temperature. At the end of the day, on a night when the founding fathers of the C-Unit were being honored, the student section was maybe 1/3 full... for a team with 18 wins in 3rd place in the Pac-12. Simply inexcusable when compared to where the kids were only a few months ago. The team deserves better.
90% of life continues to be showing up... so, you know... show up. No excuses, play like a champion. Also, get off my lawn.
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Today in the bag, I'm talking basketball, basketball, and more basketball.
Click below for the bag...
Was there sarcasm? Oh yes. Catty generalities? You betcha! Allusions to ski slopes and pot smoking? Indeed. And those were just my tweets!
Having covered this territory last year, I'm disinclined to waste another 1,000 words on the subject, so I'll abbreviate. Suffice to say: kids aren't coming in the ways they used to. Whole swaths of the south end of the arena were bare over the recent homestand, and it's only getting worse. At a time when the loyal and the passionate are trolling for votes, the empty seats undercut any claims of being the 'Student Section of the Year,' and generally elicit eye rolls.
 |
| The students at tip of the Utah game. It was worse on Sunday. |
This frustration is not leveled at those who show up. The 500-1,000 kids who work their butts off in support of the team deserve the traditional kudos. It's the other 2,000 fans who have decided to spend their hoop nights elsewhere that are raising my temperature. At the end of the day, on a night when the founding fathers of the C-Unit were being honored, the student section was maybe 1/3 full... for a team with 18 wins in 3rd place in the Pac-12. Simply inexcusable when compared to where the kids were only a few months ago. The team deserves better.
90% of life continues to be showing up... so, you know... show up. No excuses, play like a champion. Also, get off my lawn.
--
Today in the bag, I'm talking basketball, basketball, and more basketball.
Click below for the bag...
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