- Tad Boyle, 15-16 Blue-Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook
University of Colorado Men's Basketball in 2014-15 was not a joyful experience. A sour feeling permeated the program throughout their 16-18 slog of a season; a season of disappointment and frustration. From presentation to product, everything was just a little... off. It's was not Pac-12 caliber. I was not Tad Boyle caliber. It was not what this program should be capable of.
All that frustration seemed to come to a head in the disastrous final week of the campaign. Finishing regular season play with a sub-.500 record, 8th in the Pac-12, the team was ineligible for the NIT. But, instead of letting the year end there, Coach Boyle took the unusual step of agreeing to play in the third-tier CBI tournament, hoping to capitalize on extra practice and playing time with an eye towards the future. It only proceeded, however, to extend the pain, as the sour feeling upended the program's apple cart.
First, the team's only scholarship senior, a bruised and battered Askia Booker, chose to quit the team, rather than play in the tournament (a decision which, in and of itself, I could spend a few thousand words discussing). Following quickly on his heels out the door was reserve forward (and fan favorite) Dustin Thomas, who decided to transfer to Arkansas, and who also sat out the CBI run. Then, there was the tournament itself, a run which quickly developed into a nightmare, culminating in a second round loss at the forgettable Seattle U Redhawks. That game became a quirky little metaphor for the whole season, featuring camerawork akin to that of a dad at a pee-wee football game, a gym roughly the size of my living room, and a perfunctory second-half collapse from our heroes. The whole experience seemed to blossom into a black eye for the program, while the players the experience was supposedly meant for - freshmen Dom Collier and Tory Miller - barely played minutes above their season averages against substandard competition. The whole thing reminded me of a poker table where a guy takes a bad beat, and just keeps throwing money at the table in hopes of getting it back. The CBI experience was Tad Boyle on tilt.
These are painful memories and uncomfortable conversations, but I've always found the clearest path to moving on to be confrontation. The simple truth: last season sucked. From November through March, the whole thing was awful. It was the return of the old BasketBuffs, and a very unwelcome one, at that. So, the question becomes, how did everything come to jump the tracks so quickly? And, more importantly, how can the program respond and regain their forward momentum?
Well, the answer to the first is easier than the answer to the second. CU lost 18 games last year, finishing 8th in the Pac-12, primarily because their defense was sub-standard. Overall defensive efficiency had been the hallmark of the back-to-back-to-back Tournament appearances at the start of this decade, and seemed to be the foundation of a winning formula that had the Buffs, if nothing else, a shoe-in for competitive basketball for the foreseeable future. But it slipped last season, with the team allowing an adjusted one point per possession for the first time since the NIT team of 2010-11 -- a raw Drtg of 102.3, good for 200th nationally. You'd see it time and time again, the Buffs just couldn't get a stop when needed, with opponents taking advantage of weak perimeter defense (36%, 9th in Pac-12 play) and numerous second chances. With the supposedly improved offense turning in a performance that was, more or less, the same as we've seen before, the drop in defensive efficiency was a disaster. Beyond just the poor defense, though, team chemistry was all over the place, turnovers remained an issue as the point guard spot remained in flux (20% turnover rate for the season), and injuries chipped away at the playing time of the best players (a combination of five Buffs missed a collective total of 20 games). Everything seemed to dovetail and lead to one miss-step after another.
As to how the ship gets turned around... well, that's the first of a number of hard questions this program will have to answer. In this virtual tome, I will attempt to come up with those answers, and dissect the coming season for the 2015-16 University of Colorado Men's Basketball Team; previewing them from a variety of aspects, while predicting whether they will be able to right the ship and return to respectability. I'll look at the roster, profiling the players, and discussing how the coaching staff will look to leverage a very strong front court in a year of new rules and ticky-tack fouls. I'll look at the schedule, touching on both the non-conference and conference slates, and announce my baseline win projection for the campaign. I'll look at the Pac-12, noting how our rivals spent the off-season, and talk about the league as a whole. Finally, I'll close with a look at the upcoming recruiting class, discussing how the program will retool headed into next season.
Those of you who have been here before know that the word 'massive' in the title is not a misnomer. I'm long-winded to a fault; consider yourselves warned. If, with that understanding, you're not dissuaded, if you love Colorado basketball too much to let a thing like 'TLDR' get in front of a good time, then grab a beer, strap in, and click below for the preview...All that frustration seemed to come to a head in the disastrous final week of the campaign. Finishing regular season play with a sub-.500 record, 8th in the Pac-12, the team was ineligible for the NIT. But, instead of letting the year end there, Coach Boyle took the unusual step of agreeing to play in the third-tier CBI tournament, hoping to capitalize on extra practice and playing time with an eye towards the future. It only proceeded, however, to extend the pain, as the sour feeling upended the program's apple cart.
First, the team's only scholarship senior, a bruised and battered Askia Booker, chose to quit the team, rather than play in the tournament (a decision which, in and of itself, I could spend a few thousand words discussing). Following quickly on his heels out the door was reserve forward (and fan favorite) Dustin Thomas, who decided to transfer to Arkansas, and who also sat out the CBI run. Then, there was the tournament itself, a run which quickly developed into a nightmare, culminating in a second round loss at the forgettable Seattle U Redhawks. That game became a quirky little metaphor for the whole season, featuring camerawork akin to that of a dad at a pee-wee football game, a gym roughly the size of my living room, and a perfunctory second-half collapse from our heroes. The whole experience seemed to blossom into a black eye for the program, while the players the experience was supposedly meant for - freshmen Dom Collier and Tory Miller - barely played minutes above their season averages against substandard competition. The whole thing reminded me of a poker table where a guy takes a bad beat, and just keeps throwing money at the table in hopes of getting it back. The CBI experience was Tad Boyle on tilt.
These are painful memories and uncomfortable conversations, but I've always found the clearest path to moving on to be confrontation. The simple truth: last season sucked. From November through March, the whole thing was awful. It was the return of the old BasketBuffs, and a very unwelcome one, at that. So, the question becomes, how did everything come to jump the tracks so quickly? And, more importantly, how can the program respond and regain their forward momentum?
Well, the answer to the first is easier than the answer to the second. CU lost 18 games last year, finishing 8th in the Pac-12, primarily because their defense was sub-standard. Overall defensive efficiency had been the hallmark of the back-to-back-to-back Tournament appearances at the start of this decade, and seemed to be the foundation of a winning formula that had the Buffs, if nothing else, a shoe-in for competitive basketball for the foreseeable future. But it slipped last season, with the team allowing an adjusted one point per possession for the first time since the NIT team of 2010-11 -- a raw Drtg of 102.3, good for 200th nationally. You'd see it time and time again, the Buffs just couldn't get a stop when needed, with opponents taking advantage of weak perimeter defense (36%, 9th in Pac-12 play) and numerous second chances. With the supposedly improved offense turning in a performance that was, more or less, the same as we've seen before, the drop in defensive efficiency was a disaster. Beyond just the poor defense, though, team chemistry was all over the place, turnovers remained an issue as the point guard spot remained in flux (20% turnover rate for the season), and injuries chipped away at the playing time of the best players (a combination of five Buffs missed a collective total of 20 games). Everything seemed to dovetail and lead to one miss-step after another.
As to how the ship gets turned around... well, that's the first of a number of hard questions this program will have to answer. In this virtual tome, I will attempt to come up with those answers, and dissect the coming season for the 2015-16 University of Colorado Men's Basketball Team; previewing them from a variety of aspects, while predicting whether they will be able to right the ship and return to respectability. I'll look at the roster, profiling the players, and discussing how the coaching staff will look to leverage a very strong front court in a year of new rules and ticky-tack fouls. I'll look at the schedule, touching on both the non-conference and conference slates, and announce my baseline win projection for the campaign. I'll look at the Pac-12, noting how our rivals spent the off-season, and talk about the league as a whole. Finally, I'll close with a look at the upcoming recruiting class, discussing how the program will retool headed into next season.
