Monday Grab Bag: Still the #1

It's a special thing to wake up and see your favorite team on top of the standings.  Starting from late Thursday evening, through the games over the weekend, and (at least) up to this Thursday night, Buff fans can look at the Pac-12 table and see the name "Colorado" listed in sole possession of first place.  Sure, it's a result of CU playing a favorable home schedule to this point, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it.  Suck on that, Pac-12!

In today's bag, I'll be looking back at Saturday's win over Wazzu, discussing what it would take for CU to win the inaugural Pac-12 title, talking about how the women did over the weekend, and I'll give the BCS title game a once over.

Click below for the bag...

Washington State Basketball Preview

Turnarounds in the Pac-12 are damn quick.  Just over 40 hours after the CU win over the Washington Huskies, and the Buffs will start running out of the North side of the CEC again.  This time it's the Washington St Cougars who will face our Black and Gold clad heroes.

CU stands alone at the top of the topsy-turvey Pac-12 conference, and have an excellent chance tonight to improve to 3-0 in the early goings of conference play.  Washington St was selected to finish in a 10th-place tie with CU before the season started, and the Buffs will have ample opportunity to prove separation Saturday afternoon.

Hey Buff Nation!  The basketball team needs your help one more time.  Get your butt up to the CEC to see the best team the Pac-12 currently has to offer (such as it is).  The Broncos aren't on til Sunday, so you have no excuse.  Your university needs you; answer the damn call!

Tip off is set for 2 in the afternoon, and you can see the action on FSN national (Reggie Theus is providing the analysis!).  It's on KOA if you can't find a FSN station to your liking.




Click below for the preview...

Quick Post: Thoughts on the win over UW

Well, I sure wasn't expecting that.  87-69 with a bullet!

A feisty crowd got a good show last night, and the Buffs are off to a 2-0 start to Pac-12 play.  From: the BDC

Defense had to keep the Buffs in the game early when they started the evening out stuck in neutral.  Once the train got rolling, however, the Buffs finished the game +27 after falling behind 14-5 in the opening minutes.  The Buffs held UW to 37% shooting, 20% from behind the arc, and held the Huskies just under their scoring average away from Seattle (72 pts per game away from home before last night).  That's the level of defensive effort I've come to expect from a Coach Boyle led team.

A scrappy defensive effort from the Buffs kept them in the game.  From: the BDC

It was the Buffs offense I wasn't expecting.  After early struggles against the tight man defense from Washington, CU buckled down and found some good looks to open up the floor.  CU ended up shooting damn near 50% on the night (57% from deep) and had five players score in double-figures.  They even shot 89% from the charity stripe, keeping any hopes of a UW come back far from reach.  A fantastic offensive output from CU.

The best individual performance of the night came from Carlon Brown, who had a few SportsCenter worthy plays and 18 points that keyed a big CU run to take over the game.  'Dre did his typical yeoman's work on the boards (his typical allotment of 12), and "The Mayor" Spencer Dinwidde had a solid 13 point, 5 assist game while shooting 8-9 from the free throw line.  Sabatino Chen also deserves a mention, as an early spate of five high-energy minutes in the 1st half turned the game around.

Carlon had a huge performance last night.  From: the BDC

Despite a roller coaster of a season, Washington is a strong, athletic squad who can hang with any team in the nation.  That CU dropped an 18-point anvil on their heads is an emphatic statement that this team is past their MWC-caused hiccups.

However, I'm not ready to go full Ringo and proclaim this team Pac-12 title contenders, or any other such nonsense; there's still an old Big-12 schedule's worth (16 games) left to play this season.  Still, that was a huge win last night, and there are a lot of heads perking up up and down the Left Coast to see what that noise from Boulder was. 

Lot of work left to do...

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On a side note: Utah beat Washington State in SLC last night (Go Utes?).  I had thought I'd said that I'd eat a hat if they won a conference game, but looking back, I must have changed it at the last minute.  So no hat eating for me! 

Wait, what?  Joy in SLC?  That's un-possible.  From: the Salt Lake Tribune.

It's still a massive shock that the Utes, who looked beyond awful last week, were able to beat anyone.  Additionally, Cal and Stanford fell last night, leaving the Buffs in sole possession of first place in the Pac-12. 

Just goes to show you how fucked up the Pac-12 is this season; so keep the brakes pumped on your expectations for the Buffs until we get a little deeper into conference play.  There's not a team in this league who has proven to be a consistent competitor, and anyone can lose on a given night.

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I didn't get back til late last night, so no WSU preview this morning.  I'll have one up by tomorrow morning.

Washington Basketball Preview

Coach Boyle has dropped a quote throughout his CU tenure which I find very appropriate: "The price of poker has just gone up."

After a swing through the weakest portion of the schedule, it's now time to see exactly what kind of squad this year's BasketBuffs are.  While the Pac-12 is "down," with the notable exception of Utah, the conference is capable of, at the very least, effort on a nightly basis, and many squads have more than enough talent to make life difficult for the transitioning Buffs.  One such squad is tonight's opponent: the Washington Huskies, who happen to feature the best freshman player the Pac-12 has to offer.

Certainly, the price of poker has gone up, and CU's performance this evening will go a long way to telling how the rest of the season will play out.  With a win, the Buffs may shape up to be a .500 or better Pac-12 team, a loss will probably show the Buffs to be a 7-win or worse conference squad.

With that in mind, its massively important that a packed and feisty CEC greets the Buffs out of the tunnel this evening.  If you're in the area, or even if you're not, please make an effort to come support the Black and Gold.  The CEC needs to become a dreaded destination for the entire conference, and an easy way to set the tone is to pack the gym and root the Buffs on to victory.

Tip off is set for 7pm.  If you absolutely can't make it up to Boulder tonight, you can watch the proceedings on ROOT Sports.

Click below for the preview...

Quick Post: The end of the Darrell Scott Era of College Football

Last night I came across a bit of news that forced a chuckle.  South Florida RB Darrell Scott, yes that Darrell Scott, is skipping his final year of collegiate eligibility, and declaring for the NFL Draft.

His redshirt junior campaign in Tampa saw the one time 5-star phenom rack up a light 814 yards and 5 scores.  While he did rush for over 5 yards per carry, those aren't numbers that jump off the page and lead you to believe that the kid is ready for NFL work.  That he only accomplished that much against weak Big East competition is even more worrisome.

Overall, through spotty play over three seasons, the man many predicted would be a home run, can't miss prospect amassed a paltry 1,252 career rushing yards and 6 scores.  Even if you put that together, it's a decent, at best, season.  By far his best game was this season's 146 yard, 3 TD performance against the vaunted Rattlers of Florida A&M.  Besides that, he only rumbled to one other 100 yard performance in his career.  Not exactly what recruiters thought they were fighting over back in '07/'08.

He did manage to make blowing past Ball St look easy... so he's got that going for him, which is nice.

What I've always perceived of Darrell's career is that he was never that interested in being a collegiate back; his goal was always the NFL.  College was just an inconvenient road block on the way to his destiny.  I guess he figures four years is four years, and he's ready to jump ship.... RIGHT NOW.

But there are some underlying issues that can't be looked past.  That lack of focus on the collegiate game, that impatience to crack an NFL roster, lead to a career that constantly saw him on the sidelines, rather than in a game.  Out of shape, prone to injuries, and absent when needed were the hallmarks of his tenure in college football.  I know the NFL mostly looks at workouts, rather than stats and in-game performance, but that's a hard sentence to overlook for an NFL scout.

Just look at this article from a USF fansite.  After noting that Darrell's performance tailed off against better competition, and as the season wore on, comes this note:

"Scott provided some power to the USF backfield, but was inconsistent at times and battled several injuries, starting with a hamstring in spring and concussion like symptoms later in the season.  He had solid numbers and has the NFL-size body, but did not have the consistent production when it mattered most to make him an NFL-ready running back."

Woof.  That sounds familiar.  Good to know it's the same Darrell I knew and loved from watching him stand on the sideline and run away when a more dedicated and deserving back took the majority of playing time.  My friends and I used to call him the "Lawn Chair," because he was only good for two things: folding and sitting.  Good thing he didn't last this long in Boulder, because Coach Bieniemy would've broken him like a child's toy.

In this picture, Scott celebrates as others do the whole 'effort' thing; not an uncommon sight in his career.  From: the Post

Whatever, the book is closed.  I hope things turn out alright for him.  Shame all that promise looks to have been wasted.  Maybe I'm wrong, maybe he is destined to be an NFL star, and I'm just missing it.  I bet I'm not, however.  Peace be the Journey, Darrell.

#FreeAlecBurks

The Utah Jazz continue to allow former CU hoops sensation Alec Burks languish on the bench.  Through five games this season, Burks has only been afforded a paltry 30 minutes of action, with one DNP; most of that playing time has come in 2nd half garbage time to boot.  The Jazz seem to think him only capable of playing the 11th man role on a team floundering in the early going.

The thing is, his forgotten status is not for lack of early production.  In those scant 30 minutes of court time, Alec has 24 points on 59% shooting.  In a extremely quiet coming out party last week in Denver, when Jazz Coach Tyrone Corbin threw Burks a bone with 10 minutes in his "home" city, Alec responded with 15 points and 2 steals.  (A performance that was followed up with the head coach deciding it best not to play young Alec at all two nights later against Philly) 

Where's the court?  Where's the opponent?  The Jazz are short changing their young guard.

His Hollinger PER rating is a ridiculous 31.75.  Granted in few minutes, but still, you can't say the kid hasn't made the most of his time.

What the blazing hell is going on in SLC?  Not only are the Jazz a sub-par Western Conference squad, but they're currently awash in a hardcore youth movement.  A first-round draft pick, who is being paid a hefty, guaranteed sum, for a team running a serious youth-movement should certainly figure to see the court in a rational world.  (I keep forgetting that this world is irrational)  Does the world really deserve the punishment that is 20 minutes per night from Raja Bell at Alec's expense?

Did Alec forget his P's and Q's in Mormon-land?  Was he caught drinking, *gasp*, a beer (although... he isn't 21 yet...)?  Perhaps Coach Corbin just can't get his name right, constantly telling the scorer he's putting in 'Alex,' only to realize, too late, that there is no 'Alex' on the roster? 

Whatever the reason, it's bullshit, and the Jazz need to free the wunderkind from Grandview, MO to roam the land of the NBA giants.  Tonight would be a great time to start, as the Jazz host the Milwaukee Bucks, who themselves seemed destined to draft Alec over the summer.

You spent a first round pick and millions of cash on the kid; the very least you could do is play him.

If the Jazz don't want to use him this season, I'm sure Coach Boyle would welcome him back to Boulder, where his talents are appreciated.

C'mon Corbin, sack up and #FreeAlecBurks

Tuesday Grab Bag: Happy New Year!

Wow, Utah is a steaming pile of shit.  The Pac-12 would be wise to pump out a press release disavowing their actions this season.  They're so bad that the university is considering a name change. I have honestly never seen a worse power conference squad.  If they win a conference game the rest of the way, there needs to be an investigation, 'cause the losing squad probably took a dive.

In the year's first post, I'll be taking a look back at the historic ass-whupping laid on the heads of those hapless Utes, yet another win from the womens team, and a quick look at the end of the NFL regular season and the crux of bowl season.

Click below for the bag...

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