2013 Arkansas St Basketball Teaser

You may not have ever heard of it, but the Buffs are wrapping up something called the Global Sports Main Event this evening.  A series of games played between Colorado, Wyoming, Arkansas St, Jackson St, and Tennessee-Martin, feel free to look at the GSME as glorified schedule filler; it's primary importance being a few guaranteed wins, and some extra home dates.

The Red Wolves and Cowboys - just two of the teams in the GSME.

Not that you should care - hell, even I barely care - but the Buffs could clinch the round-robin tournament title this evening with a win over the Arkansas State Red Wolves.  That should be expected, however, and I doubt there's even a trophy to display in the coaches office.  I certainly hope there's not a trophy...

Anyways, on to those Red Wolves.  Despite a solid 19-12 campaign, the reigning champions of the Sun Belt - West were not granted the opportunity to play post-season basketball.  (The disadvantages of playing small conference basketball in practice.)  Undeterred, they've reloaded with four senior transfers to challenge for a spot in some form of post-season play.  They're deeper now, and are the best of the three teams CU will face in the GSME.

As opposed to some of the more guard-oriented teams the Buffs have played over the past week, Arkansas St has most of their talent up front.  Wiry swing-forward Melvin Johnson III pairs nicely with lanky center Kirk Van Slyke and bulky power forward Kendrick Washington.  All three are senior transfers, and have added about 38 ppg, and 15 rebounds to the roster.  Johnson, a 6-6 transfer from UTSA, is a deadly three point threat, who has made 8-15 on the season, including 4-8 up in Laramie over the weekend.  Van Slyke, a 6-10 transfer from Houston, is another shooter, so don't let his 6-10 frame fool you.  Washington, also from Houston, is the team's best rebounder at 6-7, 255, but not much of an offensive piece.

Johnson, the transfer from UTSA, is a legit shooter.

They're lead in the backcourt by another transfer, Brandon Reed.  Originally the Sun Belt freshman of the year in '09-'10 with the Red Wolves, he tried his hand at power conference ball with Georgia Tech before deciding to finish his career back in Jonesboro.  He's joined at the back by 6-0 sophomore Cameron Golden, who bucks the trend by being a completely homegrown talent.

All told, these guys like to live outside.  They've tried over 40% of their shot attempts from long range, which should worry BuffNation, as the close-out man-to-man the Buffs utilize has been late in getting to shooters on the year.  CU is at their best when they simply don't allow the shooter to get their hands on the ball, and I'd love to see Dinwiddie, who is great at ball-denial, get tasked with Melvin Johnson to mute him before he can go off.  It'll probably be Xavier Johnson, assuming he's healthy, with the Mayor on Reed, but my point stands - Spencer is the best option to cancel out a great shooter like Johnson.

Assuming whoever guards Melvin Johnson keeps him quiet, Colorado should have an easy go of it tonight.  If he does get hot, things could get dicey... Texas Southern dicey.  Still, I like CU to win, regardless.  At the very least, the Buffs are more dynamic on offense this season, and should be strong enough to overcome a good night from an opponent like Arkansas St.

Tip-off from the CEC is set for 7pm this evening.  Television coverage is on Pac-12 Networks, with the radio call on 850 KOA.  If you have a ticket, but say you'd rather stay home and watch whatever lousy football game is on ESPN, I will come to your house an hurl things at you.

GO BUFFS!  PROVE ME RIGHT, AND BEAT THE RED WOLVES!

Monday Grab Bag: A Perfect Saturday

To all those sad-sack schools who had the miss-fortune to be playing the University of Colorado on Saturday, I apologize.  You never had a chance, it was CU's day.  It didn't matter what sport it was, the Buffs were better.  Basketball?  Check.  Soccer?  Check.  Football? Check.  All we needed was some distance running, and it would've been a perfect 24 hours at the Foot of the Flatirons.

For those of us in BuffNation: we get far too few days like this to celebrate, so live it up!

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Today in the bag, I'm talking the basketball win over Jackson St, the soccer win over DU, and the football win over Cal.

Click below for the bag...

Friday Beer Post: 2013 Gameday Beer-o-the-week - Cal Edition

Each week throughout the football season I'm going to suggest a good beer for the ubiquitous pre-game tailgate. Let's be honest, with tailgates it's not always top quality that you're looking for. To steal a phrase from the heinous beer terrorists at Budweiser, you want "drinkability." (or what a real beer connoisseur calls "a session beer") So, be warned, these may not be "the best" beers around. But, in the words of Dave Chappelle as Samuel L. Jackson "IT'LL GET YOU DRUNK!"

With all apologies to the football program, my focus is on hoops right now, leaving me leaning towards Saturday's basketball matchup with Jackson St to help me pick a suitable beer for the weekend.

Jackson St, for those who don't know is located in Jackson, MS, a region of the country not exactly known for beer production, so I won't find a regional selection to offer.  Their mascot, on the other hand - the Tiger - is a little more promising in terms of beer nomination, and gets me thinking of an honestly awful-tasting import from Singapore.  That beer, Asia Pacific Breweries Tiger Beer, is my gameday beer-o-the-week.

Billed as southeast Asia's best-selling lager, Tiger Beer is your proto-typical American Adjunct Lager, better known as the crap being pumped out by big breweries like Budweiser and Miller.  It's flavorless at best, outright foul at worst, and generally watery and non-filling.  On the plus side, it gets you drunk, and is generally known not to contain poison.  The good with the bad.

Think of it this way, Tiger Beer is mascot appropriate for the basketball game played Saturday morning, and taste appropriate for the football being played by the Pac-12's two worst teams Saturday afternoon.  So, man-up, make sure it's cold, and choke some down.

Happy Friday!  Go Buffs, beat Jackson St (and Cal)!

2013 Cal Football Preview

Well, this is it.  The game BuffNation has been waiting all fall for.  If the Buffs have any hope of avoiding a 0-9 conference run, they need to win tomorrow.  As bad as the Buffs have been, Cal has been a tad worse, only entering with one win on the year, and none out of seven tries in Pac-12 play.  Nothing on the remaining schedule (vs USC, @Utah), is nearly as winnable, making this the game of the season for Colorado. Of course, the Bears are looking at CU in exactly the same way - a chance to avoid an embarrassing winless run in conference.  Thankfully, with ties abolished in college, someone has to get their first in-conference win.

No excuses, Buffs, get it done.

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It's the Pac-12 Toilet Bowl, live from Boulder, CO!  (See, I knew we'd make a bowl game one of these days.) Kickoff from beautiful Folsom Field is set for 3:30pm Saturday.  Coverage can be found on Pac-12 Networks, with the radio call on 850 KOA.

Click below for the preview...

Wyoming Wrap and Jackson State Teaser

Just keep repeating: a win is a win. Without that mantra, CU's 63-58 Wednesday night win over Wyoming is almost too ugly to pocket.  With it, it's another beautiful day in Boulder.

The game was what we've come to expect when watching the Buffs and the Cowboys - frustration, zone defense, turnovers, and poor officiating.  Through it all, CU got next to nothing from their bench (three points), shot only 25% from deep, turned the ball over 14 times, and only recorded 4 assists (tha fuck?).  Winning yesterday evening was like battling a medieval case of consumption - blood letting and leeches were certainly involved, and mal humors ruled the day.  That the Buffs survived was a matter of grit and determination, rather than any palpable sense of 'playing well.'

The game started out innocuous enough, with Colorado holding a see-saw lead for most of the opening minutes.  Then the Cowboys switched to zone, and my hair started to fall out.  While CU was able to get the ball into the high post, they seemed unable or unwilling to make anything of it, and the resulting passivity and confusion lead to a quick shift in momentum towards Wyoming.  Colorado would go without a field goal for nearly eight minutes, as the Pokes pushed a lead out to as many as 10 points.  The gap closed a little moving towards the break, but the Buffs were still down 31-26 at half.

CU needed to capitalize on touches in the paint a little more in the first half.  From: the BDC

I know Coach Boyle loves to save his timeouts, but it looked to me as if the team could've used a quick blow to reassess their plan of attack against the Cowboy zone defense.  Guys were passing up solid chances inside the paint out of timidity.  A little push in the huddle to attack the rim from the high post may have lead out of the zone-induced fog a little sooner.  Considering Coach left the arena with three in his back pocket, an additional timeout spent in the first half would've been worth it.

That message, once passed along in the half time locker room, certainly seemed to pay off.  The Buffs were much more aggressive to start the second half, going on a quick 8-3 run by generating quick-hitters in the paint.  But that effort only got the Buffs back to level-footing with Wyo.  For the rest of the game, it was a battle of wills and free throw attempts.  By my count there were 33 combined attempts from the charity stripe off of 27 fouls in the second half.  The whistles were tight, even considering the new rule tweaks, but CU was able to take advantage, shooting 19 more free throws than the Cowboys, and draining a total of 24.  Payback for Wyoming's parade to the line last season in Laramie.

Colorado was lead on the scoresheet by Spencer Dinwiddie, who struggled from the floor to a free-throw-aided 15 points on 2-9 shooting.  With Dinwiddie still struggling, best player honors go to Xavier Johnson, who did a great job slicing to the rim for 13 points.  Josh Scott also played well, adding 12/9 to the cause, continuing his run of strong play to start the season.

Josh Scott continues to rule the paint in 2013-14.  From: the BDC.

The win was certainly ugly, but aesthetics don't matter right now.  At the end of the day, without playing anywhere near their best basketball, CU improved to 2-1 on the season, exorcising some ancient demons along the way.  It was Colorado's first win over the Pokes in nearly two decades, after all.  With the season still developing, I'll take it happily, ugliness notwithstanding.

Attention now turns to Saturday morning, and Jackson State.  Let's be honest, the JSU Tigers are not a very good team.  A prime candidate for RPI 300+ status, they hit 2013-14 with a new coach - Wayne Brent - and return only one starter - junior swing forward Derrell Taylor - from their 11-18 squad from a season ago, but even he now has to come off the bench.

The starting backcourt of 6-1 seniors Jeff Stubbs and Julysses Nobles is slightly intriguing, especially Nobles who used to play at Arkansas, but nothing CU hasn't seen before.  Up front, 6-10 5th-year transfer Brandon West will challenge on the boards, but there's not much behind him on the depth chart.  Other than those four upperclassmen, it's all freshmen, and none very impressive.

The former Razorback Nobles is one of few scary pieces on the JSU bench.

No excuses, no qualifiers.  Even with a dreadful performance, CU should roll Saturday morning.  The early start could lead to more than a few stretches of sleep-walking, or even sleep-inducing play, but, as I re-stated at the top, a win is a win.  Bank win #3, and move onto Arkansas St.

Tip-off from the CEC is set for 10 am Saturday morning.  Yep, you heard me, 10 AM.  Get up bright and early, and head up to Boulder for the #RollTad express.  They'll have bacon for you!  Football later in the day, if you must.  Coverage is set for Pac-12 Mountain, with the radio call on 850 KOA.

GO BUFFS!  PROVE ME RIGHT, AND BEAT THE TIGERS!

Wyoming Teaser: the Cowboy Curse

It's that time again.  Time to pay the piper and play the Wyoming Cowboys.

Uh oh, here comes Wyo.

I don't know if you realize it, but CU hasn't beaten Wyoming in men's basketball since their 84-68 win over the Pokes at the start of the Chauncey Billups year of '96-'97.  Since then, the two regional rivals have met six times, all culminating in a Wyo victory.

• 11/19/97 - CU 58 - Wyo 62
• 12/9/98 - Wyo 67 - CU 66
• 11/26/06 - CU 73 - Wyo 76
• 12/8/07 - Wyo 73 - CU 64
• 12/9/11 - CU 54 - Wyo 65
• 12/1/12 - Wyo 76 - CU 69

Even more than that, the Buffs are only 6-16 against the Cowboys since 1982. I mean, what the hell? I know CU hasn't been a hoops power house, but neither has Wyoming.  How is it that the wearers of Shit Brown and Piss Yellow enjoy such command over the series in recent years?  It's been a Cowboy Curse.

At least in the last two meetings, it's been because they were able to out-work the Buffs on both sides of the ball.  Driven by bullish power forward Leonard Washington, the Cowboys pushed around the wilting Buffs through two upset victories over Tad Boyle's much more heralded squads.  Big Leonard roughed CU up for 38/14 over the two games, and set a physical tone for play that the Buffs were never able to match. Thank the basketball gods that Washington is gone and graduated, never to torment Colorado again.

CU is glad to have Leonard Washington in their rear-view.

It also hasn't helped that the Buffs have been playing selfish, turnover-prone basketball against our neighbors to the north.  A combined 16:32 assist-to-turnover ratio has turned into 40 combined Cowboy points over the last two games.  As coach Boyle said after last season's stumble in Laramie, 'it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why we lost this game.' With that in mind, you have to expect that the focus in practice the last few days has been protecting the basketball.  CU was far too lax with the rock Sunday afternoon against Tennessee-Martin, and similar effort against the Pokes this evening will spell disaster.

If there's any hope that Colorado can shake their Cowboy Curse tonight, it rests in the fact that the heart of the Wyoming roster from the last two seasons is gone.  Key stars like Washington, Luke Martinez, and Derrious Gilmore are graduated, and with them much of the institutional memory that ground CU into powder.  They're much more guard oriented now, without the interior strength of previous seasons.  That's not my way of saying that the Cowboys no longer have the talent to pose a threat - quite the contrary, in fact.

Luke Martinez aint coming through that door.

Behind Boulder High's own Riley Grabau, Wyo looks to push the pace more this season. The former Panther star seems to have taken the reins in a crowded back-court, along with sophomore Josh Adams. More than just the pair, however, the Cowboys send waves of guards at their opponents, including senior Nathan Sobey, freshman Trey Washington III, and junior transfer Charles Hankerson, Jr. It's a deep group that can withstand fatigue and the occasional spate of foul trouble.

In contrast, the front lines have been wracked by roster turnover.  Almost alone upfront, Larry Nance, Jr is the only remaining serious threat in the post.  Nance, the son of a former NBA star, enjoyed a solid 14/7 game against the Buffs last December, and is looking to live up to the legacy of the departed Washington.  He won't be enough on his own, however, and the Cowboys will need someone else to step up in the box.

The change up front is enough of a reason for me to feel that CU should break their Cowboy Curse this evening.  There's a cautious side of me that looks at the series history, and freaks out with Wyoming coming to town, but, this isn't the same bunch of Cowboys that has taken the Buffs out behind the woodshed. They're a team in transition, and, at home, Colorado should find a way to win.

Tip-off from the CEC is set for 7pm this evening.  No Bronco game excuses, I expect a full stadium to greet the Buffs when they charge out of the tunnel.  Coverage for those who can't make it can be found on Pac-12 Networks, with the radio coverage on 850 KOA. 

GO BUFFS!  PROVE ME RIGHT, AND BEAT THE COWBOYS!

Monday Grab Bag: Basketball season is off and running

It's damn good to have basketball back in my life.  I spent all weekend on the couch, watching a myriad of games from across the nation.  Not all of it was perfect, in fact some of it was outright unwatchable, but I enjoyed every second, none-the-less.  Welcome back, basketball, you were sorely missed.

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Today in the bag, I'm talking the Buffs' win over UT-Martin, basketball notes from around the nation, and the football team's big loss in Seattle.

Click below for the bag...