Thursday night against Stanford was another of those moments where you could imagine the parallel universe where this season had gone slightly differently. One where the Buffs had survived the brutal opening stretch of conference play to remain in contention for the NCAA Tournament. Indeed, as they showed against the Cardinal, there is a good team in there when the switch is flipped on. Firing on all cylinders offensively, they boat-raced the visitors in a game that was well-over by the start of the first timeout in the second half. 91-72; about as straight-forward as you can get.
Assists fueled an offensive explosion against Stanford. From: the Post.
This was not the same kind of game as the win over Washington State from a few weeks back, when I was using words like 'perfect' to describe the team's performance. In fact, against the Cardinal, I thought Colorado was barely acceptable defensively, though they did a solid job frustrating opposing stars like Travis Reid and Marcus Sheffield. No, Thursday night was all about the offense. CU poured in the points at a 1.4 ppp clip, only missing out on the heights of 1.5+ and 100 points scored due to there simply not being a need to. They were sharing the ball, knocking down open looks, and executing like I've rarely seen in these parts; in response, Stanford had no answer. All told, the team assisted 25 times on 35 made baskets -- a 71% rate that makes me weak in the knees. This was offense at its most effusive. Nine players posted ORtgs over 100, for the love of Tad.
This offensive explosion was credited after the game to a drill instilled this week by assistant coach Bill Grier. While running plays in practice, buckets would only count if they came off a true assist. With this in the back of their minds, Colorado was certainly, to a man, willing to look for teammates Thursday night. Seven players tossed out dimes, with six of those recording at least two. For the most part these weren't extra passes for passing's sake, either. Outside of a few exceptions, each assist was necessary to create the basket, particularly the entries that helped the Buffs generate 38 points in the paint. There was even a perfectly executed alley-oop! Who are these guys, the Flint Tropics?
All too easy. From: the BDC
I can't really point to one player as the star of the game, such was the balance on display (seven players with at least nine points), but I was especially piqued by the efforts of Lucas Siewert. The freshman power forward had his best game in a CU uniform, coming off the bench to chip in 15/3/2 against zero turnovers in 21 minutes. He was everywhere, hustling defensively, and nailing jumpers off precision passes. Along with 10 points from fellow frosh Deleon Brown (who is looking much better after lost time to injury and illness), the new generation of Buffs was shining brightly against Stanford. Elsewhere, Xavier Johnson finally kicked a slight slump, going for 15/9 in limited minutes. Had the team needed, he could've provided more, but, much like the pursuit of 100 points, it just wasn't called for.
And so, the Buffs shrugged off a sour performance against Utah to get back in the hunt for an NIT bid. The next hurdle: a game against the solid, (probably) NCAA Tournament bound Cal Golden Bears. With a win the Buffs will potentially climb to the 7th-seed in the Pac-12, while similarly helping those rival Utes slot in 4th. A loss, and things could get complicated for everyone in the league. Best to just claim the win, send the seniors out in style, and step up to #7.
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Hype Music for the Evening: "Seven Steps to Heaven" by Miles Davis
I don't get jazz. Never have. I put it down to a lack of drug use, but it is what it is. Regardless, Miles Davis is one of the greats of the genre, and deserves his due. This track, a live rendition of the titular anchor from his 1963 studio album, features frenetic drums, extensive solo work, and sporadic themes. Enjoy!
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Tip-off from the Coors Events Center is scheduled for high noon on Saturday. Remember to get there early for the Senior Day tributes. The 2017 graduating class deserves a strong round of applause. Coverage for those unable to attend can be found on Pac-12 Network, with the radio call on 850 KOA.
For reference, my preview for the first game against Cal this season can be found here.
It's that time once again, time to honor another group of seniors for their contributions to Colorado Basketball. In this case, similar to last season, it's another quartet expiring their eligibility, preparing to run out of the north tunnel for the final time Saturday afternoon against Cal. Regardless of how the season has gone compared to expectations, they still deserve a final tip of the cap and their due, a thank you for years of service and hours of work behind the scenes to put a largely successful product on the court.
In their number count the final vestiges of the famed 2012 recruiting class. At the time, that group stood as the most highly rated recruiting class in the modern history of the program. While the 2017 class may end up stealing some of that thunder, especially if there is a late addition, there's no doubt that, at the time, the 2012 sextet was seen as a thunderbolt statement that CU hoops had arrived and was getting feisty on the recruiting trail. With the book on that class finally coming to a close, it's the end of an era of Colorado Basketball, one which, admittedly, never quite managed to live up to the hype.
Of that six-member class, Josh Scott, Xavier Talton, and Eli Stalzer graduated last spring, while Chris Jenkins transferred to Detroit Mercy, where he has been putting up solid 12/7 numbers for the Titans in this, his final season of collegiate competition. That leaves Xavier Johnson and Wes Gordon as the last men standing to take their bows this week. They will be joined by a pair of outsiders who started their careers elsewhere before eventually joining the Black and Gold, but are, nonetheless, valued teammates -- Derrick White and Josh Fortune. All four, interestingly, hold the distinction of being fifth-year seniors, a rarity in the current era of major conference college basketball.
Pointedly, who you won't find mentioned here are any of the four members from the 2013 recruiting class. What would've been their natural graduating year will pass by without a word. A large part of that is due to the fact that three quarters of them are no longer with the program -- Dustin Thomas and Jaron Hopkins each transferred two years ago (to Arkansas and Fresno State, respectively), with Tre'Shaun Fletcher bolting this past offseason for Toledo. Only George King remains, but he is considered a junior, due to a well-applied redshirt in 2014-15. This absence of results from the majority of the 2013 class, even more than the production of those who signed on in 2012, is cause for a lot of the relative frustration from the last three years.
However, such recriminations are for another day. For now, though, let us stand united in thanking the four taking their final bows on Saturday. After the jump, I'll give my thoughts on the careers of each, while also taking a look at what I best remember from their tenure in Boulder.
I want to provide a quick rundown of all the activity I'm going to have here on the Rumblings over the next 10 days. Tomorrow I'll have my annual senior class retrospective up, with a Cal preview set for Saturday morning ahead of the regular season finale. Monday, look for a quick review of the game against the Golden Bears (sorry, no Grab Bag), with my fifth annual Rumblin' Awards hitting the wires on Tuesday. From there, look for daily dispatches from Las Vegas -- I'll be recapping the action from the Pac-12 Tournament, documenting which pep bands I really enjoyed, and sobbing over how my pocketbook is doing. Lot of content to come, I hope you'll stay tuned to this little corner of teh interwebz.
For now, however, I have the game with Stanford firmly set in my sights. Let's get it started!
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Hype Music for the Evening: "Love Me Sexy" by Jackie Moon aka Will Ferrell
I have an unreasonable affinity for the movie 'Semi-Pro.' A farcical tale of the final days of the ABA, it is, in my estimation, one of the best sports movies ever made -- I'm not kidding, I'm completely unreasonable on this topic. This send-up of the soul anthems from the era, which features throughout the file, will stick with you, whether you like it or not. Enjoy!
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Tip-off from the Coors Events Center is set for 7pm this evening. Coverage for those not heading up to Boulder can be found on ESPN2, with the radio call on AM 760.
For reference, my preview for the first game against Stanford this season can be found here.
The seeding picture is a little clearer for the Buffs as they eye next week's Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas, but only just so. They currently sit in a three-way tie for 8th place, holding individual tie-breakers over Stanford and Washington State should they be needed (thanks to the home win over current conference leader Oregon). Depending on the results this weekend, the Buffs could finish anywhere from 7th to 10th, with any hope of 6th (or even 5th) dashed by the loss to Utah last week (more on that later). Regardless of how things work out this week, however, the math will be weird.
The first talking point regards that three-way tie mentioned above and that tie-breaker the Buffs supposedly hold. That advantage could be imperiled with a loss to Stanford Thursday night at the CEC, with the three teams still remaining tied when all is said and done. The Cardinal would them hold the multi-team tiebreaker advantage, thanks to their 2-1 record against the Buffs and Cougars (CU would be just 2-2). If Colorado is alone in a tie with either, however, the Oregon win plays, and CU takes a step up the seep sheet. A win against Stanford on Thursday avoids that mess completely, guaranteeing the Buffs no worse than 8th place.
Past that, CU could swing up to 7th with some expected help from Arizona State and a sweep of the Bay Area schools. ASU holds the tie-breaker over Colorado, thanks to their head-to-head win in Tempe, and a half-game advantage in the standings, but only have a game against Arizona left to play -- an assumed loss. To that end, if the Buffs get two wins against Stanford and Cal, leaving them with eight overall, 7th place is probably theirs.
Let's say for a minute that all four teams - ASU, Colorado, Stanford, and Washington State - finish with seven wins, what happens then? In a scenario where CU beat Stanford, the Buffs would still get 7th, thanks to much bullshit and that win over Oregon. In the flip scenario, with the Cardinal winning in Boulder on Thursday, Colorado slides back to 9th. That underscores the value of the game Thursday night. If the Buffs beat Stanford, they're 7th or 8th; if they lose to the Cardinal, it's 9th or 10th. The Cal result would then move them up or down a seed line from there.
What does all of that really mean? With the stunning result in Tucson Saturday evening (more on that later, as well), the winner of the 8/9 game looks to get Oregon in the quarterfinals, with the 7/10 victor probably getting Arizona. If you think CU can survive the first day, that's your choice: the Ducks or the Wildcats -- pick your poison. Me? I'd favor Arizona, I guess, thinking that a Thursday meeting before the red-clad horde arrives in full wouldn't be as bad as facing the Oregon machine in full post-season mode, but either option is terrible. In each case, I would consider the Buffs, at best, two-and-done in Las Vegas.
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Today in the bag, I'm talking the loss to the Utes, where the Buffs go from here, and how the rest of the Pac-12 fared over the weekend.
So, what are the Buffs playing for over the next two weeks? The simple answer is positioning in the NIT, but many of you don't want to hear that. Want something more tangible? With three games to play, Colorado can sweep their way to a 9-9 finish in the Pac-12. After the team's dreadful start to their conference slate, I'd say crawling back up to parity would be one hell of an accomplishment.
What's more, with three home wins, the Buffs could put themselves in position to finish in the top-half of the league, potentially leap-frogging Utah for 6th (if the Utes, in addition to a loss this evening, also drop a home game next week to one of the NorCal schools). That might not be ideal for overall Pac-12 Tournament seeding, with 6th place lining things up for a date with UCLA in the quarter finals, but CU isn't really in a position to be choosy. Best to pile up some wins, hope for the best, and take 'em as they come in Vegas.
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Hype Music for the Evening: "The Music of the Night" by Andrew Lloyd Webber
My mental faculties are skewed by the exceptionally late start time. In such a state, playing around with the 'nighttime' theme in my mind somehow landed me here, with this tune from the iconic 'Phantom of the Opera.' I'm not a huge show tunes kind of guy, but I've always had a soft sport for this musical. Enjoy!
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Tip-off from the Coors Events Center is set for 9pm tonight. Earlier this year, when the Buffs faced off with the UCLA Bruins at a similarly fan-unfriendly start time of 9pm, it at least made some semblance of sense. For Bruins fans watching back in LA, an 8pm PST tip is not entirely unreasonable. Tonight, however, the Pac-12, in all its wisdom, has allowed TV to push a pair of mountain states teams into the red eye slot. For everyone watching this with a rooting interest, a conclusion by 11pm is a best-case scenario. Realistically, it could be round midnight by the time we can leave the stadium tonight. What the hell are they doing over there in San Francisco? Wake up, and start scheduling with your heads.
For those with nothing else to do on Friday, and have no issue with staying up late on what is otherwise a work-night, you can catch televised coverage on ESPNU. The radio call can be found on AM 760.
For reference, my preview from the first game against Utah this season can be found here.
The shortened holiday week has me scrambling, so straight to the action this afternoon. Today in the bag, I'm talking the blowout in Oregon, the situation with Bryce Peters, and how the rest of the Pac-12 is shaping up as they head into the home stretch.
Ugly, messy, fought with unnecessary difficulty. These are the ideas that spring to my mind when considering Colorado's 60-52 win over Oregon State on Thursday. Similar to the first meeting in Boulder, the Beavers were allowed to stick with the Buffs, who possessed far more talent and depth than OSU could possibly bring to bear, for far too long. However, in the final minutes of regulation, with the Beavs sniffing out the possibility of their first Pac-12 win of the season, CU slammed the door on their over-sized tails. Clinging to a one point lead, Derrick White knifed into the action, and nailed a jumper. On the ensuing possession, he then extended for a miraculous block of Beaver forward Gligorije Rakocevic, which turned into a crippling blow when Xavier Johnson swished a corner three with some 30 seconds to play. Boom, just like that, a six point lead materialized on the scoreboard, and the game was effectively over. Thanks for coming, don't forget to tip your waitress.
That's what makes this effort against lowly Oregon State so befuddling. There's no reason Colorado should've let the hosts hang on, even going so far as to let them pull even with under two minutes to play. But the finishing touches shown by the Buffs in sealing the win were, none-the-less, impressive. CU was hungry for victory in this one; you could see it even as OSU was sticking close. The defense was tenacious, and the late-game offense was exquisite. This was the killer mentality that the team was missing earlier in the year, the desperate energy that so often separates the winners from the losers with post-season positioning on the line. It's a mentality that has been with the team since the Oregon game a few weeks ago, and one that could serve them well as the calendar starts to look a whole lot like March.
Beavs made it ugly, but the Buffs prevailed. From: the Press-Democrat
The star of the game is easy to pick out here. As much for his late-game heroics as his 20/1/4/2/3 overall line, Derrick White stands above the rest. Far from an isolated incident, either. The fifth-year senior transfer has earned KenPom's game-MVP honors in five of the last six evenings, a run that includes some of the best basketball he's played all year. The mercurial point guard is really coming into his own at the perfect time, carrying the Buffs and their fortunes on his shoulders as they race down the back-nine of their Pac-12 schedule. Let's not forget, though, the 17/4 efforts of Xavier Johnson. He hit the game sealing bucket, after all, and was aggressive in finding scoring opportunities all night long.
Overall, this was a rough night for Colorado, at least offensively. The Beavers almost completely disrupted the offensive rhythm that the Buffs had shown against Washington State last weekend, eliminating backcuts and interior penetration, while holding Colorado to just 42% shooting from the field. The big issue here was in the paint, where OSU clogged things up enough to limit the Buffs to just 28 points under the rim after they had claimed 44 against the Cougars. For as difficult as CU found it to score, however, they made up for it on the defensive end. While State was able to play them to near-parity on the glass (33-31), Colorado held the hosts to 38% shooting from the floor, 30% from deep, and squelched them in the paint to the tune of just 18 total points. CU was showing extremely hard on screens and giving OSU's point guards fits. The team as a whole managed just seven assists all night and committed 18 turnovers. Whereas the Beavers had shook off the CU defense in Boulder, the Buffs were able to hold them to just 0.83 ppp in Corvallis -- a night and day turnaround.
Colorado found a way. From: FOX Sports
So, as always, a win is a win, and this one pushed Colorado's winning blitz to six in seven games. It's impossible, at this point, to not look back to early January and wonder about 'what if?' All those close losses, all those calamitous final possessions and fumbled leads that helped fuel the 0-7 start to league play are now unavoidable thorns in the side of the team and their flagging Tournament resume. As friend of the blog Ted Chalfen pointed out after the game, CU is, in essence, eight points shy of sitting here today at 20-7 (10-4). When I say 'a win is a win', this is exactly what I mean. In all of the early season defeats to Arizona State, USC, Washington, and Washington State, the execution on the court wasn't anywhere close to where the Buffs' ceiling was. But, a couple of possessions here or there turn those results into wins, and, as ugly as those games were, all sins would've been forgiven, and Tournament tickets punched. Instead, we're where we are now, with BuffNation making plans for the NIT. This is a zero-sum game, basketball, and the win's the thing. Colorado has, of late, found their cut-throat nature, pouncing for wins with the result in the balance. Had they just been at that point five weeks ago, the season is completely different.
Alas, we've yet to find that 'reset button' on the great game of life, so BuffNation must soldier on. The Oregon Ducks are up next, and they're looking for a bit of revenge. Time to see just how far this CU team has come in their advance back up the ranks in the Pac-12.
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Hype Music for the Evening: "I Love LA" by Randy Newman
Doesn't make much sense, right? CU is playing Oregon today, why am I picking a song about Los Angeles? Well, that's because I'm actually in LA right now, in town for a family vacation. So, you get stuck with this diddy by the great Randy Newman. Enjoy!
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Tip-off from Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene is set for 1pm MT on Saturday. Televised coverage can be found on FOX national, with the radio call on 850 KOA.
For reference, my preview from the first game against UO this season can be found here.
