Basketball Summer Preview Series: Newcomers

Hey, look!  A basketball post!  Try to put football out of your mind for a few brief moments as I look forward to basketball.

The upcoming season may prove to be one of the most interesting/important in recent memory as the CU mens basketball program tries to carry over the momentum built by last year's NIT warriors.   Periodically throughout the summer I will be posting parts of a preview series to keep the basketball flame alive while everyone else is gearing up for football.  Hopefully this will keep my start-of-the-season preview post from ballooning into 30,000 words.

Previous part: Roster Turnover

Next up: Newcomers

I talked last month about the importance of roster management and it's use in mitigating the resulting drop-offs related to roster turnover.  It cannot be stated enough that the program lost 60% of minutes, 75% of points, 48% of rebounds, and 63% of assists to graduation and the NBA after last year's run to the NIT Final Four. The programs ability to cope with that loss through replacements and current players stepping up could have ramifications far beyond this upcoming season, as it previously took the program 7 seasons to recover from a similar production loss after the David Harrison years.

Youth is certainly the order of the day, but careful management of the roster during the last recruiting cycle has left the program with both roster balance and the ability, on paper at least, to compete in a weaker basketball conference like the Pac-12.  The resulting crew of newcomers looking to fill the shoes of Alec Burks, Cory Higgins, Levi Knutson, Marcus Relphorde, and Trent Beckley is an interesting mix of transfers, JuCos, and traditional freshmen that have me thinking happy thoughts during a time that should be full of fretful worry. 


I'll take a look at each new addition to the roster and what their role could be before summing up my thoughts on the 2011 class of newcomers.

Quick Post: I kind of like this whole Pac-12 thing

In case you haven't noticed, being in the Pac-12 is totally badass. 

Earlier this year we found out exactly how much cash was being thrown CU's way as a result of the move.  Additionally, because the Pac-12 is a bunch of media savants, we've seen Jon Embree all over ESPN the last 24 hours.  Now we find out that CU will not only have a stake in a new Pac-12 television network, but that they will also share a regional affiliate with mountain time zone partner Utah.

How the hell did CU get so lucky?  It's only been a few weeks as official members of the Pac-12, yet it's already 20 times better than where the Buffs were.  Just imagine, Buff Nation could be screaming at the tide over just how much Texas would be allowed to screw us for the privilege of being in their company.

This whole thing is like breaking up with an abusive girlfriend, who never really liked us anyway, only to wind up with a caring supermodel.  This shit is awesome!  Are there bronze statuettes of Larry Scott available online somewhere?  I'd like to have a graven imagine of this genius to sacrifice goats and such to on a daily basis.

NCAA 12 review

I've been going on minimal sleep for 2 weeks now.  4, maybe 5 hours is all that I'll get.  The reason: EA Sport's NCAA football 12 is locked and loaded into my Xbox.  Every year it's the same damn thing; the game comes out, and I'm booked for hundreds of hours of recruiting, offensive game planning, and generally forcing CU to play the way I wish they could.

In reality, CU will undoubtedly struggle this year.  A new coach, a completely new system, a brutal schedule, and a roster bereft of large quantities of all-conference talent will almost surely lead to yet another losing season (if not much, much worse).  We all know who we would like to blame for this, but that's not the point.  What is the point is this: in the video game world, I can change this.  In the blink of an eye (5-10 hours of gameplay) I can take the Buffs from a 2-star program, seemingly hopelessly severed from a once sterling past, to a national powerhouse.  Give me a few "seasons" and Buff Nation will have it all back: Heisman winners, national championships, and year-on-year contention.  It's the magic of gaming.

It's because of this that I can't turn away from the series.  Frustration about a silly matter like CU only "deserving" 2-stars isn't enough to keep me from plopping down $60 of yearly tithing to EA Sports.  I'm helplessly shoveling money in their direction for a fix.  I desperately want real-life victories, and, sparing a stunning turn of events, the only place I will get them in any number this season will be on the virtual gridiron.  It may be the very definition of addiction when you boil it down, yet I don't care in the slightest.

What follows is my analysis of this year's edition of the series that is my personal master of puppets.  While I may be addicted, that doesn't mean that I don't still have opinions on what EA managed to screw up this year.  But it's not all bad.  In fact, there's a lot of good to this year's edition, and I'm sure I'll happily get more than $60 worth of entertainment out of it

Sweet, but fake, Tyler cover stolen from this guy.

Jump below the fold for a trip into virtual dynasty building...

Monday Grab Bag: Football is back in business (almost)

In case you haven't noticed, it's frickin hot outside.  In response, I'm staying inside and getting some writing done.  I'll have my full thoughts on NCAA 12 and a look at the newcomers to the basketball program up later in the week.  For now, take a look at today's bag where I'll talk conclusion of the NFL labor dispute, My Sox selling at the trading deadline, and steroids being the greatest thing ever.

Click below for the bag...

Quick Post: Non-Con basketball schedule is up

While we've known for a while what the first year of Pac-12 play would look like for the CU mens basketball team, the non-conference portion of the schedule had remained a mystery (outside the annual game with CSU and the PR tip-off tournament).  That mystery has been mostly solved with the announcement today of the full schedule.  Check it out here.

When I said full schedule... it's a little light on the home side.  Currently there are only 14 home games.  However, as it says at the top of the schedule, there's still additions to come.  Just don't expect them to be of the "Duke, UCONN, or Illinois" variety... 

Last year CU threw lowly Western New Mexico in as a last minute addition to fill out the home schedule and keep the legs fresh during the build up to Big XII conference play.  While WNM stunned the listless Buffs through the first half back in January, they proved to be exactly the tune-up game the squad needed as CU shot past Missouri the following weekend to kick-start the conference campaign.  Accordingly, I expect a WNM-esque squad (read: punching bag) will fill out the schedule.  I wonder what the Metro State Roadrunners are up to in early January?

Quick Post: Toughest schedule in the nation

If you hadn't yet looked at your pocket schedule with a discerning eye, CU's got a damn tough schedule ahead of them this fall.  Even the rest of the country is starting to notice.  Case-in-point, none other than Phil Steele ranked CU's schedule as the toughest in the nation.

I love our attitude towards scheduling (essentially "bring it on" with a dash of suicidal tendencies and a pinch of financial desperation thrown in), but don't be surprised when we stumble to a 4 win season because of it.

Monday Grab Bag: The return of normal service

Now that the most boring week ever is behind us (a week so devoid of anything useful to watch that the country actually started paying attention to womens soccer and non-Tiger golf), we're back onto the summer grind for the next seven weeks.  Baseball!  Labor Disputes! Recruiting News!

Well, 1 out of 3 aint bad.

Today in the bag I'll be looking at what the hell happened to "Our Girls" in Germany yesterday afternoon, more shocking recruiting developments out of Texas, community roster updates for NCAA 12, and the light at the end of the NFL labor dispute tunnel.

Click below for the bag...