Previewing the CSU game

There are some things you do in life that you know are going to be terrible going in.  Going to the DMV, getting a cavity filled, seeing a high school musical, playing Oregon in football, etc... all sure to be a bad time; french-frying when you should've pizza'd.  A trip to Fort Collins is just another of those things.  I have yet to have a good time up in the Larimer County Seat, yet I somehow find myself making the trip every other year for basketball purposes.  I guess this meets the colloquial definition of insanity.

The basketball version of the Rocky Mountain Showdown has never held the same amount of juice that the football rivalry has.  Basketball on the Front Range has never been that high of a priority, and, as a result, this yearly contest routinely passes through the sports calendar undetected.  Compounding the area's general "ain't care" attitude towards hoops is the fact that CU matches their football success over the Rams by winning the hoops tilts over 70% of the time as well, including a 7-3 record in the past decade.  Just like football, this is a "rivalry" in name only, and based mostly on a coincidence of geography.

Still, unlike football, there is a purpose to playing the Rams.  They're good schedule filler, and generally have a decent RPI come season's end, should we ever plan on making the Tournament again.  The Mountain West is a pretty good basketball conference, usually just outside the power top-6, and a rising tide lifts all boats.

This season, ostensibly another pegged with also-ran status within the MWC, the Rams look to build on the success of last season's team, which, much like CU, made a late season charge for the Tournament, only to end up in the NIT.  After the graduation of leading scorers Andy Ogide and Travis Franklin, however, I'd peg them as much more likely headed into a rebuilding process.

Eikmeier has been doing a good job filling in for the scoring loss of Franklin and Ogide.

They're generally undersized, with no players over 6-6 who receive significant minutes; they lack in interior defense and post scoring, with the resulting deficiency in rebounding to boot.  CSU makes up for this by hitting the 3 (8th best percentage in the nation, albeit early in the season), making their free throws, and holding onto the ball.  Lead by junior Nebraska natives Wes Eikmeier and Greg Smith, any gains this season could only be amplified next season as only senior forward Will Bell is scheduled to graduate.

(On a side note, four players on the Ram roster are from Nebraska, a state not generally know for producing D-1 basketball talent.  I've been noticing a trend in Ft Collins as they align themselves with the enemy to the north-east, and this only reinforces my paranoia.  Can it only be coincidence that you can get a Runza and utilize First National Bank, both primary Husker sponsors, in FoCo?  It's a damn Husker conspiracy to undermine CU's athletic progress by dragging us down with a mocked up intra-state dispute.  Now, where's my tinfoil hat...)

The Rams head coach is Tim Miles.  Besides being a great follow on Twitter, he's also a great up-and-coming young coach. The Ram program was an abysmal wasteland when he climbed aboard in '07, and he's been able to build them to the point of back-to-back post-season appearances.  Entering his 5th year in FoCo, I can't help but wonder when he'll jump at the chance to coach a power conference squad. 

Coach Miles is a good one, and deserves better than FoCo.

Tonight, I expect a close game.  A sure-to-be packed Moby arena will be the first true road test of the season (the half-assed AF crowd from last week doesn't count), and it'll be interesting to see how CU handles the hostile crowd.

The Buffs weaknesses on the perimeter and at the free throw line should be an open wound, ready to be salted by the Rams.  Not only does CSU excel beyond the arc, but they hit their free throws.  Should CU start missing freebies in bunches, as they have been wont to do, it could get ugly.  The Rams are, however, quite vulnerable on defense, allowing opponents to shoot over 50% from 2-pt range.  The Buffs should be able to press a large advantage inside, so look for Austin and 'Dre to have big games in the paint.  If CU can keep the Rams off the line (30% of CSU points come from the charity stripe), and make a few of their own free throws down the stretch (granted, a big if), I'll give the Buffs a slight thumbs up.

CU 78 - CSU 75


GO BUFFS!  BEAT THE LAMBS!

Thoughts on the Georgia win

Last night, CU took on an athletic Georgia squad, and came away with a much needed 70-68 win; it's always good to enter the middle of the week fresh off of victory!  With the 2-point win last night, CU is now 2-0 in the first two games of their toughest stretch of non-conference play, and have now won 26-straight non-conference home games in the CEC.

The squad was lead by exceptional performances from freshmen Askia Booker and Spencer Dinwiddie.  The two combined for 30 points and 11 rebounds, but it was more than that.  They provided an energy that the rest of the team seemed to be lacking, and they continually attacked the ball and the rim when afford the opportunity.  Additionally, on a night where their more experienced teammates were struggling from the free throw line, the pair shot a combined 13-16 from the stripe.  Without them, this is a blowout home loss.  The two have been improving every game this season, and seem to have very bright futures.

Dinwiddie, and fellow freshman Askia Booker, were the difference last night.  From: the BDC

The rest of the team was buoyed by yet another double-double performance from 'Dre, his 4th in six chances this season.  The kid is amazing, and I suggest you check him out while you still can.

While I'm excited about the win, there are some cracks in the foundation that may keep this team from living up to my preseason expectation of a mid-table finish, even in the weak-ass Pac-12 conference.  This team seems incapable of making things easy.  What should've been a 10-15 point win was turned into to a 2-point squeaker through poor first half defense, and a continued inability to hit free throws.

The defensive struggles mostly pertained to poor pick-defense through the first half, allowing Georgia to create open shots early and often.  The Bulldogs shot near 50% in the first frame, well over their season average, as a result.  The Buffs buckled down after halftime, and Georgia was only able to muster 34% shooting after the break.  This was obviously a key focus during halftime adjustments, and, thankfully, it worked.

The missed free throw issue is no longer a matter for derisive chuckling.  The 22-37 showing last night, besides giving me an ulcer and letting Georgia back into a game they had no business being in, also dropped the season free throw shooting percentage to just under 64%.  That's 14 percentage points under where it was last year.  That kind of performance will cost the team wins down the road.

A win is a win, but Coach Boyle has to make sure his team understands that they're not 'there' yet.  From: the BDC

Yes, it was still a win, but it wasn't the performance I had hoped to see.  Combined with the win via theft against Air Force, and CU is more lucky than good right now.  With a month of Centennial State based play ahead, hopefully they can work out the kinks before conference play arrives.  While the Pac-12 is 'down' this season, we can't head into games with our new conference mates missing free throws and allowing easy looks off of basic pick plays.

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I was also disappointed by the crowd.  1,500 fewer came to see the Buffs take on a power conference opponent, and the biggest 'name' opponent on home portion of the non-con schedule, then did to see the Ft Lewis game.  Even the student section was on the half-assed side. 

I know the holidays and end of semester make for a tough time, but don't neglect your duty to the program.  We need butts in those seats!  I hope to see attendance figures back near 8,000 for next Wednesday's game against Fresno St.

Monday Grab Bag: Our long national nightmare is finally over.

This is not the post I began to write last week.  Eager to get a jump on my post-holiday Monday Grab Bag, and desperate to leave my coming vacation free of thoughts concerned with writing, I tried to jot down some paragraphs before I hit the road.  They were not pretty.

Toting the sure-to-be epic failure against Utah to cap a mostly frustrating season, my incomplete musings were long on dour... and why not?  I had little hope that the team that showed less than nothing against the shell of a team that is the UCLA Bruins would fire themselves up for a trip to Salt Lake City.  Even the experts in Vegas were ready to toss dirt on the Buffs' coffin, installing the Utes as 20+ point favorites.

Fate had other ideas.

Today in my freshly written bag, I'll look back at an epic victory against all odds out in Salt Lake Valley, look back on the grand larceny the basketball team pulled off in the Springs, tease the match-up with Georgia this evening, and give some props to the womens hoops squad who are as good as they've been in a decade.

Click below for the bag...

Friday Beer Post: Utah 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!"

Happy Gameday!  I'm coming to you LIVE from Salt Lake City, deep in the heart of enemy territory.  Through the magic of scheduled posting, I bring to you my final tailgate beer selection of the season.

If you hadn't heard, there's this cool club they have out here called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; you may know it colloquially as the "Mormon Church."  Frowned upon by people who didn't believe that Joseph Smith could read magic tablets out of a hat, the newly founded religion was driven westward in middle 19th Century.  For whatever reason, they decided to settle in a remote desert oasis near the banks of the Great Salt Lake; having no imagination, they named this settlement Salt Lake City.  There they could happily practice their outsider faith, which, at the time, famously included the practice of polygamy.  Mormons are funny like that.

In honor of that history, and the Mormon faith that so dominates politics and culture throughout the State of Utah, I am naming Wasatch Brewery's Polygamy Porter as my tailgate beer-o-the-week.

Indeed, why have just one?

This is, assuredly, what the X-communicated Mormon Drinking Team would consume on a gameday such as this.

Confession time: the only time I tried Polygamy Porter was at the GABF a few years back, mostly due to the absurdity of the name.  I was quite drunk at the time, and through the haze of time and booze I can't really remember what it tastes like.  But these posts aren't really about the quality of the beer, they're about celebration of beer culture, and its application to enhancing your pregame experience.

I'm admittedly picking this based on name alone, and can't comment on taste.  It's an American Porter, so expect roasted malt, but light on the alcohol since Utah is stuck in puritanical brewing-law hell.  So, if you get a chance, give this a try. 

Happy Friday!  Go Buffs, show these polyamorous assholes what for; 40s style!

Quick Post: Buffs @ Air Force

The BasketBuffs head down south to the Springs this evening, looking to get back on track after a mostly disappointing trip to Puerto Rico.  The game tips off at 7pm, and can be seen on "the mtn."  LOL, just kidding, no one gets "the mtn." and no one would ever want to.  Mark Johnson will be presiding over the festivities over on 760AM.

Prediction?  Rebounding and missed free throws continue to hurt the Buffs... CU is currently in the low 200s nationally in both free throw shooting and offensive rebounding percentage.  I think CU suffers from jet-lag and loses a tight one to the Zoomies.  AF 76 - CU 69.

GO BUFFS!  PROVE ME WRONG AND SHOOT DOWN AIR FORCE!

Utah Preview: A new kind of hate

Apparently the geniuses in the respective marketing departments from CU and Utah have decided to name the renewed rivalry between the schools as "The Rumble in the Rockies."  Why the hell did they have to go and do that?  We never seemed to require a faked-up PR name to give the CU-Nebraska rivalry some juice.  Is there going to be some lame trophy with a rock on it?  Just give me clean, old-fashioned, nameless hate.  That'll do more for a rivalry than any name.

The rivalry with Utah (yes, there is a rivalry... look, Wikipedia page!) is one of great historical significance for both schools.  Even the breakup of the old RMAC couldn't keep these rivals apart as they played nearly every year between 1903 and 1962.  Coaches careers were defined by this game, players, like Byron White, made names for themselves by superlative performances against the hated rivals to the west.  This was the rivalry in the region for the first half of the 20th Century; a history major like myself can't look past something like that.

Yes, the Utes are a poor substitute for Nebraska, both in program quality and my ability to hate them, but I'd rather go after someone with whom the school has history than just point at USC or UCLA and give them the stink-eye.  While that is what Coach Mac did with the Huskers back in the early 80s, that rivalry wasn't set in stone until the Huskers hung that celebratory "Sal's dead, Go Big Red" sign up on I-80.  Hate, history; these are what creates a lasting rivalry.  With Utah we're halfway there.  With everyone else in the Pac-12, it's searching for both.

Fuck Utah

(I wrote about this in greater detail during a brief stint writing for the Ralphie Report.)


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The season comes to a close on Friday.  Wake up from your food coma, crack open the leftovers, and tune the channel to ROOT Sports, where the Buffs will kick off against the Utes at 1:30.  It's my one and only road trip of the year, and, even if the team is awful, I'm still looking forward to a fight in enemy territory.

Click below for the preview...

Whither Rodney Stewart

With his brilliant collegiate career coming to a close Friday afternoon, I thought it would be a good time to consider the legacy of one Rodney Stewart.

He's come a long way from the unheralded and mostly disregarded recruit from the much-hyped '08 recruiting class.  Doomed to toil at the football backwater that is Eastern Washington, Speedy jumped at the chance to sign with a BCS school when CU came calling late in the process.  He showed up on campus and, to the shock of most outsiders, immediately took hold of the running back job.  Darrell Scott and Ray Polk be damned, Speedy was so good even Hawk couldn't ignore his talent, and significant playing time was awarded early.  By the 3rd game of his collegiate career, Rodney Stewart was dropping a 28 carry, 168 yard performance on #21 West Virginia on national TV. 

Speedy has been the focal point of the CU offense since he first burst onto the scene against West Virginia.

Having seen are there is to see of the Big XII in the 2000s, I couldn't help but compare him favorably to Quintin Griffin and Darren Sproles; undersized backs who used elusiveness and speed to do everything they could to help their team on offense.  He runs hard, constantly looking for a seam to slip past would-be defenders.  He has also developed as a deadly threat in the passing game, able to come out of the back-field on screens and wheels to decimate linebacker-based coverage.  The very type of versatile back that a pro-style offense is looking for.

He does whatever it takes to get past the defense.

After four years of effort and exhaustive work, Speedy has amassed one of the more impressive statistical careers in CU history.  With one game yet to be played, Speedy's career totals stand at 3,563 rushing yards, 959 receiving, 261 return yardage, and 37 passing (2-2 with 2 TD's); all while accounting for 27 total scores (25 rushing and the two passing).  Already the all-time CU leader in all-purpose yardage, Speedy also finds himself near the top in rushing yardage and holds career titles in receptions and receiving yards from a Buffs runner.  Additionally, he will probably become just the 27th player in NCAA history to rush for 3,000 yards, while receiving over 1,000.  He is no joke, and deserves every amount of praise us fans can heap upon his diminutive shoulders.

He's meant everything to the Buffs the last couple of years, and there's never been a more deserving Buffalo Heart Award Winner.  From: the Post.

The question then becomes, where do we place him amongst the pantheon of CU greats.  More specifically, while it is certainly granted that Speedy has had a career that statistically stands up to the running legends up on The Hill, where does he rank in a more qualitative sense?

Now, in case you haven't noticed, CU has a deep and proud tradition of producing running backs of high-caliber.  Names like White, Anderson, Davis, Bieniemy, Salaam, Warren, Brown, Purify, and Charles litter the Buffs record book and have been featured on pro rosters.  There is a reason, afterall, that career rushing stats are listed first in the CU media guide.

The problem I have when I compare Rodney to these guys is the era in which Speedy played - or more like the error.  Playing the vast majority of his career under Hawk and his losin' crew, Speedy never appeared in a bowl game, and never played on a winning team.  In fact, his career record in games he participated in is a shockingly bad 14-28.

His career was marked with far too little celebrating.

Unfortunately, CU never made enough of the efforts of Speedy Stewart, garnering far too little scoreboard success out of his on-field excellence.  I don't think it's Speedy's fault.  I never felt that he was a choke artist or any bullshit like that, it's just that the teams he played for - excelled for - stunk ass. As a result, I have to place Speedy a level below names like Bieniemy, Salaam, White and Anderson; players who not only succeed with their personal performance, but who helped their teams succeed on the scoreboard as well.