Passing this along because it was in The Athletic. Rare to see the Buffs get national coverage. Sko Buffs!
The University of Colorado had something to prove on Thursday night. The Buffaloes didn’t need to show it to the fans in the CU Events Center or the other teams in the Pac-12, but to themselves.
Their tough loss at Arizona, although it happened almost a week ago, still lingered, leaving an unsatisfying flavor in their mouth. And, they were playing Thursday without Tyler Bey, who was sidelined with a hand injury.
At first, it looked like the 23rd-ranked Buffs were caught in a trance, unable to stop Washington State from getting any basket it wanted. But, eventually, everything clicked, and CU walked away with a 78-56 win to improve to 15-4 overall, 4-2 in league play.
“It was a testament to our guys,” coach Tad Boyle said. “Good win. We got to take it and move on. We only get one crack at Washington State (12-8, 3-4), and we took care of that. So we got to move forward with a quick turnaround.”
Here are three observations from Thursday night’s game:
Next man up mentality
Bey sat nestled in between his teammates the entire game. He was in uniform and looked ready to join the action at any moment.
But he didn’t. Bey suffered a hand injury during practice on Monday.
“Tyler could have played tonight,” Boyle said. “I just felt like if we could get through this game, I didn’t want him to reaggravate it.”
Colorado got through the game just fine without one of their best players. Bey’s teammates stepped up in his absence, with four players finishing in double-digit scoring and three of them recording a double-double.
D’Shawn Schwartz scored 13 points while Evan Battey put up 12 points and 10 rebounds, Lucas Siewert had 16 points and 10 rebounds and McKinley Wright IV tallied 10 points and 10 assists.
Wright wasn’t completely satisfied with his performance, though.
“I can never get a triple-double, bro,” he said to Battey. “I had six rebounds (tonight). I’ll get eight rebounds, nine, but I can never get it. I be so close.”
The Buffs also saw vital contributions from Dallas Walton (seven points), Maddox Daniels (nine points) and Shane Gatling (seven points).
“We talked about the depth of this team at the beginning of the season, and I think tonight is a testament to that depth,” Boyle said.
Dominating the boards
Losing Bey for the night also meant losing the Buffaloes’ leading rebounder.
“He averages nine-plus rebounds a game, so we weren’t going to have those tonight,” Wright said. “Coach, and even Tyler, told me to come out aggressive.”
After a poor performance on the boards against Arizona last week, rebounding was a priority for CU all week long in practice.
In the 75-54 loss against the Wildcats last Saturday, the Buffs were outrebounded 39-25 and gave up 13 offensive rebounds, which turned into 13 second-chance points for Arizona. One game before that, CU allowed Arizona State to grab 17 offensive boards, although the Buffs still won the game 68-61.
Heading into last week, Colorado led the Pac-12 Conference in rebounding margin at plus-8 per game. After those two games, they dropped to second, with their average rebounding margin going to plus-6.2.
But against the Cougars, the regained their rebounding edge, outperforming WSU 45-28 on the boards.
“I want guys to be thirsty, selfish rebounders, and that’s not a bad thing,” Boyle said. “Especially defensively, you’re going to get the ball off the glass. That’s something we didn’t have that in the desert, so hopefully, that’s something we got back. Now we have to keep it back. We’re not going to be plus-18 on the boards every night … but we are going to have to compete on the backboards, both offensively and defensively.”
One particular player Boyle is happy to see back on the boards is Wright.
“I was very mad at myself after the Arizona game,” Wright said, who grabbed three rebounds against the Wildcats. “I apologized to my bigs because they had their hands full and I wasn’t helping them.”
The day after the team got back, Boyle approached Wright and told him to rebound like he did his freshman year — hungry for every offensive and defensive board. Wright averaged 4.7 rebounds per game and finished the year with 149 rebounds that year. So far this season, he’s averaging 5.3 per game and has grabbed 101.
Making adjustments on the fly
Washington State started the game shooting the lights out, especially from deep. The Cougars shot above 50 percent from three for the majority of the first half.
CU stayed right there with their opponent, but couldn’t seem to find a way to slow them down.
“I was on our guys a little bit that first half because I felt like we had some mental kinds of miscues that we can’t have happen if we want to compete at the highest level of college basketball,” Boyle said. “They responded, though.”
Boyle said the reason his team allowed Washington State to get going in the first half was that they weren’t playing the defense they discussed during practice.
“We talked a lot about personnel,” Boyle said. “It was 38-33 at the half, and just off the top of my head, it should have been 38-22. (CJ) Elleby bangs a three, (Isaac) Bonton bangs a three — we talked about talking threes away from those guys. (Jervae) Robinson hits one, OK, we didn’t talk about taking away his threes. We don’t tag off a ball screen, and (Jeff) Pollard gets a wide-open layup. We got a nonshooter in the corner that we should have been in the lane on. There are eight points right there … those are the things that frustrate me because those are the things we can correct.”
The Buffs did correct their defensive mistakes in the second half, and as Boyle said, the key was sticking to the game plan and attacking the Cougars’ personnel. They managed to hold WSU to just 28.6 percent field-goal shooting in the second half. Overall, the Cougars shot 37.3 percent from the field, including 40 percent from three.
“I don’t think it was too much about adjustments,” Wright said. “I just think we played with more energy. In the first half, we were letting Elleby and those guys catch it where they want, get good looks that were uncontested. In the second half, we dug into the scouting report and locked in.”
Washington State also managed to make it to the free-throw line just seven times throughout the game.
(Photo of D’Shawn Schwartz being guarded by Noah Williams: Ron Chenoy / USA Today)
The University of Colorado had something to prove on Thursday night. The Buffaloes didn’t need to show it to the fans in the CU Events Center or the other teams in the Pac-12, but to themselves.
Their tough loss at Arizona, although it happened almost a week ago, still lingered, leaving an unsatisfying flavor in their mouth. And, they were playing Thursday without Tyler Bey, who was sidelined with a hand injury.
At first, it looked like the 23rd-ranked Buffs were caught in a trance, unable to stop Washington State from getting any basket it wanted. But, eventually, everything clicked, and CU walked away with a 78-56 win to improve to 15-4 overall, 4-2 in league play.
“It was a testament to our guys,” coach Tad Boyle said. “Good win. We got to take it and move on. We only get one crack at Washington State (12-8, 3-4), and we took care of that. So we got to move forward with a quick turnaround.”
Here are three observations from Thursday night’s game:
Next man up mentality
Bey sat nestled in between his teammates the entire game. He was in uniform and looked ready to join the action at any moment.
But he didn’t. Bey suffered a hand injury during practice on Monday.
“Tyler could have played tonight,” Boyle said. “I just felt like if we could get through this game, I didn’t want him to reaggravate it.”
Colorado got through the game just fine without one of their best players. Bey’s teammates stepped up in his absence, with four players finishing in double-digit scoring and three of them recording a double-double.
D’Shawn Schwartz scored 13 points while Evan Battey put up 12 points and 10 rebounds, Lucas Siewert had 16 points and 10 rebounds and McKinley Wright IV tallied 10 points and 10 assists.
Wright wasn’t completely satisfied with his performance, though.
“I can never get a triple-double, bro,” he said to Battey. “I had six rebounds (tonight). I’ll get eight rebounds, nine, but I can never get it. I be so close.”
The Buffs also saw vital contributions from Dallas Walton (seven points), Maddox Daniels (nine points) and Shane Gatling (seven points).
“We talked about the depth of this team at the beginning of the season, and I think tonight is a testament to that depth,” Boyle said.
Dominating the boards
Losing Bey for the night also meant losing the Buffaloes’ leading rebounder.
“He averages nine-plus rebounds a game, so we weren’t going to have those tonight,” Wright said. “Coach, and even Tyler, told me to come out aggressive.”
After a poor performance on the boards against Arizona last week, rebounding was a priority for CU all week long in practice.
In the 75-54 loss against the Wildcats last Saturday, the Buffs were outrebounded 39-25 and gave up 13 offensive rebounds, which turned into 13 second-chance points for Arizona. One game before that, CU allowed Arizona State to grab 17 offensive boards, although the Buffs still won the game 68-61.
Heading into last week, Colorado led the Pac-12 Conference in rebounding margin at plus-8 per game. After those two games, they dropped to second, with their average rebounding margin going to plus-6.2.
But against the Cougars, the regained their rebounding edge, outperforming WSU 45-28 on the boards.
“I want guys to be thirsty, selfish rebounders, and that’s not a bad thing,” Boyle said. “Especially defensively, you’re going to get the ball off the glass. That’s something we didn’t have that in the desert, so hopefully, that’s something we got back. Now we have to keep it back. We’re not going to be plus-18 on the boards every night … but we are going to have to compete on the backboards, both offensively and defensively.”
One particular player Boyle is happy to see back on the boards is Wright.
“I was very mad at myself after the Arizona game,” Wright said, who grabbed three rebounds against the Wildcats. “I apologized to my bigs because they had their hands full and I wasn’t helping them.”
The day after the team got back, Boyle approached Wright and told him to rebound like he did his freshman year — hungry for every offensive and defensive board. Wright averaged 4.7 rebounds per game and finished the year with 149 rebounds that year. So far this season, he’s averaging 5.3 per game and has grabbed 101.
Making adjustments on the fly
Washington State started the game shooting the lights out, especially from deep. The Cougars shot above 50 percent from three for the majority of the first half.
CU stayed right there with their opponent, but couldn’t seem to find a way to slow them down.
“I was on our guys a little bit that first half because I felt like we had some mental kinds of miscues that we can’t have happen if we want to compete at the highest level of college basketball,” Boyle said. “They responded, though.”
Boyle said the reason his team allowed Washington State to get going in the first half was that they weren’t playing the defense they discussed during practice.
“We talked a lot about personnel,” Boyle said. “It was 38-33 at the half, and just off the top of my head, it should have been 38-22. (CJ) Elleby bangs a three, (Isaac) Bonton bangs a three — we talked about talking threes away from those guys. (Jervae) Robinson hits one, OK, we didn’t talk about taking away his threes. We don’t tag off a ball screen, and (Jeff) Pollard gets a wide-open layup. We got a nonshooter in the corner that we should have been in the lane on. There are eight points right there … those are the things that frustrate me because those are the things we can correct.”
The Buffs did correct their defensive mistakes in the second half, and as Boyle said, the key was sticking to the game plan and attacking the Cougars’ personnel. They managed to hold WSU to just 28.6 percent field-goal shooting in the second half. Overall, the Cougars shot 37.3 percent from the field, including 40 percent from three.
“I don’t think it was too much about adjustments,” Wright said. “I just think we played with more energy. In the first half, we were letting Elleby and those guys catch it where they want, get good looks that were uncontested. In the second half, we dug into the scouting report and locked in.”
Washington State also managed to make it to the free-throw line just seven times throughout the game.
(Photo of D’Shawn Schwartz being guarded by Noah Williams: Ron Chenoy / USA Today)
