I will begin this post with the following disclaimer: Colorado's Friday evening game against the Costa Rican professional team Escazu was an exhibition, the first time this young buck Buffs team has played an opponent other than their fellow teammates in practice.
This simply is not a game to over-analyze, for obvious reasons. That said, we can still discuss and make observations, both of which I plan to do below.
Final score was 79-32 in favor of CU. Here's how the point totals broke down for the entire game:
(STARTERS)
Keeshawn Barthelemy: 10
Jabari Walker: 11 (all in the first half)
Evan Battey: 4
Eli Parquet: 6
Nique Clifford: 4
(BENCH)
KJ Simpson: 13
Julian Hammond III: 6
Lawson Lovering: 9
Luke O'Brien: 7
Tristan da Silva: 7
Will Coughlin: 2
That point total gets me to 78...I missed a basket somewhere in there so apologies but you get the gist of how the game went.
Let's start with the positive:
Simpson was awesome! He looked really poised bringing the ball up the court and handled himself well in the offensive zone. His drives to the rim were effective most of the time and he also was solid in his decision-making/passing. He had one careless drive through the paint where he got pickpocketed for a turnover in the fourth quarter but all in all, he had a hell of a debut in a CU uniform.
Hammond III made some savvy passes and looked confident when he had the ball. Lovering I thought performed perfectly fine but I will say this: he won't be operating in the low post with as much impunity as he did tonight once Pac-12 teams are the opponent. I've said it before, but I think 2021-2022 will be a year of bumps and bruises for young Mr. Lovering as he gets acclimated to Pac-12 basketball. He most definitely can still contribute this year, the extent of which we shall see, but a calendar year pumping iron in the weight room I think is what he needs most.
Clifford and Barthelemy I was a bit disappointed in. For players now with a year or more under their belts, I didn't expect to see as many boneheaded attempts to bulldoze through the paint or bad angle shots taken. I think both of them were guilty of that. Part of me want to give the benefit of the doubt due to the level of opposition but on a larger scale, these guys simply can't afford to be playing like that come the season, even if against lesser competition.
I have to say overall, those two did not particularly impress me.
Walker scored all of his 11 points within the first five minutes of the game. Crickets after that. Looked like he was gonna pull a Georgetown 2.0 when he drained three threes in the span of a few minutes but he cooled off considerably as the game went on.
On the whole, I was hoping to see more attempts to penetrate and work inside out. CU probably shot in the realm of 30 three-pointers in this game. It was just insane how many longballs they were chucking up.
Granted, as the game went on, there was some good post work being done — Lovering in particular found the back door unlocked on multiple occasions and did well cutting to the hoop, bit for me, that's what I was really hoping to see: time being taken on offense to wrangle up a good-looking two-point attempt. I would have liked to see a bit more in that respect.
As I noted above, Barthelemy, Walker, Battey, Parquet and Clifford started the game. To begin the second quarter, O'Brien, Lovering, Simpson, da Silva and Hammond III were the five men Tad Boyle went with.
By the fourth quarter, Boyle's lineup looked like this: Simpson, Parquet, Battey, O'Brien and da Silva.
From a defensive standpoint, I thought things were pretty tight. That said, some of the shots this Escazu unit shot up were downright laughable, so, no CU player is getting a gold star for locking down that level of competition but at the end of the day, holding an opponent to 32 points in 40 minutes while playing FIBA rules — can't nitpick all too much there.
Like I said, don't want to over-analyze, so I will stop there. A win's a win and Colorado did what needed to be done: crush an inferior opponent. The game was far from without blemishes but overall, the biggest thing to dwell on here in my mind undoubtedly was how well Simpson performed. Encouraging for sure.
Everything I cited above that was lackluster, on an individual and team basis, are things that can be fine tuned down the line. I'm most concerned about what I saw from Barthelemy and Clifford but again, it's one game. Let's see how they perform over the next three and then revisit all this.
This simply is not a game to over-analyze, for obvious reasons. That said, we can still discuss and make observations, both of which I plan to do below.
Final score was 79-32 in favor of CU. Here's how the point totals broke down for the entire game:
(STARTERS)
Keeshawn Barthelemy: 10
Jabari Walker: 11 (all in the first half)
Evan Battey: 4
Eli Parquet: 6
Nique Clifford: 4
(BENCH)
KJ Simpson: 13
Julian Hammond III: 6
Lawson Lovering: 9
Luke O'Brien: 7
Tristan da Silva: 7
Will Coughlin: 2
That point total gets me to 78...I missed a basket somewhere in there so apologies but you get the gist of how the game went.
Let's start with the positive:
Simpson was awesome! He looked really poised bringing the ball up the court and handled himself well in the offensive zone. His drives to the rim were effective most of the time and he also was solid in his decision-making/passing. He had one careless drive through the paint where he got pickpocketed for a turnover in the fourth quarter but all in all, he had a hell of a debut in a CU uniform.
Hammond III made some savvy passes and looked confident when he had the ball. Lovering I thought performed perfectly fine but I will say this: he won't be operating in the low post with as much impunity as he did tonight once Pac-12 teams are the opponent. I've said it before, but I think 2021-2022 will be a year of bumps and bruises for young Mr. Lovering as he gets acclimated to Pac-12 basketball. He most definitely can still contribute this year, the extent of which we shall see, but a calendar year pumping iron in the weight room I think is what he needs most.
Clifford and Barthelemy I was a bit disappointed in. For players now with a year or more under their belts, I didn't expect to see as many boneheaded attempts to bulldoze through the paint or bad angle shots taken. I think both of them were guilty of that. Part of me want to give the benefit of the doubt due to the level of opposition but on a larger scale, these guys simply can't afford to be playing like that come the season, even if against lesser competition.
I have to say overall, those two did not particularly impress me.
Walker scored all of his 11 points within the first five minutes of the game. Crickets after that. Looked like he was gonna pull a Georgetown 2.0 when he drained three threes in the span of a few minutes but he cooled off considerably as the game went on.
On the whole, I was hoping to see more attempts to penetrate and work inside out. CU probably shot in the realm of 30 three-pointers in this game. It was just insane how many longballs they were chucking up.
Granted, as the game went on, there was some good post work being done — Lovering in particular found the back door unlocked on multiple occasions and did well cutting to the hoop, bit for me, that's what I was really hoping to see: time being taken on offense to wrangle up a good-looking two-point attempt. I would have liked to see a bit more in that respect.
As I noted above, Barthelemy, Walker, Battey, Parquet and Clifford started the game. To begin the second quarter, O'Brien, Lovering, Simpson, da Silva and Hammond III were the five men Tad Boyle went with.
By the fourth quarter, Boyle's lineup looked like this: Simpson, Parquet, Battey, O'Brien and da Silva.
From a defensive standpoint, I thought things were pretty tight. That said, some of the shots this Escazu unit shot up were downright laughable, so, no CU player is getting a gold star for locking down that level of competition but at the end of the day, holding an opponent to 32 points in 40 minutes while playing FIBA rules — can't nitpick all too much there.
Like I said, don't want to over-analyze, so I will stop there. A win's a win and Colorado did what needed to be done: crush an inferior opponent. The game was far from without blemishes but overall, the biggest thing to dwell on here in my mind undoubtedly was how well Simpson performed. Encouraging for sure.
Everything I cited above that was lackluster, on an individual and team basis, are things that can be fine tuned down the line. I'm most concerned about what I saw from Barthelemy and Clifford but again, it's one game. Let's see how they perform over the next three and then revisit all this.
