Since the Buffaloes competed their mid-August exhibition in Costa Rica, I had been hoping to catch up with Tad Boyle to get his thoughts on the trip and what he saw down there, namely from the younger players. Yesterday, I had that chance, so I wanted to post our conversation in Q+A format with some accompanying notes where necessary.
For starters, here is a statistical breakdown through the four games (From L to R, shooting %, PPG, RPG)
Q: When we last spoke shortly before you guys departed for Costa Rica, you mentioned the trip as being an opportunity to see your young guys compete against actual competition as well as one to gauge where this team is at leading into preseason workouts. Were your questions about your freshmen and team in general answered down in Costa Rica?
Tad Boyle: “To some degree, we did, certainly, but the competition was not very stout. We knew that going in and that certainly was the case. But that being said, it gave us a really good opportunity in an environment where you didn’t feel like, ‘Oh my god, we have to win this game.’ Obviously, we were going to win the games — that was apparent from relatively early on — but we got a chance to look at a lot of our young guys in different combinations."
"We didn’t play Eli (Parquet) and Evan (Battey) in two of the games — that was by design — just so we could get extended minutes for some of the young guys, not only just the freshmen, but guys like Dominique Clifford and Luke O’Brien, as well as Jabari (Walker) and Tristan (da Silva). Even the returning guys that played a little bit (last year), but in different roles. I think we saw some good things."
"We shot the ball overall as a team pretty darn well. An example to me is Dom Clifford, (who) did not shoot the ball very well the first two games but the second two games, he stuck with it and proved that he can make shots. He’s been working on his game and really I thought defended and rebounded the ball at a high level. You see things like that and it gives you some confidence and some hope that this team is going to be able to turn the corner."
"The biggest question mark we have is experience. Any time you have a chance to get more experience, you’ve got to do it. This experience will help us down the road — maybe not necessarily from a competitive standpoint but more from confidence, team bonding and learning how to play with each other. I thought we played really unselfishly. Those games are easy to play down to your level of competition, so to speak. It’s very easy to get sloppy, take bad shots and get selfish at the end. We didn’t see a lot of that and I thought that was a good sign, as well.”
Q: It looked like KJ Simpson had a pretty long leash during those four games; he saw a good deal of action at point guard as well as in running the offense in general. What'd you see from him?
Boyle: “KJ — there’s no fear in his heart. He plays the game with a lot of confidence, he’s a very instinctual player and when you have players like that, you’ve got to let them play with their instincts and encourage them...He did some really nice things in Costa Rica but now that we’re back home and doing workouts, he may try to make some of those plays and they may not be successful against higher level competition."
"Finding that balance and understanding of, ‘Hey, you’ve got to play with your instincts but you also have to play smart, play within yourself and not try to do too much.’ But I think the one thing you saw about KJ is that he’s got great confidence and plays with a reckless abandon that we really, really like to see. He’s just gotta keep it in check at times.”
Q: Both Javon Ruffin (knee) and Quincy Allen (hip) did not participate in the Costa Rican exhibition due to injury. Have they resumed workouts with the team and generally speaking, what are their statuses?
Boyle: “Javon’s getting closer. We’re bringing him back gradually off that knee and hopefully he’ll be ready to go in a week or two. Quincy is still going through some tests to try to figure out what his issue is. It’s kind of a day-to-day, week-to-week type thing with him, but they’ve not gotten a chance (to return). Those two guys are really question marks right now, quite frankly, and we're just going with the 10 guys that are currently healthy.”
Q: Over the summer, you described Lawson Lovering as a quick learner and seemed impressed with his post presence and ability to play stout defense. What are your expectations for him this upcoming season and is the biggest challenge for him going to come via bulking up in the weight room?
Boyle: “I think there’s no substitute for experience. He’s going to have to just gain the experience. Being a smart player and a guy who learns from his mistakes, I expect his learning curve to be pretty quick. The strength part is just going to have to take time — that’s just time and effort in the weight room and part of it is just physical maturity as a young man. That part we’ll be patient with but I just think Lawson is a guy that keeps getting better."
"He learns every single day and he learns pretty quickly. We’re going to have times where we want him on the floor and there may be some times where we want to play him and Evan (Battey) together. I don’t know how long we’ll do that (or) for what stretches we’ll do that, but I want to have the ability to do that because I think Lawson’s one of our better players and you want to have your better players on the floor. I’m anxious to see his improvement not only day-to-day, but week-to-week and month-to-month.”
Q: You mention Lovering and Battey sharing the court together. What might it look like with Simpson and Keeshawn Barthelemy playing together? Will they interchange at point guard and the 2-guard? Have you and your staff discussed what their dynamic together will be when they're on the floor at the same time?
“Absolutely. I think they’ll play a lot together and Julian Hammond I would add to that mix, because he’s really made tremendous strides even since we’ve gotten back from Costa Rica. They’re all guards who can handle the ball, they can shoot the ball, they can pass the ball."
"On a missed basket, we’re going to have to designate one of those guys to be an outlet guy as well as for made baskets. But one of the things I’m going to challenge both KJ and Keeshawn with is to really become factors on the defensive glass. If, for example, KJ gets a rebound, he brings it and Keeshawn is running the lane — vice versa, if Keeshawn gets a rebound, he brings it and KJ’s running the lane. Where we’ll have to designate someone to get the outlet is if one of our big guys gets it and we need to outlet to a guard. We’ll designate that guy but I think both of them can do that."
"What I like about both of them — and I would add Julian Hammond to this mix — is that you can play them on the ball and you can play them off the ball. Keeshawn is a very effective scorer and so is KJ but they’re also effective passers and distributors, as well. They’ll definitely play together, more than Evan and Lawson will play together — I mentioned Evan and Lawson because there may be stretches where we want them both on the floor."
"I don’t know if they’ll be long stretches or heavy minutes together, but KJ and Keeshawn are definitely going to play a lot together.”
Q: What kind of progression have you seen out of your second-year guards, Luke O'Brien and Nique Clifford?
Boyle: “Luke does some really nice things — he’s really good in our motion offense in terms of making quick decisions. The key is not trying to do too much and letting the game come to him, rather than force things. But when he does that, he’s very effective. His body has gotten bigger and stronger and I think he can help us rebound the ball."
"Nique is a guy, when we say defend and rebound, I think he’s taken that to heart. He’s done a good job of that and he’s also spent a lot of time on his jump shot, working on that and I think it’s going to show. Nobody was more frustrated than he was after those first couple games, he couldn’t buy a shot. But to his credit, he stuck with it, he didn’t stop shooting and he just took shots. It’s just a matter of time when you put the time in, hopefully you get rewarded for it. I thought he was in Costa Rica those last two games.”
Q: Following the NCAA Tournament last March, you talked about needing to find a new "defensive stopper" on the perimeter to replace what McKinley Wright IV provided alongside Eli Parquet. Do any of your younger players — true freshmen or second-year guys, strike you as having that sort of "defensive stopper" potential?
Boyle: “There could be. You’re talking about Keeshawn, KJ, Julian — there could be a defensive stopper in that group but there’s yet to be one that’s emerged. That’s really where the rubber will meet the road in terms of minutes."
"And Nique Clifford — I would throw him in that mix, too — I feel like what I saw from Nique, and he’s been in the program for a year, as Keeshawn has, but I really saw a concerted effort by Nique to really guard and really rebound at a high level (in Costa Rica). McKinley wasn’t just a good defender. The guy had a lot of rebounds in his career for a 6-foot guard, so size can sometimes be a little underrated when it comes to rebounding."
"Obviously, it helps, but there’s a lot of guards that can make their presence known on the glass and again, if guys want to play more minutes, there’s your ticket and there’s your answer.”
Q: Last one for you. I'm just curious is there is anything new on the front of finding a new director of player development to replace the departed Nate Tomlinson?
Boyle: “We should know something within a week. We’ve got to clear a few HR hurdles and hopefully we’ll have something next week sometime.”
......
Battey and Lovering playing together is interesting if Boyle wants to go big with his lineup at times. That'll be cool to se develop and also, I liked his answer about how Simpson/Barthelemy will work together on the court. Seems like a fluid situation there, with both guys blending the roles of PG and SG.
Boyle mentioned him a few times but don't forget about Hammond III — it appears he's been impressing over the summer and now into preseason workouts, enough to where he could very well carve out some healthy minutes per game for himself as a true freshman.
Ruffin and Allen concern me frankly; I don't think Ruffin has been able to practice with the team more than a short handful of times back in late June — at least, that's when I recall first seeing him with his knee taped up — and per Boyle's description, it seems Allen's hip ailment has been throwing team doctors and trainers a bit of a curveball on the diagnosis front.
CU is set to resume organized practices Sept. 28, so here's hoping those guys will be back in the fold by then. Always enjoy catching up with Boyle; he's never anything but straight across the plate in his dealings with the media and he makes our lives very easy with his always-detailed answers. Appreciate his time and hope you all enjoyed the Q+A.
For starters, here is a statistical breakdown through the four games (From L to R, shooting %, PPG, RPG)
| Luke O'Brien | 16/32 (50%) | 10.5 PPG | 3.5 RPG |
| Julian Hammond III | 20/35 (57%) | 13 PPG | 3.3 RPG |
| KJ Simpson | 23/37 (62%) | 14.5 PPG | 3.5 RPG |
| Keeshawn Barthelemy | 20/42 (48%) | 14.5 PPG | 3 RPG |
| Jabari Walker | 16/26 (62%) | 10.5 PPG | 4.75 RPG |
| Evan Battey (2 GP) | 6/16 (38%) | 6.5 PPG | 4.5 RPG |
| Tristan da Silva | 12/19 (63%) | 9.3 PPG | 4 RPG |
| Eli Parquet (2 GP) | 5/10 (50%) | 3 PPG | 4 RPG |
| Nique Clifford | 15/32 (47) | 8.8 PPG | 6 RPG |
| Lawson Lovering | 13/25 (52) | 8.3 PPG | 5.8 RPG |
Q: When we last spoke shortly before you guys departed for Costa Rica, you mentioned the trip as being an opportunity to see your young guys compete against actual competition as well as one to gauge where this team is at leading into preseason workouts. Were your questions about your freshmen and team in general answered down in Costa Rica?
Tad Boyle: “To some degree, we did, certainly, but the competition was not very stout. We knew that going in and that certainly was the case. But that being said, it gave us a really good opportunity in an environment where you didn’t feel like, ‘Oh my god, we have to win this game.’ Obviously, we were going to win the games — that was apparent from relatively early on — but we got a chance to look at a lot of our young guys in different combinations."
"We didn’t play Eli (Parquet) and Evan (Battey) in two of the games — that was by design — just so we could get extended minutes for some of the young guys, not only just the freshmen, but guys like Dominique Clifford and Luke O’Brien, as well as Jabari (Walker) and Tristan (da Silva). Even the returning guys that played a little bit (last year), but in different roles. I think we saw some good things."
"We shot the ball overall as a team pretty darn well. An example to me is Dom Clifford, (who) did not shoot the ball very well the first two games but the second two games, he stuck with it and proved that he can make shots. He’s been working on his game and really I thought defended and rebounded the ball at a high level. You see things like that and it gives you some confidence and some hope that this team is going to be able to turn the corner."
"The biggest question mark we have is experience. Any time you have a chance to get more experience, you’ve got to do it. This experience will help us down the road — maybe not necessarily from a competitive standpoint but more from confidence, team bonding and learning how to play with each other. I thought we played really unselfishly. Those games are easy to play down to your level of competition, so to speak. It’s very easy to get sloppy, take bad shots and get selfish at the end. We didn’t see a lot of that and I thought that was a good sign, as well.”
Q: It looked like KJ Simpson had a pretty long leash during those four games; he saw a good deal of action at point guard as well as in running the offense in general. What'd you see from him?
Boyle: “KJ — there’s no fear in his heart. He plays the game with a lot of confidence, he’s a very instinctual player and when you have players like that, you’ve got to let them play with their instincts and encourage them...He did some really nice things in Costa Rica but now that we’re back home and doing workouts, he may try to make some of those plays and they may not be successful against higher level competition."
"Finding that balance and understanding of, ‘Hey, you’ve got to play with your instincts but you also have to play smart, play within yourself and not try to do too much.’ But I think the one thing you saw about KJ is that he’s got great confidence and plays with a reckless abandon that we really, really like to see. He’s just gotta keep it in check at times.”
Q: Both Javon Ruffin (knee) and Quincy Allen (hip) did not participate in the Costa Rican exhibition due to injury. Have they resumed workouts with the team and generally speaking, what are their statuses?
Boyle: “Javon’s getting closer. We’re bringing him back gradually off that knee and hopefully he’ll be ready to go in a week or two. Quincy is still going through some tests to try to figure out what his issue is. It’s kind of a day-to-day, week-to-week type thing with him, but they’ve not gotten a chance (to return). Those two guys are really question marks right now, quite frankly, and we're just going with the 10 guys that are currently healthy.”
Q: Over the summer, you described Lawson Lovering as a quick learner and seemed impressed with his post presence and ability to play stout defense. What are your expectations for him this upcoming season and is the biggest challenge for him going to come via bulking up in the weight room?
Boyle: “I think there’s no substitute for experience. He’s going to have to just gain the experience. Being a smart player and a guy who learns from his mistakes, I expect his learning curve to be pretty quick. The strength part is just going to have to take time — that’s just time and effort in the weight room and part of it is just physical maturity as a young man. That part we’ll be patient with but I just think Lawson is a guy that keeps getting better."
"He learns every single day and he learns pretty quickly. We’re going to have times where we want him on the floor and there may be some times where we want to play him and Evan (Battey) together. I don’t know how long we’ll do that (or) for what stretches we’ll do that, but I want to have the ability to do that because I think Lawson’s one of our better players and you want to have your better players on the floor. I’m anxious to see his improvement not only day-to-day, but week-to-week and month-to-month.”
Q: You mention Lovering and Battey sharing the court together. What might it look like with Simpson and Keeshawn Barthelemy playing together? Will they interchange at point guard and the 2-guard? Have you and your staff discussed what their dynamic together will be when they're on the floor at the same time?
“Absolutely. I think they’ll play a lot together and Julian Hammond I would add to that mix, because he’s really made tremendous strides even since we’ve gotten back from Costa Rica. They’re all guards who can handle the ball, they can shoot the ball, they can pass the ball."
"On a missed basket, we’re going to have to designate one of those guys to be an outlet guy as well as for made baskets. But one of the things I’m going to challenge both KJ and Keeshawn with is to really become factors on the defensive glass. If, for example, KJ gets a rebound, he brings it and Keeshawn is running the lane — vice versa, if Keeshawn gets a rebound, he brings it and KJ’s running the lane. Where we’ll have to designate someone to get the outlet is if one of our big guys gets it and we need to outlet to a guard. We’ll designate that guy but I think both of them can do that."
"What I like about both of them — and I would add Julian Hammond to this mix — is that you can play them on the ball and you can play them off the ball. Keeshawn is a very effective scorer and so is KJ but they’re also effective passers and distributors, as well. They’ll definitely play together, more than Evan and Lawson will play together — I mentioned Evan and Lawson because there may be stretches where we want them both on the floor."
"I don’t know if they’ll be long stretches or heavy minutes together, but KJ and Keeshawn are definitely going to play a lot together.”
Q: What kind of progression have you seen out of your second-year guards, Luke O'Brien and Nique Clifford?
Boyle: “Luke does some really nice things — he’s really good in our motion offense in terms of making quick decisions. The key is not trying to do too much and letting the game come to him, rather than force things. But when he does that, he’s very effective. His body has gotten bigger and stronger and I think he can help us rebound the ball."
"Nique is a guy, when we say defend and rebound, I think he’s taken that to heart. He’s done a good job of that and he’s also spent a lot of time on his jump shot, working on that and I think it’s going to show. Nobody was more frustrated than he was after those first couple games, he couldn’t buy a shot. But to his credit, he stuck with it, he didn’t stop shooting and he just took shots. It’s just a matter of time when you put the time in, hopefully you get rewarded for it. I thought he was in Costa Rica those last two games.”
Q: Following the NCAA Tournament last March, you talked about needing to find a new "defensive stopper" on the perimeter to replace what McKinley Wright IV provided alongside Eli Parquet. Do any of your younger players — true freshmen or second-year guys, strike you as having that sort of "defensive stopper" potential?
Boyle: “There could be. You’re talking about Keeshawn, KJ, Julian — there could be a defensive stopper in that group but there’s yet to be one that’s emerged. That’s really where the rubber will meet the road in terms of minutes."
"And Nique Clifford — I would throw him in that mix, too — I feel like what I saw from Nique, and he’s been in the program for a year, as Keeshawn has, but I really saw a concerted effort by Nique to really guard and really rebound at a high level (in Costa Rica). McKinley wasn’t just a good defender. The guy had a lot of rebounds in his career for a 6-foot guard, so size can sometimes be a little underrated when it comes to rebounding."
"Obviously, it helps, but there’s a lot of guards that can make their presence known on the glass and again, if guys want to play more minutes, there’s your ticket and there’s your answer.”
Q: Last one for you. I'm just curious is there is anything new on the front of finding a new director of player development to replace the departed Nate Tomlinson?
Boyle: “We should know something within a week. We’ve got to clear a few HR hurdles and hopefully we’ll have something next week sometime.”
......
Battey and Lovering playing together is interesting if Boyle wants to go big with his lineup at times. That'll be cool to se develop and also, I liked his answer about how Simpson/Barthelemy will work together on the court. Seems like a fluid situation there, with both guys blending the roles of PG and SG.
Boyle mentioned him a few times but don't forget about Hammond III — it appears he's been impressing over the summer and now into preseason workouts, enough to where he could very well carve out some healthy minutes per game for himself as a true freshman.
Ruffin and Allen concern me frankly; I don't think Ruffin has been able to practice with the team more than a short handful of times back in late June — at least, that's when I recall first seeing him with his knee taped up — and per Boyle's description, it seems Allen's hip ailment has been throwing team doctors and trainers a bit of a curveball on the diagnosis front.
CU is set to resume organized practices Sept. 28, so here's hoping those guys will be back in the fold by then. Always enjoy catching up with Boyle; he's never anything but straight across the plate in his dealings with the media and he makes our lives very easy with his always-detailed answers. Appreciate his time and hope you all enjoyed the Q+A.
