Tad Boyle said it after the game once again — this team's got fight. That's for sure. Been evident since early in the season when the Buffs managed to beat some bad competition after not playing well at all, and even in these back-to-back losses to ranked league opponents, CU has somehow managed to be right in the thick of things late despite playing downright terribly early on.
My biggest takeaway from tonight is that KJ Simpson needs to be inserted into the starting lineup immediately. Boyle going with Simpson from the 15:48 mark of the second half onward — Keeshawn Barthelemy didn't play a second past that point — I found to be rather telling.
To me, there's no denying that Simpson is providing a spark while running the point that Barthelemy simply is not.
At a very minimum, Simpson is proving he's capable/deserving of more minutes. I think benching Barthelemy would be a drastic move, no doubt, but one that's necessary. Simpson should be starting at Oregon this upcoming Tuesday.
Aside from that observation of my own, tonight was just another tale of two halves. I definitely was not expecting anything interesting to happen once CU went down by 17 early in the second half, but boy was I wrong.
As Boyle alluded to in the link below though, you've got to give kudos to UCLA — countless times down the stretch of the second half, the Bruins managed to sink a clutch shot that cancelled out a Buffs basket that got CU closer to within striking distance.
Boyle and Jabari Walker said that they could live with a lot of those late shots made by the Bruins, perhaps Tyger Campbell's big-time 3 immediately following Walker's dunk with 1:54 to play, a basket that got Colorado within 1, 62-61, being the exception there.
Colorado is a strange hoops team right now. The Buffs have come awfully close to winning games against ranked opponents when playing far from their best.
Hope they can put it all together moving forward. Three-game road trip starting with what's likely to be a ranked Oregon team that's been playing very well of late, is Tuesday night. Then it's on to UW and WSU. Gotta stop the bleeding and end the losing skid.
CU's exciting comeback effort comes up short in 71-65 loss to No. 9 UCLA
My biggest takeaway from tonight is that KJ Simpson needs to be inserted into the starting lineup immediately. Boyle going with Simpson from the 15:48 mark of the second half onward — Keeshawn Barthelemy didn't play a second past that point — I found to be rather telling.
To me, there's no denying that Simpson is providing a spark while running the point that Barthelemy simply is not.
At a very minimum, Simpson is proving he's capable/deserving of more minutes. I think benching Barthelemy would be a drastic move, no doubt, but one that's necessary. Simpson should be starting at Oregon this upcoming Tuesday.
Aside from that observation of my own, tonight was just another tale of two halves. I definitely was not expecting anything interesting to happen once CU went down by 17 early in the second half, but boy was I wrong.
As Boyle alluded to in the link below though, you've got to give kudos to UCLA — countless times down the stretch of the second half, the Bruins managed to sink a clutch shot that cancelled out a Buffs basket that got CU closer to within striking distance.
Boyle and Jabari Walker said that they could live with a lot of those late shots made by the Bruins, perhaps Tyger Campbell's big-time 3 immediately following Walker's dunk with 1:54 to play, a basket that got Colorado within 1, 62-61, being the exception there.
Colorado is a strange hoops team right now. The Buffs have come awfully close to winning games against ranked opponents when playing far from their best.
Hope they can put it all together moving forward. Three-game road trip starting with what's likely to be a ranked Oregon team that's been playing very well of late, is Tuesday night. Then it's on to UW and WSU. Gotta stop the bleeding and end the losing skid.
CU's exciting comeback effort comes up short in 71-65 loss to No. 9 UCLA
