Buffs Gear For Hostile Environment At Arizona
January 23, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — With a weekend loss to Washington now in the rearview mirror, the Colorado Buffaloes hope to get back on track this week in Pac-12 play.
Their itinerary isn't exactly ideal for such a task. The 12-8 Buffs (4-4 Pac-12) play at 11th-ranked Arizona on Thursday (6:30 p.m., FS1) before heading to Arizona State on Saturday for a 6 p.m. meeting with the No. 21 Sun Devils (ESPNU).
Both Arizona schools will be anxious for a little payback for losses they suffered in Boulder in early January.
For the 16-4 Wildcats (6-1 Pac-12), the 80-77 defeat in Boulder is still their only conference loss, with four wins in a row since. Throw in the fact that they may also be a little miffed over comments from CU coach Tad Boyle after that game, plus the fact that UA's McKale Center is generally one of the more raucous arenas in college hoops, and the Buffs are expecting the very definition of a hostile atmosphere.
"It's going to be a heck of an environment, it always is," Boyle said. "They're going to be obviously loaded for bear because they know what happened here. (Coach) Sean Miller will have his guys ready, there's no doubt about that."
How good are the Wildcats at home? Figure this: in the six-plus seasons since the Buffs began play in the Pac-12, the Wildcats are 111-9 in their home arena, including 10-0 this season. In the last four years, they are 77-2 at McKale.
"You have to embrace it," Boyle said of the expected atmosphere. "We have nothing to lose. We should just go there, let it hang out, play with confidence, play with energy, play with effort. Nothing to lose. There's no reason to be tight."
In their first meeting with the Wildcats, the Buffs' 2-3 zone defense kept the Wildcats in check for much of the game. It was a defense CU had seldom used before that week, but one that was effective, particularly against leading scorer Allonzo Trier. The junior guard came into the game averaging 20 points per contest but scored just eight against the Buffs on 3-for-9 shooting.
"Your ball screen defense against Allonzo Trier has to be really good because he uses ball screens well to score," Boyle said. "And then you have to be aware of him in transition. He gets over 50 percent of his baskets in those two areas. So if you can limit or hopefully eliminate those two areas of his scoring the ball, you cut his effectiveness offensively in half."
The Buffs will also be out to limit Arizona's transition baskets, which means limiting turnovers and taking good shots on offense. If the 'Cats have to take the ball out of the net, it limits their ability to score in transition.
"They play a lot faster at home than they do on the road," Boyle said. "They really run and get out in transition. Part of our success here, especially in the first half against Arizona, is we were taking care of the ball — we only had two turnovers in the first half — and we were taking great shots. We made then take it out of the basket and that takes their transition out of it. But if you're turning it over or taking bad shots or quick shots or long jump shots that turn into long rebounds, they convert those into buckets real quick at home."
But the biggest key against the Wildcats won't be whether the Buffs play zone or man-to-man defense. Rather, Boyle said, the most important factor will be the Buffs' effort.
"It's all about energy, it's all about effort, it's all about making them hopefully shoot jump shots over our hands," Boyle said. "That's really what defense comes down to for us."
WILDCATS FIRE ASSISTANT: Former Arizona assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson has been fired and his appeal to be reinstated has been denied, according to the Arizona Daily Star. Richardson was suspended with pay last fall amid an FBI investigation that alleges he paid a recruit to verbally commit to the Wildcats. The school opened its own investigation and Richardson was officially fired on Jan. 11. Richardson is accused of taking $20,000 from a sports agents and paying at least one recruit to commit to Arizona. He's facing up to 60 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines. He has a pre-trial conference scheduled in New York district court on Feb. 15.
After Colorado beat Arizona in early January, CU's Boyle was asked if the win meant a little more in wake of the FBI investigation. Boyle said it "absolutely" did, a comment that is expected to add fuel to the Wildcats' crowd on Thursday.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu