Buffs Need Balanced Effort Against No. 11 Wildcats
January 24, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
TUCSON, Ariz. — When Colorado beat Arizona in Boulder in early January, the Buffs produced one of their most well-balanced efforts of the season.
CU finished with five players in double-figure scoring in the 80-77 win while shooting nearly 55 percent from the field (29-for-53).
The Buffs also did a solid job on the Wildcats' two leading scorers, guard Allonzo Trier and 7-foot-1 forward Deandre Ayton. Trier finished with just eight points on 3-for-9 shooting to go with three rebounds. Ayton, meanwhile, finished with a game-high 26 points — but he had just five points in the first half as the Buffs built a 45-29 halftime lead, and he also finished with just five rebounds for the entire game, less than half his season average.
The 12-8 Buffs (4-4 Pac-12) will need a similar effort — on both ends of the floor — Thursday night at the McKale Center when they meet the No. 11 Wildcats (16-4, 6-1) in a 6:30 p.m. game (FS1).
"We're a different team than we were when we played Arizona a few weeks ago and they're a different team," CU head coach Tad Boyle said. "The personnel is the same, values and ideas are still the same. But they've gotten better and I think we've gotten better. But your margin for error when you play Arizona at Arizona goes down and it's very, very thin. The thing we did really well here is we executed offensively. We ran our stuff and we ran our stuff well."
Indeed, the Buffs were at their efficient best against the Wildcats, in particular center Dallas Walton. The Buffs' big man matched up against Ayton and 7-0 Dusan Risic, and finished with a career-high 15 points on a perfect 7-for-7 afternoon from the field that included a 3-pointer.
"We have to attack them the same way we did last time in terms of playing with confidence," Walton said. "We played with a lot of confidence, we executed, we had guys in the rights spots on every play, we had everyone making the right reads. It's something we need to bottle up with us and take to Arizona."
Ayton, a likely one-and-done player at Arizona, is being touted as a top-three pick in next summer's NBA Draft. Paired with Risic, it gives the Wildcats one of the most formidable front line in the nation.
Walton looks forward to the test.
"I always love the challenge of going against real good bigs," Walton said. "It means I get to work on my game as well. When you play someone like Washington State, they're more of a guard-oriented team and I'm playing a little out of position. I'm fine with that, but I really embrace this kind of opportunity."
Walton had just one rebound last time against the Wildcats, a number he knows he needs to improve. But he is coming off a five-rebound effort against Washington, a game in which he and fellow freshman Tyler Bey combined to finish with nearly half (16) of CU's 34 total rebounds.
"I thought Tyler and Dallas against Washington played really really well, both offensively, defensively," Boyle said. "They were 11-for-22 (shooting) and had 16 rebounds between the two of them. That's pretty good for two freshmen front line guys."
But the Buffs will need more than just their freshmen against the Wildcats. They will also need upperclassmen George King, Dominique Collier and Namon Wright to produce. The three combined for 33 points and 20 rebounds against Arizona the first time, and just as importantly, played a big role on the defensive end.
That, however, wasn't the case in last weekend's loss to the Huskies.
"Our perimeter guys defensively? They were out to lunch," Boyle said bluntly. "They took the night off against Washington. They didn't against Arizona, they didn't against UCLA, they didn't against Arizona State — but they took the night off against Washington. Why, I don't know. But that was the difference in the game."
The Wildcats, who are 77-2 at home over the last four-plus seasons, have won four straight since losing in Boulder.
"I know (UA coach Sean Miller) wasn't too happy with his team when they they played here," Boyle said. "Obviously he got their attention. They haven't lost since. They'll have their attention before they play us, there's no doubt about that. We're expecting a heck of a challenge, a heck of an environment."
SERIES: The Wildcats hold a 16-13 all-time series lead against the Buffs, including a 7-2 mark in Tucson and an 11-4 record since Colorado joined the Pac-12 in 2011-2012. CU's last win in Tucson came in 1960, when Colorado beat Arizona on the 'Cats home floor on back-to-back nights.
BROADCAST: FS1 will televise the game with Aaron Goldsmith and Casey Jacobsen. KOA 850 AM radio will broadcast the game with Mark Johnson and Scott Wilke.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
