Colorado University Athletics
Buffs' Tomlinson Remembers What Turned Late-Season 2011-12 Slump
March 03, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Nate Tomlinson has seen this before.
Tomlinson, now the Colorado Buffaloes' Director of Player Development, was the senior point guard on Tad Boyle's 2011-12 team, the group that made history by putting together a four-game championship run in the Pac-12 tournament.
That run is a hallowed part of CU lore, a memory every Colorado hoops fans holds fondly. Not only did the Buffs make a tournament run to earn an NCAA Tournament berth, they then upset No. 7 seed UNLV in their NCAA opener before falling to Baylor.
But what many folks don't remember as well is the way that regular season finished.
Those Buffs — a veteran-laden team — were 10-4 in conference play and riding high with just two weeks left in the regular season. A top-four finish and first-round bye in the Pac-12 tournament in Los Angeles appeared to be a given.
But then came an almost inexplicable slump down the stretch, a 1-3 slide that included a home loss and two straight losses on the road. That skid that dropped Colorado out of a top-four finish and into the sixth seed for the Pac-12 tournament.
Sound familiar?
The first part, at least, seems to be history repeating itself.Â
Just two weeks ago, Boyle's current CU Buffaloes were 10-4 and riding high, in sole possession of first place in the league standings. A conference title seemed well within their grasp.
But now, a three-game losing streak — CU's longest since late in the 2017-18 season — has not only dropped the Buffs out of title contention, but in serious danger of falling out of the top four. Colorado not only needs a win in Saturday's regular season finale at Utah (12:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks), but also needs some help from other teams to pick up that first-round Pac-12 tourney bye.Â
(Since you asked, a Colorado win plus at least one loss from two of these three — Arizona, Arizona State and Stanford — would put the Buffs in the top four.)
So how did those Buffs manage to change course so late in the season and rediscover their mojo in time for the tournament?
CU lore holds that Tomlinson delivered a fiery locker room speech that called for a little soul searching.
Tomlinson now laughs at the memory, saying, "It wasn't anything special."
But what Tomlinson does say was special is the way that team came together — and it required some long looks in the mirror by the entire team.
"It was just honesty," he said. "There was no secret potion. It was just getting back to who we believed we were throughout the majority of that Pac-12 season. We thought we were a tough, physical team for the majority of that year and we knew we had to get back to that. Understanding that no one's going to give us anything was important. We had games to play ahead of us and we couldn't let that opportunity get away."
Of course, that team was still smarting from an NCAA Tournament snub the year before. That team — Boyle's first — accepted an NIT bid and advanced to the tournament's Final Four, all the while believing it should have been playing in the NCAA.
"We didn't want to leave anything to chance again," Tomlinson said. "There was no point in pouting and sulking. We had games to play ahead of us, so we decided to go play and see where the chips land."
It was no doubt a veteran team, led by seniors Tomlinson, Austin Dufault and Carlon Brown. It also featured standout freshmen Spencer Dinwiddie and Askia Booker and sophomore Andre Roberson.
But, Tomlinson said, it was up to everyone in the locker room to come together and play unselfishly — something that had been the trademark for most of the season.
"Just honesty," he said. "Looking each other in the eye and being honest about who you are and what you have to do. If guys want to buy into and believe in it, then it works. If they don't, then it usually doesn't."
That, Tomlinson said, is almost always the key to March success.
"It's always player-driven," he said. "The teams that have that player leadership are the teams that go farther in March and April. Obviously you have to have good coaching as well. That's what got you there and it has to continue. But at that point, it has to be player driven. Accountability is player driven. Those are the most successful teams."
Boyle last week had Tomlinson address the team about those exact issues.
"He's a coach now, but he still has a player's perspective in a lot of ways," Boyle said. "It was good to have him talk to the guys … it's the players who really came together and made that thing happen."
 FILM DOESN'T LIE: The Buffs had Monday off, then had a film session Tuesday where they reviewed Sunday's 72-64 loss at Stanford.
"We watched the 20 layups that we gave up and the wide-open three to (Tyrell) Terry to start the game," Boyle said. "We watched every one of those clips. And it was a sobering film session. It was not a fun one for the players, but it was necessary because they need to understand where we are because of our lack of pride defensively."
In the last eight halves of play, Colorado has allowed the opponent to shoot at least 50 percent from the field in five of those halves, including both halves against Stanford.
Boyle also said the team has, to a degree, lost a sense of togetherness.
"The problem that we have right now is when things go bad, we worry about ourselves," he said. "We don't worry about our teammates and we don't worry about each other. We're worried about ourselves. Our attitude is not what it needs to be, our effort is not what it needs to be, certainly our execution is not what it needs to be. Toughness, discipline, all the things that go into winning games this time of year, we're falling short in a lot of those categories."
But Boyle has by no means lost faith in his team.
"I'm confident that this group will get it turned around," he said. "But time is of the essence. We've got one regular season game left. So we've got to make it happen now."
RANKING: While the Buffs fell out of the AP and coaches top 25 polls this week (they received a handful of votes in both), they were still No. 23 as of Tuesday in the NET rankings and No. 29 in the Kenpom.com rankings, two metrics used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee.
CU was still also an average No. 6 seed in the Bracket Matrix, a compilation of more than 100 "bracketology" predictions from around the nation.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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