Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Buffs' Home Success Faces Challenge
January 11, 2010 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - When the season began, it wasn't that anyone well-versed in college basketball expected Baylor to be bereft of talent.
Rather, it was a matter of weighing the Bears' talent loss against what men's coach Scott Drew termed an anticipated "rebuilding or reloading" stage.
With his team perched at 13-1 and moving into this week's Top 25 (No. 22), we can safely assume the proper term is reloading - not rebuilding.
Despite the loss of four players who helped comprise the winningest class in school history (64 victories), Baylor, which visits Colorado Tuesday (7 p.m., FSN Rocky Mountain), once again is certifiably good.
The Bears' 45 wins over the past two seasons - more than Drew's teams were able to compile in his first four years combined (36) - were generously aided by departed Henry Dugat, Curtis Jerrells, Kevin Rogers (all career 1,000-point scorers) and Mamadou Diene.
Their exit left most in Waco and elsewhere wondering how Drew and his staff might fare in a league expected to be more difficult than it had ever been. And thus far, the Big 12 Conference has been everything it was advertised to be, particularly on its home courts.
Baylor's roster, according to Drew, would feature only four upperclassmen and would be the ninth youngest in Division I. The burning challenge for all, including coaches and players, "was to show that we belong," Drew said. "When you're picked low, it adds motivation."
Proof that the Bears do, indeed, belong is coming in mega doses. Included in the nine-game winning streak Baylor brings to the Coors Events Center is a pair of double-digit road wins at SEC venues Arkansas and South Carolina - strong evidence that Drew's young team has coalesced and isn't intimidated when it leaves home.
"Road wins are great for a team's morale and character," said Drew, whose team is coming off a 91-60 weekend home win against Oklahoma. "Those two games were great for our confidence . . . plus, we've played at Arizona State, Washington and Washington State (in past seasons)."
The Bears' lone loss this season was in the Old Spice Classic (Lake Buena Vista, Fla.) against another SEC team. Alabama edged Baylor 79-76, but the Bears won close games against Xavier and Iona in the holiday tourney.
In Baylor's 31-point blowout of the Sooners on Saturday, Drew's backcourt accounted for 46 points. LaceDarius Dunn scored 28 and Tweety Carter added 18 and 10 assists.
"They've got really outstanding guard play," CU coach Jeff Bzdelik said. "They open up their inside game with outside shooting . . . and defensively, they press up on you and can erase their defensive mistakes."
That Dunn, a junior, and Carter, a senior, would be among the Big 12's top guards was pretty much a preseason consensus. And based on last season's practices, Drew, his staff and returning players had more than an inkling that Michigan transfer Ekpe Udoh would be an inside force.
Now, Udoh, a 6-foot-10, 240-pounder, is showing it.
"Last year during practice we saw he was going to have an impact," Drew said. "We could have used him last year."
Oh, yes, the Bears are using him this year. Udoh, of Edmond, Okla., is averaging 14.1 points and 11.3 rebounds a game. He's third on the team in scoring behind Dunn (18.4) and Carter (16.5).
Udoh, a junior after sitting out his transfer season, was on Baylor's radar as a high school prospect. But Drew said the player apparently was taken with then-Michigan coach Tommy Amaker. After a coaching change, Udoh also wanted a change.
"We hoped he would want to come back home," Drew said, obviously referring to the Southwest as "home." "We were fortunate enough to get him."
Udoh's size makes his strengths obvious: He's blocked 66 shots and probably altered more. He set a Michigan sophomore record with 92 blocked shots, was a member of the Big Ten's All-Defensive team, and finished with 159 blocks in two seasons (67 games).
Plus, Drew called Udoh "an outstanding leader and coachable . . . just a super person."
Udoh, the Big 12 player-of-the-week, also is second on the team is assists, many of those coming on kick outs to Dunn, Carter and other perimeter players for three-pointers. Dunn set a school single-season record in 2008-09 by hitting 109 treys. He's made 47 in 14 games this season.
"Ekpe (pronounced Ee-pay) is not only a great player, he's got a very high basketball IQ," Drew said. "He'll draw in a defense, then kick it (ball) out."
In an attempt to counteract Udoh's shot-blocking ability, Bzdelik has instructed his players "to go at his chin" -- and no, not for a knockout punch. Bzdelik says that's what taught in the NBA as a strategy against shot-blockers, the theory being that driving the ball straight at him lessens the ability to reach and block shots and also makes him more vulnerable to commiting a foul.
Drew called CU "a much-improved team. They've got a lot more experience and they've added talent . . . I think everybody in the league knows Colorado is an improved team."
To keep pace - really, to stay above water - in the Big 12, the Buffs must make the most of their home schedule. They're currently 8-0 in the Events Center, but Bzdelik calls the next visitor "a very, very good basketball team."
"Anytime you step on the court, I don't care where you are, you have to play all out with a desperate energy - then combine that with playing well," he said. "You have to handle pressure right and play fearlessly, play through the missed shots and keep competing."
Through last weekend's games, the league owned a collective 111-1 home record - a mark that astonishes Bzdelik and his peers.
"Most teams thus far have protected their home court," he said. "Now, the level of competition improves . . . (but) 111-1 is mind-boggling. I hope I can continue with my own business at home."
His business won't get much riskier than Tuesday night.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
