Brooks: Boyle's Buffs Face Familiar Road Problem

BOULDER - Five games into the Tad Boyle Era in Colorado basketball, the guy whose name precedes "era" is a little mystified. Maybe a lot mystified.

When Boyle took over for Jeff Bzdelik last April, expectations among the gradually rising number of CU hoops followers already were building. And why not?

With a couple of marquee players returning (Cory Higgins and Alec Burks were on the preseason Wooden Award watch list) and another solid wingman back (Marcus Relphorde), Boyle had a nucleus that most first-year coaches rarely find.

As they say, it all looked good on paper. On the court - specifically on courts other than the Coors Events Center - not so much. Boyle's first CU team has resembled Bzdelik's last in this respect: Ship it out of Boulder County and it develops an identity crisis.

Who are those guys wearing Buffs uniforms?

Boyle was trying to figure that out on a long plane ride from Boston Sunday night and again Monday morning in a Boulder coffee shop. On Sunday afternoon, Harvard defeated CU, 82-66, saddling the Buffs with their third consecutive road loss under Boyle. Spanning last season, it was CU's 16th loss in 18 regular-season games either on another campus or a neutral court.

Before closing out the 2009-10 regular season with an 81-68 win at Nebraska, the Buffs had managed one win in November in the EA Sports Maui Invitational, beating Chaminade, 73-58.

Aside from those two wins, anytime the Buffs have left the Events Center they've returned wondering what went wrong. Bzdelik knew before he bolted for Wake Forest, and Boyle knows after witnessing early losses this season at Georgia (83-74), San Francisco (83-81, OT) and most recently at Harvard.

"I see us as two totally different teams, home and road," Boyle said. "I think to be a good road team you have to have pride and you have to have toughness. It's easy to play at home when your fans are cheering for you and things are going well. It doesn't matter where you go on the road, it's not going to be an easy environment to play in, and we're not mentally tough enough yet to do that."

Mental toughness is most apparent on defense, which Boyle has identified as a primary suspect in CU's three road losses. Higgins and Burks draw NBA scouts at every stop, and they usually leave little question about their offensive abilities. They get their points - a combined 57 at San Francisco, another 41 at Harvard - but the Buffs also have picked up their requisite road 'L' and headed for the airport.

After the San Francisco trip, Boyle pledged the five players who graded out best defensively would start in the next game against Alcorn State. Higgins and Burks wound up out of the starting lineup, but came off the bench to make significant contributions. That led Boyle to believe that a message had been delivered and received; they were back in the starting lineup Sunday at Harvard.

But it turned out to be a "one step forward, two steps back" scenario, resulting in the same road script for CU.

As much as soft, insipid defense, selfish play also has helped sabotage the Buffs away from home. At San Francisco, CU had a paltry nine assists on 29 made baskets. At Harvard, those numbers dropped to five on 19.

Boyle and his staff keep a statistic called "coach's assists," a generous stat that rewards players for an assist even if there isn't a made basket. That is, if a player makes a pass into the post but the post man doesn't hit the shot, an assist still is given. Or, if the guy in the post kicks the ball back outside - initiating the kind of "inside-out" offense that Boyle wants - an assist is awarded even if the outside shot is not made.

The intent to be unselfish, to play team basketball, said Boyle, is what he's after. Officially, against Alcorn State, the Buffs had 19 assists on 32 baskets. But Boyle's "coach's assist" total was 44, signaling that many more times that the Buffs were looking for the open man, trying to make the extra pass.

Boyle believed that concept, along with a tougher road mentality, would accompany his team to Boston. Alas, neither made the trip, returning Boyle and his staff back to square one in wondering how far into the season the Buffs must go before that "aha" road moment is realized.

Of course, Boyle would have liked to have been 5-0 at this point rather than 2-3. Even 4-1 or 3-2 with a road win or two would have been preferable. But, he emphasized, neither his thumb nor any belonging to his staff is poised above the panic button.

"It's early, and we've got a good group of guys who want to get better," he said. "Everyone is focused on that."

He also knows this situation is not totally unlike those he encountered at Northern Colorado or Wichita State, where reintroducing the mentality required to win on the road was part of the first-year process. He and his staff have been there before and are confident of working their way through this.

Before they leave town again on Dec. 22 for two games in the Las Vegas Classic, the Buffs have a five-game home stand that begins Tuesday against Texas Pan-American (7 p.m., FSN Rocky Mountain). Boyle would like to see five healthy steps taken toward better overall team defense and unselfish offense.

Then, it's time to take that act on the road and see how it plays in Vegas. Much, much better, hopes Boyle.

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU