Brooks: Tomlinson Seeks To Shed Inconsistency

BOULDER - Australian-born Nate Tomlinson spent much his first season in U.S. college basketball adapting to the physical play in the bang-about Big 12 Conference. Much of Season Two has been spent coping with the game as it's played above the shoulders, between the ears.

Tomlinson, Colorado's starting point guard, concedes his sophomore year has been plagued by more inconsistency than either he or coach Jeff Bzdelik had hoped.

"Yeah, I have been pretty inconsistent this year," he said. "I lost a little bit of confidence at the beginning of the year and I'm just trying to get it back now."

But if you saw Tomlinson Wednesday night against Oklahoma, you left the Coors Events Center believing as much as in Tomlinson as he surely left believing in himself.

On any number of fronts, it was a good night for Nate.

Foremost, his team won, out-running, out-hustling (and it's not a stretch to say out-thinking) the Sooners, 77-67.

"It was good on my behalf, but it was more important on the team's behalf. It was a great team win," said Tomlinson, who made several large contributions - 13 points, a career-high eight rebounds, three assists and only two turnovers.

His lone steal came at an opportune time in the final minute, and the last of his two three-pointers - buried from deep in the left corner - was among the Buffs' biggest shots of the game.

Here's OU coach Jeff Capel's take on it: "(He) hit a huge three from the corner. I thought we had done a pretty decent job on that possession. Tomlinson called for the ball and made a really big shot.

"He got going in the middle part of the second half where he was driving and scoring and seeing the ball go to the basket - and he was coming off a game where he had zero points. He does a magnificent job of running this basketball team."

Well, he did on Wednesday night. In the scoreless game Capel was referring to - CU's 68-51 loss at No. 9 Kansas State - Tomlinson didn't attempt a field goal or free throw, didn't snare a rebound and had one more turnover (four) than assists in 31 minutes.

That's what Tomlinson is talking about when the subject of inconsistency arises. Four nights later . . . he wasn't the same player, and don't think his teammates (or his dad, but more on that later) didn't notice.

When Tomlinson is playing as he did against the Sooners, said senior Dwight Thorne II, "It makes us more balanced . . . when he's being aggressive and not looking to pass the ball every time, it opens up things for everybody else.

"He passes the ball well, but he shoots it well, too - whenever he decides to shoot."

Tomlinson's issue with confidence hasn't been apparent to Thorne: "I couldn't tell you (about that) . . . when he's shot the ball, he's made some. But you can't make it unless you shoot. Last game (at Kansas State) he didn't attempt a shot. I didn't really see a lack of confidence, but I'm not him."

Tomlinson might have been focused and settled against the Sooners for another reason: His father, Billy, traveled from Beijing to see his son play.

"All he really cares about is if I play hard, so he was proud of me for playing hard," Nate said. "But he just wanted me to be myself and play like I would if I was on the playground back home (in Sydney, Australia). So he was just happy with the way I played."

Coaching kept Billy Tomlinson on the move when Nate was growing up, but he did coach his son in youth hoops (ages 12-17) "and was a big part of things," Nate said. "I took a lot from him and his teams. I was always around them, listening to things - just being around professionals and seeing the way they acted and did stuff."

In Australia, Billy Tomlinson coached the now-defunct Sydney Kings. He's now an assistant coach for the Chinese women's national team, and Nate noted that his father's trip to the states this week "was the first time in three or four years that he's seen me play."

Nate's dad also attended the K-State-CU game in Manhattan. But there was a night-and-day difference in how his son played there and back in Boulder.

The Buffs altered a couple of things for Oklahoma: They ran more and played zone less.

"We knew they could really shoot the threes really well, so we wanted to limit their looks from the perimeter," Tomlinson said. "And we weren't sure if (Tiny) Gallon (OU's previously suspended 6-foot-9, 290-pound center) was going to play or not, so we thought they might be a little bit or not as skilled inside.

"We thought our 'bigs' would be able to handle that (if Gallon didn't play). But he did end up playing, and our 'bigs' did a great job on him. (Gallon finished with only four points but collected 10 rebounds.)"

As for ratcheting up the offensive tempo, which resulted in 22 fast-break points for the Buffs, Tomlinson noted, "In last couple of weeks we've really gotten away from running. At the beginning of the year that's when we were at our best - getting some rebounds and get out and run, because we've got some real good athletes. It's fun to get out there and play with them."

It's more fun still to know his contributions are matching his capabilities.

FOCUSED ON THE BUFFS: Given the results of their two most recent meetings, don't expect No. 1 Kansas to overlook CU Saturday afternoon in Lawrence (2 p.m., Big 12 Network).

Last season at Allen Fieldhouse, the Buffs took the Jayhawks to the wire before losing, 66-61. Earlier this month in Boulder, the Buffs took them to overtime, but lost, 72-66.

"The last two times, we've played them tough," Tomlinson said. "If we do the same things we did (against OU) - rebound and don't turn the ball over - we can be in any game, if not beat, any team in the country.

"We got a little bit of confidence from the last (KU game), but we still didn't win - which is what we really want to do in the end."

Expect CU to get KU's best shot - "And they're going to get ours, too," Thorne added. "That's going to be a game where, you know what, you've got to believe you can do it. If we go in there with the outlook of believing we can do it, we can get it done.

"If there's an ounce of doubt in your mind . . . if you don't feel like you can do it, you have no chance."

CU is seeking to break a 34-game road losing streak in Big 12 Conference play. The Buffs haven't won in Lawrence in 26 years.

CU WOMEN VISIT NO. 3 NEBRASKA: Lugging a seven-game losing streak to the home court of the nation's third-ranked team isn't anyone's definition of a pleasure trip.

But that's what Kathy McConnell-Miller's team is faced with on Saturday (12:05 p.m., no TV).

The Buffs were beaten 79-72 on Tuesday by Kansas, but McConnell-Miller saw enough from her revamped starting lineup to pencil in the same fivesome for Saturday.

Senior Bianca Smith, making her second start of the season, was beneficial to the Buffs' early productivity - a shortcoming in recent weeks. So, Smith, who averages 12.6 points a game, will open against the unbeaten Cornhuskers (24-0, 11-0).

"We got off to a great start," McConnell-Miller said of CU's 19-8 surge against KU before the Jayhawks negated it with a 25-4 run before halftime.

But, added McConnell-Miller, "I want Meagan (Malcolm-Peck) to know that I've got faith in her and we've got to keep her as an offensive threat and feeling as confident in herself as we are in her. But we got off to the start we wanted."

McConnell-Miller attributed KU's late first-half run to "a couple of things - I had a bad lineup in, three freshmen on the floor in Chucky (Jeffery), Meagan and Melissa (MacFarlane). Then, if you recall, there was no stoppage of play for me to get them out . . . it just kept going and kept going and kept going.

"I didn't like the lineup we had in - it gave them some momentum and that run was like (those) teams have started off with. It just really set us back. But I thought we responded; we got to within three a couple of times and just didn't make plays."

She also said the lack of an inside presence continues to be a factor in CU's struggles: "We don't have a go-to (player) on the inside . . . we had that the first four years, now we've got guards. We don't have that balance, and it's glaring in the Big 12."

The 6-foot-7 MacFarlane doesn't have the experience yet to be an inside presence, while 6-4 senior Courtney Dunn "doesn't have the desire" to fill that role, McConnell-Miller said.

"She likes being outside, she likes moving the ball and she likes shooting threes. That's where her passion is, and we need it to be (inside)."

Inside scoring, McConnell-Miller said, is "needed desperately, whether it's (Dunn), Julie (Seabrook) or Melissa - somebody, some inside presence."

Nebraska defeated CU 80-64 last month in Boulder.

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU