Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Whatever His Role, Knutson Is On A Roll
January 14, 2011 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
Those would take him directly to the gym or the weight room, both places that Knutson knows like the seams on a basketball. Such statistics aren't kept, but in his four years at Colorado Knutson might be the record holder for off-season hours spent in training.
"He's the hardest working guy I've ever had in the weight room - ever," said CU basketball strength and conditioning coach James Hardy. "You're not going to find a mentality better than his."
Let's just say that Knutson's mind is right - and his game has never been better for a Buffs team that is turning heads on the national hoops landscape.
Some of Knutson's countless weight-room hours - and these are not among the more memorable - were spent rehabbing injuries to both hips that required surgery after his freshman and sophomore seasons. When he finally ran out of hips to abuse, he took a hard fall at the beginning of last season that kept him out of a couple of games and, although he never would use injury as a crutch, was spotty for much of the year.
But in the off-season, he got his weight-room/gym groove back. Of course, he did. He rushed back into his six-day-a-week routine (Sundays off) that included four days in the weight room and every day - sometimes twice - in the gym. If gym rats the world over ever need a poster boy, the search could begin and end in Boulder.
"I'm always doing something to get better; it's always been that way," Knutson said. "Unfortunately a couple of seasons were spent doing rehab to get better instead of being in the gym to get better. But it was something I had to do."
Don't think his work ethic is limited to the weight room and court. Knutson, a finance major, has been a member of the All-Big 12 Conference academic first team in each of the last two seasons. He earned a 4.0 GPA in both 2009 semesters and was honored in 2009-10 with the CU Scholar-Athlete Award for having the highest GPA as a junior (3.929).
Knutson and the Buffs are two games into a Big 12 season that has caught the league (not themselves) off guard. They defeated back-to-back Top 25 teams - No. 8/9 Missouri, No. 21/20 Kansas state - in their first two conference games. They've won 11 of their past 12 overall and bring a 10-game home winning streak into Saturday's critical encounter with Oklahoma State (11:30 a.m., Coors Events Center).
In CU's rare win at Manhattan, Kan., Knutson was "unbelievable" - the word preferred by first-year Buffs Coach Tad Boyle. All Knutson did was leave the bench to score a team-high 20 points in 29 minutes, hitting six of his eight three-point attempts.
He leads the Big 12 in three-point accuracy in all games (53 percent) and also is the leader in conference games (an uncanny 70 percent). It's still early, but Boyle believes he can make a solid case for Knutson being the national "sixth man of the year" - and there are stats to back Boyle's argument.
On hoops junkie Ken Pomeroy's website (kenpom.com), Knutson is ranked No. 1 nationally as the most efficient offensive player. The formula to arrive at that conclusion is complex, but here's what Pomeroy has concluded: Knutson is involved in 16.3 percent of CU's possessions and has a rating of 144.6.
In a less esoteric category, Knutson is the Big 12's leading scorer off the bench, averaging 12 points - slightly two points better than OSU's J.P. Olukemi (10.3). Knutson is comfortable in his non-starting role, but then, as Boyle says, Levi is "playing starter minutes (24.2 a game)" and is being ultra-productive. If it ain't broke . . .
"I'm fine whether it's starting or coming off the bench . . . my role doesn't really change," Knutson said. "Myself and Andre (Roberson) coming off the bench, and Shannon (Sharpe), we're bringing in some energy. I think everybody on the team knows their roles, so whether they're starting or not, depending on matchups, I think everybody is going to have the same role. I know coming in I'm going to contribute, and I embrace that role whatever it is."
I asked Knutson if the win at K-State was the best he's savored at CU.
"It was one of them," he said. "The last couple have been pretty good, steps in the right direction for this program - steps that we've been on the verge of taking in the past but have never really gotten over the hump. Winning big road games in the Big 12 and beating nationally ranked teams, those are steps that we need to take.
"We have big strides to take still to get to where we want to get to this year. It's only two games and it's a long season. Coach Boyle has said it's a marathon, not a sprint. We've got 14 more regular season games, so we're focused on the next one."
Knutson attributed clearing the monstrous road hurdle (three of the Buffs' last six wins have been away from the CEC) to this team's experience and leadership.
"Coming together as a team and building team chemistry takes time . . . and the new staff was an adjustment," he said. "Guys in the locker room, we've put in quality time together. We've been in a lot of close games and I think we're starting to understand what it takes to win big games.
"I can't speak for everybody else (nationally), but I know in that locker room it's definitely a confidence booster knowing we can not only play with anybody in the country - like we've done in the past - but now we know we can beat anybody if we defend and rebound and play together. If we do that, there's no saying what this team can accomplish."
While Knutson concedes that the philosophical change from former coach Jeff Bzdelik to Boyle has been factor in this team's success, he's reluctant to say the Buffs wouldn't have been an improved team if the coaching change hadn't occurred. Boyle's up-tempo style, Knutson said, "is different and it's benefitted a lot of guys on this team. But at the same time, our offensive system in the past couple of years was pretty efficient.
"I think the difference so far is that we're defending and rebounding, which wasn't there before. Last year we were in some of the top categories offensively. As far as the offensive systems, we've been efficient in both because we've got good players.
"It's hard to say which style fits better, but we've got some guys who are good in transition and can make plays for each other. That little bit of extra movement and the ability to make plays and be players - that definitely helps this team."
He's been more successful in his final year because his strict off-season regimen has added about 20 pounds (he's 6-4, 195) since his freshman year and he's been injury-free. Plus, he's benefitting from maturity and the realization that he's counted on as a senior leader.
"It's been a combination of a lot of things . . . having a clearly defined role and being a senior leader have helped me to step up. And being healthy, obviously," he said. "The last couple of seasons I felt pretty good. I had good games, had bad games. I'm not going to say that any kind of injury was the cause of the bad games. I was playing well for stretches, but experience is a big thing, and getting used to the speed of the game.
"I'm not necessarily freer (in Boyle's offense), but it's just the style of play. It's no secret that the Princeton offense is a little more rigid, not quite as much up-tempo. We wanted to run in years past and Coach Bzdelik emphasized that. But we would look for back doors, make the defense work late into the shot clock a little more often than in this motion system where we're constantly attacking."
Knutson offered a "yeah, probably" when I asked him if this is the most unselfish team he's played on. "But I've played with a lot of good guys who wanted to do the right things. We just didn't put it all together. But yeah, we share the ball, we've learned to play unselfish defense. Everybody talks about passing the ball on offense, but we've learned to help each other on defense, too."
The "adjustment" to Boyle and his staff Knutson mentioned earlier is now obviously complete. Knutson said Boyle is the same coach who was introduced to the Buffs in early April: "He hasn't changed at all. Right from the start he was straight with the guys and what we were going to be doing, what our identity would be and how we were going to work every day in practice to get there. This coaching staff has been consistent, and that's all you can really ask for. If they're inconsistent in their message it's not good for the team. But it hasn't been that way at all; we're all in it together."
As the Buffs have discovered over the past month - and particularly in their past two games - together is better. They're showing signs, strong ones, of turning this into a special season.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
