Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Hoops Teams Take It On The Road
January 17, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
GETTING A LOOK: The men's 3-0 start in Big 12 Conference play - two of the wins were against Top 25 teams - merited a mention in both of this week's national polls.
CU was among "others receiving votes" in the Associated Press (media) and ESPN/USA Today (coaches) polls. Based on point totals in each poll, the Buffs were No. 30 on the AP ballot (78 points) and No. 32 in the ESPN/USA Today poll (23 points).
First-year coach Tad Boyle was asked on Monday's Big 12 coaches teleconference about his team handling its new-found notoriety and receiving congratulations fairly foreign to past CU teams.
"We talk about it every day," Boyle said. "I'm glad we have the seniors we have . . . we've got guys who have been through it and seen the other side of it. We respect the other side of it. You don't get to this point without upperclassmen, but it can go away very quickly - we all know that."
Just a guess here, but I'm thinking while Boyle and his staff like the recognition for their players, they'd also like them to take another couple of trips (and get another couple of 'W's) while still traveling "under the radar."
NEBRASKA'S REAL BLACKSHIRTS? Maybe they play in short pants with a different shaped ball. Want to see maniacal, shut-down defense in Lincoln? Take a look at Doc Sadler's Cornhuskers basketball team.
The Buffs will get more than a fleeting glimpse and a casual glance Tuesday (5 p.m. MST, ESPN2) at how Sadler's guys do their 'D' and why Nebraska is among the national leaders.
In 11 of their 13 wins, the Huskers (13-4, 1-2 Big 12 Conference) have held opponents to 58 or fewer points. Four of their foes have failed to reach 50, five - including No. 3 Kansas - have been held to season-low outputs. Nebraska is third nationally in average points allowed (55.5) and second nationally in field goal percentage defense (.351).
THE NUMBERS LIE: When CU women's coach Linda Lappe looks at Oklahoma State's 0-3 conference record, she doesn't see a struggling team. Rather, she sees an opponent coping with a brutal early schedule.
The Cowgirls, 12-4 overall, opened league play at Kansas State, a traditionally tough stop, then caught a pair of Top 10 teams - No. 7/5 Texas A&M and No. 1/1 Baylor. OSU lost that pair by 25 and 31 points, respectively.
"Oklahoma State is a good team - better than the record shows," Lappe contended. "They've played three tough teams to open the conference."
The Cowgirls are 10-2 at home this season, the losses coming against Baylor and Duke - no pushovers at home or anywhere else.
GOOD 'O' vs. BETTER 'D'? Averaging 83.9 points, Boyle's Buffs are second in the Big 12 in scoring and seventh nationally. Boyle obviously doesn't want Tuesday's game stuck in the 50s or 60s, but if it happens and the Buffs win . . . who's going to complain?
But for the Buffs to deal with the Huskers defense, Boyle says his team has to be more efficient in its half-court sets and hit its open shots.
"We have to make our jump shots . . . we're going to have to hit our threes," he said, adding that point guard Nate Tomlinson also must become more of a scoring threat to keep Nebraska from routinely doubling either Cory Higgins or Alec Burks.
The Buffs' field goal percentage on Saturday against Oklahoma State was only 37.5 (18-of-48), with their percentage from behind the arc 31.3 (5-of-16). Neither of those numbers will be good enough Tuesday.
"We've just got to execute, be patient and get good shots," senior forward Marcus Relphorde said. "We've done a good job of getting to the free throw line, and that's got to continue, too. But it's going to come down to defense and rebounding - just like it always does."
WILSON TAKES A STEP UP: With sophomore point guard Chucky Jeffery officially listed as day-to-day (concussion), freshman Brittany Wilson figures to get as much playing time Tuesday in Stillwater as she did Saturday against Iowa State.
That's fine with Wilson, who responded with a career-best 19 points in CU's 66-60 overtime win against No. 17/16 ISU. Wilson took great pleasure in responding when it meant so much to her teammates and to Jeffery, who was injured in the previous loss to Kansas.
"The win was really big for our morale," said Wilson, who played more shooting guard than the point as a high schooler in Long Beach, Calif. "We knew we could beat (ISU) but we had to prove it to everyone else."
A STINKIN' TRIP: We're not talking about the Buffs' final trek to Lincoln - rather the Huskers' final trip to KU's venerable Allen Fieldhouse.
Four years ago, the Jayhawks hammered the Huskers by 53 points in Lawrence. On Saturday, KU was fortunate to escape with a 63-60 win, and Sadler, in his fifth season at Nebraska, didn't leave town chirping about a moral victory.
Said Sadler: "By no means are we even close to being happy. It stinks to get beat. We came in with the idea that we were going to win this basketball game. We didn't do it. The thing I like about this team is they aren't going to take a second seat to anybody. But we've got to win the basketball game."
Jayhawks Coach Bill Self said the Huskers "outplayed us. They totally controlled the game the first 25 minutes. We played really well the last 15 minutes, but they wouldn't go away."
THE FEW, THE PROUD: There's no excess baggage on Lappe's roster. It's already thin (nine players) and isn't expanding.
With Jeffery out, sophomore Meagan Malcolm-Peck's minutes against the Cyclones were limited (14 as opposed to just under 28 on the average) by an ankle ailment. Although Malcolm-Peck tried to practice Monday, Lappe conceded, "She's still in pain, but she's trying to gut through it."
And that probably will determine how much court time Malcolm-Peck sees Tuesday night. She played 21 minutes and scored two points in last season's 74-63 loss to the No. 12/17 Cowgirls at the Coors Events Center.
NOT A BOARD WALK: The CU men have outrebounded their last six opponents, including Oklahoma State (39-24) in a game where that category and critical stops were adequate compensation for sub-par shooting. But here's a Huskers stat that concerns the Buffs: Nebraska outrebounded KU 43-32. The Jayhawks average 40.4 boards a game, the Huskers 38.5, the Buffs 36.8.
DOC'S TAKE ON TUESDAY: After winning its league opener against Iowa State (63-62), Nebraska fell short in a pair of conference road games at then-No. 12 Missouri (77-69) and at KU.
The Huskers are unbeaten (12-0) at home this season. Their last loss at the Devaney Center was on March 2, 2010. That was 81-68 to CU, and it broke a 36-game Big 12 road losing streak for the Buffs.
Bet on Sadler remembering. He believes protecting the home-court advantage doesn't get any bigger than in the Big 12. For that reason, he calls Tuesday night's game "bigger than the Missouri and Kansas games combined . . . home games are so important in the league this year."
Sadler said CU is "playing as well as anybody in the league. They've shown tremendous toughness. They got off to a slow start against Kansas State, then came back. They were down double-digits to Oklahoma State and came back.
"They're playing with tremendous confidence, and on top of that, they're very talented. Tad has done an unbelievable job of coaching."
CROWDED (AND LOUD) HOUSE: For only the third time in two seasons (and the first this season) the Events Center was sold out for Saturday's OSU game. The attendance (11,096) was the eighth largest in the building's history, but not many crowds have been louder.
"We don't win that game without the crowd," Boyle said. "(It) gave our guys unbelievable energy. There were a lot of tired bodies on that floor . . . our crowd gave us the energy to get over the top."
OSU Coach Travis Ford agreed: "Their crowd was big-time, big-time. It gave their team great energy (and) it was tough for our team to respond to it. That (crowd) helps you down the stretch in really close games."
Ford said his team was "playing good basketball . . . but Colorado responded. In the last 10 minutes, it seemed like Burks and Higgins made every right play."
HERE IT COMES AGAIN: Lappe believes Oklahoma State's defensive pressure could be pretty close to what the Buffs experienced earlier this month at Texas A&M. And that was not a good experience.
CU lost that game 85-57, committing 27 turnovers in the process. Since then, the Buffs have turned it over 12 times (vs. KU) and 16 times (vs. ISU) in splitting that pair of games. In all games, CU is averaging 19.9 turnovers.
Lappe wants that number to decrease - and Tuesday night would be a good starting point. Subbing for Jeffery at the point against ISU, Brittany Wilson committed seven turnovers, but otherwise "did a great job" against the Cyclones, Lappe said. "She did a great job of taking (her shots) when they were there . . . she really let the game come to her."
Lappe also said Wilson did a credible job defensively, even when she was matched on ISU's Kelsey Bolte, who wound up with a game-best 26 points. But, noted Lappe, the Cyclones run their offense through Bolte and she usually takes a high number of shots (18 vs. CU).
Fortunately for the Buffs, they won't have to contend with former Cowgirls' guard Andrea Riley, who dropped in 26 last season in Boulder.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
