Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Is CU Now A Better Match For Mizzou?
January 07, 2011
No. 8 Missouri visits CU's Coors Events Center Saturday morning (11:30 a.m.), and if form from the six most recent games holds, the Tigers' 40-minute assault will leave the Buffs breathless and winless in a Big 12 Conference opener for the 14th consecutive season.
But there are indications - which we'll get to in a minute - of that unsightly form coming undone this time around.
In the Buffs' now-defunct Jeff Bzdelik era, Mizzou defeated CU in six consecutive regular season games, with the first - a 66-62 Tigers win at Coors - the closest of the bunch. Toss out that one and MU's average margin of victory in the remaining five games was just shy of 24 points.
That four-point loss in Game 1 might have offered false hope, and it certainly belied what was to come. On the return trip to Columbia in Bzdelik's first year, Mizzou defeated CU, 63-50. In his second season in Columbia, the Buffs were clubbed, 107-62. The Buffs got no closer than another 13-point loss (66-53) for the remainder of Bzdelik's relatively brief stay in Boulder.
CU mostly running a deliberate, patient offense didn't match up well with MU's constant running and all-out pressure. When the Buffs fell behind, Bzdelik's style usually made it difficult to catch up. It was a little like expecting a run-oriented offense in football to rally from three TDs back in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers' part of the equation - the up-tempo offense and pressure defense - hasn't changed. The Buffs' part has. Bzdelik is at Wake Forest, and his Princeton offense has a new zip code. New CU Coach Tad Boyle wants his team to "get up and down" whenever possible, then use its motion offense in the half-court.
Boyle's players appear to have bought in and are finding more than a glimmer of hope in the change.
"In the Princeton (offense) everything is set," sophomore guard Alec Burks said. "Everybody knows what you are about to do, so they can trap more. In this motion (offense), you don't know where we are going to be, so it's hard for them to do that."
The contrast between Bzdelik's and Boyle's offensive styles is obvious, and there's a pretty noticeable contrast in their defensive philosophies as well. Boyle and his staff have labored through non-conference play to get the Buffs on the same page offensively and instill more man-to-man defensive principles. With the exception of Wednesday night's somnolent win against Western New Mexico, which saw CU record a paltry 12 assists on 36 baskets, the Buffs have been effectively sharing the ball for most of the past three weeks.
Offensively, that's key. Boyle likes his team's scoring abilities - four to five players regularly reach double figures - and likes the overall matchup with Mizzou.
"They are a talented team; you don't get into the top ten by accident," Boyle said. "They have good players, they're deep, they're well coached, they're a good basketball team. But with that being said I think we matchup with them very well in terms of our personnel. What it comes down to in conference play is who is executing at the higher level and who is guarding and rebounding at the higher level."
Atop CU's to-do list for Saturday is handling Mizzou's pressure. Over four seasons, MU Coach Mike Anderson has constructed his team to deliver it, but he has strongly hinted that his fifth team might be his deepest and most talented.
"I think we're going in the right direction . . . we've taken some baby steps each game," Anderson said. "Early in the year, we were trying to beat people with our offense; the last four or five games our defense has picked up.
"Guys are getting an idea of the intensity level it takes and understanding their roles . . . understanding the style we play. Sometimes all the talent doesn't mesh, but things are starting to come to pass."
That last sentence might constitute an overly modest assessment by Anderson. With one senior on the current roster, his team is 14-1, the only loss coming in overtime to now-No. 13 Georgetown (111-102). The Tigers are averaging 86.4 points a game (fifth nationally), allowing 67.3, and forcing an average of 20.1 turnovers. But they're only outrebounding their opponents by a two boards a game.
MU doesn't have a Baylor-sized front line; it's built more along the lines of CU, which allows Boyle to feel decent about matchups in personnel. The Buffs' offense - it averages 84.3 points (seventh nationally) - also provides Boyle with good vibes.
"They're playing some pretty good basketball," Anderson observed. "They're scoring, playing a lot freer (than last season) . . . they're used to each other (and) they're putting the ball in the hole. We've got a task in front of us."
But Boyle knows it won't be much of a task if the Buffs don't conjure up enough defense to complement their offense and rush the boards en masse.
Confirmation won't come until mid-afternoon on Saturday, but Burks appears to have gotten the memo. His first season in the Big 12 was productive enough to earn him CU's first freshman-of-the-year award, but it taught him something more valuable:
"You've got to fight, you've got to grind, and you've got to be tough. You've got to rebound, and you've got to play 'D.' It's not for kids; it's a grown man's league. I learned that last year. We've got to play hard every night, every game, and don't take anybody lightly. We'll be fine if we do that."
If Burks & Co. do it Saturday . . . hey, it could be interesting.
KEEP IT REAL, KEEP IT UGLY - As a CU player, first-year Buffs coach Linda Lappe never lost to Texas A&M. But that was the pre-Gary Blair Era. When Blair took over in 2003, A&M took off.
Year in and out now, the Aggies reside among the elite teams in women's college basketball. They've ascended through athleticism, physical play and full-court, full-time pressure.
Said Lappe: "I love their mental approach, the way they attack the game."
Blair's teams seldom rest, and this one is no different. A&M is averaging 83 points a game, yielding 53 and forcing nearly 26 turnovers. The No. 7 Aggies are 12-1, with their only loss a three-point decision (61-58) at then-No. 5 Duke, which since has climbed to No. 3.
Size-wise, Lappe believes her Buffs (9-4) match up reasonably well with the Aggies for Saturday's Big 12 opener in College Station, Texas. But the key is matching their intensity and remaining disciplined against their pressure.
"That's what they do," Lappe said. "They're very quick, very fast. They get up and pressure you the full length of the court for a full 40 minutes - they don't care what the score or situation is. They're up and pressuring. They're hard-wing denial, they're trying to get you to speed up your offense. We've got to do a great job of taking things as they come and really executing without getting in a rush and letting them dictate how fast we move.
"We've got to stay disciplined for 40 minutes. We want it to be an ugly game; they want to get up and down and have the game in the 90s or 100s. We want it to be as low scoring as we can possibly make it."
Added sophomore CU point guard Chucky Jeffery: "They've got speed, quickness and they use full-court pressure almost the full 40 minutes of the game. They like running in transition. They're fast and like to get to the hoop. We'll have to try and slow the game down and have good transition defense."
Jeffery got her first look at Blair's team last season and came away impressed.
"Texas A&M was probably the team that gave us the most pressure, the hardest time," she said. "But we've practicing on that and trying to find a way to keep the game at our tempo and not speed it up.
"This week we've been practicing passing, looking the ball in and being strong with our passing, being tough. I think we'll be able to handle the pressure real well."
They'll have to in order to stay competitive. The Buffs are averaging just over 20 turnovers, but in their four most recent games they've committed 24, 22, 15 and 26. Those numbers must decrease Saturday.
Jeffery calls the A&M trip "a great test for us at the beginning of the conference. Having played against them, I understand pretty much how the game is going to go from their perspective. I just have to be smart as a point guard and know we want to play our game - not theirs."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
