Brooks: CU Hoops Set For Opening-Night Doubleheader

BOULDER - When Colorado opens its men's and women's basketball seasons on Friday, Tad Boyle wants his team to play the way it's been practicing. Linda Lappe is looking for a definite game-day upgrade.

Lappe's squad opens the doubleheader at the Coors Events Center against Northern Arizona at 5:30 p.m., followed by Boyle's team matched against Fort Lewis College at 8 p.m.

Both CU teams are coming off seasons in which they advanced to the NIT/WNIT, respectively, and both lose a hefty portion of the offense responsible for their postseason advancement. Still, both second-year coaches believe they have enough talent, albeit young, to compensate for the absence of last season's top scorers. The key question for both: How long does it take for potential to turn into productivity?

Boyle's team has come to work at 7:30 a.m., an uncomfortable hour he takes into account when he says, "I like the way we've practiced. Our guys have worked hard, especially for going at 7:30 in the morning. They've had good practices.

"But you just don't know . . . the first time the lights come on you don't know how guys are going to react to it. If we play like we practice, we'll be fine. If we try to be somebody we're not, that's when we may have some issues and struggle a little bit."

Lappe's take on her team's preseason work is a bit different. "We haven't had a lot of great practices lately," she said. "But we have gotten better at some of the things we've emphasized - and that's been encouraging."

Lappe is a hoops fundamentalist - eyebrow-to-eyebrow defense, boxing out on rebounds, rugged screens, etc. - but talk to her long enough (even briefly) and the conversation usually comes back to physical toughness, mental toughness or both. After dwelling on both subjects in her first season, she's reemphasizing them in Year Two because of her team's youth (nine freshmen/sophomores, two juniors, one senior).

"With a new team you have to reemphasize (toughness)," Lappe said. "We're going to play a lot of young players and they have to be on the fast track of learning what it takes to be able to bounce back from adversity. Right now we need to get better at overcoming adversity and not letting things get us down - not quitting and continuing to fight when things aren't going our way. As the season goes along, every coach knows things aren't going to go your way all the time. You've got to have that mental stamina to persevere."

Boyle's team is almost as young (nine freshmen/sophomores, one junior, four seniors), and, as on Lappe's squad, true freshmen will play significant roles in his rotation. In a best-case scenario, his team would be deep enough to rotate 10 players, even though using that many instead of eight makes for more difficult decisions.

Boyle's rotation currently is at nine, but will go to 10 when swingman Jeremy Adams (concussion) returns. But how he uses his bench will be dictated by the opponent "and how guys are playing," he said, adding that his roster is heavy on perimeter players "and that's where it gets a little tricky."

His starting lineup Friday night will be seniors Nate Tomlinson, Austin Dufault and Carlon Brown, sophomore Andre Roberson and freshman Spencer Dinwiddie.

Lappe's starters will be the Wilson twins, sophomores Brittany and Ashley; sophomore Rachel Hargis; junior Meagan Malcolm-Peck, and senior Julie Seabrook.

Ashley Wilson, said Lappe, has been "the most consistent player so far for us; she hasn't had one bad practice. I know exactly what I'm going to get from Ashley every single day, and from a coach's perspective that's really important . . . I love her tenacity, her ability to get to the rim, get offensive rebounds. She's kind of a warrior in there who sets the tempo and tone for us - which you need in a starting lineup. But she can bring a spark off the bench, too."

After losing seniors Cory Higgins and Levi Knutson to graduation and sophomore Alec Burks to the NBA, Boyle opened drills trying to fill not only a scoring void but also trying to determine whose hands he wanted the ball in come crunch time.

He calls Tomlinson and Brown "pretty good decision makers (who) can make plays for themselves and for others, and they can shoot the ball. I think early you'll see it one of those two guys' hands. I think Austin Dufault also is a guy, a senior, and you always look to your seniors. Then, a guy like Andre - he's shooting the ball well. He can get to the rim and he's shooting free throws better. We've got a lot of confidence in him, too.

"But early, I think you'll see Nate and Carlon. A lot of times it's matchups, and where we think we have an advantage is where we'll go with the ball."

A common goal for both young teams is to make weekly improvement during November and December while realizing the importance of those early season games come mid-March. Boyle's team learned a difficult lesson in that regard last season.

"We obviously have talked about what we went through last year and how the games in early November and December have a pretty big impact later in the year," Boyle said. "But our approach is coming out every day in practice and having a good practice. You want an expectation level of every time you step on the floor you're ready to go - mentally, physically and emotionally. If you do that, you don't have to talk a lot about getting off to good starts or peaking too early . . . it's just an expectation level for your guys every day."

Added Tomlinson: "The guys who were around last year definitely know if we had maybe beat San Francisco or Harvard we'd have been in the (NCAA) tournament. It matters from the first game in November to the last game . . . the older guys know how important the early games are."

Tomlinson admits his offensive role must increase in the absence of last season's scorers: "Yeah, I think it has to change. Obviously we lost a lot of scoring from last year; it has to be picked up somewhere. Coach has asked me to be a little bit more aggressive. I'm not a selfish player by any means; I'm not going to go out and shoot every time. I definitely have to look to score a little more, but it's also about getting other people open."

If one of Lappe's chief concerns is finding a scoring replacement for CU career-leader Brittany Spears, Chief Concern 1B is identifying a defensive stopper to replace Britney Blythe. "That's not a glamorous role," Lappe said, "but you've got to have somebody who can do it and wants to do it . . . it might be Ashley Wilson.

"She may not be the best shooter, the best rebounder, the best defensive player - not the best at anything, but she works extremely hard and because of her work ethic she can be the best in any of those areas at any particular time."

Half-price tickets are being offered for both of Friday's games. Prices for reserved seats start at $7.50 for the men's game while mid-court seats are available for $10. For the women's game, reserved seats are $5, with mid-court seats priced at $7.50. More information: call 303-492-8337 or 800-872-8337, or visit cutix@colorado.edu.

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU