Brooks: Lappe Looking Beyond Her Team's 6-0 Start

BOULDER - Her team's 6-0 start suggests perfection, but don't get Colorado women's basketball coach Linda Lappe started on that subject. For a little early season perspective, we give you Julie Seabrook, Lappe's lone senior:

"We expected a 6-0 start, but haven't played too tough competition and we realize that . . . we're setting our goals higher than what we've accomplished so far. But, yeah, it's been fun so far."

No disrespect to the Buffaloes' first six opponents/victims, but the schedule is inching toward a stretch as chilling as an Arctic front. Kudos to Lappe's team for meeting one of its goals and rolling through November unblemished, but she advises to save your highest praise for mid-March - if it's still warranted by then.

"As I tell a lot of people, we don't want our season to end and have 6-0 be the only thing we can remember . . . the best thing we did all season," Lappe said Friday morning in her office.

Don't get me (or her) wrong: A 6-0 start is heady territory for the young Buffs, and a 7-0 start - achievable if they defeat Idaho Sunday at the Coors Events Center (noon, Root Sports) - would be the first in CU women's hoops since the 1993-94 season.

Lappe is a big-picture person, and what she's seeing beyond three consecutive games at the Events Center is a five-game road stretch whose backend features the Buffs' first three in the Pac-12 Conference (Dec. 31 at Utah, Jan. 5 at Washington, Jan. 7 at Washington State). Fortunately, while her team is still in its developmental stages, it has developed a decent road swagger, winning twice in November away from home.

Part of that confidence comes from this being her second term and her players knowing what to expect from her and how she expects them to compete on the road. "It's nice not to have to teach every single scenario . . . players can draw from Year One and use it in Year Two," she said. "They reference something from Year One and they understand the mindset of what the team needs going into other people's arenas.

"We've felt pretty confident doing that. You never quite know how your team's going to react . . . it's one of the examples of what last year's experience has done for us."

This year has introduced several new characters, all of whom Lappe expected to immediately complement her returners. And that's happened, with true freshmen Lexy Kresl, Jen Reese and Jasmine Sborov earning increasing minutes and making more significant contributions. (Freshman Arielle Roberson has been sidelined thus far with a back ailment and walk-on Esther Lee is averaging 2.5 minutes.)

Before the season opened, Lappe and her staff had hoped for balanced scoring among the incoming and returning players. They've gotten that thus far, with three players averaging in double figures - Chucky Jeffery at 16.3 points, Kresl at 13.3 and Brittany Wilson at 11.5 - and another (Reese) at 9.2.

Jeffery, a junior, "has done a great job of running the point guard position . . . and a lot of times that's a huge reason we've been so successful," Lappe said. "The other thing we've done really well is just play together. We've really shared the ball offensively; we usually have three to five players in double figures. It makes us tough to guard . . . anybody can score, which means our opponents really need to have five good defenders - which most teams don't have."

Much more obvious this season than last are Jeffery's focus, maturity and ownership in what Lappe is trying to establish in the program. Players knowing and understanding their roles is key for Lappe, and this team is doing that. "I feel everybody knows their role on our team and has stayed within their role," Lappe said. "They know what our team needs."

Jeffery made 17 starts last season, 28 the season before, and has opened the last four games after coming off the bench in this season's first two to spell starter Ashley Wilson. Jeffery has invested in Lappe's "culture" of who starts and why, how practice performance plays into that. Lappe's dilemma - a pleasant one in this case - is trying to rest Jeffery when possible (she's averaging a team-high 31.8 minutes) but not reduce her effectiveness.

"There's a lot of different philosophies, and sometimes you just have to read your team and know what we need at that point," Lappe said. "I feel like (Jeffery) did a great job off the bench, but now she's doing a great job of starting. I'm not saying she's going to start every game for the rest of the year, but she does a great job in both roles.

"I like her playing not so many minutes in coming off the bench, but sometimes when she starts it's hard to get her out of the game . . . I just don't want to take her out."

Whatever role suits Lappe also suits Jeffery; she knows she will get her minutes, Lappe knows those minutes will be beneficial.

Jeffery, coming off a career-best 26 points in Win No. 6 Wednesday night against San Francisco, says Kresl, Reese and Sborov have meshed well with the veterans and the team "definitely has developed cohesiveness. Once we get on the floor, I don't think you can really tell who's a freshman and who's a veteran. They're stepping up to the plate more than I expected, and it's doing a lot for us right now. It's so good that it's happening at the beginning of the season because late in the season we know we can count on them to step up."

In their six games, the Buffs have had three different leading scorers - Jeffery four times, Kresl twice (Jeffery and Kresl tied once) and Brittany Wilson once. Kresl has been in double figures in all six games, a first for a CU freshman since Shelley Sheetz in 1991-92. Tracy Tripp, now the program's director of operations, reached double figures in her first 10 games of the 1985-86 season - a CU high.

The 5-11 Kresl, said Lappe, "is getting there, but she's not where we need her to be heading into December and into the Pac-12. She's done a great job of getting to the free throw line (16-of-17 in six games) but needs to work on outside accuracy and knowing where her shots are coming from and when she can get them. And she's got to get better defensively. It's only going to get tougher as we keep moving forward."

Lappe probably had the Big 12's leanest roster last season, and with 10 active players so far this season, CU probably won't enter its first Pac-12 season with an abundance of bodies. Returnees Meagan Malcolm-Peck and Brenna Malcolm-Peck (she is still working to return to active status), Rachel Hargis, the Wilson sisters, Seabrook and Jeffery are accustomed to the low numbers.

But less seems to be more for Lappe: "We don't have a lot of numbers again, so we're not deep in that regard. But the difference this year is that we don't lose a lot with the players coming off the bench, we don't drop at all. So, in that regard we're deep."

Reese and Sborov are "learning the pace of practice and games" at this level, said Lappe, adding that the 6-2 Reese "is figuring out what she has to do to score on the low block . . . she's got a nice turnaround jumper, but that's not always going to fly. She has to find a secondary move."

But Reese has picked up board work very well; she is averaging 6.2 a game (18th in the Pac-12; Jeffery is sixth at 9.3) after a career-best 13 against San Francisco.

As CU begins its December play Sunday, Seabrook says Lappe's philosophy of "segmenting" the schedule and defining goals for each segment should continue to benefit the Buffs. "It definitely helping us keep things more in perspective," she said. "The season is so long it's hard sometimes to keep focus . . . I know two of our (December) goals will be to continue to improve every game and define ourselves as a team."

On the last day of the month, if the Buffs can check off those two, plus whatever else Lappe puts before them, they'll be ready to hit the road in the Pac-12 - and maybe prevent the road from hitting back.

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU