Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Mills Grinds Extra, Other Big 12 Notes
February 14, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
MILLS KEEPS GRINDING: With CU's next game not until Saturday at now-No. 1 Kansas, Sunday and Monday were days off for the Buffs - most of them anyway.
Ben Mills showed up at the Coors Events Center for about an hour of extra work Monday with assistant Mike Rohn, who coaches CU's big guys. Mills put in nine quality minutes in Saturday night's tense 58-56 win against Kansas State, contributing a pair of crowd-pleasing blocks and generally doing all that was asked of him on the defensive end.
Rohn said Mills, a 7-footer from Hartland, Wis., "probably did the best job defensively" among the Buffs' subs. "We were really pleased with him the other night."
Saturday marked Mills' first duty in Big 12 Conference play - a 10-game stretch of not playing. Explained Rohn: "Ben went through a little stretch where he lost some confidence in practice and he wasn't playing quite as well. Then he got sick and missed three or four days of practice. His weight got down to about 205. He's just now getting back."
Head Coach Tad Boyle and Rohn figured if most of their other players needed a two-day break, Mills didn't. He normally does extra work after practice on fundamentals and conditioning, and Rohn didn't want that routine broken.
"He doesn't need two days off because he wasn't playing a lot of minutes," Rohn said. "Some of the other guys need two days at this time of the year. Ben does a lot after practice, and there's been maybe one other time where we had two days off. So we got him in (for extra work) . . . you've got to stay in shape; sometimes two days off can set you back if you're not playing a lot in the games."
Mills welcomed the extra work, and Rohn said the staff has come to expect that: "He's a good learner, a hard worker . . . Ben does whatever you ask him to do. He's just a typical 7-foot freshman that really hasn't hit that maturity point yet. It's coming, but none of us really have any control of when that actually happens. We all know the older you get the weight's going to come at some point. He still physically hasn't matured like we would hope. But we've got a lot of confidence that he's going to have a great career here."
Mills hopes Saturday's performance against K-State will lead to more minutes in CU's final five regular-season games and the conference tournament.
"My job right now is just to keep getting better so if the team needs me I'm ready to go," he said, adding extra work such as Monday's is "obviously going to help me with my conditioning. And getting extra reps in game situations is always going to help."
He called Saturday night "fun while I was in there; I enjoyed it. I've just got to keep working hard. Hopefully, I can get more minutes with my hard work."
Boyle said the mid-week break comes at a good time for the Buffs, particularly with point guard Nate Tomlinson still recovering from a sprained ankle. Tomlinson has missed the last two games, and Boyle said the offense has missed Tomlinson's direction.
WHO'S NO. 1? KU - for now. With ex-No. 1 Ohio State losing Saturday at Wisconsin, KU made the anticipated ascent from second to first when both national polls (ESPN/USA Today, AP) came out Monday afternoon.
That means when CU visits Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday (noon, ESPN), the Buffs will be facing the nation's top-ranked team. (More on CU's success against No. 1s in a bit.)
KU's rise to the top launched the expected Internet chatter/clatter, most of it based on the Jayhawks' decisive home defeat (74-63) by Texas last month. That's the only blemish on KU's 24-1 record - and Texas trails the Jayhawks in both polls.
Where's the justice, you ask? Keep in mind that in BCS college hoops, where there is a playoff, regular-season polls are fun, but for the most part frivolous. Unlike in BCS football, where there isn't a playoff, voters don't have a bearing on who wins a national championship in hoops.
So the Longhorns, who checked in at No. 2 in the ESPN/USA Today poll and No. 3 in AP's balloting, likely aren't miffed in the least by looking up at KU. They proved their point (and very well) last month in Lawrence, and they'll likely get another chance next month in Kansas City at the Big 12 tournament.
Texas is 24-3, but 10-0 in Big 12 play while KU is 9-1. The Longhorns' three non-conference losses were to then-No. 4 Pitt (68-66), at Southern California (73-56) and then-No. 9 UConn (82-81, OT). The loss to the Trojans seems puzzling, but USC was coming off consecutive losses and had been through a punishing week of practice under coach Kevin O'Neill.
Book this: Put the teams on a neutral court in March and USC gets gored.
(Update: KU's stay at the top likely will be short. K-State dominated its in-state rival Monday night in Manhattan, dropping the Jayhawks to 24-2 overall, 9-2 in the Big 12 and clearing a path for probably Texas or Ohio State to ascend to No. 1 in next week's polls.)
CU vs. No. 1: The Buffs are still looking for a breakthrough against top-ranked teams. They're 0-14 all-time, with half a dozen of those losses against Jayhawks teams ranked No. 1. Saturday's game will mark the third time in the past two seasons CU has faced No. 1 KU. The Buffs' last win in Allen Fieldhouse was 75-74 on Feb. 10, 1983. (The Jayhawks weren't ranked.) Making their final trip to Lawrence, the Buffs' record there is 7-60, including 27 consecutive losses. Texas visits the Events Center on Saturday, Feb. 26.
BEWARE THE PHOG: That's the warning to visitors posted in the upper reaches of Allen Fieldhouse, a reference to legendary Phog Allen. First-year CU Coach Tad Boyle played there (1981-85), so he knows something about one of college basketball's most venerable buildings.
Texas' 11-point win at Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 22 snapped a 69-game KU home winning streak. Coach Bill Self was asked on Monday's Big 12 coaches teleconference what makes the Jayhawks so formidable on their home court. Simple, he said: "The biggest reason is that over the years, Kansas has had really good players."
But Self admitted there are other factors - starting with an energy level that might increase depending on the visitor, but it's always present. Oh, there might be a lower energy level for an exhibition game or a lower division non-conference opponent, "But there's not a difference in the fans," Self said - meaning, they show up.
KU, he added, "has an incredible student body . . . it's not a comfortable place; it's got bleacher seats, no chair backs. It's a place you go to cheer . . . it hasn't lost its gymnasium/field house feel. It's a pretty special place."
WINNING'S FINE LINE: The Buffs were 1-1 in a pair of home games last week, losing in overtime to Texas A&M and edging K-State. The Aggies rode a three-game losing streak to Boulder, including a consecutive pair at home. But last week they won a pair on the road, starting with Wednesday's win at the Events Center after B.J. Holmes' long, straightaway three-pointer forced overtime.
"You have to be good, you have to be lucky," A&M Coach Mark Turgeon said. "B.J. Holmes made that shot, and I hope we can look back and say it was one that got us going . . . and it did last week, it led to two wins on the road. That's why we work on execution; we know we're going to be in a lot of close games."
Turgeon, maybe Boyle's closest friend in their profession, says the Aggies have rallied around each other and their overall chemistry is better than it's been: "We could have folded a few times at Colorado and never did. Hopefully, we learned something about ourselves . . .
"We are who we are - we're not the most talented team, but we believe in each other. We have to show up, we have to play well. We've got some youth, some immaturity . . . I'd love to be winning by 20, but that's not who we are. We have to grind it out to win. We're not afraid of close games, we've played in enough of them. We're kind of used to them."
After the 73-70 overtime win in Boulder, A&M won 70-67 Saturday at Texas Tech.
Boyle said the "razor thin" between winning and losing "was evident in both of our games" last week, citing Holmes' game-tying trey and a potential game-winning trey by K-State's Rodney McGruder being nullified by replay.
"If B.J. Holmes misses his shot, there's a huge difference in their (A&M) locker room and ours," Boyle said. "If the ball is out of (McGruder's) hand a tenth of a second earlier, we lose that game. Sometimes the ball bounces your way and you get breaks, sometimes it doesn't.
"The difference is razor thin, but the emotional difference in the locker room is polar opposites."
ALL JAMMED UP: The mid-section of the conference standings remains a mess. Two teams - Baylor, Missouri - have five losses, five teams - CU, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, K-State, Oklahoma - have six losses.
Texas Tech is 3-7, and Coach Pat Knight laments the logjam "worries me . . . some people aren't smart enough to see that logjam means we have a very good conference."
On the other hand, Knight sees the mess in the middle as an opportunity for the Red Raiders: "From a coach's standpoint, I like it because it means we have a chance . . . people who know basketball know it means we have a real tough league."
He also believes some college hoops followers have become overly enamored with the Big East and decries some early speculation that as many as 10 teams from that conference might reach the NCAA Tournament.
LADIES' LOGJAM: On the women's side, CU is among three teams - Oklahoma State and Missouri are the others - at 3-7 in the league standings. Directly above them are Texas Tech (4-6) and Iowa State and Texas (5-5).
Upward mobility still is possible for the Buffs, who play Wednesday night at Kansas State (6-4), but they can't afford any more siestas like last Saturday's at home against Texas Tech.
The Lady Raiders came to Boulder on a six-game losing streak and left with a too-easy 72-44 victory that left CU Coach Linda Lappe none-too-pleased.
The Buffs haven't been able to put together back-to-back wins in conference play and have lost three of their last four games. Four of their final six regular-season games are on the road, but three of those games - at Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska - are against opponents the Buffs defeated in Boulder.
At 12-11 overall, CU's margin for error is dangerously thin in regard to postseason participation. Lappe said she and her staff "talk about it," but they talk more about daily improvement and playing consistently well.
"That's our number one goal; to help our team be able to put two back-to-back games together and we have yet to do that," Lappe said. "Before you can look down the road in March to be able to play in March, you have to have a great February. We've talked about how good February needs to be and it's the make or break month. That's where teams separate themselves in a lot of different ways and we want to make sure we're up there and we're not getting separated in the wrong direction."
Senior guard Chelsea Dale, who missed the Tech game after not being cleared from concussion symptoms, practiced Monday.
BIG 12 TIP-INS: Kansas and Texas were ranked first and second, respectively, for six consecutive weeks during the 2009-10 season . . . . With Baylor ranked No. 1 in the women's poll, the Big 12 has men's and women's teams at the top spot for the first time in Conference history . . . . The Lady Bears visit Boulder on Saturday, March 5 in the final regular-season game . . . . The Big 12 is the only conference in the nation with every men's team ranked in the top 150 of the latest RPI. Seven squads are among the top 64. CU is at No. 95.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
