Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Buffs Working Up An Appetite For The NIT
March 15, 2011 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
Colorado is an uncomfortable fit in the first category, having been passed over by the NCAA Selection Committee, while Texas Southern falls into the second. They could commiserate Wednesday night at the Coors Events Center (7 p.m., ESPN3.com) in the first round of the NIT, but CU Coach Tad Boyle isn't expecting that from the Buffaloes.
Boyle doesn't see his team lapsing into NIT disinterest, which usually means one and done.
"We talked about that; we want to be that team that's energized and excited to be there," he said. "If we're not, I said just let me know now and we'll play somebody else who wants to play. There's some teams that are disinterested, some teams that are still excited to be playing. We want to be the latter."
On Monday afternoon, less than 24 hours after one of the bleaker days for Buffs basketball, Boyle detected signs of life from his team. "I was very pleased," he said. "The thing about this team - all year long we've talked about resiliency. We had a good meeting in the locker room. I was proud of a couple of our seniors who stepped up and said some things in a very positive way, showed some leadership. I think we're on the same page."
At that Monday meeting, seniors Cory Higgins and Levi Knutson delivered a heart-felt message to their teammates.
"They asked that the underclassmen have enough respect for them to go out and finish the season the right way," said junior forward Austin Dufault. "They both had the same message pretty much - keep playing hard, keep fighting and finish out the season strong.
"Don't let the fact that we're not in the NCAA Tournament change us or change what we do. Keep being ourselves. If it works out and we win, we'll have three home games. I don't think any of us wants to see our season end on our home floor."
In the 32-team NIT field, the Buffs are one of four No. 1 seeds, assuring them - provided they win, of course - of hosting three games before the tournament moves to New York's Madison Square Garden for the semifinals and finals at the end of the month.
Despite the anger and disappointment of not being in the NCAA field, Dufault sees the NIT opportunity for what it is: "It's still basketball and it's still a game I love playing," he said. "There's always going to be the disappointment of not going to the (NCAA) tournament - it's what everybody dreams about.
"But it's still pretty late into March and we're still playing. That's something to look at. We have the opportunity to go somewhere and play - Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of basketball. Everybody says it's the best place in the world to play. Going somewhere like that would be a great experience for everybody."
Once Sunday's shock finally wore off, that's the approach Boyle took. He tried to keep Monday's practice light and upbeat, then planned on focusing on Texas Southern on Tuesday. "They've been off for a while (the Tigers played last on March 11 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament semifinals) and will be well rested," Boyle said. "You don't know what you're going to get from them."
Texas Southern (19-12 overall) won the SWAC regular-season championship with a 16-2 record and was "hands down the best team in the league," according to CU assistant coach Mike Rohn. Still, the Tigers lost to Alabama State twice in the final month of the season - the last time (73-66) in the semifinals of the SWAC postseason tournament, eliminating TSU from the NCAA Tournament picture.
Formulating the scouting report for Boyle, Rohn called Texas Southern "a nice team; there's a good complement of inside and perimeter guys. They can get up and down, but are comfortable playing a half-court game with their size. They're very long and athletic, which will present challenges for us, no doubt."
The Big 12 team that the Tigers most resemble, according to Rohn, is Baylor, which defeated TSU 68-60 this season in Waco and also beat CU 70-66. Defensively, the Tigers use their size much the same as the Bears, frequently employing a 2-3 zone. Said Rohn: "They might be as big overall as Baylor, but they're close."
CU and TSU had Baylor among six common opponents this season. The others: Oklahoma, Oregon State, Kansas State, Iowa State and Alcorn State. Counting the loss at Baylor, Texas Southern was 2-4 against those common foes.
CU defeated Texas Southern 88-77 in November 2010 in Boulder, but the Tigers' makeup has changed dramatically with one transfer from Kentucky - 6-foot-7 point guard Kevin Galloway - and the addition of freshman shooting guard Lawrence Johnson-Danner. They joined top returning scorer Travele Jones, who recorded a career-high 31 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field and collected nine rebounds before fouling out in the final minute of the Buffs' win last season.
Texas Southern, said Rohn, "has totally changed the dynamics of their team."
The Tigers dominated the league's postseason individual awards, with third-year coach Tony Harvey named the SWAC coach-of-the-year, Johnson-Danner selected as freshman-of-the-year, Galloway chosen as newcomer-of-the-year and Travele Jones as player-of-the-year.
Johnson-Danner, a 6-4 guard from Detroit, averaged 13.2 points and 1.2 steals a game. He made 55 treys during the regular season, hitting 40 percent from behind the arc.
Galloway averaged 11.0 points and a team best 7.0 rebounds. He also led the team in assists (6.6 a game) and turnovers (5.3). Galloway, of Sacramento, Calif., sat out last season after transferring from Kentucky. TSU is his fourth school after stops at Southern California, College of Southern Idaho and Kentucky.
At 15.9 points a game, Jones, a 6-8 senior forward who came to TSU in 2009-10 from Los Angeles City JC, leads a list of four Tigers scoring in double figures.
Last season against Texas Southern, Alec Burks - playing in only his third college game - and Cory Higgins scored 23 points each, so neither player will catch the Tigers unaware. What they didn't see was Boyle's up-tempo style. Also, the game drew only 4,678, which CU officials hope will be half the size of Wednesday night's crowd.
If the Buffs win Wednesday, they will host a second-round game on either Friday or Sunday, playing the winner of Wednesday's Calfornia-Mississippi game.
SKI TEAM TO BE HONORED: The 2011 CU ski team, winners of the school's 18th national championship in skiing last weekend in Stowe, Vt., will be recognized at halftime of Wednesday night's game.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
