Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Jeffery Eager For Return Against Kansas
March 07, 2011 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Given Baylor's overall talent level, the absence of Colorado's Chucky Jeffery might or might not have been a factor in the Buffaloes' 81-59 weekend loss to the third-ranked Lady Bears. As for her absence from an 81-53 loss at Kansas on Feb. 2, don't try telling the Buffs it wasn't a big deal.
CU is certain that Jeffery's return - in conjunction with several intangibles - will make a big difference here Tuesday morning (10 a.m. MST, FSN Rocky Mountain) against Kansas in the opening game of the Big 12 Conference's postseason women's tournament.
"It'll help a lot," said Buffs senior Brittany Spears, who is closing in on a CU career milestone. "She brings energy, defense and scoring - everything you need in a teammate."
Added first-year CU Coach Linda Lappe: "It's going to be nice to have her back. Just going back and watching film, knowing what she brings to our team offensively, defensively and rebounding, she's going to add another dimension to what we're doing."
Jeffery missed her team's final regular-season game to attend the funeral of her great grandmother in Hempstead, N.Y. An academic suspension kept her at home in early February when the Buffs visited Lawrence, Kan., for the final time.
Jeffery, a sophomore guard who leads the team in rebounding (8.1) and is the second-leading scorer (13.7), is trying make up for being MIA in CU's second game this season against KU. The Jayhawks won the Boulder meeting, 68-58, despite Jeffery's game-high 23 points and 10 rebounds.
Now, she's ready to rejoin her teammates after that absence and missing the Baylor loss - a more trying weekend than the other.
"There were a lot of things on my mind last Saturday," she said Monday after the Buffs' early afternoon practice at Rockhurst University. I was trying to watch the game and thinking I wanted to be there. It was just hard.
"I've been anxious, after missing the (second) Kansas game. I'm excited to get back on the floor and play with my team and get another shot at them. It's pretty exciting right now; it's like a little makeup game for me. Hopefully, we can go and get them."
Lappe believes that can happen if her team plays with the same confidence it found in the season's final two weeks. Of the Buffs' six league wins, half came during that span. The loss to Baylor might have snapped a three-game CU winning streak, but Lappe believes preparing for 6-foot-8 Brittney Griner and Baylor's inside game gave the ninth-seeded Buffs (15-14) a leg up in their preparation for the eighth-seeded Jayhawks (19-11).
"Baylor was good in that it was a kind of warm up for Kansas; they both really use their inside players," Lappe said, referring mainly to 6-3 sophomore Carolyn Davis, who totaled 32 points in the two wins against CU. Another factor: The Buffs didn't shoot well from the field in either contest - 36.8 percent in Boulder, 35.0 percent in Lawrence.
Jeffery called Davis "their key player, and we've made her our focal point. Coach wants to play her much like they did against Baylor (Griner). But we have to do other things well, too."
To Lappe, one of those things is being more judicious in shot selection. With Griner, the nation's second-leading shot blocker (4.5 a game) towering inside, most teams' perimeter attempts go up against Baylor. CU's went way up, with 37 three-point tries.
Understandable, but don't let it become a pattern, said Lappe, who noted the Baylor game aside, her team's "overall confidence has gotten a lot better. We're knowing we can compete and believing we have every right to win games - just as much as everybody else. And we're making big plays, allowing us to win games down the stretch . . . I just feel like we're more in synch at both ends."
In mid-October, not many predicted the Buffs would be in synch period. A preseason media poll had CU finishing last in its final Big 12 season - a forecast Lappe disputed then and grins at now.
"When we came in as a staff, I could almost guarantee you that we weren't going to be last when those rankings came out," she said. "But it was something we could look at and say we're the underdog, we have no pressure on us. We're going out and be the spoilers. For our team, that's kind of been the way to go.
"When the pressure is off, when we're playing together and having fun, we're a really good team. When we get all uptight and tense, we start turning the ball over, second-guessing ourselves on offense and defense . . . but to have that (loose) mindset is a huge plus for our team.
"Yeah, I think we have surprised a lot of people; I don't think anybody gave us credit coming into the season - and that's partly because of where we finished last year, partly because of a new coaching staff, partly because I'm a young coach and don't have a ton of experience. But at the same time, I knew myself and our staff and our players. I knew our administration and all the people that were going to be around our program. I had confidence . . . I knew we weren't going to finish in the top four probably, but I knew we could win some games."
The Buffs' late-season improvement, said Jeffery, has come from better ball movement, attacking the rim more aggressively, pushing the ball up court more effectively and communicating better on defense.
"And we're playing better together . . . we can put anybody on the floor and the job will get done. I think that's good for us," she said.
Plus, Spears, who on Monday was honored as a first-team all-league selection, has averaged 23.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and three steals during the past three games. Spears called her selection "a great accomplishment, because this is a great league with a lot of great players."
Spears needs 14 points to become CU's career scoring leader, supplanting Lisa Van Goor (2,067 from 1980-85). "People have been telling me about (the record)," Spears said. "I knew I was close, but I just want to win the game (Tuesday)."
A victory would earn CU a second shot at top-seeded Baylor on 10 a.m. in Wednesday's quarterfinals - this time, with Jeffery. At one game above .500 entering the tournament, the Buffs already have a record that makes them WNIT eligible - and school officials already have put that postseason process in motion.
"It feels good to be in the position we're in; it feel good to be WNIT eligible," Lappe said. "The postseason is very exciting; you strive for the NCAA Tournament and that's what we were striving for. But at some point, you've got to realize, hey, the WNIT looks pretty dang good."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
